I had the opportunity to speak to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Two educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives as well as thousands of other students and teachers from around the world.
Vicki is a teacher from Camila Georgia. She blogs on the Coolcatteacher blog and tweets under @coolcatteacher. Julie is the E-Learning Coordinator at Beijing International School. She blogs at E-Learning Journey and tweets under @julielindsay.

These two amazing women are the co-founders of the Flat Classroom Project  and have co-authored the book “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time“, due to be released in February 2012.

Don’t miss out listening to these dynamic and passionate teachers with concrete advice for any teacher embarking on global education and flattening of their classroom.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Flat Classroom Project
• Flat Classrooms (A community for educators)
• Flat Classroom Book
• Flat Classroom Book Club

For other Curriculum21 Podcast Episodes subscribe to their podcast channel on iTunes.

I posted a few weeks ago about the ongoing Teddy Bears Around the World (now in its fourth year) project.

The project blog and hub can be be found at http://www.langwitches.org/blog/travel/teddybearsaroundtheworld/

I have created a How-to-Guide in order to articulate how and why to join such a project, to make participation easier and to facilitate the process of passing on the information.

Feel free to forward via email or print out the flyer and hand them to a teacher who might be interested in participating.

Global Project: Teddy Bears Around the World

If you are looking to weave global awareness & collaboration into your elementary school classroom, consider participating in the

Teddy Bears Around the World Project

For the forth year, Teddy Bears from around the world are contributing images about their travels, traditions and customs to this blog.

Currently, there are contribution from the following categories:

About the Project:

Teddy Bears Around The World started as a project with a school mascot called Jose,  the travel bear, who enjoyed roaming the world, getting to know new places and meeting interesting people. The Teddy Bears Around the World blog provides the space to hang out and communicate with different teddy bears around the world to hear more about their lives and adventures. This will allow our students to see each other’s countries, customs and traditions through the eyes of our teddy bears and open their horizons through a more global perspective.
The idea is to have an ongoing exchange (no deadlines, no pressure) to contribute stories, photographs, videos or podcasts.

These contributions can be from the teddy bears point of view or from the students’ point of view telling a story ABOUT their teddy bear. We could have seasonal posts or specific story starters, such as:

• Teddy celebrates Thanksgiving in USA (other country specific holidays)
• Teddy is going to the movies
• Teddy’s Eve tradition
• Teddy and his favorite foods
• Teddy looses his first tooth
• Teddy watches TV
• Teddy’s favorite fairy tale
• Teddy celebrates his birthday
• Christmas trees around the world

There is no need to send a Teddy Bear to another school or teacher. All you need to do in order to participate is to register via the Contact Form, integrate writing and documenting (via images, videos or audio) the adventures of your own class’ teddy bear.

• Fill out the form.
• You will be contacted (at the e-mail you supply in the form) to submit an image of your Teddy Bear.
• Once the image has been submitted and has been approved, it will be placed on the Teddies of the World Gallery Page and a placemark will be created on the Where in the World Map.
• You will then receive a username and password for this blog to upload your own posts AND that allow your class to comment on other teddy bear’s posts.
• Your posts could be about life in your part of the world. They could include traditions, holidays, day to day life , school events, etc.

So how about it? Are you an elementary school teacher who wants to get involved in a project that practices:

• writing skills?
• media skills?
• collaboration skills?
• geography?

and exposes your students to

• local & community awareness?
• global awareness?
• being globally connected?

This blog post has been in the making for over 12 months.The first part was written (and then left in the draft folder) in November of 2009, while the second part is being written as the unit was unfolding over the last few weeks.

I began working with our Middle School Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Kuhr, to upgrade one of her units (Author’s Point of View).

I wanted to:

• describe the teacher’s train of thought from the moment, I approached her with the idea of taking reading of short stories to challenging students to create a podcast narrated from a different point of view.
• compare the initial lesson objective the teacher envisioned to the unexpected lessons the project taught teacher and students.
• her journey of podcasting for the first time, playing and staying one step ahead of her students when working with Garageband.
• document 21st Century skills, students were being exposed to and were practicing.

