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In February, I wrote about Chris Henke Mueller and Dominic Inouye and their efforts to connect their school in Wisconsin with students in Afghanistan. (Read that post here.) Recently, their students have overcome many obstacles to hold a Skype session with their friends thousands of miles away. I didn’t think my secondhand reporting would do their story justice, so I asked them to tell it themselves. It is their words that follow in the guest post below. The word “inspirational” just doesn’t seem like enough…
It is 9:30 at night–on a Friday. The beginning of the weekend when teachers and students head home to unwind, but on this night 16 students returned to school to deepen a conversation.
Seven thousand miles away, it is 7:00 in the morning–on a Saturday. Students in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, are arriving at school an hour early to connect to others.
For over four months, the C.L.A.S.S. program (Character Leadership Accountability Sustainability Service) had been building a relationship with students of the Global Connections Exchange (GCE) program. Beginning a relationship, forming an understanding, fostering mutual interest and conversation all take time. But, now, we were ready to Skype for the first time.
We were all a bit nervous. Our first Skype call had been canceled due to the Qur’an burning on the U.S. base in Bagram. Schools in Afghanistan were closed for safety reasons. We explained as best we could to our youngest students what had taken place and promised that we would reschedule, confidence none of us felt. We worried about technical difficulties, time differences (did we have that right: 10 and ½ hours ahead of us? Why ½ hour?), understanding each other, more political unrest, students who wouldn’t be able come.
This lack of confidence kept us on our toes: emails to GCE program directors both here and in Afghanistan kept communication open even after the killing of 16 people on March 11 threatened to derail our talks again, practice Skypes with friends and family helped us work out some of the bugs, questions sent ahead of time helped both sides prepare answers and overcome some cultural differences, and obsessive worrying about the time difference helped us see just two days before the planned event that Daylight Saving Time would now change our students’ time to be at school (instead of 8:30, they needed to come at 9:30). Perhaps it was just our lack of experience with this, because a Skype truly is a simple thing to arrange: an exchange of names and contact numbers, an agreement of time and date, and there you go! And, thankfully, it did go this time.
So, how did it turn out?
It is the goal of C.L.A.S.S.–now nearing its second year at The Prairie School in Racine, Wisconsin–to build character, foster leadership skills, teach ourselves to be accountable, and offer opportunities for service, all with the goal of building a more sustainable world. This Skype offered us all of that.
Sixteen students ranging in age from 10 to 15 returned to school to talk with their CLASSmates in Afghanistan. An equal number of male students from the GCE program came to their computer lab early in the morning began our Skype with the sharing of a traditional song. Our students had been singing Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s mashup “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” all day and shared their version, with one of the students on her ukulele.
Students had already been communicating via Nings that both programs host, and between the Skype and Ning conversations we have been able to share ideas about education, oppression, and hate, as well as simpler topics such as cultural holidays, traditional stories, favorite foods, and activities. The Skype conversation took the form of a sharing: What do you study in school? How many of you have a Facebook account? What are your perceptions of our country? What should everyone know about your country? What is your happiest childhood memory? What can we do to help each other achieve their goals? One student would ask the question, another would answer. A call and response signaling our shared desire for a sustainable world.
What will we do differently the next time?
One thing we would do differently is set up our room so that everyone can be seen by our guests. We could see all of them, but their view of us was limited; while our shared words are really what this Skype was all about, the face-to-face knowing of each other can not be underestimated. This time we used the camera in the laptop, but an external microphone and camera would have been better. And, while we did take video of our Skype, still photos would have been useful, too.
This first Skype was, like we said, a back-and-forth sharing. With future encounters, we hope to sustain a dialogue about important issues both our groups of students face. Ultimately, it is our plan to share a global read with the students in the GCE program and host further Skypes related to a shared curriculum….but that will have to be for another time.
There are two ways to dehumanize people: to demonize them or to idolize them. Meeting face-to-face with seven thousand miles, 10 ½ hours, war, language, and vastly different lives between us, Skype offered us a chance to bring humanity back into our lives.
