Under Eleven?

[Falconswiki]

At the Falcons School for Girls we are really excited about Web 2.0...if a little scared! Are any members on here involved in teaching under elevens (do you call it Junior Grades in the U.S.?)? It would be great to hear fromanyone who has run any 'flat' projects with younger pupils.

[Mrs. Cerminara]

Heather,
I would love to collaborate with you. I'm a computer teacher in Tokyo. I have a couple of ideas to start the project off. I am in the states now until August 17. E-mail me at [e-mail] and maybe we can talk about a few ideas.

[Marvin Lee]

Hi Heather,
I teach groups of gifted students in Oklahoma City....grades 2-5. We would love to try some collaborative projects this year. We are experienced at Skype and Voicethread. Let me know if there is interest.
Marvin Lee

[mrkp]

Hi, I'm looking to join up with other classes around the world to engage in a simple science project for 10 /11 yr olds. The idea is that children all conduct the same experiment around the world and post their results to a shared wiki. I think that there could be some great benefits to this in terms of the childrens learning and as long as people agreed to work in the same week the the time difference isn't an issue.

I've set up a wiki to see what people think www.ks2experiments.wikispaces.com

I'd love to get as many people involved as possible!

Cheers Steve

[sharleen berg]

Steve,
I'd be interested in meeting with those in our school who teach grades 4-5 to see if they are willing to try this type of collaboration. I think this is a good idea. Our classes do not begin until the 1st week of Sept. so I cannot commit until after that.

[Jackie Gerstein]

Here is what I am creating for my students. Let me know if you are interested.

I have begun developing my program for my students' return in two weeks. My project is Creative Web Tools For and By Kids inspired by the Flat Classroom Project. I am looking for other 3rd through 5th grade classrooms who want to trail blaze with me. Here are the details:

Creative Web Tools For and By Kids is a project designed for students, ages 8 to 12, to use emerging technologies for engaging, thinking, learning, collaborating, creating, and innovating. The focus is on the use of free, open-source, or minimal cost tools, so the project can be replicated. An underlying goal is to demonstrate how advanced technological applications for enhancing learning can be implemented with only a computer and Internet access.

Please let me know if you would like to collaborate, have suggestions, etc.

FYI - I am creating a companion website - Wee Web Wonders is an interactive site to showcase educational and creative uses of the major web tools used in the Creative Web Tools For and By Kids program. I put in some initial pages but plan to have the students add additional pages.

[Nancy vonWahlde]

Hello! I am an ed-tech specialist at the American School of Madrid in Spain. I work mainly with teachers in their classrooms and the lab to integrate tech- but I am more interested in focusing on moving our curriculum forward using the most engaging tools available.

My direct connection with students will be an after-school group of grade 3-5 students (age 9-12) that will meet for an hour 2 days a week (minimum). I am still focusing in on the idea but it is in line with what Jackie and Jane described and what I saw on Cheryl's Global Explorer's project. So glad to find potential collaborators!
-Nancy vonWahlde [e-mail]

[Nancy vonWahlde]

To add to my first message above, my after-school group will start the beginning of October.

I will also collect interested teachers and would love to facilitate pairing a class with one of yours. My most interested teachers will most likely be in grades 2, 4 and 5 but we have new teachers at the K, 1, 3, 5 levels coming in. Our school starts September 2 so we may not to be able to start up with student interaction until late September.
-Nancy

[Cheryl Lykowski]

Nancy,
I teach 5th grade and if you have someone interested in joining Global Explorers please email me at: [e-mail]

Look forward to hearing from you and adding Spain to our collaboration.
Cheryl

[Lisa Parisi]

I co-teach in a fifth grade class (10 year olds). My co-teacher and I have participated in many flat projects. We created a science wiki with a teacher in New Zealand (http://comparinghemispheres.wikispaces.com/), and a writing project in which 14 teachers participated (http://classroombooktalk.wikispaces.com/Mysteries+of+Harris+Burdick). We also have participated in a few Jenuinetechprojects 9http://www.jenuinetech.com/newsletter.html). Mostly, we just open our walls anytime someone knocks. So we skype in experts for the students, connect with other teachers on learning languages, creating songs, solving math problems...anything and everything. Leave yourself open to possibilities. There are many people out there interested in both big and small projects. Start small. Join projects. Have fun.

[sharleen berg]

Thanks Lisa for sharing your projects. I spent much time exploring both spaces and you offered much inspiration for the start of a new school year. Your examples make starting a project like this seem within reach.

[Jackie Gerstein]

Due to this Ning, a small collaboration for Creative Web Tools For and By Kids for 8 to 12 year olds has begun. It is driven by the spirit of the Flat Classroom project. We are using a PBWiki as our workstation - as the forum for educational networking (thanks Vicki - I like this term.).

Some links that may be of interest are http://weewebwonders.pbwiki.com/; http://weewebwonders.pbwiki.com/About+This+Project:+For+Teachers; http://weewebwonders.pbwiki.com/About-the-Participating-Schools; http://weewebwonders.pbwiki.com/About-Cooking-Project

Teaching younger students about all of this technology presents challenges, but learning from them and continually adapting the wiki to address their needs (as well as those of the participating teachers) is just part of the process. I love process and believe schools focus way too much on the product.

[Vicki Davis]

OK everyone -- what is going on with this group and how can we help? Do you need an elluminate room to plan? Who are the "leaders" -- do you have an advisory group formed? Just trying to peruse this as we'd love to help incubate this project and help it move forward. Some great ideas here and maybe enough for 2-3 projects.