Welcome to Collaboration Nation! Join us for the 2008-09 school year

Last year pretty much everything we did in class we did in collaboration with another group somewhere in the USA or Australia. The collaborations ranged from passive (we delivered something to another class, they reacted), aggressive (both side actively working together), and low-key (both sides contributing to one final product but no need to constantly communicate back and forth). There’s got to be better words than aggressive, passive, and low-key…hmmm…

I thought that I would throw into this post all of the things that are planned for this year and see if I could catch any one interested in working with us–either aggressively, passively, or low-key.

So here goes, a very rough agenda of the 2008-09 school year. Nothing is in stone. If you have a totally different idea let us know. If you have content that is not on this list we can connect almost any subject and curriculum that you have to what we do. This are written as basic as possible, no EQ or concept or anything like that included. There are some units that I am looking for ideas for!

Throughout year — Three words videos example 1, example 2, example 3

Sept- American Revolution-Last year kids did videos on one person or action

Oct- USA Election-Set up campaign for one candidate, would like to “debate” another class with each one taking a different candidate(might have class for this one already)

Nov- We are going to Sturbridge Village an early 19^th Century living hstory museum. Would you like to hire us for a virtual field trip. I could have groups individualize a virtual field trip to fit your needs.

Dec- Lewis and Clark–??

Jan- Children’s books on the War of 1812 We write, you illustrate–or we write together–or we write and illustrate you read and critique

Feb- Oregon Trail– Form a group that will open a business on the Oregon Trial and create Business plan. Would love to have mixed groups, or classes create plans to be presented live or

Mar- Immigration-??

Ap- Civil War- We are doing first person podcasts from soldiers that are buried in the cemetery in the town center

May- Industrialization-???

June- Independent Study

These are the biggies. There is a unit on the Constitution, we usually do a “Whose your hero?” unit, another unit that involves writing and recording songs, and an editorial carton unit. Of course every year I try to have my plans laid out and then I get a notice that I will be getting a student teacher which could change everything based on their strengths..

I am very interested in working with classes and teachers who have never done any type of collaboration before. Please do not be shy! If you are interested in one of the above topics or some other topic let me know.

June 23, 2008

Last day–Goodbye…

“Don’t cry because you are leaving, smile because it happened here.”

June 16-20, 2008 7 Days Left!!

Monday-Wednesday we are going to watch and discuss an incredibly interesting video on an experiment that Jane Elliot did to a third grade class 40 years ago. Please leave two of your thoughts about any of the videos or thoughts regarding our discussion on the wiki. Leave one in each of the discussion threads–that is three total.

Thursday you will be filling out evaluations, and Friday is the 8th grade outing.

Also, I know it’s late in the year, but Hannah in Australia could use some help. She has some questions that she would like you to answer for an assignment in her English class. Check out her blog and help her out if you have extra time this week(for those of you that took part in the activities with the Australian class, Hannah is the girl who brought in the bird).

And if you enjoy making music, try the Super Duper Music Looper.

And you have to try this video that tests your perception.

June 9-13, 2008 12 more days!

This week you will be preparing your Hero presentations for the webcast Thursday and Friday. Needless to say it is wicked hot and with the addition of the early closings things will move slowly this week! The presentations will be on Thursday and Friday.

Today–Tuesday–wikispaces is down so let’s move to plan “B”

1. Check out this video sent to me by Drew.  We have talked about how new technologies no longer require employees to be in the same country in order to do business, now neither do musicians.  After opening the link, let it load, then go to step 2 below and then go back and watch as much as you would like once it is loaded.
2. Nick wrote the blog post that you and the kids from Australia will be commenting on this week. Please visit his blog and answer the question he poses.
3. Then go to your blog and moderate any comments. If you have not been on in a while just add “.org/wp-admin” to the end of your web address to get to the log-in page.
4. Ten go to the Australian kids blogs, check some out and leave some comments. Scroll down and look for Techno Teens on the right.

http://murch.globalteacher.org.au/

June 2-6, 2008 Mon-Fri 16 Days left!

RESEARCH IN LIBRARY MON-FRI

1. Finalize your definition of a hero and place it on top of your computer
2. Pick a person who lived in the 19th Century (1800-1899) that fits your definition
3. Make a new wiki page on your home page like this — William Carney — a 19th Century American Hero by Shaggyhill
4. Place a link to it here
5. Write your definition of a hero at the top of your page
6. Break you page into the following sections in preparation for note taking:1)Intro to your 19th Century hero 2)Put hero’s life into perspective–when did they live, where, who were they trying to help, why, how, why was this important? 3)What makes your person a hero–you must prove that your person meets the criteria of your own personal definition(this is the meat of your wiki page and your submission to the My Hero website-your looking at a good four paragraphs here–focus on that spark, that moment the person decided to be heroic or do heroic acts 4)What is the person’s legacy? 5)What advice would they have for today’s youth?
7. Research your person to find the above info, place a link(source) to all of your info right after you write down
8. As you are researching think of three creative commons copyrighted images you could use to represent your person and place them on your page
9. When you have enough research to prove that your person is a hero start writing your proposal to My Hero website. Your proposal should follow the same format as your notes! Sign-up with the website and follow their directions!

