Our district received five GPS units in late April and we’ve wasted no time connecting them with classroom instruction! Students across Roanoke County used them this spring, hunting for facts, hidden in their school yards, that were linked to their classroom studies.

This summer our budding Geocaching passion will take on a whole new dimension.

Shortly before the end of the school year, 4th graders at Green Valley Elementary School were introduced to Geobugs.  They learned that our Geobug was planted nearby and that, with any luck, Geocachers would find it and help it travel north.  The final destination is Ms. Deyenberg’s Class in Alberta, Canada. The students will study the Geobug’s travels in their 5th grade World Studies class next  year. 

Ms. Deyenburg’s class placed Flop, the Dalgliesh Dolphin this spring,too, with a final destination of S.W. Virginia where students in Roanoke County and Salem City will welcome her arrival. 

To date, both of these travel bugs have been picked up and are moving in toward their final destinations. In the meantime, students will be able to study the places that the Geobugs have visited and in the end, video conference with Ms. Deyenberg’s class to discuss the project.

In the meantime, Tina Coffey, Ms. Deyenburg, and I are following the progress of the Geobugs and keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll have all sorts of information to share with students when they return to school next fall.

Students in Mr. Murrill’s class spent a few days before spring break coming up with questions about the ocean environment that they wanted answers to.  It was my pleasure to be able to dive in my favorite dive spot on the planet and help them discover the answers!

The students in Mrs. Saul’s 5th Grade homeroom had the the opportunity to video conference with students from Haultain Community School in Regina, Canada today.

Although nervous at first, the students from these two countries chatted for 24 minutes and learned that they aren’t so different after all. They shared common interests in sports, hobbies and reading and students from both classrooms were surprised that they’d studied several of the same novels this year! They wore similar clothing and liked the same music.

There were differences, too. Haultain Community School, some 1500 miles from Roanoke, has less than 100 students in grades K-8.  Temperature and snowfall totals are very different, but since the metric system isn’t our standard unit of measurement, some figuring had to be done!

Mrs. Saul’s other classes are collaborating with students from other countries as well, but since time zones can create conferencing problems, these classrooms have shared Voicethreads with students in Beijing, China and Bullcreek, Australia. Their friends in Bullcreek were unable to respond to their Voicethread and shared this flickr show instead.

Mrs. Kern’s class shared their thoughts about their height today as part of the How Tall is a First Grader project. 

The students are already looking forward to the next round of measuring activities that will take place in April.  Stay tuned to see how much they’ve grown!

As part of their participation in the How Tall is a First Grader Wiki, the students in Mrs. Northern’s class did some comparisions and wrote sentences about their observations.  

Mrs. Kern’s class is also participating and will have a VoiceThread of their own to post soon.  The Back Creek Elementary First Graders are enjoying the opportunity to learn about First Graders from around the World.

Kids have always had a special understanding of monsters. They sense them under beds and in closets, and occasionally catch a brief glimpse. Monsters have the reputation of tormenting young people, but recently, monsters helped local 5th graders improve the writing process.
Students participated in the Monster Exchange - a collaborative project where students draw a monster and share the descriptive writings with other students who have never seen the original drawing. They recreate the monster based solely on the description supplied by the artist. Once redrawn, both images are posted to the web for comparsion. Since the 4th graders aren’t quite finished, just scroll down to see the 5th grade monsters!
We took this activity to the next level today when we video conferenced with the mystery classroom.
Students had the oportunity to meet each other and discuss the writing techniques that were helpful in the redrawing process.

They had positive comments and helpful suggestions for each other. Attention to detail and proof reading were the suggestions that the students mentioned most frequently. In the end, they all agreed that they would write differently the next time and that they’d like to collaborate again. The students generated a list of topics that they might want to write about next time and plan to vote on the topics once they are posted to a wiki.
The Monster Exchange is just one example of how teachers can bring 21st century literacies into their classrooms. If you think you’d like to give this type of project a shot, email me and we’ll get you started!

It wasn’t too long ago that collaboration in the classroom meant that two teachers were working together, side by side, on a project. If a teacher wanted her students to collaborate with students in another school, be it across town or across the country, pen pals were really the only option.
There are many web tools available to today’s educators that make participation in a collaborative project much easier. I used several of these tools to work with K-8 students a week ago while in Mexico.
The Ocean Studies Wiki was the vehicle I used to help third graders understand animal adaptations and the ocean food web, to stir the imagination of eight graders in a co-taught creative writing class, and to help kindergarteners improve their knowledge of Spanish. Voice Thread was a heavily used collaborative tool for this project.
Speech students from a neighboring district also participated - they voiced questions about the ocean for me to answer.
I returned to my schools to face some very excited students and teachers and was pleased that a few more educators in my world had were now aware of how easily they could use collaboration to enhance their curriculum.

How Tall is a First Grader?  Two first grade classrooms at Back Creek Elementary plan to find out! The teachers have measured all of the students and have shared the information with the creators of the activity.  Teachers around the world are participating in this project and will submit data throughout the month of November.  This data will be compiled and shared with all participating classrooms. In the next few weeks the students will create Voice Threads about their experiences, but for now, they are just looking forward to finding out about first graders around the world.

If the Dino Safety video isn’t showing, please refresh your browser.

Some very clever Roanoke County students created this very informative video about safety rules.
DINO SAFETY

Roanoke County Schools have only been in session for a few days but the teachers are fired up about using technology to connect with learners around the world.  Here’s just a sampling of what the teachers I work with are up to:

The Oreo Cookie Project - Both Mrs. Clifford and Ms. Zebosky from Green Valley Elementary school are starting the year out right! Cookies and collaboration, what could be better?  Both teachers will participate in The Oreo Cookie Project this month!

Are you taller than a First Grader? - Quite possibly you are!  The real question is How Tall is a First Grader? Mrs. Kern’s class from Back Creek Elementary is going to participate with students around the country to determine this information. Students will be measured this fall and again this spring.

Regions of Virginia - Mrs. Stanley’s Fourth Graders will collaborate with students across the state this year to learn interesting facts about the Regions of Virginia.  Check in with their wiki from time to time to view Voicethread and Podcast projects!

Oceans of Ideas - Both Mrs. Steffen’s & Ms. Rooney’s classes created amazing digital stories last year after participating in a unit that focused on the ocean.  Here’s a taste of what the students created! This year’s 8th Graders will participate in this unit again and collaborate with <ahem>a certain diver this fall.

This type of collaboration just skims the surface of what is available to the students in your classroom!  Here are a few other projects that are up and coming:

The Gingerbread Man Project

The Monster Exchange

The Ocean Challenge Live

And up an coming soon:
The Zoo Math Project- a multi-district (Roanoke City, Salem, & Roanoke Co), Third Grade Math adventure based on our very own Mill Mt. Zoo!  Stay tuned for details!
Story Chasers - Students can share stories on a variety of topics with other kids around the world. First up, Spooky Ghost Stories!!!
Animal Habitats - Students in Texas would love to discuss habitats and food chains with students in Virginia. 
Ocean Voicethreads - Do your students understand the ocean environment and the characteristics of the Continental Shelf & Slope?  Not only can they ask me questions that I’ll gladly answer after diving, but they can collaborate with other students around the world to discuss ideas and issues. 

The ability to collaborate with classrooms around the district, state, country or globe is easier than ever!  Let’s get together soon to get your kids involved in this amazing learning activity.