I wanted to document in way:

• that could it could be shared on our school’s (private) professional development Ning, so her colleagues could be inspired by her “courage” to just try it out and by the possibilities upgrading a “once traditionally taught unit” could bring to their own class
• that it could be shared on our school’s 21st Century Learning blog to keep the school’s parents informed of what their children were experiencing in the classroom. What skills are we teaching our students? What are digital natives capable of creating?
• that it could be shared on the Langwitches Blog in order to reach a wider audience than the one of our small school community. Reach out, so educators from around the world could get an idea that would, in turn inspire them, to try something different in their classroom and as a result reach more students from outside of our school.

Ripple Effect

Sharing what one is doing, sharing what one is learning along the way, will not only allow for reflection, but it also will create a ripple effect. A ripple effect that in turn will touch the lives and the future of others.

As the unit upgrade and the podcast project progressed, I kept documenting via a draft on my blog. Mrs. Kuhr was faster than I was and wrote a fabulous documentation and reflection of her lesson on our school Ning. With her permission, I am cross- posting:

LESSON:
To Teach the Literary Element – Author’s Point of View

OBJECTIVES:
Students will learn the various points of view and be able to identify them in literary works. Students will explore how point of view affects a story’s plot. Students will learn to discern the subtle differences between author’s point of view and perspective, and how to employ each in their own creative writing.

Next, the SET INDUCTION:
I love to tell stories, so I began with a 1st person narrative about an awkward situation that involved me and several others. After I told the story, I asked students to imagine the thoughts and emotions of the other “characters”; how the story would differ, say, if told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view. Or, better yet, what kind of stories would the others tell?

Then, APPLICATION: Each class read a short story from their literature texts -

• 8th: The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
• 7th: The Foghorn and All Summer in a Day, both by Ray Bradbury
• 6th: Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

and was asked to identify the author’s point of view. Students were then instructed to imagine how their stories would change with a different character’s or object’s perspective. Discussion ensued, and though the repartee was thoughtful and stimulating, I felt I needed something more concrete by which to evaluate. I had recently spoken with Silvia about the successful podcasts she was doing with the lower grades and wondered if the same technology could be used as an assessment tool…

Alas, the PODCAST: Using Garage Band, each student recorded a retelling of the story he/she read from a perspective other than that of the original narrator. Students could select a minor character, the protagonist or an inanimate object to tell their tales. In some instances, students were allowed to create characters (a.k.a. the “fly on the wall”), as long as they stayed true to the storylines. After recording the narration, enhancements (e.g., sound effects, music) could be added to the podcasts.

Finally, ASSESSMENT: Actually, the podcasts themselves are the means by which I will evaluate whether or not my objectives are met. As students finish, they will present their podcasts to their classmates, first explaining why they chose their particular perspectives. In each case, the class is responsible for identifying the author’s point of view.
Note: Though higher level critical thinking and creative imagery were my goals, what transpired produced a whole new skills set in digital storytelling. As a result, I asked my 8th graders to create a generic Podcast Rubric for all grades. Hence, in addition to the lesson’s objectives, students will be assessed on podcast content, technical production, and presentation.

WHAT WORKED:
The majority of the students “got it”. They were able to use perspective and point of view in a creative writing/storytelling scenario. They were enthusiastic, focused (for the most part), and exhibited pride in their work. Peer review was more “critique” than “criticism” – always a plus. And I learned more about podcasting and Garage Band than I ever thought I would – or could!

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
Concurrent recording. Oy! There were not enough places to hide and record in quiet. Background noise was a problem, and editing often led to volatile frustration. Time was also an issue. I had originally scheduled 5 class periods per grade for this assignment. (I should have known better.) We are now on week 3.

WOULD I DO THIS AGAIN?
Yes, with tweaking. Now that I know what’s involved, I’ll begin with a definitive rubric that reflects objectives and goals, add a production schedule, and stagger recordings.

