International Dot Day :: Connect Professional Dots!

Mrs. Yollis' class is celebrating International Dot Day!

We are celebrating in many ways with our global Dot Day blogging buddies!

Here is a link to our collaborative International Dot Day Project Blog! 

Map Credit: Kathleen Morris 

You might be asking, how did Mrs. Yollis connect her students in Los Angeles with these classrooms in other countries? The answer is by taking a risk and reaching out through social media. Building a professional learning community is so important for teachers and has never been easier.  Leaving comments on classroom blogs and/or discovering professional opportunities on Twitter provide teachers with collaboration opportunities for their students. Let's connect the professional dots! 

Mrs. Yollis met Mrs. Morris from Australia through blogging! Their classes left comments for one another on their classroom blogs and a ten-year friendship began. Their passion for education blogging was shared at the ISTE conference in 2012, in San Diego.  

Photo by John Miller 

Mrs. Morris even came to meet Beverly and see the classroom. 

Educational Bloggers Meet from yourwonderfulteacher on Vimeo.

Here is a link to Mrs. Morris' Blog. 

Mrs. Yollis met Mrs. Beal from South Africa in 2012, at the Google Teacher Academy in New York City.  They share a strong interest in global collaboration and meaningful integration of technology in the classroom. Mrs. Yollis learned about the Google Teacher Academy via Twitter.

Mrs. Yollis met Miss Versteeg from Canada through Edublog's  Better Blogging with Students program run by Mrs. Morris on The Edublogger. Miss Versteeg was featured on  TheEdublogger. Mrs. Yollis starting following her class blog and is enjoying learning with her. Here is Miss Versteeg's Grade 2 Blog. 

Connecting with educators through blogging, Twitter, or Instagram can have a tremendous impact on student learning. It's never been easier to flatten the classroom walls and create a true global community!

Here are a few screenshots of some "connect the dots" stories and blog comments that you can find on the 

Collaborative International Dot Day Project Blog! 

Photo by Mrs. Morris 

"Connect the Dot" Words: dot, green, puppy, line, tree

Photo by Mrs. Morris 

"Connect the Dot" Words: line, Tokyo, campfire, diamond, quack

Photo by Mrs. Morris 

"Connect the Dot" Words: pen, splash, China, shark, potato

If you are looking to connect with other classrooms, join the Student Blogging Challenge!

Register Individual Student Blogs 

Register a Class Blog 

The Student Blogging Challenge starts October 7, 2018. 

What do you like about working with other classrooms around the world?

Global Project: Same Day in March

As is so often the case, I found a wonderful global project via Twitter! 

The global project is called Same Day in March! 

This collaborative project is a fabulous way to learn about weather, geography, technology, and culture. Thanks to Mrs. Ladd and Ms. Stefopoulou for creating and facilitating this project! Follow the project on Twitter using the hashtag #sdim18.

Today was day 1, but you can join at any time during the month of March. To kick off the project, we went outside with some weather tools. 

Photo by Mrs. Yollis

We used thermometers for measuring the air temperature and set up a rain gauge to measure the forecasted rain on Friday. 

Photo by Mrs. Yollis  

Learning how to read the thermometer was one of the first lessons we learned. 

Photo by Mrs. Yollis 

 From the NOAA National Weather Service, we learned that it will definitely be raining tomorrow! Good thing we have our rain gauge out to see how many inches of rain we receive. 

Don't forget your umbrella tomorrow! 

Photo by Mr. Seliskar 

UPDATE:

Although rain was predicted throughout the day, we only received .3 of an inch from 8:00 until 2:00. 

We used Google Earth to "visit" the communities that are in the project. As we zoomed out, we tried to classify each community. Is it an urban community, a suburban community, or a rural community? Some students took a screenshot and uploaded the information to Seesaw and added it to our "Same Day in March" folder. 

We also placed sticky notes on the locations. What do you notice about the classes that joined from the United States?

Are there any classes in the project that live in a place that is new to you? Because of their location, will their weather be similar to ours?

What are the names of some clouds we might see? What do they look like?  

Student Blogging Challenge!

We are excited to be a part of Edublog's Student Blogging Challenge! 

This is week number one out of the ten week project. 
(We are sorry, we are a little late publishing.) 

There are two tasks for week number 1. First, make an avatar to represent your class. An avatar is an image used to represent yourself online. Mrs. Yollis' avatar is a photo of her standing next to a Google Map marker at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. What does this avatar tell you about Mrs. Yollis?

Here is our class avatar. Mrs. Yollis took a photo and then she modified it using the Prisma app. 

How do you like the avatar?

What does it say about us? 

 Second, make an About Me page or post telling a little bit about your state or country. Let's get started! 

Here is a wonderful video about our state, California. 

 Enjoy!

Here is another resource with photos about California!

Tell us about yourself. 

Where are you from? 

What are the regions like there? 

What is great about your state or country? 

Are there any problems happening in your country like our drought?   

Twitter Time :: Color Poems #clrpoem

#clrpoem

Twitter is a wonderful microblogging platform to connect, share, and learn with others. You can learn a lot in 140 characters!

This #clrpoem Twitter project incorporates color, poetry, geography, social media, and fun!  

This week, we will start this colorful global collaborative project with our blogging buddies, Mrs. Monaghan from England, Miss Crowther and Mrs. Placek from Victoria, Australia, and Ms. Shannon and Oskar in Darwin, Australia. 

Teachers, you and your students are invited to join us for our poetry project! A tip of the hat to Catherine Monaghan for this colorfully clever idea.

The object of this collaborative project is to share original poems, create colorful digital images, and publish through classroom Twitter accounts using the hashtag #clrpoem! Each week a color of the visible spectrum will be showcased!

ROY  G  BIV 

One way to remember the visible spectrum is the

 ROY G BIV acronym.  

(red-orange-yellow-green-blue-*indigo-violet) 

ac·ro·nym

(ak rə nim)

noun

1. an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word
2. 
   

(*Indigo is the color between blue and violet. We might combine it with blue.) 

Teachers, YOU are invited to join our collaborative project! The more, the merrier!

This week, we are seeing RED! Shoot a photo of something red, compose a little poetry to complement the photo, and tweet it out! Remember, use the hashtag #clrpoem. 

What are some things that are red?

What are some elements of poetry? 

Couplet, triplet, or haiku,

What kind of verse can we expect from YOU? 

:-)