This is a picture from the Flicr account of one of two teachers that San Hose Episcopal Day School sent to China in 2006 as part of their unique curriculum focusing on different countries in each grade to create a greater sense of world community. In the K12 Online conferences you can watch a presentation on how these teachers connected with their students back in Florida while on this trip. All of these online tools helped the students feel integrated, almost as if they were along for the journey. The school also had many activities back at home to incorporate students, such as an Amazing Race challenge relating to the traveller’s findings, and the tracking of the mascot Hose the Bear (who came along for the trip) for the younger students.
Online tools used to stay in touch with students included WordPress (at the recommendation of Jeff Utech, who some of you in ECMP355 should remember), Movie Maker, Audacity, Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Skype.
The K12 presentation for this topic itself wasn’t entirely aesthetically pleasing, though. It flipped through pictures too fast, included irrelevant pictures, had awkward sound transitions, and used hand-held camera footage that panned too fast for you to focus on anything. It gave great info, but the presentation itself needed a little polishing.
To find more info on this project, and find inspiration for your own classroom, check out the project blog.