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Lisa Nielsen from  the Innovative Educator  wrote around the same time as I had started this blog post (in November 2009) “21st Century Educators don’t say “Hand it in”, they say “Publish it!” . In my opinion, Mrs. Kuhr took the step towards becoming that 21st century educator. She moved from having her students “hand in” a written response to a prompt to allowing students to add elements such as voice and sound effects to support their character’s perspective as they were recording a podcast. She also realized that her usual assessment rubric was insufficient. She invited her students to join her in creating a new assessment tool that would reflect, not only the basic literacy skills, but also the their podcasting skills.

Fast Forward

Fast forward 14 months. We are in 2011 and Mrs. Kuhr has the previous year’s experience under her belt. Podcasting (and Garageband as a tool) do not scare her anymore and she was ready to repeat the “upgraded version” of her author’s point of view  unit with her students.

Current 8th graders had had the experience with podcasting as 7th graders (with a different story). When presented with a new story, they were also given a choice of media they could use to express “their” chosen point of view.

A few students chose to create individual podcast files, while others decided on a collaborative episode. The latter group worked hard to come up with job descriptions and divide the responsibilities among themselves.

Students assigning their own job responsibilities

Here are the jobs they came up with:

• Project Manager
• Assistant Manager
• Sound Manager
• Scribe
• Script Supervisor
• Technical Assistant
• Liaison
• Character Coach

They also collaboratively designed a rubric for their point-of-view project.

Students Helping Create their own Assessment Rubric

Here are a few examples:

• The Tell Tale Heart retold by 8th grade (collaborative group work)
• The Tell Tale Heart retold by the old man’s heart (William)
• The Tell Tale Heart retold by the old man (Manya)

One students chose to create a PowerPoint to express yet another point of view (the bed)

7th graders were also given a choice of media (audio, video, powerpoint, essay, multimedia poster, etc.). They all chose to create a multimedia poster with Glogster. Mrs. Kuhr quickly created a teacher and student accounts and had them in business in no time.

Glogs are interactive posters that can include different media (images, audio, video, text). All student-created-projects (glogs, powerpoint, videos or podcasts) involved dealing with, finding and using digital media for their creations. A mini-lesson evolved around the issue of Copyright and Fair Use grew out of this need.

Rikki Tikki Tavi Glogster

Rikki- Tikki- Tavi Glogster Example

Students created their glogs about a specific character from the story and their unique point of view. They linked to each other’s glogs to tie the story together. Some students used more text and links, others were heavier on images and some even inserted audio.

Where do we go from here? How do we extend the learning further? How do we “upgrade” more parts to include more 21st century skills and literacies ? How can we give students more job responsibilities to empower them and take ownership in their learning? That will be part of Mrs. Kuhr’s and my reflection before next school year’s Author’s Point of View unit rolls around again.

Our 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Z, and I are planning to upgrade a Social Studies unit about the American Revolution.

We want to expand the following content and exceed the standards traditionally taught in the textbook unit:

• Identify and explain significant events leading up to the American Revolution.
• Identify significant individuals and groups who played a role in the American Revolution.
• Explain the significance of historical documents including key political concepts, origins of these concepts, and their role in American independence.
• Examine and explain the changing roles and impact of significant women during the American Revolution.
• Examine and compare major battles and military campaigns of the American Revolution.
• Identify the contributions of foreign alliances and individuals to the outcome of the Revolution.
• Explain economic, military, and political factors which led to the end of the Revolutionary War.
• Evaluate the personal and political hardships resulting from the American Revolution.
• Discuss the impact and significance of land policies developed under the Confederation Congress (Northwest Ordinance of 1787).
• Examine the significance of the Constitution including its key political concepts, origins of those concepts, and their role in American democracy.

