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Also see: http://www.relayforlife.org/learn/relayforeveryone/studentrelays/relay-recess "How can your students become superheroes in the fight against cancer? Relay Recess brings Relay For Life to elementary schools nationwide. It provides students, teachers, and administrators the opportunity to become heroes in their own communities. It also brings cancer education and community service to the classroom in a fun and exciting way. It also engages elementary school students in the fight against cancer through fundraising activities that support cancer programs and services in every community. It gives students the chance to get out of the classroom and have fun with entertainment and activities that reinforce what they have learned. Because the program is so flexible, it's different at every school and is an excellent opportunity to showcase unique qualities about your school and your community."

Sending this to the Collaboration Coaches in case your school is looking for an outreach that your students can help organize and get involved in...

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, schools, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. This project gives an authentic reason to learn how to record data using graphs and charts, research, and writing. All of this can be done using technology. Since areas all around North America are involved, it ties into the global community. Teachers within a school or district could work together to promote collaboration. The biggest pitfall would be finding a location that would be appropriate to place the feeder.

"Zeros are seldom an accurate description of a student's achievement and skew average grades dramatically. Instead of prompting greater effort, zeros and the low grades they yield more often cause students to withdraw from learning. One alternative to zeros is to assign an "I" or "Incomplete" grade with explicit requirements for completing the work." .... "If the grade is to represent how well students have learned, mastered established learning standars, or achieved specified learning goals, then the practice of assigning zeros clearly misses the mark." **"Teachers must consider what message they want to communicate through grading, who the primary audience for the message is, and what the intended goal of the communication is." ...

Guideline 1:! Relate grades to the achievement of the district's course/grade level standards. Guideline 2:! Use agreed-on performance standards as the reference points when determining grades. Guideline 3:! Separate achievement from all other dispositions and behaviors. Guideline 4:! Sample student performance. ! Don't score everything & don't include all scores in grades. Guideline 5:! Grade in pencil and maintain records so they can be easily updated. Guideline 6:! To determine grades at the end of the grading period, use professional judgment when considering the body of evidence. Grading must involve more than just crunching numbers. Guideline 7:! Use quality assessments and properly record evidence of achievement. Guideline 8:! Involve students in the assessment and grading processes throughout the learning cycle. No zeros for missing or incomplete work At Middle school: "Student work in the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion will be recorded as Missing (M) in the grade book if a student does not turn in an assignment. Middle school students will have until the end of the quarter to complete these practice activities or the Missing (M) will remain. The Missing (M) will factor into the overall average as a zero. However, leaving the Missing (M) in the grade book will communicate that the work has not been turned in. And, because the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion of the grade book is weighted just 20% of the overall grade, the Missing (M) for the practice work will not have significant impact on the student's grade." At High School: "A score of zero will not be entered in the grade book. Instead, M or I will be entered to indicate that work is not yet complete. In grades 9-12, students will have five days beyond the assignment due date to complete Lesson Practice and Progress Checks, unless there are extenuating circumstances. An M (Missing) will be entered in the grade book until the work is turned in or until the end of the nine-w

Classroom Challenge -- (PS If the entire school signs up and does it, then they might get prizes) -- The tutorials for learning how to do computer coding are also awesome math and critical thinking lessons! "Even if you aren't a student, you can take the Hour of Code yourself during Dec. 9-15. And you can help us recruit others to join the movement - at school, in your workplace, in the community. If you are an educator, host the Hour of Code as an activity in your classroom. If you're an organizer or employer, host an Hour of Code event as a team-building exercise, after-school activity in a club, or elsewhere in your community. Click the appropriate tab, and start planning your Hour of Code!"

As we become an older country, our greatest stories are sometimes lost when members of the generation before us dies. This four week unit is designed to encourage students to discover the hidden stories of their families and community. During the course of this project, students will interview members of their community and/or family members and develop a newsletter that provides background of the time period of the story and the person telling the story. Additional stories will be shared with the students by downloading clips from the stories that have been shared with members of Story Corps(www.nationaldayoflistening.org), one of the largest oral history projects in the world.

