After spending a year getting to know elementary students and elementary teachers (it’s definitely quite a switch from middle school), I’m finally starting to feel like I know what kinds of projects are appropriate and achievable in the elementary classroom. All of the projects I completed with our amazing teachers last year really helped me focus and refine my goals for this year – keeping things simple is definitely the key.

For this year we’re looking at staying small and making consistent connections with global partners. Ideally, we would like to find classroom partners that are willing to connect with us on a regular basis over the course of the entire school year (Sept 08 – June 09).

We would like to develop personal learning networks for our students where we can deepen understanding of classroom curriculum while learning how to communicate authentically and appropriately online. We want to make sure that the use of web 2.0 tools deepens their understanding of classroom content and also helps them feel connected to the world around them. Sound interesting? Read on! And if you’d like to participate in one of these projects, please leave a comment!

Amazingly, I have a willing and enthusiastic teacher on almost every grade level ready to fully collaborate with me this year. We are planning to go deep with the students and to really focus on building 21st century literacy skills in a consistent and authentic approach.

Here’s what we’ve gotten started so far:

Grade 5: Students Teaching Students

The wonderful Chrissy Hellyer and her fellow new ISB teacher, Aly McAloon, will be kicking off the school with a classroom blogging project that will eventually include a regular podcast focused on the Lucy Caulkins Readers Workshop.

We’re starting simple with a whole class blog and students as contributing authors (like Betsy and I did last year in the Grade 3 BlogPals project). Once the students start feeling comfortable in their blogging as a class, we’re going to link Chrissy & Aly’s class to start making connections across the grade 5 quad, and eventually they will connect with other classes internationally (Jane Lowe’s class is already on board!).

Our next step will be rotating groups in each class podcasting about their reading strategies to help teach their younger classmates how to be good readers (Melanie Holtsman and her teachers are ready to connect with us, thankfully, since they are total experts in the world of Lucy Caulkins).

I love the idea of embedding multiple tools into one class project and developing a classroom routine where students are not only in charge of their own learning, but also sharing that learning with others.

We would love to connect with another grade 5 class (or two) that would be interested in becoming co-learners along with our students for the entire school year (Sept 08 – June 09)!

Grade 5: Student Portfolios in Spanish

Our Spanish teacher, James, has been experimenting with tons of fantastic web tools over the last school year and now that he’s on the report card committee, he’s looking to find alternate ways of assessing student learning. So, we’re piloting electronic portfolios (in the form of blogs, for now) with one of his grade 5 classes.

James has already been embedding multiple tools into the class blog he’s been running for a year now, and now he’s ready to let the students be the authors on some of those posts. The goal is to keep track of student learning throughout the school year by creating a category for each student. Each time the students have a piece of work for their portfolio, they will post it on the class blog (as contributing authors). By the end of the year, parents will be able to click on their child’s category and see the progression of their work over the course of the year.

Grade 5: Our Online ESL Classroom

Our wonderful grade 5 ESL teacher, Diane, began blogging and podcasting with her students last year. We saw such an amazing leap in their oral and written language as soon as they realized they had an authentic audience for their work that she wants to continue to provide that opportunity this year.

Although Diane only sees her students for short lessons every other day (we run a Sheltered Immersion ESL program), we have been able to organize specific collaboration projects that focus on issues ESL students are concerned about. We have set up a few open ended blog posts to get them writing and connected with other classes (including Anne Mirtschin’s) about moving on to sixth grade.

This will probably be a more infrequent collaboration, on a topic-by-topic basis, but it would be great for our ESL students to connect with other language learners (or native English speakers) on topics that are important to them.

Grade 4: BlogPals

My fantastic colleague Sonja Merrell, who participated in the 1001 Flat World Tales last year, is back for more 21st century learning this year! She has decided to start the school year off with a class blog, which she will use as a communication portal for her students and their parents. There are a few students in her class that participated in the BlogPals project with me last year, so they will make great student leaders as we venture further into blogging with Sonja’s class.

We’re going to start off the year using the blog as a discussion tool, to build the school-home connection and to get her students thinking about their learning in a more interactive way. Over time we will have each student as a contributing author to the blog, just like we did with BlogPals last year.

We are looking for one or two grade 4 classrooms that would like to participate in this type of year-long adventure with us!