Our overall goals beyond the curriculum content is:

• Action research- allow teachers to upgrade a traditionally taught unit
• Allow teachers to learn, plan, work and teach collaboratively
• Empower student learners by giving them ownership
• Take learning off the pages of the book
• Allow students to reinforce 21st century skills: communicate, collaborate, connect & critical thinking
• Expose and reinforce 21st century literacies: basic (reading & writing), media, network, global, information
• Find new forms of teaching, learning and assessment
• Students becoming teachers
• Bring in multiple perspectives
• Reflection on upgrade
• Share our learning with a global audience

Ideas:

• Collaboration between classes
• Skype calls group2group, buddy2buddy
• Debates via Skype- Role playing
• Facebook page (off line) for founding fathers/King of England/colonists
• Twitter-Students chronologically share what they learn  (from protagonist perspective)
• Interviews with subject area experts (university professors, authors, from England)
• Social Production
• Teachers teaching lessons to both classes/ groups

WANTED!

We are looking for the “perfect” collaboration partner(s) to help us “pioneer” learning about the American Revolution in the 21st Century. We are requesting the following criteria of our potential partner teacher/class:

• 5th grade Any grade level, currently studying “American Revolution” in their curriculum (What about High School students willing to mentor our 5th graders?)
• Teacher and students able to use Google Apps for collaboration
• Teacher and students able to skype
• Teacher and students willing and able to test new tools and methods
• Tentative timeline  for collaboration: January/February 2011
• Committed to explore new forms of teaching and learning- Willing to test, revise, assess and share new forms
• Dependable, detailed oriented, deadline aware, flexible

If you match our “Wanted- Poster” and are interested to partner with us on this adventure, please contact me to discuss possible collaboration.

I have been dying to share this project with all of you, but I have been holding off until we have completed the unit (well almost…). There seem to be more and more opportunities popping up for our 5th grader to continue learning and connecting their knowledge about Christopher Columbus…

Take a listen to the students’ “CC Newscast” video and then read on about the “upgrade” process from textbook to globally connected learning!

Columbus Creates 21st Century Explorers from langwitches on Vimeo.

Christopher Columbus Creates 21st Century Explorers

It all started out with a planning meeting with the 5th grade teacher. We used iThoughtsHD on the iPad to brainstorm and sketch out some of our ideas for the unit. The visual helped us see the big picture and made it easy to add components in areas that we felt needed upgrades in terms of 21st century skills and literacy. We wanted to give students research opportunities that went beyond their textbook and library. We wanted them to be exposed to multiple perspectives and come up with their own conclusion about the historical figure “celebrated” here in the USA on October 12th of every year.

Christopher Columbus Unit Plan

We had a meeting with students to talk about the Christopher Columbus unit. Collaboratively we created a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart on the iPad and got them thinking about THEIR contribution to the research about the historic figure. We decided that the culminating project and assessment would be a class movie. Each student would contribute a segment with their research findings. The segment could be a presentation, dance, song, etc. Mrs. Z, their teacher created a Google Doc, which she shared with all her students. After thinking and negotiating project partners, they added their contribution ideas to the document. Some students needed more help than others form their teacher. Using Google Docs as a class community greatly contributed to the collaborative nature of the learning taking place.

Jilliyn-  Skype with people Mrs. Tolisano has made contact with in other countries.

Shira-”Skype Team”-when we interview students from other countries about what they learn about Columbus.  You must research first about the other country and then formulate your questions for the interview.

Josh-research statistics about Columbus’s voyages-how many sailors were on board, etc. and formulate questions to ask when we interview people about Columbus and interview Ms.Stein.

Edyn-perform a play about Columbus.  Either write your own play based on research you do on Columbus or check with Mrs. Tolisano -she has a play you can use.

I think it would be good if you had commentators to speak after you do your play.  They would decide whether your performance was mostly fact or fiction based on research yes

Hannah-Dance-BUT-you must also create a song about Columbus based on research about his life. Interview Mrs. Tolisano.

