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I am looking to get my students involved in using Skype to connect with other schools and people in the United States and around the world. In the process of searching for different programs I came across this article about an Australian school that connected with students at a Ugandan refugee camp. "Here & There is aimed at raising awareness around issues facing refugees among Australian schoolchildren, their parents and the wider population. It is purpose-designed to dovetail with the Australian geography curriculum, ensuring participating children attain maximum educational benefit while undertaking this life-changing opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences with children who have very different lives." I would love to get my students involved in something like this so that they can get a deeper understanding of another culture and make connections. I would be interested to hear if anyone has any experince with something like this and could offer suggestions. Thanks!

Hi Chis, I would love to work on this with you - with the iPads you have it should be easy to do.. Let me know when you are planning on doing it.. ~Meg

Here is an article from the IRA with great mentor text suggestions for Writer's Workshop.

I love this topic. I have always believed that using picture books beyond elementary school is a great idea. Mitali Perkins will be our visiting author this May. Her latest book Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices might be another useful resource for teachers interested in working with short texts. I believe she only edited the stories that were picked. I have not read it yet, but I just copied and pasted the information from Mitali's website for you to look over. The public library will be ordering mulitple copies and the middle school will hopefully do the same. Though we lack a funding source, it might be a consideration for some type of all school (middle school) read. "Listen in as ten YA authors-some familiar, some new-use their own brand of humor to share their stories about growing up between cultures. Edited by Mitali Perkins, this collection of fiction and nonfiction embraces a mix of stayles as diverse as their authors, from laugh-out-loud funny to wry, ironic, or poignant, in prose, poetry, and comic form. With contributions by Cherry Cheva, Varian Johnson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mitali Perkins, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Debby Rigaud, Francisco X. Stork, Gene Luen Yang, and David Yoo."

I'm glad that I'm not the only one looking for quality mentor texts, and am also glad that others found the information from the IRA helpful. Thank you for adding information of your own. It's all so informative. There are some great resources out there!

eSchoolNews is a monthly publication that comes to me via email (I'm sure many of you receive it) that is chock full of articles about technology in education. September's issue covered many topics but one in particular stood out to me, Does Research Support Flipped Learning?, intrigued me because the sub title suggests that it might work and improve student learning. A few key points include "Students are actively involved in their own learning.." and in many cases this method "..maximizes time with the instructor and increases the focus on higher-order thinking skills." WOW! Those are two of my favorite skills for students to master. The article also points out four essential elements of a flipped classroom - cleverly calling them the "four pillars of F-L-I-P" (Flexible Environment, Learning Culture, Intentional Content, Professional Educators.) A short article that does a good job of highlights the trend of a flipped classroom.

I flipped my intro to library. I really loved the format of Monday night's class and immediately flipped my intro to library to Advisory Research Challenge: Locating and Evaluating Information. Six research challenges, one that everyone had to do and the rest in pairs. The focus was on RMHS and RPL resources for RMHS students, which are many and varied and very sophisticated. Total fun. Time flew. Kids had to dive in, do the research and then present. It was so apparent to discern what needed to be clarified and/or emphasized. Thanks G-Dawg1

The "Motherlode" blog in the NY Times always fascinates me and the youth sport culture in suburban communities intrigues me as well. Full disclosure-both of my children have played youth sports! I am so glad that I am not a kid today-between seeing every party and gathering that I am not invited to online to the competitive sports programs that are such a part of our community's culture-I am glad that my childhood was different.

Is it wrong if I agree with all of the points in this article? If you substituted orchestra or chorus or theater for sports in this would this still be an issue?

The NYTimes' new feature, the Text to Text series, matches Times content with excerpts from often-taught literary, cultural, historical or scientific material. Their goal is, "to show students how relevant what they study in school can be to the real world." The series is an excellent resource for teachers who are trying to add more nonfiction texts to their classroom and also has links to graphic organizers for comparing texts, close reading and analyzing primary sources. From what I've seen so far, the topics are a little advanced for sixth graders and are probably better suited for high school students. That being said, the Times is encouraging teachers to submit ideas for new editions!

Written by Mr. Walter Dean Myers for the New York Times, this might be worth sharing with students in preparation for Mitali Perkins' author visit in May. This is a subject that she cares deeply about, and I'm sure it will be a focus for her when she speaks to our students

This article explains how advancements in technology have enhanced the humanities. The digitization of texts combined with statistical analysis software has enabled literary scholars to analyze literature in a whole new way. The unprecedented techniques mix algorithms and written expressions to detect the frequency of word usage, nuances in the structure of sentences, and common thematic elements in and among texts. The digital analysis of literature provides a new type of lens for scholars to examine works to learn more about the cultural contexts in which the pieces were written.

I frequently find myself "defending" the impact of the Internet and technology on students' desire and ability to read and write. To me, it seems that the Internet has increased the amount of reading students do now, especially outside of school. Sure formats have changed but mostly in the direction of concision, something English teachers have been championing forever. Gone are the gatekeepers around who gets to publish (i.e., be heard, gain international attention for a cause, etc.) Never mind the access to ivy league courses...

This is a commentary on American culture in general, but educators should take it to heart.