At Last...The Singapore-USA Collaboration Renews! at 12:11 AM

After what seems like a long time, Rose and Troy's classes have reconnected via Skype. The connection was good. Rose directed the curriculum focus and students from both countries were presenting oral book reviews. As usual, the event was a special one. I have included some photos below. I have video footage too (I think) and should get that posted soon enough. Enjoy!

Aslandsskoli-BLW School Video Skype Call at 10:41 AM

On May 27th at 08:00 AM PST students from Aslandsskoli School in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland and Bill L. Williams Elementary School in the Western United States were able to meet via a Skype video call. This collaboration was possible due to a year-long relationship via EPALS. The kids were able to meet their "pen-friends" for the first time and actually be able to see them and talk to them in real time. Topics included the local volcano that is erupting nearby and its effect on their lives. US students were able to ask questions about it and share plans for the summer break as well. The Titan Class of 2011 will continue this relationship when school resumes in August 2010.

GLE and PORTS hit a homerun! at 7:47 PM

Once again, true to the vision of the GLE, experts have again entered the classroom via video-conference. PORTS (Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students) and Bill L. Williams Elementary School's 6th grades were able to learn about the Redwood Forest in Northern California without having to take a bus there! Ninety students got the benefit of speaking with a California Park Ranger about forest issues, the environment, different species, and park services for the public. Once again, students were actually taking pictures of the lesson. I have included some pictures below...

Icelandic Folktales-ePALS Collaborative at 10:39 PM

Once again, the collaboration between Iceland and the United States has been fruitful. Our friends at Aslandsskoli have completed their video on fables. it is an AVI file everyone! Enjoy.

USA Landmarks Project: ePALS Collaborative Iceland/USA at 9:43 PM

Here is Mr. Tenhet's response to the fables video from our friends at Aslandsskoli. This is a video of interesting places and landmarks around the United States. This is an AVI file since the export from Keynote to Quicktime is not working very well!

Future Campus Forum/Symposium Singapore 2010 at 10:25 PM

Well, we did it. A second successful conference via Skype. Rose did great. Skype was crystal clear and I was able to hold up my end of the presentation too. "futureCampus Forum 2010" is the largest tech conference of its kind in Asia. It was a great opportunity for GLE to spread the news about its mission. The presentation was animated, had audio, and even had lots of video. It was a solid performance!!! I'm very happy to share with you...just a few screenshots of the presentation. Singapore time was 13:05 on Wednesday...on the west coast of the United States, it was 22:05 PST... Fun stuff!!!!!!!!!

Iceland Display-Bakersfield, California, USA at 10:09 PM

Hi everyone, we were able to finally get the bulk of our Iceland-USA Collaboration up on a display board in my classroom. Through our ePals collaboration, we really have something special. I have overnighted a Skype Webcam to Jenny over at Aslandsskoli... near Hafnarfjordur. The hope is that we are able to have a video Skype call soon! Here are a few pics of the display.

GLE Enriches The Learning Experience With ACE at 10:25 PM

Here we go again. As you all know, GLE believes in bringing experts into the classroom. In this case, we have brought expert artifacts into the classroom and made another attempt at adding value to the learning experience. My class is able to engage in a culminating activity that has students finishing up their studies of the Roman Empire by cleaning up, drawing, and then attempting to identify coins that are hundreds (if not thousands) of years old. Special thanks go out to Ancient Coins for Education and their wonderful and helpful leaders/staff. I have included some photos of an ACE event that we had in my 6th grade classroom today. Enjoy!

Mr. Tenhet and Asazo Iwasaki From Japan at 9:35 PM

Recently, I was able to meet with Asazo and his team from Japan via Skype. Our collaboration included discussions about PLC and some of Asazo's ideas about language acquisition (via Relay Drawing/Writing). They agreed to join me and my class in collaboration. I will update everyone when I figure this all out!

I posted a few screenshots below...