Ryan-research and see if any movies and/or video games have been made about Columbus–Maybe check educational channels too such as Discovery and PBS and try to view the programs (with your parents or  my approval first)

Allie- I will interview Mrs. Rogo. about Christopher Columbus, be in a play and make a Power Point about important dates in Christopher Columbus’ life.

Sabrina- Find books about Christopher C. and see how the authors portray him and interview Mrs. Rogo–must submit interview questions to me for approval first and you will need someone to film the interview with the flip camera. Also-did you want to perform in the play?

Max-videographer…commentator/fact checker

Daniel-I know you are interested in dates…so you will research and make a timeline of Columbus’s life. Include at least ten important dates.

Rachel-Why did Christopher Columbus take his journey? What happened to the prisoners after the journey? How hard did he work during his journey?  You must research several sources to find you answers and TELL me what sources you used.

Montgomery-research why Columbus decided it would be a good idea to sail West and not East.

Lance-I would like for you to interview Mrs. Reppert and ask her questions about Columbus.  You will need to do some research so you will know what you want to ask before your interview.  I will need to approve your questions first. You will also need someone to film with the flip camera.

Samuel-I would like for you to meet with Mrs. Leonard and email the contact she found.  (I will give you her name)  I want you to tell her what our class is doing (our Christopher Columbus project) and ask her at least five questions.  You will discuss this on the video.  Sam and Josh z will do special effects on video.

Claire–skype interviewer and help Rachel

Shelby-see Edyn’s name

Reesa- I will make a song and dance with hannah

Josh-you will do research about Columbus’ s voyages. You will tell us where he went on each of his four voyages.

Class Meeting

KWL Chart created with and by the students. Again, using iThoughts we passed the iPad around the table and asked students to add a bubble to the chart. We will later re-visited the chart to add WHAT they have learned about Christopher Columbus.

KWL- Student Chart

I blogged and tweeted a call for “experts” who would be willing to be contacted by our students and interviewed about their knowledge and perspectives of Christopher Columbus.

Our school’s librarian was also able to pass on an e-mail contact of a Native American from her network.

Call for "Experts" willing to share knowledge and perspective

Greta Sandler from Argentina and Melissa Techman from Virginia responded via Twitter, Maryna Tsehelska from the Ukraine and Steve Wilmarth from China answered our calls through the Around the World with 80 Schools site.

In an effort to support our students as collaboration and communication coordinators, we passed the task to e-mail and communicate with the “Experts” on to them. I met with the students to create a draft for their initial contact e-mail. They took it from there to coordinate Skype calls.

Student e-mail to Skype Contact

Skype with Argentina

Mrs. Techman read a book via Skype to the class

Skype Call with the Ukraine

Other students eagerly got started in preparing their contribution to our collaborative project.

Enthusiastic E-mail from Students

Then came the moment when the class formulated questions to be used in a survey asking others to share their thoughts, ideas and knowledge about Christopher Columbus. The survey was then embedded on the classroom blog. I tweeted and blogged about their survey and asked my network to please take the time to answer their questions.

These were the questions:

• Where do you live?
• How old are you?
• Do you think Christopher Columbus was a Hero, Victim or Villain?
• Explain your answer
• Do you think Christopher Columbus discovered America?

Survey embedded on Classroom Blog

The survey generated just short of 400 entries from over 12 countries! Students were enthralled when we projected the survey spreadsheet and the entries were “falling” in as they were watching! We shared the Google Document with all the students, so they would have access to it anytime.

How exciting as the survey responses were being updated live on the spreadsheet

As a class we analyzed the responses of the survey in the spreadsheet, although I received nightly updates via email from excited students as the numbers of participants climbed steadily.

Analyzing the Survey

The following Wordles were created with the answers for some of the questions.

Location of Survey Contributors

Survey: Do you believe Columbus discovered America?

Survey: Do you believe Columbus was a Hero, Villain or a Victim?

You can download the survey entries as a pdf file here.

Once students completed their research, we started working on the Newscast video, which would be the collaborative product of our learning.

Newscast Brainstorming Session

How will each section be recorded?

