Ohio and UK students vote for their topic on collaborative story

The students from Mrs. Danielson’s 4th grade class and Mr. Kemp’s class in Bamford Primary School voted on the topic for their collaborative story. The teachers exchanged topics created by their classes. By an over whelming vote by both classes the students selected the title Haunted House.

The story will involve two children playing a game of football (soccer to the US students). The ball get kicked into a garden and lost. The children plan to get the ball back the next day at school. Bamford Primary School will be creating the first chapter of the story and will present the chapter to Mrs. Danielson’s class for her class to continue the story writing chapter 2.

In addition to the writing project the students have been paired as pen pals for written expression activities. Blogs have been created for each of the paired students to share ideas over the blog. We look forward to seeing the writing that the students will share and the story.

Avon and Manor Primary School conduct virtual show and tell

Mrs. Masin’s 2nd graders and their partner class from Manor Primary School in Ivybridge United Kingdom conducted a virtual show and tell for their meet and greet session. The students from both classes brought in their favorite objects to help each other learn more about each other’s schools. The rooms were filled with stuffed animals, sports cards, books, monster trucks and a tremendous amount of excitement.

It was amazing how similar all of the students and there items were and the communication between the classes. This session occurred as the last activity of day for Manor, but with the extra bridge time students from both classes were able to talk beyond the scheduled time with students entering the room for after school activities. The teachers sat back and let the students share information about their clubs and after school activities. The session was a pleasant surprise for both groups.

It all “adds up” at the end of the day

Avon Middle School students were part of an observed lesson over videoconferencing with teachers from Columbiana County. As part of a collaboration with Columbiana County and Kent State University teachers from schools listed in academic emergency by the Ohio Department of Education observe schools that are scoring excellent rating on their report cards. Instead of pulling classroom teachers from their school to observe classes Columbiana County is using videoconferencing.

Avon Middle School moved their Polycom to a smaller cart that was placed at the back of the classroom while Mr. Cable ran his class as he would any other day. The teachers connected through an MCU in Columbus observed the lesson from start to finish. When the students left Mr. Cable stayed connected to answer questions about the Avon Math department and the structure of his classes.

This was the first time the Avon Schools have participated in an online observation. We found this to be a great way to demonstrate the efforts of our staff and hope to do more programs like this for schools in our state. As a Technology Coordinator is was fun to see a class in action. I was impressed with the lesson and the student’s responses during the class and felt that Ben represented the district well.