I'm honored to be providing the pre-conference keynote for the 2010 K12 Online Conference. I've been involved in this conference since its inception in 2006 in various capacities and believe it to be not only a wonderful resource but a great model of sharing and generosity that epitomizes what networked learning can be.
While I'm sorting through a few ideas for the keynote, I'm planning on making a case as to why we have an obligation to share and teach to students beyond our own institutions and how that makes your own school a much better place. This is where I need your help.
In the spirit of Alan Levine (see Alan, this is what happens when you have great ideas, other people steal them), I'd love for you to post your story. To be more specific, I'm looking for examples of sharing that directly impacted students and curriculum. Maybe it's simply using a resource created by someone else, perhaps it's an idea you shared that someone else built upon. It could be anything that you used with students in your school or classroom. Ideally, I'd like to have stories from a variety of grade and subject levels.
Given the time parameters of the presentation, I may not be able to use all the stories but by simply posting them here, you've already illustrated my point: Teachers who share with the most people are among the best teachers. So leave your stories, links and tell us how sharing has made a difference for your students.
Oh, and please Retweet.
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Just quickly…
I teach Year Four children in Nelson, New Zealand. Year Four children are eight and nine years old.
A few years back towards the end of the school year I asked my class to share something musical with the class for their homework. Children were invited to share their music in any form they felt they wanted to. We had the usuals- favourite CD, an item or two on the guitar, a musical instrument to share, a comb with lunch paper across the teeth and blown on, a shoe box banjo made with rubber bands…
One of my students, Miriam, who we had known had been having singing lessons but was too shy to perform for her peers, brought along a CD that her singing teacher had made. I published the track on our class blog and invited feedback via the class blog.
http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2007/11/miriam-shares-her-voice.html
Comments came in from her peers, from the parent body, nationally and globally encouraging the student to share more.
Miriam gained courage and confidence from being able to share her voice without having to perform live in front of the class.
Next week she had the courage to sing in front of the class and was soon sing for whole school assembly.
http://moturoa.blogspot.com/2008/05/miriam-sings-for-assembly.html
Without the medium of the web tools at our disposal I doubt she would ever had had the courage to share her incredible talent.
Take a listen to this eight year old’s talent.
Last September at the beginning of the school year, Keisa Williams (@keisawilliams) tweeted about a book she was reading to students: Tomás and the Library Lady. I looked it up and ended up ordering a copy for our school library. I have read it to students in grade 3 who were inquiring into migration (Tomás’ parents are migrant workers in the US) and to grade 2 student inquiring into contributions people make (the library lady is kind to Tomás and lets him take out books her name, the real life Tomás grew up to be the chancellor of the University of California, Riverside and the library there bears his name). It is unlikely I would have come across this beautiful, touching story that fits so well with several units if not for Keisa’s tweet.
Here is a link to Jabiz Raisdana’s post Singing Hearts which summarizes a shared learning experience my class had with him and his daughter. http://www.jabizraisdana.com/blog/2009/09/singing-hearts/
The story continues through Dr. Strange’s class at the Univeristy of South Alabama. Here is a post that explains that part.http://edm310fall2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/kaia-reads-book-and-her-father-skypes.html
There is also #comments4kids which was started to help draw attention to student blogging and commenting. Here is the original post http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2009/04/comments4kids-wednesdays.html
Here is the Twitter feed for #comments4kids http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23comments4kids
I am not sure this is what you are looking for. I think they both the criteria for moving beyond the classroom boundaries.
Dean, I’m sure you have as many examples anyone, for how sharing makes classrooms a far richer place. For what it’s worth, here’s a link to the story I originally posted in response to Alan Levine’s request. If it suits your purpose, feel free to share it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLdjWegm9js
Thanks Rodd.