Susan's Page

Hello Susan, I'm Jeff, I teach jr/sr high in Tokyo (I actually used to be an 8th grade US History teacher in Massachusetts), and I have created software for connecting secondary schools online. It's called PikiFriends, and we would love to see you and your students give it a try. The site is at www.pikifriends.net, and there are 2 files (FAQ and How to Use guide) here:
http://idisk.mac.com/jeffreydionne-Public?view=web
I see you're interested in Skype or chatting, but we don't have that feature for safety reasons. It may not be what you're looking for, but take a look at the info and let me know if you're interested, I'll make an account for you and you can check for yourself.
PikiFriends is mainly built for kids who are learning English, or for English speakers looking to make multi-cultural connections in a fun, safe and easy to use format.
Happy teaching!

Hi Susan, I think you should seek Paul Bogush here on clrm 2.0 or through google. He's 8th gr SS too and very collaborative.

A Skype debate between classes is exactly the kind of thing I would like to organise with someone Susan, however I think the time differences might be prohibitive. It would also require a visit with flowers to our school network administrators - they even block us from YouTube! If you'd like to find someone to organise it with, can I suggest posting on our History Teachers group forum.
Good luck!

Hi Susan
My name’s David and I’m a history teacher in Queensland, Australia. I use a lot of podcasting and online tools with my classes and am always looking for new ideas.
I host a group on diigo (it’s similar to delicious and very popular with teachers) for history teachers to share links, ideas and resources. It’s at http://groups.diigo.com/groups/history-teachers.
Please come along and join and share any sources or resources you use with the rest of us. See you there.
Regards,
David Hilton
Ancient & Modern History Teacher
Sheldon College, Capalaba.

Hi Susan. I was wondering if you have students or educator contacts who would be interested in participating in a nationwide SAT Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com Please let me know. Thanks!

I love your idea of using the Socratic dialect! I too have never tried Skype in the classroom, but can learn fast. We can create different worlds on each of our ends of the Skype network, Northern Industrial (Hamilton) / Southern Agrarian (Jefferson).

We could also schedule times where one of us could have a students prepare a statement of ideals or updates in our particular worlds, almost like a Fireside Chat format; however, your class will be able to ask questions afterward.

On a different date, or on the same date, you would do the same. I can see this working if I can get my class to really act the part.

This was just my initial brainstorm after reading your reply. Let's throw ideas around. I will have Chris read our thread, maybe we can include his class as well.

Hi Susan,

I read your post in the forum about Skyping. I teach 8th grade U.S. History. I was wondering if you would want to collaborate on a project using Skype? How far are you in your curriculum? We've already completed the section, but I was thinking about a Bill of Rights debate series a while back.

Also, do your students blog? I'm trying to build a strong audience for student blogs we just we just launched. We discuss current events and such. Thanks for considering!

Welcome there!
Jim