Pitch Your Project or Just Tell Your Story

I'm at Minnesota State University today (April 27) to discuss global education initiatives with school leaders. If you are online around 2 PM CST (14:00 GMT) and would like to say hello to us via Skype, please do so. My username on Skype is elemenous, and just let me know who you are when you request to add me to your contacts. And, just to clarify... I am not streaming my talk, but am holding a sort of open mike session for GEC members to say hello.

During this time, feel free to briefly tell us about projects that you are managing or participating in. You can share ones where you are looking for partners, or ones that have just been successful for you and your school. If you'd rather just pop in to say hello, that's fine, too! The point of this activity will be to demonstrate the power of global networks and how Skype can be part of a global project toolkit.

If you're not able to join us, pitch your project or just say hi in the comments below! Many of the workshop participants today have or will join the GEC, so I'm sure they'd appreciate your warm welcome. Also, my slides for this presentation will be available at http://www.lucygray.org later today.

The second item that I wanted to bring your attention to is the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) here in the US and the Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning are publishing a new resource on global competence and there will be a livestreamed panel discussion about this today at 10 AM ET (10:00 GMT).

You can download their new publication here. I *believe* that the livestream of the event will be found here as well. If I find another link to this event, I'll post it in the discussion forum.

Finally, there have been a slew of new posts in the discussion forum within the past week. Stop by and feel free to add your two cents and respond to the posted queries!

Thanks,

Lucy

Hi Lucy, I have no project to pitch but would like to share a successful project - harnessing the power of social media to create authentic global learning experiences for children. I am a technology coordinator and this is the second year that my 4th grade students are blogging about countries/cultures. Last year my students (these are 10 year olds) received comments from people in over 25 countries. This year we are just getting started and we have had hits from many different countries. I tweet out the link in front of the students and they watch the cluster map light up across the world. While the blog itself is developmentally on grade level, the magic begins when the kids realize they have a voice that can be heard around the world. They race to the map to discover locations of countries, most that they have already learned about but now, for the first time, the geography is relevant and exciting. When they get a brief comment from someone in another country or across the U.S. they are filled with joy that people are reading their words, answering their questions.

As a technology Coordinator my goal is to expand this project to include Skype sessions and most importantly to provide some type of personal global communication for each student before they finish elementary school.

Here is the link to this year's webpage/blog: 4th Grade country Studies 2011

I hope to be available during your session. My Skype username is ksivick. Thanks for all you do to foster global collaborations in education!

Kim Sivick

Replies

webtycho April 27, 2011 at 5:17pm

I am interested in encouraging more schools to post their international partnerships at http://www.connectallschools.org/

The campaign to connect all schools by 2016 started by Ed Gragert is picking up pace but we need far more sign ups to reach our goal!

Laurence Peters

www.laurencepeters.com
Laurence Cuffe April 27, 2011 at 11:34am

Good Luck with the presentation, I don't particularly have a project to boost, but I do have an interesting tool that you may not be aware of: Trailmeme

Here is the overview: http://trailmeme.com/info/overview
And, as they say on all the best cooking shows, here's one I prepared earlier:
http://trailmeme.com/trails/Tools_for_social_or_group_teaching This covers some of the tools I have mentioned in a previous post here.

All the best from Ireland,

Dr Laurence Cuffe
- Co-Chair
  
  Lucy Gray > Laurence Cuffe April 27, 2011 at 7:31pm
  
  This does look neat, Laurence! Thanks for the tip!
Co-Chair

Lucy Gray April 27, 2011 at 11:25am

Here are PDFs of my workshop materials today.
MNGoingGlobal.pdf

MinnesotaGlobalnovideo.pdf
Kim Sivick April 27, 2011 at 11:14am

Hi Lucy, I have no project to pitch but would like to share a successful project - harnessing the power of social media to create authentic global learning experiences for children. I am a technology coordinator and this is the second year that my 4th grade students are blogging about countries/cultures. Last year my students (these are 10 year olds) received comments from people in over 25 countries. This year we are just getting started and we have had hits from many different countries. I tweet out the link in front of the students and they watch the cluster map light up across the world. While the blog itself is developmentally on grade level, the magic begins when the kids realize they have a voice that can be heard around the world. They race to the map to discover locations of countries, most that they have already learned about but now, for the first time, the geography is relevant and exciting. When they get a brief comment from someone in another country or across the U.S. they are filled with joy that people are reading their words, answering their questions.

As a technology Coordinator my goal is to expand this project to include Skype sessions and most importantly to provide some type of personal global communication for each student before they finish elementary school.

Here is the link to this year's webpage/blog: 4th Grade country Studies 2011

I hope to be available during your session. My Skype username is ksivick. Thanks for all you do to foster global collaborations in education!

Kim Sivick
- Co-Chair
  
  Lucy Gray > Kim Sivick April 27, 2011 at 7:28pm
  
  Thanks, Kim, for talking to us today! It made the workshop... the participants loved your comments! See you in Philly!
  - Kim Sivick > Lucy Gray April 27, 2011 at 7:32pm
    
    My pleasure, thanks for the opportunity to share. BTW, loved your talk at TEDxNYed. Inspiring.
- Co-Chair
  
  Lucy Gray > Kim Sivick April 27, 2011 at 11:26am
  
  Great, Kim! This is a great example of how to get started. Thanks for sharing and I will definitely point this out during the workshop this afternoon.
Richard A. Spiegel April 27, 2011 at 10:32am

Lucy,

Wish you well with your session today. Hope to get to say hello, but would like to share with your participants the information below:

Ten Penny Players is sharing online our archive of more than 30 years of NYC student (k-12) publications. Hundreds of selections from the student chapbook series, In Search of a Song, along with other publications can be viewed at our website http://www.tenpennyplayers.org

Richard
- Co-Chair
  
  Lucy Gray > Richard A. Spiegel April 27, 2011 at 7:29pm
  
  Thanks, Richard... I think you tried to ping us today and we were in the middle of talking to Kim. I should have pinged you back, but we stretched for time. I need to think of a better informal way for bring in virtual people to workshops! I did pass on your program info btw.

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