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"The conversation about visible thinking in Math started with one of our teachers at Graded, The American School of São Paulo, Adam Hancock, wanting to know how he could incorporate having students' use their blogfolios in Math class. It seemed natural to have students write for Humanities (Language Arts and Social Studies), but writing did not seem part of what Middle School Math was about. How could "blogging" go beyond taking a digital image of a Math problem on paper or a quiz and writing about "how the student felt about solving the problem or passing the test?"or ask themselves what they could have done better? One of the first steps was to bring more "language" into the Math classroom. In a Skype call with Heidi Hayes Jacobs, she said that Math should be taught more like a foreign language."

"How do we learn vocabulary of a second, third or fourth language best? As a class, we discussed different methods including mnemonic devices and how they help us remember, organize and make connections in our brain. Some of us prefer: visual connections rhyming words acronyms a sentence in context humorous connections etc. In order to embed modern skills and literacies and connect to our school's Core Values and mission, students created Popplets. The tool (Popplet) allowed students to create a web based mind map. Each bubble/ "popplet"represented a vocabulary word related to medicine/illness/symptoms."

"As a former World Language teacher, I know of the importance of hearing the target language as much as possible. In order to internalize a new vocabulary word, you have to hear it at least 70+ times. By hearing I mean not only the sounds of the letters that make up the word, but also the context the word is embedded in… the melody of the sentence that embraces that word… the words that lead up to it and the words that follow it to make meaning and conclude the sentence."

"For me, iPad workflow has to do with fluency. It is: the fluid movement between apps the unconscious decision what app to use in order to accomplish any given task. The workflow is almost like Grammar in a language. Grammar helps you put components of a language in the proper order, grammar rules help you use the right tense, remix word to create new meaning, the correct vocabulary words attached in combination with pronouns and conjugation help you communicate exactly what you had intended."

"In a post, titled It's All About Sharing and Collaborating, I wrote about a Russian educator who had translated material from Langwitches into his language in order to SHARE the content with his colleagues who spoke no English. Alec Couros, told the Amazing Story of Openness and his diagram of the Networked Teacher as it has been translated into many languages now."

"These questions intrigued Ana Paula Cortez, one of our Portuguese teachers at Graded, the American School of São Paulo, and compelled her to explore them with her students. prep--Inspiration: 7billionothers.org--In 2003, after The Earth seen from the Sky, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, with Sybille d'Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire, launched the 7 billion Others project. 6,000 interviews were filmed in 84 countries by about twenty directors who went in search of the Others. From a Brazilian fisherman to a Chinese shopkeeper, from a German performer to an Afghan farmer, all answered the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals, hopes: What have you learnt from your parents? What do you want to pass on to your children? What difficult circumstances have you been through? What does love mean to you? Forty-five questions that help us to find out what separates and what unites us. These portraits of humanity today are accessible on this website. The heart of the project, which is to show everything that unites us, links us and differentiates us, is found in the films which include the topics discussed during these thousands of hours of interviews. Objective: Raise awareness of culture and interconnectedness of common themes/threads that connect humans no matter of their cultural origin. Take advantage of our multilingual students to share and connect speakers of different languages. Students: 7th & 8th grade Portuguese Language Learners Project Idea: Middle School students create a video (testimonies, journal type) responding to pre-set prompts from 7billionothers.org (love, happiness, work).Future extension idea: personalize the prompts by tweaking to address specific middle school topic…. friends, family, what do you want to be when you grow up….) Process: 1. Discuss video filming techniques.. observe the ones recorded on 7billionothers.org: Framing, Angle, Stability, Background"

"Students from Jacksonville, Florida/USA and Binyamina, Israel recently celebrated Jerusalem Day together. A true opportunity to share Language, Culture & History via Skype. A grandfather in Israel shared his memories of the Six Day War (1967) of liberating Jerusalem. The Rabbi from Florida explained what Jerusalem means to Jews outside of Israel. Students sang songs, played instruments and practiced English and Hebrew."

"I can die happy now :) I have seen learning in the 21st Century modern classroom! The learning just oozes through the cracks of the physical classroom walls. Learning is amplified by the amount of people who are collaborating, participating, communicating and creating. The learning is NOT about the technology tools, but what students can DO with them to learn in new ways. The learning is about an authentic tasks, that allows students to contribute in a individualized and personalized manner to make them realize that their work matters in the real world. It all started out with a conversation between Mike Fisher and me. He had written over 40 children poems and was in the process of wondering what to do with them? I was looking for an authentic task for 9-11 year old students. We felt we had a perfect match! How about getting the students Language Arts and Art teacher involved? The initial idea was to make a unit of poetry come alive, study Mike's poems and visualize the poems by creating illustrations."

" Sharing and Building Upon April 18, 2015 - Collaboration, Featured Carousel, Modern Learning - 2 comments How can I make it even MORE visible that sharing our work as educators is one of the critical components of the "learning revolution"? Sharing means amplification. Amplification means spreading good practices, reaching more people and connecting beyond our own limitations of zip codes and language barriers. I have written and tweeted over and over again about the need and benefits of sharing among educators for educations and learning."

"I have been enthralled watching the following TED Talk (Ideas worth Spreading) How to Listen to Global Voices by Ethan Zuckerman: Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don't even know."

"Ask yourself the following questions. Then ask these questions of your faculty and administration. * Is global awareness and education important to students who do not and most likely will never own a passport? * Should/is "Global Awareness" or "Global Competencies" (be) taught as a (required) separate course/subject? * Do you infuse culture BEYOND food, music, games, festivals, language or art? * Do teachers need to be globally connected in order to connect their students?"

"If a teacher is lucky enough to have a SmartBoard at their disposal, it is their responsibility to use it beyond a "glorified projector screen". It requires a shift in thinking from the teacher's part to see a SmartBoard not "only" as a teaching tool, but as a learning tool."

"We (Head of school,Jon Mitzmacher, 5th Grade Classroom teacher, Shelly Zavon, Middle School Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Reppert, Technology Director & 21st Century Learning Specialist,Andrea Hernandez and two of our students, Sabrina & Hannah) were interviewed by Alan November for his NL Podcast Series about the use of student jobs in the classroom!"

"The issue of copyright came up with our 7th graders as they were creating Gloggs about different characters of a story. The Language Arts teacher asked me to join them to reinforce and discuss copyright, creative commons, public domain and fair use. Not an easy task … I decided to show the class the ~10 minute The Fair(y) Use Tale video clip."

"This blog post has been in the making for over 12 months.The first part was written (and then left in the draft folder) in November of 2009, while the second part is being written as the unit was unfolding over the last few weeks. I began working with our Middle School Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Kuhr, to upgrade one of her units (Author's Point of View)."