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Stephanie
Panfel
09
Project
Summary
Spencer Van
Etten Middle School
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General Overview of the Proposed
Project:
As a 5th grade teacher, I
would like my students to connect with other 5th grade
students in North America. I would like to use videoconferencing to
do this. I wan t my students to “meet” and have a cultural exchange
with other students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.
This past summer, besides taking the
TDAH workshop I also took a videoconferencing workshop which taught
me how to go about setting this up. There are several, already
existing v.c cultural exchanges such as “Mystery Quest” and Global
Ambassadors that I would like to have my student s participate in.
Also, I have already contacted a teacher in Texas that is interested
in doing this v.c. exchange. We created a game called “Where Am I?”
that will have both classrooms guessing (using academic resources)
where the other students are located. Each class will share 5
artifacts representative of their state and have the other students
guess where they are from. A document camera will be needed at each
site. Then , at another session, students will make crafts and
desserts given to them by the other students.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
Students learn best when they are motivated
to learn. Using videoconferencing has been proven to excite young
and old alike and will certainly help facilitate learning
3.Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in this project.
5th grade students in four
sections of my Social Studies classes.
4. U.S. History Content Area –
Geography, Culture, History, Economics
5. Outline Describing Content
6. Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc.
The internet (wikipedia.com and others),
videoconferencing – document camera also Rene Carver out district’s
Distance Learning facilitator agreed to assist as well as my
school’s librarian (SherryTurner), SKYPE and CAPspace
7. Level of Student Involvement –
students will learn about New York (Spencer, NY) history , they will
then also learn about the other state’s or country’s history.
The students will be asked to develop
appropriate questions designed to get to know and learn about the
other students’ culture.
8. Evaluation process (include students
when possible)
A final writing piece will be included.
The students will be asked to write a paragraph about what they
learned and add it to a student made scrapbook.
9. Timeline: how you envision the
project being carried out between start up and conclusion
In September, contact other teacher, create
a lesson plan and timeline.
Throughout year, contact teachers using
Skype and CAPspace. Join a Mystery Quest Blog.
10. Comments or Questions:
Although, I haven’t figured everything out
yet, I do know that I am truly excited about going back to school
and getting this started. I also know that if I’m excited the
students will be truly motivated to learn.
Final Report for the TAH Grant – by Stephanie Panfel, Spencer-VanEtten
Middle School, Social Studies, 5th Grade
Sept. 08 – sent out an e-mail using CAP-space requesting to locate
teachers who are interested in a “cultural exchange” wanting to
learn about other states in the United States as well as places in
Canada and Mexico.
Sept. 08 – received several e-mails wanting to do a “cultural
exchange’ with us
Oct. 08 – Nov. 08 – communicated with 5 different teachers about
what the cultural exchange would look like
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schools were from
– Jourdanton, Texas; Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas and Alberta, Canada
*
1st videoconference of the year
Dec. 08 – due to scheduling difficulties only communicated with
Cathy Bollinger from Jourdanton, Texas
Activity
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each class prepared some clues that would
be given to the other class during the videoconference
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some clues were latitude and longitude,
total population, landforms, natural resources etc.
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played “Where Am I?” (a game that I helped
create at a summer 08 videoconference workshop)
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each class brought in 5 artifacts
representative of their state (pictures, little statues,
professional sports team stuff, etc.
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*My class also prepared clues specific to
Spencer, NY and their local history. They found out historical
facts like creation of the town’s name, names of important
people, businesses that were located here and compared pictures
of historic Spencer with pictures of today.
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They also prepared a power point
presentation to share with the other class
Logistics (this was the hard part)
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due to the fact that we were
videoconferencing with a school in Texas, (who is 1 hour behind
us in Central time) we had some difficulty coordinating a time
that would work for both of us
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her schedule was a bit more flexible
because her school was an elementary school which does not
follow a specific bell schedule
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after figuring out the time differences,
we agreed that we would videoconference on Monday, Dec. 15 (from
9:30 – 10:10 my time) to give the clues and play the “Where Am
I? game and Tuesday, Dec. 16 to guess the clues etc.
Unfortunately, we had two snow days in a row, the Thurs. and
Friday before that Monday, so my class that was involved did not
have a great deal of planning time
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We also had to get in touch with our tech.
people to make sure they had their correct “phone #s” so that we
would be able to communicate with each other
DAY 1 -
Finally, Monday, Dec. 15th arrived and we were all
ready to videoconference (incidentally, both of our fist times
attempting this on our own).
