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Making Global Connections

Dot Day, Mentor Experts, Read for the Record, and more!

Making GlobalConnectionsDot Day, Mentor Experts, Read for the Record, and more!

International Dot Day International Dot Day

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Promoting and Teacher Collaboration

International Dot Day celebrates connecting our global dots. The Dot by Peter Reynolds, is a simple book with a big message. The book suggests you “make a mark and see where it takes you.” So we asked our art students at Lamar to make dot art and answer the essential question, “How will you make your mark on the world?”
Dot Day Collaboration

Student Reaction?

From local news:

Students really enjoyed the experience and seeing how students across the nation interpreted the lesson.

“I think this is really fun,” student Aryan Sharama, whose dot was based on inspiration, said. “We are sharing and talking with people we do not know, and we got to see their dots from their point of view, too.”

After each Hangout session, students made reflection videos about their dots and the overall experience. Then, teachers tapped all of the dots on a “Dot Tree” display in the hallway for the entire campus to see.

How to get connected? Matthew Winner has lots of great ideas! How to get connected? Matthew Winner has lots of great ideas!

  1. Look for others on the shared Gdoc
  2. Tweet or email to see if people want to connect
  3. Make a schedule of times that you are available to connect
  4. Keep track of who you've contacted and put their email or twitter handle on your schedule
  5. It's complex to schedule, but so worth it for the kids!
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Dot Day Tree

We hung all of our dots on this tree outside of the library to celebrate our connections!
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Connecting with Hawaii

Students were amazed at the difference in Hawaiian schools especially since we chatted with a military base.
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Feedback in Flipgrid

After connecting, students were asked to respond in Flipgrid.
Dot Day #1!

We loved our snail mail too!

Matthew's students sent us dots and another librarian's students sent us a whole poster that taught us about her state. We decided that next year, we'd love to send more tangible things to others. Mailing cool stuff is such a lost art!
#dotday (ish) Collaboration Week! (with images, tweets) · lamar_library

#dotday (ish) Collaboration Week! (with images, tweets) · lamar_library

All of our social media in one place for this great event @LamarMS !

launch storify.com

Mentor Experts - authors, community members, and tech experts Mentor Experts - authors, community members, and tech experts

During my second year of Maker Programming

I spent the month of May focused on coding, so I contacted a game developer friend to chat with my students. See below....
May ker Monday and Coding

3rd year of Maker Programming: Makey Makey Experts

This year my students were having trouble getting "beyond the banana" with Makey Makey, so I asked the company on Twitter if they would do a Hangout with us... and they said YES! It was such a life-changing experience! The inventor, Jay Silver, told my students they were ALL AWESOME! (About 2.5 min in)
@lamar library Ss and Stewart MS Ss GHO w Creators of Makey Makey

Inviting Community Experts

Sometimes I just facilitate connections by reaching out on Twitter or even just hosting the space. My Science teachers invited FEMA out at the end of a PBL. Our Home Ec teacher asked City of Commerce members to be on an expert panel at the end of her business unit. We were always having community members in our school and it made our kids feel important!
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FEMA at Science Expo

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Presenting to an authentic audience

Business Experts
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Director of Instructional Technology, Zone Leader, Teachers

for All Songs Listening Gala

See clips of the Business presentations to local experts....

Lamar Library on Twitter

Lamar Library on Twitter

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Collaborating with students around the globe

Culture Shock Picture Books

  • Organize through Skype Classroom or Google Hangouts

Australia Video Pals

Read for the Record

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6th graders walked over to local ES to read to kindergartners
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8th graders Skyped pre-school students and read to them.
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Reading and an activity

Made by Colleen Graves

for Round Rock ISD Professional Development

Website: colleengraves.org
Twitter: @gravescolleen

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