As students were watching the final version of the CC Newscast, I sent my iPad with the original KWL chart around. Each student added a “bubble” about what they had learned:

that C.C did not discover America

That CC took prisoners as his sailors.

that c.c. was not such a nice person.

There were different perspectives in Argentina about CC.

I learned that Columbus almost gave up when he was trying to go to America and that the sailors almost had a mutiny.

I learned that Christopher Columbus was not always a hero.

I learned that Christopher Columbus was not nice to the Indians.

Columbus was born in Valladolid Spain

The Tainos killed some of Columbus’s men when Columbus went back to Spain to get a new ship.

People have a lot of different opinions about Christopher Columbus.

Columbus didn’t go were he planed to go. ””

Columbus wanted to rule the land he discovered. Also Columbus died in 1506

C.C. Had a dark side to him.

In 1504 he returned to Spain.

He sailed lots of ships not just 3

There was so many things about Christopher Columbus.

We were also contacted by Steve Wilmarth, who is currently teaching in Wuhan, China at a Middle School Attached to HuaZhong Normal University.
He writes:

I would love to have my students in China join in the discussion about Christopher Columbus.  They would like to share with your students the story of the great Chinese admiral, Zheng He (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He), and his exploration of the world 50 years before Columbus set sail.

My students are studying US history this semester, and we are exploring the topic of the “Columbian exchange;” how the the early explorations brought plants, animals, and diseases around the world for the first time.

What an incredible opportunity to connect with these Chinese High School students with our 5th graders. Learn about the exploration in Asia. Although Christopher Columbus day as come and gone and the 5th graders unit on the historical figure has (officially) ended, we will continue to make connections to expand our horizons and learn from different perspectives.

Learning can be sooo exciting!!! What kind of tried and tested project, unit or lesson plan have you upgraded recently? Please share your documentation or reflection of the upgrade to help build examples from the classroom HOW teaching and learning are taking on new forms.

5th Graders are in the middle of an incredible unit of study about Christopher Columbus.
They need your help! Please take the time to fill out the brief survey below.

From their classroom blog

We are learning about Christopher Columbus in school. We are in the process of doing research about Columbus and in a few weeks we will turn our research into a video and ask the question: Was Columbus a hero, victim, or villain?
Please let us know what you think by taking our survey.

A new school year has started for us here in the Northern Hemisphere. We are off to a fantastic start. I am working with our 5th grade teacher and class on their Christopher Columbus Social Studies unit.

Cristobal Colon

We are looking to involve students in researching the historic figure from different perspectives in order to put together a more accurate view of the “hero-fied” persona he has been portrayed as in many textbooks in the USA.

To this end, we would like to skype with “experts” from different countries and backgrounds who could tell us a little bit about what their perception of Christopher Columbus is. What have they been taught in school or at the university about the “Discoverer of the Americas”? Do you celebrate “Columbus Day” , “Dia de la Raza” or “Dia de la Hispanidad” in October? What does your textbook say?

We would be interested in skyping with educators at the elementary school, middle school, high school or university level as well as entire school classes to put together different perspectives.

If you have a different perspective, please contribute to our learning. Leave a comment here on this post, contact me via the form or Tweet me to let me know you would be interested in participating.

The actual Skype call should not last longer than 5 minutes and we would send you specific questions ahead of time.

A Teacher's Heart Smiles when...

A teacher’s heart smiles when students become creative, enthusiastic and take ownership of their work. This was the case with the 4th grade class at my school. Their classroom teacher asked me to introduce podcasts to her class, she and her students took it from there and RAN… with it…

I came to their classroom to let them listen to various examples of class-podcasts and talk to them about  creating a collaborative storyline, that would tie individual audio segments together. I also talked to them about the importance of voice acting in order to engage their audience.

Here are some sample podcasts they listened to:

• Flat Stanley Podcast
• Magic Tree House
• Zoo Trip
• Endangered Animals

Students started to get excited as we were brainstorming scenarios for their storyline.