It is a wonderful world.
photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video via photopin cc
There have only been two meetings of the Flat Classroom Book Club, but in those two short hours, I’ve learned so much about global collaboration. I definitely encourage you to get ahold of the book and join in. If you missed either of the first two, you should also check out the recordings.
One of my most profound takeaways has been about the connections you make during collaborative projects. In my mind, I have always focused on the connections between the students and how to make sure those were meaningful. However, in the first book club meeting, a participant (Suzie Nestico? Honor Moorman? I can’t remember, sorry!) recommended paying attention to teacher connections as well. This was something I hadn’t thought about too much. And it makes perfect sense.
If the teachers don’t find a way to form a connection, it’s still possible to have a good project. But when the teachers DO connect, it can take it to a whole new level. The connections between teachers lead to so many great things, including everyone pouring their hearts into the work, a shared sense of commitment, and a sharing of the workload. Trading emails isn’t enough. There needs to be a phone or web conference, or Skype call. That’s how the connections really happen. When you’ve “looked” someone in the eye on Skype, you are far more likely to go the extra mile for them, and definitely will feel more committed to the cause.
So if you’re planning a collaborative project, be it with a classroom across the globe or one across the hall, don’t forget to connect with your partner teachers. You’ll definitely be glad that you did.
Don’t forget to join us to discuss chapter 4 on Sunday March 25 at 6 PM Eastern. There’s still time to sign up for the book club here.
The first meeting for the book club discussing the book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds was held Sunday. It was an amazing experience. (A preview of the club, including a link to sign up [it's not too late!], can be found HERE. A recording of the first session can be found HERE.)
One of the questions that came up was, “How do I make global collaboration ‘fit’ into the curriculum?” I think this is a great question and one that serves as a barrier to teachers giving global collaboration (or any other “new” idea…technology, flipped classroom, PBL, etc.) a try. Teachers feel like they have so little freedom to be creative. They feel trapped within the strict confines of their textbooks, standards and curricula. And in some cases, this is actually true!
If by “fit” you mean “get approval from the higher-ups” to try new things, we believe there’s always way to make nearly any idea or method “fit” into your curriculum. It’s a simple process that requires you to follow three steps. It’s also a process that we’ve used repeatedly in our own classrooms, with much success.
A disclaimer is good at this point…by no means did we invent this idea/formula. Its foundation is rooted in the principle of “backwards design,” explained in much greater detail in Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’s book, Understanding by Design. It’s also an integral part of Project Based Learning (PBL).
1st–Choose your standards
You’ve got to start at the end…what standards are you going to be teaching? This is the key to making your ideas “fit.” If your project or activity is rooted in the standards, not only will it appease your bosses but it provides something of a beacon for you as you plan and teach. The standards guide you toward your end goal. They’re the foundation that your project will be built upon.
2nd–Specify your understandings
The standards aren’t enough. You’ll need some more explicit descriptions of what you want students to understand as a result of your project. It’s extremely helpful to expand upon your selected standards to clearly state what you want students to be able to do, in language that everyone involved (especially students) can easily comprehend.
3rd–Choose your method
Now it’s time to choose how you want to go about executing this project. If it’s a global project, you’ll want to decide how the classes are going to connect and collaborate. Will it be Google Docs, Skype, wiki? If it’s a technology project that you’re doing on your own, you’ll want to decide which tools are best for the situation (i.e. podcast, video, wiki, etc.). Also part of this step is a final, and essential, decision–how to measure the understandings you laid out in step two.
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Now please don’t tell your principal that the Engaging Educators said it would “fit” to show the NCAA basketball games live in your classroom tomorrow and Friday. Our philosophy is NOT that anything should fit into the curriculum, but rather that anything that is rooted in meaningful student learning can fit. A dash of daring and bravery may be needed on your part, but remember who you’re doing this for…students. So go out there and mke it happen!
We invite you to join us for a global online book club like you’ve never seen before! Starting March 11 at 6 PM Eastern time, Engaging Educators will be facilitating the book club for Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by our friends Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Vicki and Julie are classroom teachers and founders of the Flat Classroom series of global projects!
