Saturday, October 26, 2013

Celebrate This Week: Skyping and Perseverance

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This past week was a crazy whirlwind of events.  However, I have several awesome celebrations to share!  

1.  On Wednesday, our 7th grade students had the opportunity to Skype with author Chris Grabenstein.   This is the first author Skype visit I have ever attended or coordinated, so I was nervous to say the least.  There were about 300 seventh graders in attendance for the session, and only half of them had the opportunity to read The Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library.  All of the students had the chance to research him before the Skype, but I was still nervous that the students who had not read the book would not take the Skype session seriously.  All of the students were AMAZING!!  The questions that the students asked Chris Grabenstein were well thought out, and led to some very interesting and creative answers.  He was entertaining and provided a wonderful first author Skype experience for the staff and students.  I am so thankful that I work with a group of people who helped support this opportunity for the students.  I am also celebrating the fact that I have my first Skype visit under my belt! 

2.  One of the 7th grade social studies teachers that I work with is in the process of teaching his students how to create a digital textbook.  The students will be creating digital learning objects and putting them into the textbook for other students, current and future, to use to master understanding of content knowledge. In order to provide this opportunity to as many students as possible, on an individual basis, he is trying to get more iPads for his classroom.   Therefore, he created a Donors Choose grant project to help with this goal.  The funding for this project started on Wednesday (around $1,000) and he text me yesterday morning to let me know that the project was already fully funded.  His determination and perseverance to do whatever needs to be done to help students learn, in a way that is beneficial for them, needs to be celebrated.  I also want to celebrate those people who donated to this project.  I am so impressed with people's willingness to help children learn and helping to provide them with a positive education experience by donating to classroom projects.  

I have no doubt that this upcoming week will be full of more reasons to celebrate amazing things that are happening around me!  

10 comments:

  1. Yay for Skype and the iPads! It is nice to hear that there are educators out there doing everything they can to bring the world to their students.

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  2. I love Skyping with authors, but sometimes setting everything up stresses me out! It always seems to work out. I've only done it twice so far. I'm so glad you had a great experience!

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  3. Author's who Skype with students enrich the lives of those kids. Truly a reason to celebrate! How great is it that the iPad project was funded so quickly!

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  4. How fun that you had this visit with Chris Grabenstein!! You will have to share how you arranged that particular one sometime, please.
    Love the digital text that is being created with digital learning objects embedded within for future learning. What a wonderful concept!!

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  5. What a great experience to celebrate and you've created a memory for your students.

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  6. What a great first Skype experience! I'm so glad it went well. I enjoyed Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library a lot!

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  7. Wow - you went ALL OUT for your first Skype experience - 300 students?! Isn't it an amazing experience?! I've coordinated a few, and I'm always nervous. Ha. It's worth it, though, for sure!

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  8. Wow! How exciting to Skype with an author! Love!

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  9. Good for you! Now that your the expert how about a post on all the ins and outs of arranging this great Skype! I would love to Skype with a few authors but, I am fearful of what they may think if I asked.

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  10. Sounds like there is lots of great learning to celebrate! I'm still on the library waiting list for Mr. Lemoncello. Can't wait.

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