"Will it be on the web page?"

As we finish the last week before vacation many classes are having performances of learning. Now that we have most every class posting to a blog or web page we are starting to hear, "Will it be on the web page?". To me this is exciting, and an indicator of how much our families expect to be able to view student work outside of school. This week teachers recorded progress toward a presentation using stills and combining them into a slideshow, used a Flipcam to record their Poetry Troupe
and posted a series of plays about learning Geology on Mrs Gautreau's Grade 3 Movie Links.

Rethinking the "Country" unit

Earlier I blogged about the excitement in the room when I introduced Google Earth to a class of 3rd graders. The next step is to find ways to connect our students to real images, stories and experiences of students their age in other countries. As they learn about different languages, currencies, time zones and land forms, we want our kids to get a feel for another culture. Last night over 100 international educators viewed Kim Cofino's K12online presentation posted below in the "Fireside Chat" format and she has created a fabulous wiki of resources I will be exploring with the third grade team of teachers. I have created a group on the K12online ning and would love to have others join it so we can share ideas about bringing country study into new realms of global collaboration.