(All of the above needs to be done by the time you walk into school next Monday)

Starting next Monday you begin work on the oral section of your American Hero. On Thursday and Friday you will transform yourself into the clone of your hero and prove to the class and the live audience on the webcast why “you” should be considered the Greatest American Hero.

1. You will have a maximum of three minutes.
2. You must speak in first person.
3. You must have at least one prop.
4. You must include your definition of a hero, why your person fits your definition and should be considered the greatest American Hero
5. You must use one quote from the person
   
6. You must give advice to the audience on how to solve a current problem
7. You must use absolutely no notes (we’ll talk about one thingy you can do to help yourself remember key info)

For all the fluffernutter kids–go here

May 27-30, 2008 Tue-Fri 21 Days Left!!

I hope no one minds, but even though it is my first week back I am not going to give out any detailed plans for the week. I have detailed plans…but I will not reveal them–next week. This week we are going to discuss some heavy duty topics that will all magically come together to create you last unit of the year that you will start next week. I will say that we will be discussing going to Mars, cloning, heroes, and the most important problems of the 21st Century. Mix them together, and you might be able to figure out what you’ll be creating next week!

MAy 19-23, 2008 Mon-Fri

Mr. B the ST finishes up his tenure with us this week! Yes, that’s right, you’re all coming back to me next week!

Please leave a comment on this blog under the post from this week-more details to follow:

http://leecie.globalstudent.org.au

Note from Edublogs:

Upgrade Trial Run This Weekend We’ll be testing out an upgrade this weekend starting from 7PM EDT Friday (New York) / 9AM Saturday (Melbourne) - there will be some downtime and most likely a few small bugs so please bear with us and avoid anything critical this weekend! Thanking ya, The Edublogs Team

MAy 12-16, 2008 Mon-Fri 30 Days Left

This week the other Mr. B will continue working on the Civil War unit with all classes.

I am preparing a super duper unit on ______ !  We’ll start it after Mr. B leaves in only 8 more days.

This week I actually have it kind of easy.  There are no, I repeat no, small groups still doing work, there are no skype conferences, no special projects of any kind.  I will have plenty of extra time to sit back and eat all the chocolate-chip cookies and milk that you bring in.

I will be finishing up all the final student teaching paperwork and finishing up a grant to make us a 1:2 laptop room.  Well not you, but next years kids-ouch!

Oh wait — there might be another live blog with our Aussie mates Thursday night.   Still waiting to have that verified.

What a nice easy post to write this week!

May 5-9, 2008 Mon-Fri 37 Days Left!

This week the other Mr. B the ST is staring his unit on the Civil War.

Me?  This is a week to catch up on student teacher paperwork-yuck!  There will be a skype call with an elementary school Thursday at 10:15am from Wisconsin.  They are interviewing students from all 50 states!

There will also be a skype call with Ms. Callahan’s second grade art classes from Kennerly Elementary school, the elementary school that is illustrating our children’s books on 19th Century immigration that will then be sent off to Monarch Academy in Oakland, CA to be read and reviewed and then all the way back to us!

Although not confirmed yet, there will be skype call with Deborah Weingrad the Vice-President of the Palace Production Center who is making a movie on the life of Frederick Douglass. Last week we skyped with Marsha Alibrandi a professor at Fairfield University who is consulting on the film. The call was placed on our Lunchtime Leaders Podcast site.  The student suggestions on the script have been forward right through to the script writers!  The kids hope that after talking to Ms. Weingard that the script will sound a lot less like “old people trying to sound cool.” 

There won’t be another blog post with the class from Australia until next week so please stay tuned for that, and we will be getting together with them possibly on May 15(Thurs) at 9:00pm our time, 11:00am their time! Looking for more volunteers–first ten get headsets! Their teacher wrote some very kind words about us after our last get together.  We have been very lucky to hook up with this class.

April 26-May 2, 2008 Mon-Friday

Just a quickie…

Mr. B has taken over all four classes and is finishing a unit on immigration this week.

I am still working with the small groups that were listed in the previous post. All groups will be done by this Friday.

All groups have a blog post due by this Thursday. The question is on the previous post. Leave your answer on that post, and make a post with your answer on your blog.

Any questions? Please contact me through email or wiki mail, not by leaving comments on the blog. PBogush@wallingford.k12.ct.us