You can find more information, including a full schedule of events, and sign up for the book club at the Flat Classroom Book Club page. It’s going to be a great learning experience and lots of fun. (Check out our previous blog post about it HERE.) The best part is…it’s free!
I know what you’re thinking…”But, Ben, I don’t have the book!” No worries. A quick trip to Amazon will fix that. You’ll definitely have it in time for the second meeting on March 19.
So, go sign up, go order the book, and get reading! We can’t wait for you to join us.
Could you find Syria on a map? Could you name its president? Do you know about the violent, oppressive regime’s attacks upon protesters? What about your students?
Before this week, none of my fifth grade students knew any of these things. But after exploring news stories, having meaningful discussions, and asking a lot of questions (not to mention the help of a friend), they have a much greater understanding of recent events in Syria and, more importantly, a greater sense of empathy for people thousands of miles away in a country very different from our own. Our driving question for this exploration is “Why should we care about Syria?”
Before I tell the story, I have to back up a little and introduce my friend Steve Goldberg. In another one of those serendipitous stories of the power of the Personal Learning Network, Steve and I “met” via twitter after I discovered his awesome blog, What I Learned Today. Steve is opening a middle school in North Carolina in 2013 and he often blogs about the progressive and student-centered approach that this middle school will offer. One of the ideas of his I like the most is his approach to current events. I told him how much I liked this and he generously offered to Skype into my classroom and lead a discussion about a news story.
We settled on the topic of Syria after Steve shared with me the story of Anthony Shadid, a reporter for the New York Times who recently died of an asthma attack while covering the oppressive Syrian regime’s brutal response to citizen protests.
My fifth graders, not surprisingly, had never heard of Syria nor of Shadid. But I prepped them on Monday for Steve’s Skype visit the next day by leading a discussion of the story of Shadid’s death. We got to know the geography of Syria using Google Earth and learned some background info about the situation there. They asked a lot of good questions, many of them centered around the idea of a journalist risking his life to cover a story. (Shahid had been shot and kidnapped in separate incidents earlier in his career.) They found this surprising. Why would covering the news be worth dying over?
Steve “arrived” Tuesday morning and a great discussion about Syria ensued. (We were so engrossed with the topic that we didn’t even make it to talking about Shahid.) The kids were really engaged and I was quickly able to see firsthand how much powerful learning can occur by discussing current events.
Even though we didn’t get to Shahid, there was no shortage of learning. They were surprised by many of the things Steve shared with them–Syria’s president runs unopposed in every election, he orders bombings of his own citizens, and Syria is a place where tanks sometimes roll through the streets.
Could this happen in America? Why don’t Syrians move somewhere else? Why can’t they turn in the president to authorities? Why would he kill his own people? What’s so wrong with protests that make the president of Syria mad enough to kill people? These were just some of the questions that were asked. Not all of them were answered–we certainly could have kept talking for another 45 minutes–but the fact that they were asked is impressive. So were some of their answers, connections and other comments.
I was especially proud when some of my quieter students spoke up. I think there were even goose bumps involved.
I will admit to being a bit hesitant to tackle such a complicated topic. My students and I had done some preliminary exploration of current events since the start of 2012. But nothing as intense as the situation in Syria. I worried that they were too young, too inexperienced, and lacked the background knowledge necessary to do justice to such a topic. I shared these concerns with Steve ahead of time and he reassured me that all would go well and that even if students were “lost” that was nothing to be afraid of. He turned out to be 100 percent correct. My students handled the topic with aplomb. And it turned out to be a learning experience for me, too. Sometimes you just have to be a little brave and have faith in your students.
I also learned how to teach for hours using one news story and a couple of computers. Geography, history, writing, reading (we even did math!)…you can cover it all. Most important to me, though, was that they were THINKING.
I can’t wait for Steve to visit again. Neither can my students. We’re going to continue our exploration and hopefully collaborate with experts to produce a student guide to the events in Syria. Stay tuned for updates. And consider joining us by learning about Syria, too. Maybe we could make a collaborative project out of this.
