5th/6th Grade Online Partners Wanted

Hey there everyone! I am the instructional technology specialist at a 5th/6th grade campus in Houston, Texas. We are looking for other 5th/6th grade classes that we can collaborate with through video conferencing, wikis, or blogs on all content areas. If you are interested in planning a project then please let me know!!!

Tags: blogs, collaboration, conferences, partners, video, wiki

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Wright on August 2, 2009 at 5:34pm

Jorge

You guys make us Aussies laugh :) In Australia Primary school teachers (K-6) have to teach all learning areas. I have to teach English, Maths, Human Society and Its Environment (History/Geography), Science, Computing, Personal Development Health/Physical Exercise, Creative Arts-Drama/Visual Arts/Music/Dance. On top of this I have to integrate all the other general skills like thinking skills, social skills, research skills, road safety, child protection, etc. I am specialist trained in Aboriginal Education so I have responsibility for this in my school. Plus I am only second year out but in my early 40s with 2 children of my own at home!

Each term we focus on one or two novels for literacy and a topic for Science & HSIE. We are currently studying electricity and simple circuits in Science and will start a unit on Peru later in the term. We are looking at Poetry and the novel "I am Jack" so maybe we could trade a couple of poems and start a discussion about Australian vs American Poets with some comparisons? What do you think?

Lisa

Permalink Reply by Jorge Cavazos on August 5, 2009 at 9:42pm

WOW that sounds great! I have a teacher in mind to collaborate with you. Let me talk to her and see if she is interested. I am sure we can come up with something. Our teachers get back from Summer break on Aug. 18 so I should know something after that. I will keep in touch!

Permalink Reply by Betsye Sargent on August 16, 2009 at 9:43am

Interests me -- actually several of the things you suggested. We'll be invorporating electricity and simple machines into the model city we are creating, beginning in the fall. Like the idea of exchanging books as well as comparing Australia and US poets.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Hannon on August 26, 2009 at 9:11pm

Hello Lisa, I am a fifth grade classroom teacher in Olathe, KS. I would love to figure out a blog project to connect our classes. Perhaps with geography/climate differences, a virtual literature circle, or even a science unit. Please let me know what you think!

Permalink Reply by Robin Long on July 25, 2009 at 5:47pm

I teach both grades 5 and 6 science with an ongoing goal of helping kids learn how to use digital resources to expand their learning. Grade 5 focuses on ecology and 6 geology, but I am at an independent school and have a great deal of personal freedom as to how I gear my classes. An umbrella goal is for students to be collaborators with a distant group on some of project...ideally over the year, but a shorter term is possible. I realze there are many partner sites to arrange such a connection, but my experiences in the past have not been very deep. A project, especially with grade 5, could easily be multi-disciplinary...so what do you have in min? It appears from the replies you have a good many offers. Google sites, docs or blogger is an easy fit for us.

Permalink Reply by Jorge Cavazos on July 26, 2009 at 3:47pm

Thanks!! I will share this with a few teachers and see if I get a few bites. I will let you know. I really did not have anything in particular in mind. I was looking to come up with projects with other teachers and then take it from there. Once I narrow down the class and teacher I want to work with in my building then we can go from there.

Permalink Reply by T. White on August 3, 2009 at 6:52am

Jorge,

I have a fifth grade colleague who is interested. She is currently teaching at an international school in Venezuela. It is a very international school with a nice mix of Venezuelan and International students, so culturally speaking there's a lot to work with. She is a generalists, so content is also very flexible. Seems to be an hour difference between Houston. Sounds great, Let us know!

Permalink Reply by Jorge Cavazos on August 5, 2009 at 9:43pm

This is great!!! Thank you! We have a large hispanic population at our school so this would be perfect. I know I can convince one of my teachers to colloborate on lots of projects this year together. Teachers return on Aug. 18 so I should know more after that date! Looking forward to it.

Permalink Reply by T. White on August 6, 2009 at 6:18am

Thanks Jorge, sounds great! Looking forward as well, keep me posted.
- Troy

Permalink Reply by Jorge Cavazos on September 14, 2009 at 3:15pm

Email me when you have a chance. I have a few teachers interested in doing stuff so we just need to compare notes.

Permalink Reply by Lauriene Tschang on August 6, 2009 at 7:25am

Great! We just got our new Polycom Video Conferencing equipment installed over the summer and would love to collaborate with you. I certainly will pass this to our dynamic 5th and 6th grade teachers who love the idea of collaborating.

Permalink Reply by Jorge Cavazos on August 17, 2009 at 9:23am

That is great!! I have 25 5th grade classes and 22 6th grade classes. We have all GT classes, bilingual classes, ESL classes and regular education classes. I am sure we can work something out to engage as many classes as possible!