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Educational Technology in the Classroom (K-12 Education)

Looking for Grade 7 or 8 classrooms to collaborate with

December 30th, 2009 by Mr Kuroneko · 3 Comments · Classroom Technology Ideas, Online Literature Circles

Hi everyone, my name is Kisu Kuroneko and I teach Grade 7/8 literacy (English, History, Geography, Drama) in Ontario, Canada.

Over the past few years, I’ve been experimenting with integrating a variety of different tools in the classroom, including Google Docs, online literature circles, twittering in the classroom, wikis and blogging. Here are my professional blogs to give you an idea of some of the things we have done in our classroom:

  1. http://blog.classroomteacher.ca
  2. http://balancedliteracy.ca

I’m interested in finding other Grade 7 and 8 students for my students to collaborate with online. I think experiencing the global village by working online with students from a different school, culture, or continent is an exciting idea. Could you imagine video conferencing with a class overseas? Reading responses from students in a different time-zone? Collaborating on a common assignment / peer editing using Google Docs or a wiki?

Here are some ideas that I’m bouncing around:

  • At our school, we’re working through the challenges of having multiple classes collaborate doing literature circles in a combination of online book clubs and in-class lit circles. Please get in touch with me if you teach grade 7 or 8 English and would like to discuss the possibility of having our students do a common literature study on a common text at the same time. (Right now, one of the challenges we’re facing at our school revolves around the idea that we don’t have 7 or 8 classroom sets of the same novel, so we’re looking at the idea of using online newspapers which everyone can access.)
  • Peer revising / editing – students use a wiki or Google docs to collaborate with each other on a given task. We could use a blog format to post work online and have students provide feedback in comments.
  • Penpals – letter writing activities

If you’re interested in discussing possibilities of having our Grade 7/8 students interact with each other, please leave a comment below on this post.

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3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Nikole from United States United States // Jan 15, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Hi! I am a Director of Technology at a school in Baton Rouge, La. I have a 7th grade teacher who is interesting in connecting with a teacher. Please email me so we can talk some more! I look forward to talking with you!

  • 2 Jasmine L. from United States United States // Jan 26, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    I am a 4th grade teacher in the US looking for a classroom overseas to communicate with. I have a smartboard, and web cam. I prefer grades from 3-5. Please email me back if you are a teacher interested, or have some ideas. JLaracuentes@shhighbridge.org

  • 3 Jan from United States United States // May 10, 2010 at 11:33 am

    Starting May 17, 2010, 7th gr. students will most likely be reading for literature circle
    The Hunger Games
    The Wednesday Wars
    Fever 1793
    Flags of Our Fathers
    Over the Wall

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