80+Days

Around the World in 180 days
Michelle Anderson Edmond, OK suburban severe weather Elem Principal Lucy Howard Buckingham UK 1hr out of London 5th grade teacher

1. Lucy, Gr5 teacher was looking for information on across curricula project on Extreme weather (googled tornado alley-found Michelle's school) she sent a very formal email to Michelle about connecting the 2 schools for project 2. Two teachers talked by email then on the phone, tried a few Web 2.0 tools, tried Skype (would it work?) 3. Made How to: Zero to Skype in 5 Easy steps. 4. Used document Camera instead of Web cam with classes. 5. 3 kids in one class at Michelle's school directly affected by tornado in Feb, students in England asked real world questions. 6. VLE penpals www.learning.burton.meadow.bucks.sch.uk 7. Moodle closed environment 8. England- revolutionary war we don't teach it because we didn't win 9. Students worked on project about Tornado Alley very engaged 98degrees F what is it in C? Time difference visited each others schools taught lessons at each others schools anokienengland.blogspot.com
 * Relationship developed between the teachers was the KEY.**

Grants for everything

Yanks are Coming English teachers taught American students from English point of view American teachers taught English students about American revolution English teachers also taught about Monarchy Oklahoma school has since partnered up with other countries K- Germany gr1- Mexico, Egypt Gr 2- Greece Gr 3- Italy Gr 4 France Gr 5 England & Scotland

Globalgateway.org to look for partner schools send out more than 20 emails to connect

World Piece New Grant Around the world in 8-ish Days texting 25cents cheaper than phone Germany partner- 4grades then students go to secondary school sleepover reading ghost stories (only time OK was able to Skype due to time)

At the end of the project students are allowed to exchange personal information, email with parents permission

Notes: This was an interesting and entertaining presentation, but the presenters emphasized the face-to-face visit as the most important aspect of their successful Skyping relationship. Since that's not always feasible, the strategy I left with was to email many teachers (using ePals or GlobalGateways), build an online relationship with a teacher, share your goals for the sessions/relationship, and practice the technology piece several days in advance, taking into account time zones, class schedules, etc.