Discusses having to redefine "literacy" since Internet has changed what that means... and students need to learn new literacy because that's the reality of this day and age... It's the reality of preparing them for college and career (year 13). Furthermore, it's built into the standards.

Building 21st Century Schools with collaboration coaching...

Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content driven collaboration. We engage teachers and K-12 students in meaningful project learning exchanges worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding. We prepare youth for full participation as productive and effective citizens in an increasing global economy.

Global SchoolNet partners with schools, communities, and businesses to provide collaborative learning activities that prepare students for the workforce and help them become literate and responsible global citizens. The Project Registry has more than 800 online projects providing teachers a chance to collaborate and share learning experiences. The most recent partner programs include "Mosaics of Life" (a global art project culminating in the creation of eight collaborative glass tile murals made up of original art and expressing understanding, concerns, and insights in themes that affect and shape lives both locally and globally) and the U.S. State Department-sponsored "Doors to Diplomacy Competition" (an educational challenge for middle and high school students about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy, with prizes including scholarships, cash, and a trip to Washington, D.C.).

This is a wiki with a very active group of teachers, from all over the world and all age groups, who like to communicate and collaborate by Skype. Request to join the wiki, then they'll add you as a contact on Skype. If you log on to Skype from time to time you can follow the conversation to see what types of projects people are doing and which you'd like to join, or you can put out a request for collaborators on your own. 

A website, where teachers can submit a project for funding, including classroom supplies, and community members can donate toward the cause.

I am very excited to try this guy out. Thank you!

Love this idea! It motivates me to make a wish list rather than just paying for it on my own.

This is an easy way to collaborate and connect to the community and beyond!!

I think this is such a great idea! I would love to do this at our school next year!

I'm all over this!

"Clear communication with students and their parents is one of the primary goals of every teacher. Start this year with just that by using a variety of tools to share your plans and expectations for the coming academic year."

There is a free downloadable Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators which is a K-12 guide for educators. "Design Thinking for Educators is… A creative process that helps you design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community. The toolkit provides you with instructions to explore Design Thinking."

The students then created a digital book that included their memoir as well as their personal philosophy that they wrote in World History. Ultimately, the project culminated in an exhibition where the students presented their digital books to an audience of family, friends, peers and community members. Each student individually presented his or her book and read an excerpt of the memoir. For many students it was the first time they had such "high stakes" in a project and they simultaneously had to work on elements of public speaking along with the project development.

"The mission of ePALS Classroom Exchange is to offer safe, innovative ways for learners to make contact with other cultures. They currently connect over 4.5 million users from 191 countries, speaking 136 languages, by providing built-in Webmail language translation and safety features such as monitored e-mail and profanity filters. All of the tools and resources on the site are free to anyone with a computer, anywhere in the world. The site also offers collaborative projects that students can join, as well as tools for creating projects and contacting students in remote locations."

ePals is the social network optimized for K-12 learning. Over half a million classrooms in 200 countries and territories have joined the ePals Global Community to connect, collaborate and exchange ideas. ePals now translates in 35 languages! The benefits of the site are that the students can connect with other students and classrooms around the globe. You connect with them by the projects that you are working on in the classroom. This gives the common ground to talk about back and forth. The possible pitfalls are if you get a classroom that is not as involved as yours. It could be a let down and you may have to find another classroom that you could connect with.

This site is free and connects you with other educators seeking to connect classrooms for global projects. It has great safety features and has a variety of projects for all content areas and grade levels. You can form e-mail pen pal connections with classrooms around the world. Very cool!

Love the global collaborations with learning. The authentic audience really helps with purpose for learning it, and increases the quality and intrinsic motivation of learning. There are several Common Core projects to join.