Every school will post one 90-second video to its cohort's Flipgrid page. Please include some or all of the following:
Post your video on your cohort’s Flipgrid by Friday, March 6, 2015. Don't know which cohort you are in? Click here to see the list! Not sure why we have cohorts? Watch our launch party video. Reminders:
| Optional extension: Are you looking for more ways to explore the theme this week? Feel free to post to one or more of these Padlet pages. Your posts are moderated, so they won't show up right away. |
Here we go! It's time to get started with our students. If you didn't get a chance to watch the launch party video, we recommend you do so before we begin.
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Did you miss our online launch party? No problem! Watch the video below for an overview of the project structure, commitments, and timelines. Feel free to leave a comment below with any questions. Carolyn and I are overwhelmed and gratified by the response to our project! Thank you to all of our registered teachers for signing up and giving all of our students glimpses of life at schools around the world.
As I write this we have 80 schools participating, from four continents. Check out the map pins on our project map.What a great teaching tool! We know that time zones make it difficult to communicate face to face (that is why we think Flipgrid is such a great tool) but we wanted to try it at least once during the project. Carolyn sorted all of you by time zones and we came up with a time that we hope will work for most of you. Switzerland and India, you are welcome to come to the launch party in your pajamas! Everyone is invited to come to our online launch party at 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 28 here in Chicago: https://plus.google.com/events/c2h7riv57v8ivas313hsebvq538 Though we are limited to 10 people in the hangout at one time, I'm hoping to be able to open the live hangout to party guests, so we can talk in person! If you did not see your G+ invite, please just email me to let me know you can come. If you can't come, don't worry--we'll post a recording of the event on our project website. Please bring earbuds with a mic or a headset with a mic. The beautiful book If You Lived Here was part of the inspiration for this project. We're communicating with author Giles Laroche, and when he heard that Week 0 is all about educators introducing themselves and sharing thoughts about the project, he wrote this for all of us:
What excited me most about working on If You Lived Here Houses of the World was the opportunity to show and describe not only various types of domestic architecture, but also their locations, their builders and the people and animals who inhabit them. Different landscapes offer their own choices for building materials: logs from the forest, clay from a desert, stone from a mountain quarry, felt from the wool of a yak. These give the houses their own unique style. Likewise a school can be influenced by its location. Students are influenced by their own landscape: mountain, desert, rainforest, urban, suburban, or rural. I’ve spent time in many of these house types and I often think about how much fun (if not practical) it would be to live in a different house type from time to time. Wouldn’t it be amazing if kids could attend a different school each week and see how others learn? I guess that is what you are trying to say in If You Learned Here. Once in in a small village called Monforte de Lemos in northern Spain I visited a school that was housed in a 15th century monastery. The children had playtime in the courtyard surrounded by Renaissance sculptures and had lunch in the same vast dining hall that has been used for hundreds of years. In a school in Athens, students are able to see and walk to the Parthenon for a hands-on study of classical architecture. On the island of Tybee, in coastal Georgia, kids can walk to the beach to observe sea birds and find interesting shells to identify. Registration is still open, but we’re excited to announce that we already have 40 schools from around the globe joining us on this collaborative adventure. We can’t wait to get started!
It’s Week 0 - Teacher Networking and Project Countdown week! This week, we will practice using Flipgrid and Padlet to get to know one another. These initial Flipgrids and Padlets are private. They are a space for us to explore our collaborative tools as teachers and do a “test run” before we go live with students next week. In the future, we’ll post all links and instructions here on the blog. For this Week 0 teacher practice round, however, please check your email for details. If you haven’t already, please try to get a copy of If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche. This book will be a shared anchor for our collaborative experience On Saturday, February 28, we are hosting an online Google Hangout launch party! Join us to say hello and ask any questions you have. Watch your email for an invitation. We’ll see you online! We're so excited to invite educators around the world to join us for If You Learned Here. The format and requirements are pretty simple, but the questioning, exploration, and creativity will be anything but!
We'll begin with a teacher networking and project countdown week -- we call it "Week 0". During that week, you'll can practice using our two main communication tools -- Flipgrid and Padlet -- before you dive in with your students. These online collaboration tools are easy to use, and we'll provide tutorials and support along the way. We'll also have an online launch party via Google Hangout to meet each other and answer any questions. Weeks 1-4 will be the Explore & Share phase. Each week, you and your students will respond to a focus question in two ways: by recording a 90-second video on our Flipgrid, and by posting images and text to a Padlet. These are the tools through which we will get to know one another and learn about each others' schools. Seeing kids and classrooms from around the world will spark endless questions and discoveries for your students. For those of you who want to dig a little deeper, we'll offer optional ideas for extending this project through mini-inquiry, collaboration with an art teacher, and more! Next, we'll enter the Write & Publish phase, during which your school will create two pages for an eBook we will publish together. We'll all use Book Creator for iOS or Android to create our pages using a common template. We've allowed three weeks on the calendar to provide flexibility and accommodate spring holidays. Finally, it will be time to Reflect & Celebrate. We'll publish the ebook for all to download and enjoy, and we'll share our closing discoveries, thoughts, and questions. Join the learning! Register today! Feel free to contact us with any questions. |
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