Please check out Steve’s blog post about his Skype visit, too. It’s fun to read the viewpoint of the person on the other side of the camera.
I also can’t wait to try his approach to current events on my own. There’s no shortage of stories out there, that’s for sure.
- Also posted on http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ by Vicki Davis
YOU’RE INVITED TO THE FLAT CLASSROOM BOOK CLUB!
Global collaboration starts with connecting yourself to the world. Students are the greatest textbook ever written for each other. The same is true for teachers. We are passionate about connecting and facilitating effective collaborations between classrooms because we’ve seen the power of how it can engage students and teach them the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.We want to bring in people who are nervous, who don’t know how, or who have tried to connect and were frustrated. We also want to bring back those teachers who tried it and got burned out. Now it is time to enlarge the circle of global collaborative excellence in a massive way.
- “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds” is a terrific guide, by two real pioneering teachers, on how the networked world can be used for cooperative learning that can enrich education and empower students — anywhere and everywhere.- Thomas L. Friedman, author, “The World Is Flat.”
- Insightful, innovative, and practical, this book is a must read for any educator interested in preparing competent global citizens. – Yong Zhao, Ph. D, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean, College of Education, University of Oregon
- Open the door and find a new world! In this significant contribution to global education, Julie and Vicki have produced a resource for teachers that contains much needed information, challenges education thinking and provides resources on each and every page. This is a book a teacher can read and immediately open a global door for their students. For me. it is so exciting (and a relief!) to see that the voice of change in education thinking is the voice of our students. – Tony Brandenburg, Fellow, Australian Council for Computers in Education
It is our vision that if we can have enough educators linking together and learning about this at the same time, that a natural byproduct will be the creation of many new, exciting global collaborations. It is time to get past the cute stories of global collaboration into the nuts and bolts of the pedagogy that makes it happen. (Although there are a lot of powerful stories to tell.)
To help facilitate this conversation, we felt like that it would be best if we, the authors (Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis), step aside, and invite our friends Ben Curran and Neil Wetherbee of @engagingedto facilitate the conversation. They’ve done book clubs before and this is another pedagogy that we want to work out: that of having a book club that is truly global. We’d like to do this to promote conversations that transcend borders. The easiest way to get this out of the box is to get out of the classroom and connect with other educators.Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time – 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern)
Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.
The book club is free and everyone is welcome.
#flatclass Book Club Meeting Times
Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation
Week 1 - Sunday, March 11 - 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT)
- Chapter 1 – Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17)
- Chapter 2 – Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30)
Week 2 - Monday, March 19 - 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT)
- Chapter 3 – Step 1: Connection (p 31-61)
Week 3 - Sunday, March 25 - 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT)
- Chapter 4 – Step 2: Communication (p 62-96)
Week 4 - Monday, April 2 - 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT)
- Chapter 5 – Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125)
***Take a break. (Easter)***
Week 5 - Sunday, April 15 - 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT)
- Chapter 6 – Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157)
Week 6 - Monday, April 23 - 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT)
- Chapter 7 – Step 5: Choice (p 158-196)
Week 7 - Sunday, April 29 - 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT)
- Chapter 8 – Step 6: Creation (p197-214)
Week 8 - Monday, May 7 - 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT)
- Chapter 9 – Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234)
Week 9 - Sunday, May 13 - 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT)
- Chapter 10 – Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267)
Week 10 - Monday, May 21 - 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT)
- Chapter 11 – Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293)
- Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 – 304)
We’re also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about “their” chapter. You’ll meet people from all over the world just like you who are doing wonderful, amazing things. This is a global story that transcends just one project, although we’re mighty proud of ours.
While you are welcome to just “drop in” you can register with the Book club mailing list and we’ll remind you each week about the session, let you know who is coming, and we’ll mention any special events that we’ll be having as part of the launch. If you run your own book club, you’re welcome to come by the club anytime for ideas and discussion points.
The hashtag for our conversations is #flatclass and the book club is, of course, free. Anyone can join us. There’s no homework – just conversation and learning. We’ll all be there to discuss the future of education with each other. We hope global collaborators from around the world will join us and share their stories too. Conversations will hinge around our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. The book will be available in ebook format, although we’re not sure yet which ebook formats.
