Preparing for the new school year

[Leigh Newton]

I was part of the Flat Classrooms Elluminate seminar on the web on Wednesday (of 63 people), where Julie and Vicky gave a great presentation on international classroom collaboration. I'm interested in participating in something for our two Grade 5 classes here - total around 30 students. We are in a PYP school (within the IB) so there is an emphasis on inquiry based learning. Our international school is in Baku, Azerbaijan.

I'm hoping that there are folk who might wish to have a conversation about what might be possible with primary classes using wikis, blogs, Elluminate, Skype, Ning etc. I don't know where it might lead but lets share in the journey.

[Leigh Newton]

Thanks Katie. Lets see what becomes of it all. I return to school on August 14th.

[Katie Neville]

Hey Leigh,

Don't know if we'd fit the bill, but one of my schools has two grade 5 classes. (Probably about 50 students) We're located in Hamilton, VA about 40 miles west of Washington, DC. Skype is out for us as it is presently blocked by our filtering system. Elluminate, WiZiq, wikis, blogs, email are all possibilities for us.

[Leigh Newton]

Dear Julie, thanks for the reply. I think I detected an Aussie accent there. :-) I'm from Adelaide. I've been in Baku just this last year but also had a maternity leave position in Istanbul when bridging the southern and northern hemisphere school years in 2007.
I'll start a PYP group, but assume that it will take a while to build a membership and momentum. I am impressed with inquiry based education. Our 10-11 year olds this year have been developing some impressive personal management skills.

Message to Flat Classroom members: would you consider signing up and consider notifying PYP teachers of the new group. Thanks.

[Julie Lindsay]

Hi Leigh
great to hear from you and for you to now use this Flat Classrooms Ning to start making links with other educators. This is where we can start to really make a difference. Maybe you should start a Primary school group on this Ning, or even a PYP group? Please hop in and we will support what the needs are of the members.
How long have you been in Baku? We just cam from 4 years in Bangladesh, with our CEO John Sperandio having come from Baku.