Request for classroom collaborations during the 2009/10 school year:

[Nerine Chalmers]

I am writing from Qatar Academy Primary School, Doha, Qatar in order to invite classrooms from around the world to join with our Grade 4 classes in a long term, but fairly low key collaboration. We are a PYP school, and our Grade 4s are 9 – 10 year olds. There are approximately 22 students in each class. What we have in mind is that each of our 5 Grade 4 classrooms will link up with a different classroom, preferably in different continents. We would be asking the students in the partner class to communicate with our students in a variety of ways – possibilities would be by email, voice thread, Skype, a discussion page on a wiki – among others. We would be anticipating some contact every month or six weeks through the school year. Examples of the activities we have in mind are sharing ideas on some pieces of work, survey responses, sharing of relevant photographs of their local area, culminating in participating in a collaborative writing project in April/May 2010.
The school website can be found at http://www.qataracademy.edu.qa/
You can also have a look at the Grade 4 wiki space at http://grade4.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/

[Andrea Blanco]

Hi Nerine,
I have a fourth grade teacher from the St. Louis, Missouri area interested in doing this project. They students (age 9-10) would be super excited to collaborate across the globe and participate in activities.

[Nerine Chalmers]

Thanks, Andrea - I'll contact you again when school opens at the end of September. Good to hear from you.

[Ruth Aichenbaum]

Hi,
It looks like you're probably getting more responses to your request than you need, but I thought I'd also throw my name into the hat. :0) I'm a fifth grade language arts teacher at a Quaker School in Philadelphia. I teach writing to three classes of 15 students each. Each of my students writes in various genres over the year including a play, poetry, and editorials, and we share our writing on a wiki. This year I'm hoping to have students publish their poetry using voice thread and Photo Story 3. We have a large playwrights' festival during the first week of May where we produce three of the fifth graders plays for the whole Lower School, with the students as the actors, directors, set and costume designers, and publicists. Anyway, this gives you a bit of a feel for my classroom and perhaps for ways we could collaborate. You're welcome to take a look at our fifth grade wiki: http://readdiscovernewworlds.pbworks.com/
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Ruth Aichenbaum

[Nerine Chalmers]

Hi Ruth
This sounds a great opportunity - thanks for being in touch. Once I meet with the Grade 5 teachers at the end of September, I'll get back to you. The students at our school represent many different nationalities, and the majority are Muslim. This is the reason for our starting the year so late - we will only open after Ramadan.

[Jen]

I would LOVE to participate! I teach 4th grade at an all boys school in Richmond, VA. When you find out more when school starts back up, please keep me in mind. THANKS!

[Nerine Chalmers]

Hi Jen
Thanks very much for your response - I will certainly keep you in the loop!

[Cathy Wolinsky]

This is turning into a great collection of classes for possible collaboration. I work with 2nd, 3rd & 4th grade classes in Yarmouth, ME and we hope to write for a broader audience this year. We also study countries of the world in 3rd grade so I would love to have a class that we could interact with in a new way this year. I don't have the class blogs setup yet for this year, but our school site is http://yes.yarmouth.k12.me.us and there may still be some student work posted under teacher pages on the school home page.

[Nerine Chalmers]

Hi Cathy
Thanks for your response. I will certainly speak to teachers in the grades you work with and see what we can set up - I am sure there will be some exciting possibilities.

[Robert M. Esty]

Hi Nerine,

I'm Bob Esty of the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland. I teach 6th graders, and I was wondering if there might be some 6th grade classes in your school that would be interested in a collaborative project with us. My classes are Humanities classes, which means that they are a combination of English and history classes. We're relatively new to Web 2.0, so communication would be by email and possibly a discussion page on a wiki. I look forward to hearing from you.

Bob

[Nerine Chalmers]

Hi Bob

When school begins, I will speak to the Grade 6 teachers - it is very likely that we will be able to set up a link. Thanks for the contact.

[Robert M. Esty]

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you. Bob

[Leslee Kruse]

Hi, i am a fourth grade teacher in Colorado Springs, CO. I would be very interested in having my students involved in this project. I should have about 25, 9 &10 year olds starting on August 18th. My email is [e-mail] please feel free to contact me!
Sincerely,
Leslee Kruse
Freedom Elementary School