So, to get ready:
1. Order the book
***Amazon
***ebook format (click on the appropriate site that you’d like to see in ebook format and they will contact you when it is available.)
2. Sign up for the book club – run by Ben Curran & Neil Wetherbee from @engaginged
3. Mark your calendar with dates and times
Thank you to everyone who has made this possible, now over to Ben and Neil with insights on this.
Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher
Julie Lindsay @julielindsay
Co-founders Flat Classroom Projects @flatclassroom
How will this global book club work? Will it really transform my teaching?
Have you ever read a book about teaching and thoroughly enjoyed it, only to get done and ask yourself “Now what?” Or maybe you’ve read something that was motivating, inspirational and chock-full of ideas, only to find after sharing it with colleagues that they “just aren’t that into it?” If so, this book club is for you. We hope it will be a gathering of inspired, motivated, similarly driven friends from around the globe.
Here’s how it will work…each week we will focus on approximately one chapter. Each meeting will be divided roughly into three parts. The first part will focus on implementation–how all of us have or can implement the main theme of the week. We’ll also dive into and discuss the activities (Vicki and Julie refer to them as “challenges”) that are embedded in the book. The second part will be more of an open forum for everyone to discuss other topics in the chapter or other issues pertaining to the subject. This will be a great time for making connections with other teachers for possible collaborations and getting answers to questions that you have. Finally, and perhaps what we are most excited about is that each week we hope to be joined by the friends mentioned in each chapter. They will be able to share their firsthand insight on the weekly topic as well as stories from their own experiences.
On top of all this, Engaging Educators will be providing short, free “boot camp” style webinars along the way to help you master some of the topics that might be new to you.
What we hope to facilitate is a perfect companion to Julie and Vicki’s book, an experience that goes beyond “just reading” and demonstrates what a network of connected educators can learn and accomplish.
Welcome to the club!
Ben Curran & Neil Wetherbee @engaginged
4th & 5th Grade teachers and Co-founders of Engaging Educators LLC
Cross posted at the Global Classroom Project blog. Thanks to @mgraffin for the opportunity!
Nearly half a school year has passed and I haven’t run a collaborative project with another classroom yet. It’s time to get back in the game. I’ve got a new project in mind that I’ll reveal in a moment. But first, a little background…
My First Global Project
I got the idea a couple of years ago to try to create an “Online Book Club.” The premise is simple–the classes involved all read the same book and then “discuss” the book online and create little book projects together.So I tried to drum up some interest through a couple of online networks (I think Classroom 2.0 and the Global Education Collaborative) and I was excited to get some responses. I set up a wiki and started reading the book with my class and was totally into it and…it pretty much fizzled. Participation was pretty low by the other participants…there were never any group projects or discussions. Fizzled. Bummer.
Back to the Drawing Board
The thing is, I knew I had a good idea. I love reading. I love books. Kids love discussing books. What better topic to center an upper elementary global project around?So I decided that I’d give it another try. Attending a conference presentation by the amazing duo of Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay (founders of the Flat Classroom projects) at the ISTE conference helped a lot. I realized that I needed to have a better plan…more structure, more communication, and better communication. I also learned that practice makes perfect…things like this don’t always work perfectly the first time around. Their story was inspiring and their tips were incredibly useful. I was pumped up to give it another try.
So I chose a book and reworked the wiki page by including teachers’ guides and an explicit chapter by chapter schedule for teachers to follow. I also realized that we needed a bulletin board-type of site for students and teachers to discuss the book. I decided to use Edmodo, which is free and super-easy. In addition, I realized that I needed to get people involved that were genuinely interested in and committed to a long term project. So I contacted teachers participating in a similar project, The Global Read Aloud (created by the fantastic Pernille Ripp), and got some good response.
