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.

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).
  
• You can also email all the techs for an equipment profile.
  
• 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.
  

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.

• ASK Programs (Registration opens September 9). Note we have several new authors including a couple high school programs!
• Read Around the Planet. Registration opens December 1.
• Michigan Week Exchange and Where in Michigan? Registration opens March 1.
• Dates for We the Kids will be set in September.

Plan now for your 2009-2010 videoconferences!

Amy Young started by reading the book to the students.

• 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?

Students 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!

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.

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.

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!

• Read Around the Planet report from Region 12, TX
• Oyster Bay East Norwich Central School District, NY report plus great pictures!
• Read Around the Planet is Awesome from GST BOCES NY
• Rural Hall Elementary connects to NY and TX
• VC Rox’s RAP Notes for 2010 – check out her good ideas!
• Read Around the Planet takes students to Canada, a Newburgh, NY newspaper article
• High School French students enjoy Read Around the Planet
• Highlandtown, OH, Southern students compare notes with peers in Virginia, a newspaper article

Hope you can join us for this event next year!

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.

• 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?
• How 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!

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!

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:

• The Board of Directors organization award to Polycom for their support of Read Around the Planet and CAPspace
• The President’s Award individual award to Dawn Licht for her support and promotion of videoconferencing

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