Through Twitter, I was able to get my class involved in a Community Project that allows us to connect with ten schools in the United States and learn about their communities while also sharing about ours. This Community Project ties in perfectly with our current Social Studies Unit.
My students are really excited about this project! They have already used Google Docs to contribute to a slideshow about communities and Google Forms to answer questions about the importance of different community helpers. As long as we can work out the timing issues, they will be involved in a Skype call next week with @jgriffith2's class to discuss communities and community helpers. @jgriffith2 is a Grade 2 teacher in Randolph, New York, and she is the person in charge of this project.
In the upcoming weeks, my students will get to use Google Earth to find these different communities on the map, and Google Wave to talk in real time with students at these different schools in the United States to pose and answer questions about communities and community helpers.
Involvement in this project has really showed me the power of communication on a global level. My students are so engaged in this Social Studies Unit because they're not just reading about it in a book, but experiencing it with other students too. It's amazing to me that my students are now proficiently using tools that six months ago I didn't even know existed. While these tools are fascinating in their own right, more than that, they are allowing my students to learn and making them want to learn too.
What do you think about this project? What are your child's thoughts on this project? Please comment here and share your opinions. I would love to know what you're thinking!
Have a great weekend!
Aviva
4 comments:
I am doing a similar project and am using a wiki to connect with other Grade One classrooms in Alberta.
http://albertaconnections.wikispaces.com/
That's awesome! I'm going to check out your Wikispace now. I'm sure that it will help teach my Grade
1's about Alberta too. Thanks for sharing!
I too think its amazing that our kids are learning with tools that didn't even exist last year. I guess I always expected that my kids would "out-know" me at some point in technology, but I certainly didn't expect it so soon! My first grader and second grader had an interesting conversation over the weekend:
"I've used Google (something)"
"But I've used Google (something else)"
"That?! We've used that a million times, its so easy"
Naturally, I'd barely heard about either of those two things :)
Thank you so much for sharing that story! I absolutely love it! I think that my students out learn me all the time when it comes to technology, and I just love that they know so much and are so excited about learning so much too.
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