Our “21st Century Book Club” ended up reading 3 books together. Kids created several projects, including some pretty awesome Glogs about Benjamin Franklin and some poetry inspired by the novel Love That Dog. My class also got to Skype with a class in Georgia and a class in Alabama, which they absolutely loved. AND the author of one of the novels we read, Kate Klise, through a bit of magical serendipity, even joined our wiki and emailed our classes to tell us how awesome our online book club was. Definitely a successful venture. Since then, I’ve been blogging and presenting about Global Collaboration (check out my Library 2.011 presentation here) every chance I get. I’ve involved my students in other projects with schools in Taiwan, Russia, and Turkey. But there’s more we can do, I know it.
What Now?
So I’m itching to get “back in the game.” But, of course, I am also itching to take it to the next level. The online book club is a project I believe in, and my kids love it, but it’s missing some depth. I want this year’s version to feature more critical thinking and more collaboration. I want students doing some deep analysis of the books, rather than just talk about their favorite characters an making predictions. I want them creating things TOGETHER instead of separately. I’ve seen it happen in projects like The Flat Classroom, and I want to make it happen now, too.
So I’ve picked a book, the intricately awesome A Wrinkle in Time. (I’d like to read When You Reach Me for the second book, too.) And we’ve got some early commitments from teachers in Philadelphia and Canada. I’m still hammering out some of the details, but I know I’d love to schedule meetings between small groups of students via Skype for in-depth discussions of the book. I really want to dig deep and foster critical thinking skills by looking at the big ideas of the novel: Friendship, Family, Good vs. Evil, Identity, and Technology. I’d also love to find a way for them to work collaboratively on book projects. Maybe podcast or video or wiki or Google Doc. Or all! But I want projects that they create TOGETHER, not just with each student separately adding a part and calling it a “group project.”
Are you interested in joining in? I think we can take this online book club idea to the next level, and we’d love to have you work with us. Please contact me or check out the Online Book Club wiki to learn more. You can also subscribe to our blog and follow @engaginged on twitter for more information about this and other projects, as well as other posts on Global Collaboration, engaging students in meaningful learning and useful resources for educators everywhere.
In the Going Global series, we’ve usually highlighted global collaborative projects and resources in an effort to get more teachers involved in all that collaborative projects have to offer. Today, though, I want to share some reflections on my participation in something that I found incredibly exciting–being a judge for the most recent Flat Classroom project.
The Flat Classroom project involves high school students from around the world. Students collaborate to create content that’s meaningful and relevant around the diverse and broad topic of technology. It’s amazingly well organized and executed by the Flat Classroom team, including project founders Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay and several other highly skilled and dedicated educators. You can find more information about the project in this blog post and at the project home page.
At the end of the project, judges evaluate the videos that students create and a “meta-judge” scores the finalists and identifies the best videos in several categories (Web 2.0, Wireless Connectivity, Google, the World Wide Web, etc.). For the first time, I signed up to judge videos. I was amazed by what I saw…students collaborating to create meaningful content about important issues. The videos demonstrated deep, rich learning and really epitomized all that can happen when we give students opportunities to express themselves, explore relevant topics, and work together.
The videos were incredibly difficult to judge…I had to select my top 4 out of 20 videos in the Web 2.0 category. That fact speaks to the amount of effort the students must have put into these creations. I was in awe and inspired.
Why do I share this? Because my experience broadened my viewpoint and gave me insight into just how great a well-managed global project can be. And because I want you to not only get involved in Flat Classroom yourself, whether as a judge or a participating school, but I also want you to get involved in helping students to develop that vital 21st century skill: collaboration.
Global collaborative projects, and the Flat Classroom project specifically, provide a means for students to connect, learn, and grow across borders and time zones. They help them develop the skills needed to work as part of a team in ways that can be incredibly difficult to teach working only within the confines of your classroom or school or school district. Seeing all of this firsthand as a Flat Classroom judge served as a powerful reminder that teachers and students can accomplish amazing (and meaningful) things when they work TOGETHER. I want you to remember that this is a fact. A fact proven time and time again by the Flat Classroom project and the countless other stellar global projects going on in classrooms all around the world.