Grade 2: A Window to Our World

Another amazing colleague, Susan, who took a huge leap with me last year when we had our grade 2 class connect to another grade 2 class in the US via a Ning, is back in action this year! She loved the idea of working with a Ning and found theĀ  “walled garden” concept perfect for her second graders. It was amazing to see how quickly they took to this new learning environment – posting questions and answers, commenting on individual student pages, and sharing their learning as a class – all in second grade!

This year Susan would like to do something very similar, but preferably with another international school class, if we can find one. She wants to focus on intercultural understanding and connecting with class that would have a greater mix of nationalities (she’s not limited to an international school, but we thought we might have better luck at getting a very diverse class if we were able to find another international school interested). Last year she had 20 nationalities in her class of 23 students, so finding a class with a similar makeup would be ideal for her.

Grade 1: ESL Learners Speak English

Our enthusiastic grade 1 ESL teacher, Erin, started using VoiceThread in her classroom last year as a way for her begining ESL students to practice their English in an authentic environment. We had a great time connecting to another international school in Spain, thanks to Nancy von Wahlde, and we’re planning to re-connect again this year.

Erin maintains a class blog, mostly to communicate with the parents, where she posts her VoiceThreads that the students create based on their classroom units of inquiry. We’re planning to start out with an introduction to each student so that our partner class can really get to know each person as an individual. Over time the students share a bit about their lives in Thailand, the school, and other grade 1 favorites.

Ideally, we would love to connect with a classroom that is able to communicate with us on a regular basis – maybe once a month – and that would be willing to continue these conversations over the course of the year.

Kindergarten: Kids Draw!

We have one set of co-teachers in Kindergarten this year. Sandy and Akiko are team-teaching one class of 24 kindergarten students all year – and what a class they have! It’s amazing to see the way Sandy and Akiko build on each other’s streagnths as we begin working with these little students and technology.

We started out the year with a short unit on drawing, where the students were asked to draw a picture of themselves on paper (for a unit entitled “All About Me”) and then draw the same picture on the computer (using KidPix). We discussed what was the same and what was different about drawing on paper and drawing on the computer. Interestingly, although almost all of them though drawing on the computer was more difficult (we still need to work on those fine motor skills), most of them liked drawing on the computer better.

After this short unit, Sandy, Akiko and I realized we have lots of room to grow with drawing and technology. We’d like to revisit the concept of drawing on the computer over the course of the year and build in some thoughtful reflection, ideally with VoiceThread, where students can talk about the context of the picture, and the skills they learned while drawing.

It would be great to partner up with another kindergarten class that’s interested in sharing learning through drawing!

What do you think? Are you interested in collaborating with one of our classes?

25 thoughts on “A New Year of Collaborations: Partner Classrooms Wanted!

  1. I may be interested in the two ESL projects, even though I have limited access to the tools I may need. We will talk in Shanghai about the possibilities.

    These projects all sound great!

  2. Hi –
    I am enjoying my first year as a 4th grade teacher at the American International School in Vienna. I have been taking masters classes in ed. tech. with Sara Best, an art teacher at the middle school.
    I’d love to connect my class with your 4th grade, if you still need classes. Let me know if it’d work and what all you had in mind for the year.
    Thanks for the offer,
    Marissa Snodgress

  3. Oh yes!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very interested in joining you. I would love to join with the K project. I also would be really excited to connect our 2nd grade class with yours. However, not only are we not an international school, but our school, being a Jewish Day School, is not all that diverse. So, a project like this would, I think, be really beneficial to our students – who need to experience more diversity- but I don’t know if it’s what you are looking for. We have a small 2nd grade (17 students) so keep us in mind. Maybe we could be one of a few classes that link up?
    I am also very interested in your 5th grade ideas. The 5th grade teacher is totally on-board for collaborating with me and doing these kinds of tech projects/collaborations. Our 5th grade is really small (12 students) but I am actually in the same city as Melanie Holtsman’s school, so I understand if you want to mix it up and not have two schools from the same city.
    Please consider us for one or more of your projects!

  4. Sorry, I hit submit too soon. I meant the 5th grade students teaching students and also the 4th grade blogging sounds amazing.

  5. Hi, Kim.
    I’m an Instructional Technology Specialists at an elementary school in Massachusetts, USA. I would love to chat with you about setting up some kind of partnership with my teachers.

