1.• Turn down for what?”,

Turn up!, Swag (money),

LOL,“Great selfie--

Mupload that ish to

Facebook!”, I can’t even!,

KK, Cray Cray, Hashtag

WHATEVER, Me importa

un pimiento, Que chulo,

Me lo pasé pipa, Que

Guay, …

• Kids CONNECTING!

2• I'm Fran Siracusa, and

I believe in kids

connecting by

TALKING IT UP.

• What do kids want to

do in the classroom?

(Pause) What do kids

love? (Pause) They

love TALKING with

each other. Even

better, they love talking

with kids far away in

another country!

3• Who remembers taking a

couple years of World

Language classes in high

school, yet still can’t TALK

their way out of el baño?

Or sadly, your most

treasured memory of

Spanish class was when

the teacher was absent

and you didn’t have to

REPEAT phrases in boring

drills. Is this what we want

for our kids?

4• Imagine TODAY, where

instead, students are so

tech-savvy and

education-entertained...

We teachers ought to,

should be REQUIRED

to, empower our

students with

personalized creative

learning experiences

that MAKE them want to

learn and CONNECT!

5• For example, how do we

encourage them to

WANT to learn in a

language

classroom? ...to WANT

to connect globally? I

think back, & textbooks,

worksheets and drills

are NOT the way to do it,

unless some of you out

there miss your 9th

grade rote

memorization?!?!

6• How can I the Spanish

teacher get them to want to

talk, and later, TO WORK with

other students, digitally and

across the globe? First, you

have to find the OTHER

students! My favorite place to

search is “Mystery Skype:

Skype in the Classroom.”

Why ... Because teachers on

Skype Education want to be

found and WANT their

students to talk!

7• Or, one can go to 1. The

Global Education

Conference, or 2.

iEARN ... Or a personal

favorite of mine: 3. Flat

Connections or 4. The

Global Classroom Project.

Use these FORUMS to

find useful teacher

contacts, connect with

those teachers, try out a

Mystery Skype, and then

find out if those teacher

contacts are as

dedicated to

“edutainment” as you are.

8• You can also contact a rep at

the Ministry of Education in

(your desired) country, and

ask for a list of

technologically-advanced or

creative-minded schools.

Write those schools, contact

those teachers. Next, after

you establish a relationship

with a teacher by email or

Skype, offer up an idea for a

Global Project, and then GO!

9• Next, in the planning

part, find the

CREATIVITY tools that

the students will use. Is

it an iPad with apps? Is

it a PC with web 2.0

tools? Is it simply just

Skype? You decide

which is best for you

and your class. But to

catch the students

HOOK, LINE, and

SINKER, remember,

choose useful tools and

apps, make it project-

based, and definitely

MAKE IT FUN.

10• Reminder: What is so

important for you as the

teacher: FOCUS on the

content, NOT the

technology! As Russo

wrote in a recent

Edutopia article, "Focus

on the skills and

knowledge you hope

students will gain, not

the technology itself or

even the "global-ness" of

the activity" (Edutopia,

Russo, 2007, 2012).

11• Give the students a TASK or

a project. Structure the

project and give them

guidelines. But then, let

them go to do what best

works for them. Let them tell

you their ideas. Then, don’t

just let them have a

conversation online—they

need a task and a focus! A

PRODUCT should always

be a part of the experience,

whether the project is a

report, video or song.

12• Pedagogically, provide

students a meaningful, skill-

developing experience.

• PLAN STRATEGICALLY,

because time flies in a class

period. Much of the work

will be done on “their own

time.” They will want to

Skype every day during

class time but you need to

plan it so as a class, they

just meet together a couple

times (during your

classroom time).

13• Now my personal story:

• This year in my Middle School

Spanish classes in preparation for

our Int’l Trip to Spain, I aimed to

foster teamwork and collaboration.

I created an off-shoot project tied

into this year’s Global Happiness

Project. Next, after sending out a

letter and speaking to a rep from

the Ministry of Education of Spain,

I was put into contact with a

couple schools and found Inés

and Diego from Colegio Decroly in

Madrid, who were willing to work

with me.

14• 14 Our FL & Spain classes separately

investigated “the topics” and then had

to collaboratively and digitally write/

sing/produce their own “reaction” with

regards to their 2 separate

hometowns in 1 project.

• Our favorite apps we used were: Google Earth (to find each other) at the same time we used Skype (to talk live with each other) and Edmodo (to talk/write asynchronously). Next, the students chose 2 songs in which to co-write “parodies” and used Google Docs and Skype (simultaneously again to work). I even used Nearpod in conjunction with Skype with both groups simultaneously in an exploratory exercise at the beginning.

15• 15. Next, we MET in

person (one time) in Spain

for three hours. The kids

examined their written

parodies, tweaked and

wrote a little more. They

took pictures and video-

recorded pieces of the

song, both singing and

acting silly. Our students

brought their iPads to

share and with which to

work.

16• In Spain ...Ratio: two

iPads to four kids.

• Separately, our kids used

GarageBand to record

the song pieces; Keynote

and Haiku Deck to create

the images and slides;

and finally iMovie to put it

all together. The

possibilities are

endless…

17• 17. Again, what were the

students’ favorite Creativity

and Productivity apps?

(Pause) iMovie,

GarageBand and Google

Docs…favorite

Communication apps?

Skype, Edmodo, and

Nearpod.

• ISTE Standards for

Students that were met?

Communication &

Collaboration

18• Were there Challenges?

Yes! We had to cross the

hurdles of:

• time-zone differences,

technology barriers, reliable

internet, innovative

teachers to work with,

having to establish several

student Skype accounts to

allow for pairs working

together across the globe,

travel expense of visiting

LIVE, …

19• In the end, students

developed their

communication skills in native

and target languages, created

multi-cultural understanding

and experienced a taste of

future workforce

preparedness. But most

importantly, they

CONNECTED emotionally

with real people, made new

friends, and did what all kids

love to do: they TALKED!

20• The best part was

that they each have

a digital memento

that they could keep

forever to remember

the experience in

THE VIDEO. Now

that’s worth TALKING

about!

• Read more at

ourglobalprojects.blo

gspot.com