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Looking for “Experts” to Help Us Learn With Perspectives About Christopher Columbus

August 28, 2010 21st Century Learning, Classroom Projects, Digital Storytelling, Elementary School, Geography, Global Learning, History, Video Conference Comments Off

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.

Celebrating Language, Culture & History via Skype

June 1, 2010 AWW80S, Communication, Curriculum 21, Elementary School, Geography, Global Learning, History, Video, Video Conference, World Languages Comments Off

Students from Jacksonville, Florida/USA and Binyamina, Israel recently celebrated Jerusalem Day together. A true opportunity to share Language, Culture & History via Skype.

A grandfather in Israel shared his memories of the Six Day War (1967) of liberating Jerusalem. The Rabbi from Florida explained what Jerusalem means to Jews outside of Israel. Students sang songs, played instruments and practiced English and Hebrew.

Jerusalem Day- Yom Yerushalaim from langwitches on Vimeo.

Behind the Curtains of a Skype Call

May 25, 2010 AWW80S, Video, Video Conference 3 Comments

In this video, we show you a little bit what is happening behind the curtains of the actual Skype call. Students are discussing some of the Skype jobs they take on during a connection as well as debriefing after the call.

Around the World With 80 Schools- Newfoundland, Canada from langwitches on Vimeo.

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Guest Posts

Where’s the Authentic Audience? Guest Post by Andrea Hernandez

Tweet Andrea Hernandez, known as edtechworkshop in the blogger- and Twittersphere has written a thought provoking blogpost about Where’s The Authentic Audience? She takes a closer look at the buzz word circulating among blogging educators and classrooms and asks tough questions. What happens when there is no audience coming to …

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Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

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Annotexting

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Professional Development

Entrepreneurialism, Student Voices and Authentic Work

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Students Are Speed Geeking

Tweet During last year’s edJEWcon conference (a Teaching & Learning Institute for Jewish Educators, which I help organize with Andrea Hernandez and Jon Mitzmacher), we invited our Middle School students to attend our keynote session with Heidi Hayes Jacobs. We all watched magic happen, when students (without being asked) created …

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New Forms of Professional Development

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21st Century Learning

Amplification of a Transportation Unit & a Survey

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Stepping Up the Backchannel In the Classroom

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Entrepreneurialism, Student Voices and Authentic Work

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The Digital Learning Farm in Action

Entrepreneurialism, Student Voices and Authentic Work

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Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part Two- Taxonomy of a Skype Conversation

Tweet This is Part Two of Assessment in the Modern Classroom. Read Part One here. Assessing students’ writing, thinking level , understanding, learning connections via a Twitter stream, did not end the assessment upgrade for this particular learning opportunity. During the same Skype call, we paid special attention to how …

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Learning in the Modern Classroom

Tweet I can die happy now I have seen learning in the 21st Century modern classroom! The learning just oozes through the cracks of the physical classroom walls. Learning is amplified by the amount of people who are collaborating, participating, communicating and creating. The learning is NOT about the technology …

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Global Education

Amplification of a Transportation Unit & a Survey

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Wall of Intolerance- What if….

Tweet During my visit this past January to the Graded School, in São Paulo, Brazil, I met Jamie Tuttle Middle School Guidance Counselor. He told me about an incident at their International School and the response as a community: We found our world map defaced with several derogatory and racist …

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Where the Hell is Matt- Evolution

Tweet I have been following the “Where the Hell is Matt” videos since 2006. I always thought the video is a great hook for students into geography. There are three versions available with a clear evolution of Matt growing as he travels around the world. From dancing in isolation in …

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Blogging With your Classroom

Beyond Pockets of Excellence in Blogging

Tweet There are many, many pockets of excellence in classroom/student blogging out there. These blogs are driven, coached and nurtured by educators who “get it”. They get how blogging makes a difference in student learning, supports 21st century modern learning skills and literacies and at the same time basic reading …

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Anatomy, Grammar, Syntax & Taxonomy of a Hyperlink

Tweet Hyperlinks make the World Wide Web what it is. If links did not exist, EVERY web page would be a stand alone. Let’s take a close look at these “clickable thingies” I like the metaphor of thinking of hyperlinks as the “wormholes”, that transport us from one section of …

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Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part Three- Blog Writing

Tweet I believe we are on our way of taking a modern classroom learning opportunity and upgrading assessment forms to match new skills and new literacies while not forgetting traditionally assessed ones. We took a classroom Twitter feed (Part One) , looked at the conversation skills students exhibited during the Skype …

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iPads

Kindergarteners Gaining Independence, Pride & Increased Comfort Level with the iPad

Tweet The picture above makes me smile… I see a group of Kindergarteners thinking, wondering, discussing, testing things out, collaborating, being proud of their independence as they are working with iPads. It was the first time, we “let go” with the iPads. Previously, we had iPad Centers, working with 3-4 …

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Further Amplification… Other Languages…

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How Does iPad Workflow Fluency Look Like in Kindergarten

Tweet Recently, I tried to explain to a teacher from another school how we are trying to use iPads BEYOND apps. We have over 100 apps on our school iPads and introduce our students according to age level to a variety of them, but the focus of the use of …

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Digital Storytelling

My StoryTelling App Folder(s)

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Visualizing Stories

Tweet I recently found a video of 1st graders using the iPad to visualize a poem that their teacher read to them. After students drew what they imagined, they got into pairs and explained their drawings to a partner. The teacher also circulated to listen and to ask deeper questions …

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The Making of a Story in Kindergarten and Amplification Thoughts

Tweet Kindergarten time is storytelling time: Listening to stories, telling stories, acting stories out, learning how to read your own stories and creating your own stories! Learning about a holiday, like Thanksgiving in the USA, is the perfect time to cloak the historical origin into a fascinating story for five …

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