  6. Hi,
    I’m a classroom teacher at Russell Street School in New Zealand. I would be quite interested in the Grade 5, Students teaching Students through blogs and pod-casts.
    Marama Stewart

  7. Hi, I enjoy reading your blog. I am a kindergarten teacher from Memphis, TN. I would love to connect our classrooms. Where and how do we start?

  8. Hi Kim! I so appreciate you taking a leadership position here! I sent out a staff email with this blog link and have 5 classes interested already- Kindergarten, First and ESL. I’m sure 5th will get on board as well. So exciting!

  9. Hi Kim.

    FSG – an independent girls school in West London, England – is a partner in ‘Books Go Global’. Our girls are increasingly IT literate, and getting to know the process of using wikis and blogs, and podcasting, and we are looking for opportunities to collaborate with ‘authentic’ audiences. Please let us know if there are still opportunities to colloborate.

    Thanks

    Nick Hitchen
    Falcons School for Girls

  10. It is heartening to note that you are putting up your best efforts to make education meaningful to the children and also you have dedicated teachers to support you. A few ideas can be taken from
    http://www.K5Stars.com in this connection.

  11. Hi Kim,

    Enjoy Shanghai! It’s been a busy start to the year. I am looking forward to finding globally collaboration projects for grades 2 and 4 and possibly grade 5. Let me know if your teachers are interested.

    Take Care,

    Jill B.

  12. Hi Kim,
    I am just catching up on my reader, so just caught up to your plans for the year. It is interesting to see how you are working to narrow yet deepen the focus of your collaborations. I also found a similar yearning surface through the collaborations my students and I explored last year. I would be interested in chatting about any of your collaborations that still need partners.
    Really looking forward to your k12online preso with Jen!

  13. We are very excited about collaborating with your teachers and students this year and would be happy to join in on any project where you need collaborators. Congrats on your amazing work in Shanghai!

  14. @IntrepidTeacher,

    Excellent! You will be our first classroom partner in the desert – that will be interesting!

    @Marissa,

    Fabulous! We would absolutely love to work with you – another international school is a perfect match for us!

    @Andrea,

    Fantastic – you have quite a few ways we can connect!

    @Lisa

    Great! An e-mail is on it’s way :)

    @Marama,

    I wish our calendar and the Australian/NZ calendar matched up – it’s such a bummer that our school year is just beginning as yours is almost ending – makes it hard to have a full year collaboration….

    @Donna,

    Perfect! An e-mail is on it’s way!

    @Nancy,

    Looking forward to working with you and the ASM teachers again this year!

    @Nick,

    I tried to send you an e-mail last week, but it bounced back undeliverable – do you have another one I can write to?

    @Alex,

    Thanks for sharing your resources.

    @Lisa,

    Great! An e-mail is on it’s way.

    @Jill,

    Perfect! We could really use a grade 2 partner in another international school!

    @Linda,

    Excellent! An e-mail is on it’s way!

    @Melanie,

    Our first official planning meeting is this week! Will e-mail you soon to let you know what we came up with. So looking forward to this!

  15. We would love to come on board and share blogging and commenting with you. The interactive nature of blogging is one its most powerful features and our students actively seek out other students to share commenting and posting with (even at this young age). An authentic audience brings out the best in students.
    Have just landed home from Shanghai. Our plane flight was one of a few not cancelled due to the typhoon which raged SE of HongKong last night. So although late departing and arriving, we made it. However it was a very turbulent flight. So, when my stomach settles, I shall respond more. My grade 4 and 5s would love to be involved and I teach grade 2 this semester as well, so we would enjoy working with your grade 2s. However, there are only about 10 grade 2’s, 20 grade 5s and 8 grade 4s.

  16. @Nick,

    Thanks for that! A new e-mail is on it’s way :)

    @Anne,

    Fabulous! We would love to work with your classes! An e-mail is on it’s way :)

  17. Kim-
    I am always so impressed with your leadership and direction with integrating technology and literacy. I am a firm believer they should be seemless. I am interested in partnering with you again this year, as last year’s 1001tales went wonderful. THe kids loved it! Thank you for always providing inspiring ideas.

    Erin Van Guilder

  18. @Erin,

    Thank you for your kind words! An e-mail is on it’s way to you right now :) I’m sure we’ll do 1001 Tales again this year – we also loved that project last year!

  19. Hi my name is Brandi. I enjoyed reading your profile. I think the creating the folder for international Teachers was a good idea. Good luck on contacting International School Teachers.

  20. Are you still working on this project? I am very interested to include my school.

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