Please take the time to consider what ways you could be helping to develop the vital skill of collaboration with your students. And be sure to contact us if you’d like help connecting with others. AND be sure to pre-order your copy of Vicki and Julie’s book–Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds–due out in early 2012. AND be sure to follow our blog because Engaging Educators is facilitating the online book club for this book.
When we hear about an amazing learning opportunity for teachers or students, particularly one with a global theme or scope, we just have to blog about it.
Primary Source is an amazing website that (their words): “Promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators with people and cultures throughout the world.” I [...]
When we hear about an amazing learning opportunity for teachers or students, particularly one with a global theme or scope, we just have to blog about it.
Primary Source is an amazing website that (their words): “Promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators with people and cultures throughout the world.” I love the sound of that, don’t you?
The Primary Source website probably deserves a blog post of its own someday, because it’s full of great programs and resources. You should definitely check it out.
Today, though, I want to talk about an upcoming Primary Source event that I learned about from my new friend Jennifer Hanson, the librarian for Primary Source (which really sounds like an awesome job).
Primary Source is sponsoring a Global Read around the book Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. Their hope is to have a dialogue about this engaging novel among readers from around the world. Primary Source wants you to dive headfirst into Girl in Translation this Thanksgiving weekend and then join the author for a live online discussion December 1 from 4:00 to 5:00 Eastern Standard Time. (Click here to register for the Global Read.)
The book sounds really good; you can read more about it and order it here (it’s on sale for the ridiculously low price of $5.84!). I really hope that you or even some of your colleagues or, even better, some of your students (if you teach high school or college English) can join in and participate in Primary Source’s Global Read. And if this is something you’d like to participate in with students, Primary Source has put together an extremely awesome Teacher Toolkit for this book that includes discussion questions, writing prompts, classroom activities, and recommended books and websites for further reading, research, and context. It’s a great resource for teaching Girl in Translation, even if you don’t end up reading it for this event.
I’m lucky enough to have “met” Jennifer Hanson following the Library 2.011 conference. I asked her some questions about the Global Read…here’s a transcript of that conversation:
How many book clubs like this has Primary Source run before?
Primary Source has run face-to-face book groups for educators for more than 10 years. As a result of one of our Global Education Conference presentations in 2010, we started the online Global Reads in the spring of 2011 after being encouraged that this is something teachers were interested in.
What sorts of benefits can teachers and students come away with if they participate?
Benefits for teachers and students are numerous. The books we select for the Global Reads expose teachers and students to new books with global themes and issues. Girl in Translation, for example, explores themes of immigration, friendship, family, adolescence, and identity. Many themes in the book are universal ones to which students and teachers (or any reader) can relate.
Through the online discussion board and live chat with the author, teachers and students have opportunities to talk about the book with teachers and students across the United States and in other countries. How fun to be a student in Acton, Massachusetts, discussing a book with students in Texas and Canada!
Primary Source also provides additional resources for teaching with the books we select for Global Reads. For Girl in Translation, we created a teacher toolkit that is available at http://resources.primarysource.org/girlintranslation . The toolkit includes discussion questions, writing prompts, classroom activities, and recommended books and websites for further reading, research, and context. For previous Global Reads we created a resource guide to accompany the book. For example, our Burma resource guide (http://resources.primarysource.org/burma ) was created for our first Global Read Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins.
Are there online activities in addition to the discussion with the author?
Yes. In addition to the live chat with Jean Kwok on December 1st, there is also a discussion board where teachers and students can discuss the book. The discussion board is open at http://bit.ly/rD9Aq0. It is not password-protected, and teachers and students can post a response or start a new discussion thread.
Will the author discussion be recorded and made available?
Yes. We will use Blackboard Collaborate for the live chat, and the recording will be available on the Primary Source website within 24 hours.
Will there be more Global Reads in the future?
Absolutely! Anyone interested in future Global Reads should follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/primarysourceorg ) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/primarysrc ) or stay tuned to our website (http://www.primarysource.org).
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Thank you, Jennifer, for teaching me about this amazing Global Event! I hope many of our readers will join in some manner. And I hope those who do will let us know how it goes! Remember to click here to register for the Global Read so you don’t miss out!
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