TWICE ASK: Dana Lehman

Published November 5, 2009 ASK Leave a Comment

Dana LehmanToday we have the first session of TWICE ASK with a new Michigan author, Dana Lehman. For this session we’re focusing on two of her books: Adventures at Walnut Grove and I DOUBLE Dare You! These books cover the important topics of bullying and teasing.

Here are some of the questions that the students asked today:

  • Who is your favorite character in the book?
  • How did you come up with the names, Silly & Sassy?
  • Have you worked with any other illustrators?
  • Do you like animals as characters in stories?
  • What other ideas do you have for books?
  • How do you think of the title for the book?
  • Did you ever go on vacation with your cousins?
  • Has anybody ever dared you to do something?

There are still openings in the TWICE ASK programs, so hopefully you can join us for another TWICE ASK program soon! Take a look also at this blog review of the ASK program with Amy Young, author of Belinda Begins Ballet from yesterday.

CAPspace New Features

Published August 19, 2009 CAPspace Leave a Comment

Summer work on CAPspace added many additional features mostly related to email. Take a look at these new features:

Reorganized Menu

  • If you have a VC Coordinator level account, you’ll see now that the My People and My Equipment management tools have been moved to the top menu for easy access.

Email

  • With a VC Coordinator level account, you can email the teachers (endusers) from your equipment profile (scroll down).
    Email Users
  • You can also email all the techs for an equipment profile.
    Email Techs
  • As a VC Coordinator, you can also email your people. These are the VC coordinators and teachers in CAPspace that you coordinate VC for. Go to My People and use the email icon.
    email-mypeople

General Email Notifications
Additionally, several new email notifications have been created to let you know what’s happening in CAPspace.

  • The new account created email has been updated to include more instruction on what you can do in CAPspace.
  • Friend request: You’ll get an email when someone adds you as a friend.
  • Event Registration: An email confirms your event registration (and is CCed to the techs of your equipment profile.)

Email Notifications for VC Coordinator Level Accounts
(If you are a VC coordinator and haven’t been “promoted” to have these tools, email sue@twice.cc to request “promotion.”)

  • Promotion: When you get “promoted” to a VC Coordinator Level Account, you’ll get an email with more instructions. 
  • Watch List: The watch list allows you to watch for teachers that you support. You’ll get an email when one of your teachers creates an account in CAPspace. This way you can easily attach them to their equipment profile.
  • Equipment Verified: When your equipment profile has been verified, you’ll receive an email that it is completed. Then you’ll be able to register for events & projects in CAPspace.

We hope these tools make it easier for your teachers to participate in events like Read Around the Planet and the TWICE ASK programs.

TWICE Project Dates for 2009-2010

Published August 3, 2009 ASK , Michigan Week , RAP , We The Kids Leave a Comment

The TWICE Projects Committee met today and set the dates for several programs. Registration for these projects will be in CAPspace, and you’ll need verified equipment to participate.

Plan now for your 2009-2010 videoconferences!

ASK Belinda Begins Ballet & ASK Report 2008-2009

Published May 15, 2009 ASK Leave a Comment

Today we have the last set of TWICE ASK programs, with Amy Young on her book, Belinda Begins Ballet. Students from Michigan and Texas read the book and followed the ASK process to generate questions ahead of time.

Amy Young started by reading the book to the students.08-02-29belinda.jpg

  • Did you take ballet?
  • Why did you give Belinda such big feet?
  • What is your favorite book of the ones you wrote?
  • Did your first job inspire your drawing or writing?
  • Who is your favorite author & why?
  • How do you make a lot of books?

08-02-29belinda3.jpgStudents got to see both the draft of the writing as well as the draft of the drawings. This ASK program was unique in that Amy Young is both the author and the illustrator, so students could see the process from both perspectives.

Amy also had a pair of Belinda’s shoes, which was really cool! The students were very impressed.

This year, TWICE offered 20 days ASK programs with 4 sessions each day and 3 classes in each session. Just over 5000 students were impacted by these programs. We are starting to put together the schedule for next year’s ASK programs, so watch the website for the details so you can plan. Next year we will take registration through CAPspace, so make sure you have your account set up and your equipment verified. Hope you can join us next year!

Where in Michigan?

