Peter Dawson's Comments

Hi! I also teach kindergarten! Two ideas... 1. Twitter Pen Pals: When school starts (mid-Aug. here) we could create classroom twitter accounts and our classes could follow each other and read the tweets we send and send tweets to each other. I just saw a video of a kindergarten class at The Meridian School that tweeted to parents at the end of each day. 2. We could mid-year, video Skype a conference between the classes and our students could introduce themselves and share a picture they made about a story both classes read that month. Our campus will be using Skype next year, but I'd need to get parent/admin. to approve first, for both ideas, but it is a thought.

Stacy
@StacyVernon (on twitter)
http://happyapplekinderorchard.wikispaces.com/

Hi Peter -- I'd like to invite you to join a Classroom 2.0 group called Canadians Mashup. I'm trying to build a network of Canadian educators and bloggers. No discussions yet. I'm just starting out by trying to find where everyone lives and what they teach. If you're interested, please add me as a colleague as well.

If you add yourself to the map, please include a name or a photo of some sort. There seem to be a lot of unidentified people from unidentified places and the map is getting stuck on for some reason. The problem is that I can't tell from the members’ list which anonymous hits are real people and which were just false starts. The company does not differentiate members unless there is a picture or a name. Location only is not enough to help me know which entries are not real ones. THANKS!!!!

My family here in BC just did a Voicethread as a Christmas present for my Mum in Australia. It was great fun!

Hi Peter
of course I remember you!!
The honest truth is, life has been particularly stresssful for me for the last couple of months due to serious illness in my family so I can forgive anything at the moment - and with Christmas productions and stuff, we hadn't noticed anything!!
I'm working on a Skype number - will let you know.

Happy New Year, Lisa xx

Craig,

THANKS so much for that news. I registered today so I will be sure to send you more voicethreads asap. As for the project, we'll send you Ted as soon as he's finished his tour with us. I'm anticipating around mid to late November. You just need to send me your address close to that time. At that point you can add some voicethreads of your own and we can comment back.

Do you have any contacts that might be interested in something like this?? We'd love to seee Ted's adventures farther afield. Could be part of the Voicethread and Ted's Excellent Adventures series!!!
talk to you soon
Pete

Peter,
Actually, Voicethread is free for Educators. Just sign-up as an educator, and you will have unlimited access to the program. What actually are you wanting us to do with the "Teddy Adventures?" Are we supposed to buy a teddy bear and take pictures to share, or are we supposed to send him to you along with some "tidbits" from Kansas. Just let us know. Great to hear from you! Craig

Hello Peter,
We would love to be added to your friends list. Please include us on your "teddy adventures." We would be glad to participate in any other projects you would like. Please leave a comment on the Christmas Around the World Voicethread. Thanks for getting back with me.

Hi Peter

Re Susie - yes, I have an email address for her -her name @ three letter then three numbers - don't want to put it here in case!! You can tell her whatever you want about me!
I gave him the name - don't think our kids got it either - but he can just be called Ted or whatever nickname your kids want to give him. It could even be a topic for discussion on Voicethread! The inspectors are coming to my school next week so everyone is in overdrive - and we've had Languages Week this week so there's a big assembly tomorrow (actually two) for me to organise.

See ya soon Lisa xx
PS Just got round to finding London on the map! It's not where I thought it was (But Geography is not my strong point!)

Bobby
I'll let you know when things really get moving but basically what's happening now is a contact through CR2.0 wholive in the U.K cam up the great suggestion of sending a Teddy bear to us, us take pictures of the bear in different locations around the school and then a student record a message about this. After that we send Ted E. Bear along to someone else. Kind of like a fuzzy Flat Stanley project.

I'll keep you in the loop - there's someone in Kansas who's interested too.

OK so I had never heard of VoiceThread.....I ve been checking it out and it is awesome! Great suggestion. I would love to be involved with what your doing. The problem with me is that the site is blocked through our district:( I will get on the tech department though to see what we can do!
Thanks again and keep me posted!
Bobby

Hi Lisa

Yes, whatever the time is in Toronto, that's the time in London and Lucan. Did you email Susie directly? because I don't THINK I gave her your address. Do you mind if I give her your address that you just gave me?

Told my kids today that a friend from England is coming to visit and his name was Ted E. Bear. I don't think any of them got the joke. Of course, I don't think any of them know where England is or have ever heard of it. These are kids that in all likelihood have never been in a car due to their financial circumstances. We have at least 21 different languages spoken in a school with a student population of about 250.

Talk to you soon!!

