Looking for Partnerships

[Peter Dawson]

Hello all,

I'm very gung-ho on trying to establish some working projects with like-minded primary teachers around the world, and esp. Kindergarten teachers. If you're interested, post something here so we can flesh out some ideas.

Love to hear from you!

[Jared]

I'm actively looking for teachers to collaborate with you on other social networks. I'll let you know as soon as i find a good match!

Jared

[Peter Dawson]

Thanks a bunch Jared!! I appreciate it.

[Lucy Gray]

Hi Peter -

I'm moving to a PreK-5 building (ages 4- 10) in the fall, and I bet I can get some of the teachers to participate. Also, there's a teacher in this Ning, Elaine Wrenn, who used to do a project called Communities Around the World. I think there was a theme each month like playgrounds and kids compared their playgrounds around the world. I wonder if we could do something simple like that... and post pictures to a Flickr group for discussion purposes. Maybe teachers then could record the discussions and we could post them online somewhere for other classes to listen to. Maybe we could use VoiceThread?

Any other ideas?

Lucy Gray

[Peter Dawson]

Hi Lucy,

I'm liking the sounds of this - may be some great possibilities. Excuse my ignorance but what is VoiceThread? Let me know if anyone is interested.

[Lisa Stevens]

Hi

I'm a Spanish teacher 2 days a week at a primary school near Birmingham, England - the details above look interesting and it might be something we could do.I don't have my own class - I teach everyone else's class Spanish and other things while the teachers have planning time, but I am going to run an afterschool club about links / blogging / podcasting etc so the above looks like fun!

Lisa xx

[Becky]

VoiceThread is a digital storytelling resource. It is very easy to use. Upload a picture and record comments.

Example: Our students (grade 1) did a writing project about the funniest thing that ever happen to them. My Funniest Moment

Voice Thread in the Classroom: A PDF document

Voice Thread Education Wiki This wiki contains examples of how VoiceThread has been integrated into various grade levels.

Hope this helps.

[Peter Dawson]

Hi Lucy,

The new school year is fast approaching here in Canada and I'm just re-reading some of the posts over the summer. Are you still interested in hooking up to do something this fall? I think I'll need a few weeks of breathing space because, like you, I'm moving to a new building and I'm also taking on an admin. role along with teaching half time. I've looked into Voicethread a bit but haven't had a chance to check whether or not it will work on the system that our Board has adopted - there are quite a few blocks, etc.

Let me know if you still want to go ahead and in the meantime I'll check out things at my end.

Pete

[Mrs. Archer]

I'd love to participate in something like this. i've found Yackpack to be a very easy tool for something lke this as well.

[Becky]

I like using ePals and Skype. Have you used either of those applications?

[Mrs. Archer]

Hi! Our school is doing an exciting project called "World Willage" where we'll be connecting with students across the globe using Ning,wikis, Skype, Yackpack and others. Check out our wiki at http://worldvillage.wikispaces.com. I am also interested in other connections beyond this, perhaps even with students across the United States. I'm willing and open to ideas. I teach grade 2 in Maryland, USA.

[Becky]

Nice resource!

[Paul Harrington]

Hi Peter - this certainly sounds interesting - a European Project that we are involved in is called Play to Learn and is targeted at looking for similarities and difference s between the way children play both in school and at home - communication via blogs, skype and podcasting - but I think that using Voicethread could be really good for a project like this. I look forward to your thoughts .... we are in South Wales UK btw