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!

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

I'm in a tiny school in southern England - have a whole ks2 class (ages 7-11) and would definately like to do more international collaboration. New to wikis, voicethread and no idea what a yackpack is but very keen to learn (and play)

[Mijana]

Hi there, I am new to this site and very interested in working on collaborative K-2 projects. I have classes in each of these grade levels who would like to collaborate on projects and join already established projects.

[Suzie Schmidt]

Hi Peter,
I am a K teacher in St. Louis. At the present time we are working on a project entitled Making Connections with the Earth. It is a study of rocks, sand and soil with connections being made to plants, food and nutrition. This fits in with a school wide theme of sustainability. I will post some notes on topics we are covering and perhaps you can see something that might fit into what you are looking for in terms of collaboration.

We recently came across information about Inuksuks and they have been a hot topic the last few weeks. We have been building our own in the classroom (thanks to a generous donation of stone and rock by a local material supplier) and writing stories about what our Inuksuk is communicating. I noted the Inuksuk is the official symbol of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Toronto. And would be interested to know if there was any local information you might share? I've added some pictures of the kids picking out stones for the Inuksuk building and a few under-construction shots.

We have been collecting sand from various areas, rivers, beaches and are looking closely at and documenting the differences we notice. Some connections are being made with sand and the production of glass and we are thinking about which directions to move this discovery.

Fossils are a hot topic, as well.

Let's keep talking.
Suzie

[Maria]

Hi suzie

This is Maria kn NH. I am very interested in your project. We are studying about the arctic environments. We will be looking at Inuksuks as well.

Keep in touch
maria

[Suzie Schmidt]

Maria,
I'd love to talk to you more about our project. The children are currently writing a book about their inuksuks. This would be a great motivator to get myself organized and more technology oriented. I know the kids would love to share their book with you guys.

I used this clip on inuksuks and the kids found it fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQ97rOwBH0

Let's keep talking. Suzie

[Maria]

Perhaps you and others would like to contribute to our Counting to 100 wiki. We are building a counting book as well as sharing ways that classroom celebrate the 100th day of school. Check it out and join. Spread the word. Multiple contributions are welcome.

http://100thday.wetpaint.com/

Maria Knee
Deerfield NH

[Suzie Schmidt]

You can count on us! We will add to your book on Tuesday!!

Suzie

[Mrs. Archer]

I checked out you 100th Day wiki - very cool. I am going to pass this along to the K and 1 educators at my school. It's fabulous!

[Maria Leftwich]

Hello All!!!
I am a Technology Coordinator in East Meadow School District, NY. We are always looking for collaborations! Our SKYPE address is parkway.elementaryschool. Please email me with any ideas, my teachers are enthusiastic!! My email is [e-mail]

[Becky]

I would love to have my students participate with other classrooms around the world. Please count my small school in!

If you are not already aware....Sharon Tonner runs a great little community with once a month activities for early elementary students called Voices Around the World.

I would recommend using different applications throughout the year. I do like VoiceThread and think we should definitely use it. Mixbook is also a great resource that students can use to build a global book together. For example, we could start one about the communities that we live in by taking or drawing pictures. Animoto might be something else we could use as well as Pixton. Then there are sites like picaboo and Smilebox.

I would like to see us use something besides Flickr to post pics to. I have heard of Flickr being blocked in several American school districts and it is in our district. What about using the space here within our Ning community or what about creating something for our group with Picasa?