Published May 13, 2009 Michigan Week Leave a Comment

Today we have the last of four sessions of Where in MI? There are 48 classes participating in the Michigan Week Exchange project, and 15 Where in Michigan classes participating. There were 17 WIM registrations originally, but 2 classes dropped due to scheduling conflicts. Participation numbers are down slightly from past years, but are still pretty respectable, considering the State curriculum changes for 3rd/4th grade.

This session of Where in MI had 4 classes participating, with 1 presenting their own location, and the other 3 presenting other places around Michigan.

1 class shared their clues in riddle/rhyme format via PowerPoint. Two classes shared their clues with posters, and another class did a game show.

Where in MI?Where in MI?

The students were creative with their clarifying questions. Some students asked:

  • Is your mystery city population 8000?
  • Is your mystery city west of Cassopolis?
  • Do the Blue Angels perform in or near your city?

Everyone worked hard to research and figure out the clues presented by the other classes.

ResearchingResearching

The groups were a mix of 3rd and 4th grade classes due to the changing Michigan curriculum. Next year will probably be all 3rd grade classes. We hope you can join us for Where in MI or MI Week Exchange next year!

More Read Around the Planet News

Published April 27, 2009 RAP Leave a Comment
Tags:

Thanks to Google Alerts we have found continuing reports and news articles on Read Around the Planet 2009.

Hope you can join us for this event next year!

Twitter Comes to CAPspace

Published April 7, 2009 CAPspace Leave a Comment

Thanks to the creativity of our CAPspace programmer, Scott Sherrill, Twitter has arrived in CAPspace. If you have your own Twitter account, go to My Settings, and add your Twitter ID. Now your updates are automatically listed on your profile. For an example, look at my profile.

In addition, you can follow CAPspace on Twitter to find out when new collaborations and events are added.

Wondering what Twitter is? Read here about how educators are using Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools as their personal learning network.

ASK Specialist: Julie of the Wolves

Published March 26, 2009 ASK Leave a Comment

International Wolf CenterToday we have a new TWICE ASK program for middle school. The book is Julie of the Wolves, and students are interviewing a wolf specialist at the International Wolf Center. In addition to getting answers to their questions, the students also saw several visuals and the live wolf webcam. Tara and Jess had great succinct answers, so we got in 35-40 questions in each session.

  • How do you get on a wolf’s good side?
  • Can people actually communicate with wild wolves?
  • How do wolves survive in the wild?
  • What is your favorite type of wolf and why?
  • How is a wolf and a coyote alike?
  • International Wolf CenterHow do wolves show affection?
  • Why do wolves mate for life?
  • What would you do if a wolf was running toward you?
  • I watch a lot of Animal Planet and there’s  a program called Growing Up Wolf and they feed the wolves all kinds of things. What do you feed the wolves?
  • How do wolves get welcomed into a pack?

We had a few openings in this session not filled, so maybe next year you can plan to participate and help us fill the spots!

ASK Author: Clever Beatrice

Published March 25, 2009 ASK Leave a Comment

This week we’ve had 4 sessions of TWICE ASK programs with author Margaret Willey on her book Clever Beatrice. It’s been a great two days with lots of great questions from 429 students who participated.

We had a few adventures with the technology this time around. One school couldn’t get their equipment working, so we were able to hook them up with a Polycom RSS streaming connection and they sent in their questions via Skype chat and email. Whew! It worked well for everyone, and thankfully the students weren’t disappointed.

Margaret Willey has a new book coming out in the fall – A Summer of Silk Moths, set in Buchanan, MI. It’s for teens. Do you think you would have a middle school or high school class interested? We’re thinking about possibly adding this book to the TWICE ASK line up. You can comment or email janine.lim@berrienresa.org with your thoughts.

We do have a few spots left in some of the spring TWICE ASK programs, so feel free to join us!

TWICE Sessions at MACUL Conference

Published March 20, 2009 Conferences Leave a Comment

The MACUL Conference is almost over, and we’ve had an amazing turn out for TWICE sessions with some times having over 70 participants! Congrats to the conference committee for pulling off a great program.

You can review the sessions that were offered here.

Some of the sessions were featured on the MACUL Conference Blog.

At the Annual Meeting on Friday, awards were given out:

Hope you can join us for the MACUL sessions next year!

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