Wow! Student Project with Impact

Two of 'my' teachers at one school never cease to amaze me, and they've done it again. These two are cooperating sixth grade teachers, and from the outside you might think they were a mis-match. The older one has taught way past his 'retirement' date, but he should never retire in my book. He always exhibits a genuine concern for all students. The other is thirty-some years younger, very active and passionate about student learning. Together, they make a great force for student learning, and are always looking for ways to help the learning stick.
Yesterday, they showed me a new student video project. Social studies, reading, writing, technology standards all met inside the video.
Students wrote a 'Dear Parents' letter, talking about the need for their parents to talk to them about bigotry and violence, about racism and hate, and how much their parents' example set the tone for their own behaviors.
Students from fourth grade through sixth grade were each videoed against a black curtain reciting the letter. Then they clipped it up tightly, so each student reads just a phrase or two, and it flows from one child to the next, you see several more than once, and so on.
I know you'll have to see it, and when the link goes up on the website, I'll post it here.

'Cache' Up

We did it! I did some geocaching with two groups of teachers last week from two different schools, and took some people from my team along with one of them. It was a great experience. One teacher told teachers from his home building that it was the 'best inservice' he'd been to in a long time!
Teachers worked on lessons to do with their students that involve geocaching, matched up the standards, and talked about learning implications with these activities. A good couple of days!

Cache This!

Geocaching is, well, fun! My husband and I have recently tried this "sport"; downloading coordinates to a handheld GPS, following the hints left on the website at geocaching.com, and traveling the local area looking for caches. We've gone out twice so far, once with a four-year old grandson, and once with a grandson who is almost fourteen! Both enjoyed it! The older one was put in charge of the GPS and deciphering the the clues.
The results? Learning! The name of the game. Both boys, young and old(er) learned something about place and geography, both had fun, both stayed engaged for hours. Both even told their parents about it!
This Friday, I'm taking it to the field. I have set up a new public google notebook with links about geocaching, including videos and podcast as well as articles and websites. (See that link below in the right navigation bar.) I have six secondary teachers who are going to go on a mini-geocaching expedition that I'm setting up Thursday night. They don't know this yet, but they are about to be hooked into a learning experience that they will want to take to the classroom! I'm excited!
:) L.

Learning for US!

The K12 Online Conference is so compelling, I can't imagine not making the time to download and listen to at least part of it. No need to watch and/or listen according to the schedule found at: http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2007schedule.html

Everything is available for download after broadcast - the videos and podcasts, as well as all the supporting materials! It stays archived so one can go back and get these great resources from some of the world’s most knowledgeable technology and learning specialists at any time.

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK! Pick something and commit to your own learning! You can check out ‘teasers’ - short video ads for the presentations – at: http://k12onlineconference.org/?cat=15

And pass this information on to your teachers and your administrators. Maybe think about handing out or hanging up a copy of the downloadable k12Online Conference Flyer. Someone might take up my challenge!

http://k12onlineconference.org

:) Linda

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