Archive for November, 2008

Getting Ready for RAP Registration to Open Dec. 1

Published November 25, 2008 RAP Leave a Comment

We’re getting geared up for Read Around the Planet registration to open on December 1.

Website Reorganized
We’ve reorganized the website to make it clearer the steps to follow. Check it out if you haven’t recently. Note especially the new “Registration Tips” section.

Verification
As usual, verification is the big chore of this phase of the project. Here’s where we are right now:

  • There are 1091 equipment profiles in CAPspace and 693 are verified. Most of the 400-ish profiles not done yet are waiting for “Self-Verification”, which is a fairly easy step for those of you who participated last year. You can read more about verification here.
  • There are 304 coordinator level accounts in CAPspace who haven’t created equipment profiles yet. We’ll be contacting you soon to help you get past the verification hurdle.
  • There are just over 1000 teacher level accounts who aren’t hooked to verified equipment. We’re working on finding who the coordinators are for these teachers and contacting them to help connect them to equipment profiles in CAPspace where appropriate.
  • Almost 700 of you are “hooked” to verified equipment and ready for registration to open on December 1.

So we’re making nice progress on the verification phase.

Registration opens on December 1, and you’ll get another email from CAPspace with additional details.

Remember, if you get stuck on verification, email Janine Lim. All other Read Around the Planet and CAPspace questions go to Sue Porter. We’re looking forward to another record year for Read Around the Planet!

We the Kids

Published November 19, 2008 We The Kids Leave a Comment

Today we have 8 classes participating in the first ever project of TWICE’s new project called We the Kids. This project was designed to help us meet our new Michigan curriculum for 4th grade. Teachers who used to do the Michigan Week Exchange project need videoconferences for their new curriculum.

The session I’m watching right now is between a class in St. Joseph, MI and a class in Alief ISD, TX in the Houston area. The project was open to TWICE members.

The classes start with an introduction about their area and get to know each other.

Next the classes presented their posters each section of the Constitution Preamble and explained what each phrase meant. The classes rotated back and forth sharing the phrases.

  • Phrase 1: do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
  • Phrase 2: establish justice
  • Phrase 3: insure domestic tranquility
  • Phrase 4: provide for the common defense
  • Phrase 5: promote the general welfare
  • Phrase 6: secure the blessings of liberty

After this, the classes took some time to ask each other questions. Teachers had the students prepare questions ahead of time.

Teachers used Marzano’s research based non-linguistic representations strategy to help the students understand the abstract concepts in the Preamble.

We hope more classes will take advantage of this program next time! We’re still trying to figure out when it fits best in the school year due to the changing Michigan curriculum.

Calling All Distance Learning Super Stars…

Published November 17, 2008 Awards Leave a Comment

Do you know a person or an organization that deserves special recognition for their accomplishments in Distance Learning?  The programming they provide?  The support or great ideas they offer?  If so, please take the time to nominate a person for the Presidential Award or an organization for the Board of Directors Award from TWICE.  The nomination forms are available through this link:

http://www.twice.cc/awards.html

You can also view the past winners of both awards.

Nominations are not due until December 1st, 2008- there is plenty of time to make a decision and submit a nomination.  Winners will be selected by January 1st, 2009 and recognized at the 2009 MACUL conference.
Please submit your forms to Danielle Letter.

RAP Update Nov. 13, 2008

Published November 13, 2008 CAPspace , RAP Leave a Comment

It’s time for an update on developments for Read Around the Planet.

Verification

New Ways to Get Help!
We’ve added some new ways to get help and to assist schools new to Read Around the Planet:

Need Help? Want to ask questions live?
This year we’ve set up some times when you can dial in and ask questions. The IP address is 198.109.240.180. (Please do NOT call this number except at the times listed.)

* November 21, 9-11am EST / 8-10am CST / 7-9am PST / 2-4pm UK
* November 21, 1-3pm EST / 12-2pm CST / 11-1pm PST / 6-8pm UK
* December 12, 9-11am EST / 8-10am CST / 7-9am PST / 2-4pm UK

Staff Meeting Overview
In addition, if you are new to Read Around the Planet and would like one of us to give a 10-15 minute overview to your teachers, please email 2009 RAP Coordinator Sue Porter. We’ll do our best to schedule some time for you if we can.

New States
We’re getting interest from states that haven’t participated before or have had low participation. For example Nebraska and Florida are new this year. We’re also getting more interest from Wisconsin and Ohio than we’ve had in the past.

So far things are moving along smoothly, thanks to all of you who help make this happen!

ASK Author: Clever Beatrice

Published November 13, 2008 ASK Leave a Comment

This week we’ve had 8 sessions of TWICE ASK programs with author Margaret Willey on her book Clever Beatrice. It’s been a great week with lots of great questions from the students.

  • Did you ever trick anyone when you were younger?
  • Do you think Beatrice was lonely with no brothers and sisters?
  • I liked the details that you used to describe the woods. Where did you get the idea for the setting?
  • Did you find some of this story in history books or did you make it all up yourself?
  • Do you go places to research or do you stay home and research on the Internet?
  • Have you ever written a story with a setting not in Michigan?
  • Why did the illustrator make Beatrice’s hair stick out like that?
  • What would you call the giant if he had a name?
  • Why are there a lot of trees in the story?
  • How did the giant get rich?
  • Who is the lumberjack on the back of the book?
  • Did you think of the title first or the story?

By the way, you too can participate in a TWICE ASK program. We just opened up registration for 2nd semester!

New Equipment Profile Icons

Published November 4, 2008 CAPspace , RAP Leave a Comment

In preparation for Verification work for Read Around the Planet, we’ve released an update to CAPspace that helps us all know who is connected to verified equipment.

If you login to CAPspace and go to My Profile, you may see additional icons. For example, in the screen shot below, the IP and ISDN icons are colored. This shows that I’m connected to verified equipment that can connect IP or ISDN.

Equipment Icons

If you are connected to equipment, but it hasn’t been verified yet, you’ll see a grey icon like this:
ip-unverified

If you aren’t connected to equipment at all, then you won’t see the icons.

So what?
Why does this matter?

  • To register for Read Around the Planet (or other matching events in CAPspace), your profile should be connected to verified equipment. So this icon helps us all know your status.
  • You may also find it useful when selecting partners for Collaborations. While most everyone who has an account in CAPspace has access to videoconferencing, this icon can tell you whether they are connected to an equipment profile for Read Around the Planet and if the equipment is verified on how it connects.

I don’t have the icon, what do I do?
It only matters if you want to participate in Read Around the Planet (or other matching events in CAPspace). 

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