Global Collaboration Week

It’s not too late to connect your classroom with the world. Global Collaboration Week is still going on today and tomorrow. This event provides a one stop shop of opportunities for educators and learners looking to make connections around the globe. Participants from all over can collaborate on projects, make plans for future projects, or simply connect with one another to share information and resources. For links to events happening in Central Daylight Time Zone, click here.

On this planet we are all interdependent and ultimately already connected. Why not parallel that reality in your classrooms. Check out his video from the UN that really sums this up from the learner’s perspective.

Why Global Collaboration: 

Authentic & Experiential Learning

Preparing our learners to contribute in an ever increasing globally connected society

Connect with Industry Experts

Newly Possible Virtual Experiences

Cultural Awareness & Empathy

Celebrate differences

Provide different perspectives

Collaboration

Real-world communication skills

Communicating and creating products despite time and space

Connecting

Building your PLN 

Share Learning and resources

Find like-minded thought partners

Who's Connected?

Connecting learners with educators

Michael Yakubovsky’s learners are currently working on a project where they interview educators from other campuses to discover needs. Learners are designing solutions through 3-D printing inventions. Keep following to hear more about this as it develops.

Connecting learners across schools and grade levels

Pillar Castro-Zena’s learners connected with Kindergarteners through Flipgrid to get feedback on the toys they created during their design thinking unit. Read more about it here.

Connecting current learners with former learners

Ian Vanderschee hosted a Skype session with over 40 of his learners that have already graduated. He included a Q/A session for his current learners to hear what graduates said about college and preparing for college. 

Connecting with other districts

Sr. Mares challenged his learners to create Earth Day children's books with a target audience of Spanish speaking fourth graders in mind. Sr. Mares connected with a fourth grade dual language educator in another city. Her learners read the books, and then met with his learners through Google Hangouts. The high schoolers were able to practice authentic conversations in Spanish and received feedback on their books from the fourth graders. Read more about it here.

Connecting with parents

Suzanne Paylor uses Flipgrid to bring parents into the conversations happening in her classroom. 

Connecting through social media

Tracy Henson’s learners kept blogs related to causes that are dear to their hearts. The public blog tracks the learners’ journeys through research to fund raising. Example

We know so many more of you are making global connections, too! Inspire others. Tell you story below.

Intervene and Extend with Schoology

Hello Differentiation. Meet the individually assign feature in Schoology. At times, learners or groups of learners may need alternate assignments or individualized content. Or, maybe the educator just needs to differentiate learning experiences to accommodate varied learning styles. Did you know that in Schoology, your Discussion Boards, Assignments, Quizzes, and Assessments can be individually assigned to learners or groups of learners? Check out this 1 minute video on how to individually assign.




Besides individually assigning, this feature has the ability to turn your Schoology course into a platform for group collaboration. Want to see how Schoology can help deliver materials to groups of learners? Visit this link for step-by-step instructions.


Interested in exploring this feature more? Contact Monica Champagne and Kelly Skillingberg.

“Grading Groups and Individually Assign.” DoDEA ELearning Portal, Department of Defense Education Agency, 22 Jan. 2015, learn.dodea.edu/.

Managing the Device Rich Classroom

As educators, we understand the importance of upholding expectations for classroom management. Through the reflection of particularly rough days, we strategize and calculate the changes we will make to ensure things will go better “next time”. Recently, we have been exploring how this process is just as important to the digital aspects of your classroom as it is the analog and wanted to share three of our favorite resources with you.


Last night, we had the privilege of hearing from our district’s secondary teacher of the year, Mel Mollick. Mel, shared some of her tried and true classroom management strategies, specifically focusing on those related to a 1:1 learner to device environment. Click here to access Mel's slide deck.


A second resource we would love for every educator to experience is Classroom Management in the Digital Age, Effective Practices for Technology Rich Learning Spaces by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green. Classroom Management in the Digital Age guides and supports established and transitioning device-rich classrooms, providing practical strategy to novice and expert educators K-12. You’ll learn how to…

• Increase attention and decrease distraction
• Cultivate a culture of student ownership and responsibility
• Communicate with parents to establish consistent school-to-home behaviors
• Maximize the power of today’s technology even if you’re not an expert”

Twenty of our educators will have the opportunity to collaborate on the ideas in this book through a collaborative book study lead by Trisha Goins. 

Your third resource...US! Want a thought partner for finding the best digital classroom management solutions? Comment below or send us an email.