Managing "A Week in the Life..." FlatClassrom Elementary Project

In the fall of 2010 I chose to participate in the pilot of the first FlatClassroom elementary project with Rosie's 4th grade class. I have met the project originators Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis at conferences and I have followed their growing commitment to global collaboration at various grade levels. Last spring I took the FlatClassroom Certified Teacher course and this fall I responded to the request that some of us manage the second round of the "A Week in the Life..." global elementary project.

Managing the project meant sharing the role with a teacher in Iowa who I had only met online and working closely with Julie to coordinate the collaboration of several hundred students from twenty-two schools. I learned to plan and moderate weekly online meetings on Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate), help students from different schools greet each other in Edmodo, manage the project wiki and help all the classes develop group slideshows in Voicethread. This unique opportunity gave me an opportunity to work closely with teachers in several schools and countries. The skills I learned will be useful in any projects that I am able to pursue with other teachers in the future.