Tasha Cowdy from the Yokohama International School shares some final comments based on her experience with Very young students and global collaboration while she was doing the Flat Classroom Certified Teacher course last semester.
Created by Julie, Jason and Tasha as their 'quad-blogging' assignment for the Flat Classroom Certified Teacher course 12-1
Excellent resources and comments!
Julie Balen's blog - One of our new Flat Classroom Certified Teacher graduates from the 12-1 cohort. A thoughtful and committed educator who now flattens the classroom wherever she can!
Flat Classroom Certified teacher, Aaron Maurer, has designed an implemented this global project that shares the excitement of the Bald Eagle life cycle with friends around the world.
Great reflection blog post from Sunny, a teacher in Australia who ventured to the Flat Classroom Conference in Japan!
Full of ideas I've headed home - collected my thoughts and hope to put some of the plans we made as teams into action - because flattening our world - connected across the globe to share experience, help each other and learn together is what education should be about.
Final presentations and more about the conference can be accessed at http://conference2013.flatclassroomproject.org/home
Honor Morman, a Flat Classroom Certified Teacher, shares her thoughts about introducing global collaboration into the curriculum.
"Here's what two of my students said about our participation in the Flat Classroom Project, a 12-week project in which we collaborated with 15 other classes in seven different countries to create a vision for the future of education and society based on emerging technologies and the characteristics of the net generation:
"[I learned] how important it is to be a member of a global society-communicating globally and working together as a global community is the only way we can solve global issues and improve the lives of all of us. Communicating and collaborating via the web with global partners is how we will do it in future." -Lara
"[Participating in this project helped me become] a global leader, able to communicate important global ideas and different perspectives across cultures and borders and share those ideas for the betterment of my community and the world." -Katherine"
Created by Theresa Allen, Flat Classroom Certified teacher and Project Manager for Digiteen project for the ISTE 2013 Spotlight presentation - 'Do you co-create at the Elementary Level? Flat Classrooms Do!'
"Thank you to all the amazing students and teachers who participated. If you are interested in Flat Classroom Projects, go to http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/about.html."
This is what makes Flat Classroom so special and unique - A Project Manager who takes the time to blog about the project and suggest improvements.
As Vicki and Julie state, "Once you go Flat, you never go back!" My passion for global education has only gotten stronger through the participation of this project.
All of these students that I had the opportunity to work with through both teams that we operated have done nothing but remind why I love my job! Kids are amazing! Simply put. When they shine and show their talents and you know that it is all them that have done the work, then as a teacher/leader you know you have done your job. I simply sat back and watched them blow my mind. It is amazing what kids can do when you place them in a situation where there is no ceiling but the ones they place on themselves. When they remove that ceiling WATCH OUT! because it is a spectacle to behold.
Aaron Maurer, middle school teacher with student teams participating in Eracism 12-2, shares his thoughts about the final debate where one student team debated in the HS round.
The AAS students are doing an excellent job (many of them) leaving comments on their edits, this is something that all Flat Classroom teachers should work towards. My compliments.
If you look at this editing tab, you can see that GrantG did a great job in his comments of documenting what he did. If we can get more students documenting their work as they edit, it makes the process of collaborative writing more powerful and faster as well as the ability to see what happened where.
""I wrote an introductory paragraph for our section. I asked my teacher and she said that because our topic has to do with current news, we can organize it in a way that includes introduction and conclusion paragraphs with a more list-like format in the middle. This is the reason I added a section for examples. Feel free to add relevant current news information as you find it!""
"MARK YOUR CALENDARS for May 2, 2013!!
Megaconference Jr., now in its 10th year, is an international program designed to give students in elementary through secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and contribute to each other's learning in real time, using advanced multi-point video conferencing technology.
Megaconference Jr. addresses local and national curriculum standards in multiple subject areas. It will also help students and teachers develop the capacity to effectively utilize high-speed networks, videoconferencing and other emerging technologies to enhance learning experiences."
Excellent video create by Maureen Tumenas as part of the 'Flat Classroom Project for Teachers'. Historical overview of wearable technology and a review of real world scenarios for use.