Brainstorming on the SmartBoard

We took a screenshot of the final list and uploaded the image to their classroom blog. Students were then asked to write a short paragraph on the blog detailing their storyline. The class was going to vote for the best storyline to be used for their podcast.

Screenshot of Possible Storylines

From their classroom blogs:

Sabrina M.

I think the plot should be where we go the Kennedy Space Center and Hannah accidentally pushes the button that launches the rocket so we go to all the different planets and then an evil alien says that we cannot go back to Earth unless we can name four facts about every planet. And that’s when we say all our facts.

Josh Z.

Plot: We go into space accidentally and we get a tour of space. After the tour a black hole suddenly says ” take a quiz of the solar system if you get any questions wrong the sun will disappear ” and we take the quiz and the sun doesn’t disappear.

Reesa Z.

We should do something where we all were asleep and we had a dream about and alien taking us to the solar system and then he/she would give us a tour about the planets. Then we will talk about our planets. After that we all wake up and realize it was just a dream.

Ryan H.

Real estate agents: Aliens from many galaxies away want to sell, The sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are on the market from alien Real estate agents. The aliens want you to know 4 facts about each planet in order to buy them. If you dont get all 4 facts for your planet by Friday Earth will be destroyed.

Hanna G.

I think the storyline should be: One night all of the classmates dreamed of aliens coming out of the blackhole and they came to capture us. Then the next day we came to school and we went to the Kennedy Space Center and clumsy Hannah accidentally launched the rocket and then it fell so we had to go back to the class and when we got back the class turned into the solar system. In the solar system we learn about all the planets. When we were done we went to the alien real estate agents to get us back home.

Allie I.

Everybody in the class goes home and goes to bed. They all have the same dream. In their dream, they dream about space and learn about space. When they go to school the next morning, they all figure out they had the same dream and talk about what the dream was in class.

Edyn G.

I think that we should be staying at a hotel and there is not enough beds so we pull out a pull out bed and while every one is asleep it turns into a rocket ship and takes us into space and then it turns into a bus and we tour space and then it turns into a rocket ship and gos back to the hotel.

Montgomery P.

I think the plot should be: We go outside for recess, and Daniel tells everyone to come look at what he found. He found twenty jet packs. So we all take a field trip to all the planets and the moon and sun. So when we get back we put the jet packs back where we found them.

Rachel O.

Our classroom turns into the space shuttle because by accident Josh tripped over a binder and pressed the button and no one knew what it did until they all saw the stars and planets.After they see all the stars and planets the class wants to go and take a look around at them all.Mrs.Raitt says “Ok let’s go!”.We all are looking at the planets and then we go back to school.

Shira D.

I would like to do a news cast where on the news they announce that aliens have captured people and they take then around the solar system and that is my idea!

We booked time in the computer lab to allow students to “play” with Garageband and learn about tracks, background music, splitting, editing and moving tracks.

The classroom teacher created a list of planet facts that each group had to include in their segment and students started to write their script.

Items to be included in script

Once each group finished and exported their segment, we imported these files into a new Garageband project and arranged the segments in order.

Putting Podcast Together

Take a “listen” to these 4th graders “Space Real Estate Agents” podcast. Honor their efforts as

• storytellers
• collaborative team members
• creative writers
• producers
• directors
• audio editors
• podcasters

Leave them a comment, including your location, so they can track their listeners on a Map.

View MJGDS-4th Grade Space Podcast Audience in a larger map

Terry Freedman published his new “Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book”.

It is free for anyone to download as a pdf file. I loaded it on my Kindle and have been enjoying the wonderful project ideas.

Thank you, Terry for all the hard work and thank you to the contributors for their project ideas!

• 87 projects.
• 10 further resources.
• 52 applications.
• 94 contributors.
• The benefits of using Web 2.0 applications.
• The challenges of using Web 2.0 applications.
• How the folk who ran these projects handled the issues…
• … And what they recommend you do if you run them.
• What were the learning outcomes?