Connected Learners

Magic!

Today I witnessed true connected learning in 'real time'. 

We consider ourselves connected learners in theONE6 ... all of us including myself. Using Hangouts, Edmodo, Blogger, Twitter to connect with learners all over the world is fun but sometimes 'real time' is hard due to time zones and teachers with different timetables. 

'Real time' happened today and what I witnessed AND heard was music to my ears! My kids commenting on the fun they had discussing and sharing their learning with kids in another part of New Zealand - all the way down in Oamaru - Oamaru Intermediate School.

So what were we doing? As part of #NZreadaloud5PoT I have connected with Lisa Dyer and her class of kids at Oamaru Intermediate. Our kids share and learn alongside each other in Edmodo every week. But today was special ... we set the kids up in groups to use Appearin.com as their 'real time' discussion rooms. Well ... as I went around and took my photos I heard fantastic sharing going on. Here were Intermediate kids having literary discussions AND loving it! 

It is these moments which warm my soul ... which makes the effort and energy put into providing these experiences well worth it.

I would like to thank Lisa for her willingness to experiment, for her openness to things going wrong, and for her passion as a young teacher to connect with an old bird like me! It has been an absolute pleasure to work 'virtually' alongside you Lisa and I look forward to our continual collaboration:)

Mystery Hangout

It is always an exciting time. Connecting globally with other classes around the world. I often think and say to my colleagues how much more engaging and fun my school days would have been if we had been able to do this. 

So today we did another mystery hangout ... with a teacher who had tweeted this out the other night ... 

Once again, I can share the value of Twitter ... those who still consider it to be just social media filled with gossip ... I can tell you this: if you follow the right people (for me it's educators) it can be the best way to make connections and LEARN.

Anyway ... after I saw this I immediately tweeted back and the rest is history. It just involves sorting out the time zone situation and selecting a day / time. So we did ... and today was it:)

ALL theONE6er's involved themselves today ... some more than others but that's ok. Here are some photos of the Hangout and Sophie who took our notes.

 

Mallory and her class were from Mission Middle School in Escondido, San Diego California. We did not quite get to the end ... but it was fun all the same. 

I would like to thank @Mrs_Resendiz and her kids ... it was a shame that it ended so abruptly but her kids were keen to 'get out' - it was 3pm for them when we finished. Our morning was just kicking off - 10am. 

At the end of the day I had the kids write a reflective tweet ... there were definitely some questions we would have loved to have asked AND some wonderful learning which occurred as you can read in the Storify here:

Musically

Another Friday afternoon saw a group of 'one6ers' create a couple of 'Musicallys'

A bit like 'Dubsmash' but kids seem to like this better? These kids love performing ... and I love watching them be creative and creating! The organisation which goes into the 'choreography' is interesting to watch ... collaboration at its finest! (Note our wonderful Shannon fall over the plant ... all planned!)

Mystery Hangout

Thursday saw SOME of the learners in 'theONE6' participate in a Mystery Hangout.

It still surprises me when only a few kids choose to do these ... as I see it as a really authentic way to connect and learn about countries ... not to mention the questioning skills and problem-solving involved. I guess this is all a part of LearningMYway ... allowing kids the choice to learn this way! (or not as it goes!) All I know is ... the kids who join me in these fun learning opportunities learn lots and are those kids who will learn to value 'being connected' in our global world.

I would love to thank Steph Campbell and her class at Hutt Central for setting time aside to Mystery Hangout with us. These kids were awesomely well-behaved and SO KEEN. It was an absolute pleasure to spend some time with you. We hope now you have experienced a Mystery Hangout that there will be many more to come! 

 

Another PlayDayMonDay

Big Ups to Ryan for coming up with our 

PlayDayMonDay idea.

Another great day in 'theONE6'.

For anyone wondering where PlayDayMonDay fits with learning, you should have a read of this article from the Education Review series. "Play based learning IS producing critical, creative, and innovative thinkers." 

Today I observed a group of boys come up with their own set of rules to play Boggle ... which they played for 75 minutes happily ... learning new words AND creating new words!

Today I observed kids choosing to be creative with paint for the covers of their 'unfolding stories' as part of the Me2 Programme.

Today there were kids who chose to participate in the Sumdog online Maths competition.

Then there were the girls who were also being creative putting together pages of their 'unfolding stories' using images they had printed.

Another successful Monday.

Having an innovative mindset and being willing to try new ideas to help engage our learners is what it is all about. The fact that this initiative was student-driven ... makes it even better. 

What have you done recently which was a student-driven initiative?

GoogLink

I was having a play with Google Drawings this morning.

With the help from one of my PLN I discovered that using Google Drawing I can create something similar to 'Thinglink'. Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE Thinglink as a way for kids to create and share their learning in an interactive way and have been trying to help them learn how to use it.

But having discovered a way to use Google Apps to do the same thing is quite exciting as it means it is much more accessible AND easier!

It has been called GoogLink ... check it out here

So here is a GoogLink I created this morning to share who we are in 

'theONE6'

What do you think one6ers? 

I would LOVE you to have an experiment with it ... please make a comment back to me and tell me what you think?

FlashMob Friday!

After a Wonderful Week in theONE6 we finished our Friday with not 1 but 2 Flashmobs. How much fun was this!

Some AWESOME rhythm going on here:)