Hi again - it's 9.10am here - and according to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?sort=1 it's 4.10am in Ottawa and Toronto so does that make it the same time in Lucan / London? (Geography is not my strong point - can read a map if it's facing the right way!!)
Haven't heard back from Susie in Maize - perhaps she's having a busy time. Got a teddy to send her so if you hear from her, could you let me know?
As to contacting me, my e-mail is lstevens@whitehousecommon.bham.sch.uk if you ever want to contact me direct!
Have a good week Lisa xx

Great news Dean!
Maybe when my contact from Maize sends Teddy to me I can get the info from you as to where the send him/her. BTW - I checked out where Maize was on Google Maps!!

I used to use skype and could do so again (I've forgotten my skype name). A colleague and I tried to do some video conferencing with our classes and the SMARTBoard and it just didn't work, so I've kind of given up on video-calling and use Live Messenger for the VOIP stuff.

I'm always willing to try skype again but in talking to my Principal this year (who's very knowledgable about this kind of thing) I think the problem is at our Board level - blocks, etc. so it might not work. In any case, I'll contact you when I know what's going on with the Teddy bear project. I think it's ideal for non-writers.

talk to you really soon .....

Yes, I would have a teacher that would do that type of project. (FYI...Maize is about 60 miles SW of Lyons). To be honest, I probably have multiple elementary teachers that would do something. Also, my debate teacher at the high school does uses the same web program. She would be willing to do something too with that website.

Not being nosy but the conversation with Lisa Stevens and some type of video chat, do you use Skype? My Skype name is dmantz7. I use it for video chat as well as host conference meetings and record the audio for podcasts. Could be another option in developing some collaboration projects between schools.

Hey,
I probably asked you this before, but just to be sure - how many hours difference are you? You're ahead of us, right? It's currently 8:50 pm Tuesday Sept. 18. Looking at your last email , it's dated 2:39 pm on the 18th. I guess in the end you'll read it when you read it, right?

Hi - no cost -it's free! I've definitely let you know about the next one!

Have emailed Susie in Kansas - have asked if she wants us to send her a teddy too. Waiting for a reply.
Hope your week is going well - someone is coming to watch me teach tomorrow to get an idea of how to tech langugaes to primary aged kids.
see ya Lisa xx

Hi Peter
Yes, the contact has got in touch - we're in the midst of sorting out details!
I don't think I sent you a message about flashmeeting but I have been involved in them. It's like a video conference but all you need is a microphone or webcam - or not even that as you can take part by 'textchat' (Typing in a box at the bottom of the page) If you want to check one out, have a look at Paul Harrington's blog post about the one we did on Saturday (not the Global Collaboration one that was at 2am our time!!) - http://ddraig-goch.blogspot.com/2007/09/transglobal-edubloggers-meeting-3.html (sorry about the scary picture - next time I'll make more of an effort with my appearance!) I've been to two - and despite being new to Web2.0 technology have found that I can contribute a bit and I've learned so much! The one above was good as it included people from various countries so we were able to compare and contrast eg the phone that several UK people wanted and is expensive here is free in USA!
Next time there's one, I'll tell you and we can have a chat!! Some people use them for their links - perhaps I'll investigate!!!

Hi Lisa

That's great news about "Ted". We look forward to having him arrive at our school. Did I tell you that I have a contact in Kansas that might join us? I haven't heard of Voices of the World - I'll have to check it out.

Thanks for the compliment on my theme - yes the picture is part of my gardens. What you can't really see in that picture are the 2 ponds with connecting stream that I put in. One of the ponds is about 13 yrs. old and the stream and other pond is about 6-7 years old. In the summer all my wife and I do is spend time in the garden. We're not really travelers so the garden ends up being our escape. But then I'm lucky enough in a small town/village to have a large property. Most lots in London are much smaller, especially in new developments. I'm sure it's probably much the same in the UK.

Good to hear from you. Thanks for the update on our project. I'm very excited about trying this.
Pete

Love the 'theme' of your page - is that your garden???

Hi Peter
Ted-E-Bear - also variously known as Santa, Fluffy, Cuddly, Shaun (the kids all have their own ideas!!) - has met 1HB and 1HJ (our 5-6 year olds) and has shown them on a globe where he is going (well, the vague direction as the globe didn't have enough detail to find London on it!) They have had their picture taken with him and he will be on his way this week! Just got to work out how to package him!
I'm excited too!
This is our first project of the year - although we're also involved in Voices of the World - have you heard of this? We had to create a Voki giving a welcome message this month - there'll be another project next month. The url is http://onevoice.ning.com/ "Voices Of The World is an exciting project that will use the voice and sound rather than the written or typed word. All too often we ask children to communicate at a distance using text rather than voice."
And the woman that runs it uses teddies going round the world too - what a coincidence!!!
Anyhow will let you know when Ted-E-Bear is actually in transit!