Successes
·
The clues were
great
·
the game was super
·
the students were
really interested in learning about their local history
·
*the kids
really enjoyed meeting the other students
Difficulties
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they were experiencing some technical
difficulties and had a hard time hearing us
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every few seconds we had to repeat what
was just said
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not a great deal of time to meet (due to
the fact that we’re on a bell schedule)
After the videoconference my students had to scramble to search
using the internet and atlases to locate their state and specific
location. Some students were willing to give up their recess to help
be good “detectives” in finding this info.
Day 2 – Tuesday – Dec. 16 –
we “met” again and both
classes guessed the other classes’ state and specific town. We also
shared what clues were really helpful in locating the correct
place. Both classes were correct and we all clapped for each other.
Then both classes shared specific information about their regions.
They had a power point about their region of Jourdantown. My
students shared information that they learned about Texas.
The best part was that after the game we had time for the kids to
ask specific information to the other kids. The kids asked each
other questions like; What sports teams do you like? What did you
have for lunch? (they had tacos); “Do you celebrate Christmas
there?”
2nd videoconference of the year
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connected with a teacher from Alberta,
Canada ( Anita Burrill)
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Her school was in Alberta and her students
all lived on a Cree reservation
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set up 2 videoconferences with her
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We played the “Where am I” game again.
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This time we were learning about the
different provinces in Canada.
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We shared PowerPoint productions of Canada
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Most importantly, the students had an
opportunity to learn how people from other countries with
different cultures are still very similar. They also got to find
out some of their differences as well.
Successes
·
The students
really enjoyed speaking to other students from another country. They
really learned more about people from this videoconference than they
could from any book experience.
Difficulties
·
Once again the
scheduling was a nightmare, this time we had to deal with a 3 hour
time difference. (They are in Mountain Time.)
3rd videoconference of the year:
·
I set up a
conference with a Mr. Frank Garcia (whose name I got from a
reputable videoconference agency) from Mexico.
·
Unfortunately,
this videoconference was supposed to occur in May (around Cinco de
Mayo) which happened to also coincide with the Swine Flu incident in
Mexico. So the videoconference never did occur.
·
Another unusual
event surrounding this possible videoconference was that just before
the event was supposed to occur, Mr. Garcia mentioned that I should
contribute $50 to some kind of Mexican fund. As I was checking into
this the Swine Flu epidemic occurred and he never contacted me
again.
4th videoconference of the year:
·
I met a 5th
grade teacher (Barb Leach) at a local videoconference workshop in
the spring. We decided to have our classes “meet” and
videoconference the last week of school in June.
·
Again, we would
play “Where Am I?” This time we were both located in New York State,
but the kids still had to guess our locations by using clues such as
latitude and longitude etc.
·
Again, we shared
our local history power point presentations.
Reflection
I learned that
videoconferencing is a great way to motivate students.
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Social Studies is a perfect subject to use
with videoconferencing.
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It is much more powerful to have students
“meet” other kids from other places using videoconferencing. A
textbook could never motivate kids in the same way as actually
speaking directly with students from other places.
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Students learned a great deal about
history, geography and culture of themselves and others.
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I personally learned many things, but one
educational tidbit to add to my collection was that I didn’t
know that the Northern Lights were not only a beautiful light
show, but that they also make a hissing sound when they go by.
I would
definitely use videoconferencing again!
Student response
was fantastic!
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I had several students come up to me and
tell me how much they enjoyed “meeting” other students around
the world.
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One student, (a particularly low student),
came up to me and thanked me and stated that “that was the best
lesson all year!”
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Another student said that they couldn’t
believe they were communicating with someone from Canada,
thousands of miles away!
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Another student was surprised to find out
that people in Texas also celebrate Christmas.
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Most students were surprised that Canadian
children also eat tacos, watch American Idol (as well as
Canadian Idol) and play football just like we do.
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Most students thought that all Native
Americans would look like the “Indians” we see on TV. They were
surprised to see that they dressed just like us, speak English
(with a Canadian accent) and went to school even when they
already had 3 feet of snow on the ground.
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Most students also were surprised to hear
that these Canadian children lived on Cree reservations and had
names like “Birdsong” and other native names.
Videoconferencing changed my instruction and will contribute to
academic achievement!
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I’m not sure if test scores will improve
from videoconferencing, but THE LOVE OF LEARNING and the
appreciation of other cultures is immeasurable. Textbooks could
not provide the lessons learned.
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The virtual meetings provided life-long
learning that is necessary to any child’s growth.
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Videoconferencing opened up so many doors
in my classroom.
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Most of all, kids thought it was fun and
were more likely to learn because of it!
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