All Good Things!

I can't believe how fast this semester has went. Today was the last day to see my students. I will miss them all so much.

I want them to stay in touch with me so I have designed a blog just for them. You can see it at http://edgems.wordpress.com/.

Thank you to all of the parents and Grand-Parents and Great Grand-Parents who made our Skype unit a success. The kids were so excited. Do you remember when it was long distance to call from Trenton to Seven Mile? Now, we can Skype across the world for free! Amazing!

Skype in Room 301 on PhotoPeach



Thank you for sharing your amazing children with me. I hope I can continue to be a positive influence in their lives. Please contact me ANYTIME if there is anything I can do for you. pharesr@edgewood.k12.oh.us

What do you do while we are at school?

We will be starting our Internet video conferencing unit this week and my students will be introduced to "skype." To make this experience intriguing to my students I would like to involve as many parents and grandparents as possible.

My plans include skyping with parents or grandparents. If you have a computer with a webcam, you will be able to skype (video chat) with your son or daughter's class.

Here is how I envision the project:

Before the Skype Date:

• Your son/daughter will learn about skype in class.
• Your son/daughter will help you set up your skype account and instruct you on how to use the software.

Skype Date:

• Your son/daughter will be responsible for placing the skype call to you.
• Once the connection is established they will ask you the following questions.

1. What is your job title? ( Grandparents could speak about what they retired from. Of course, I believe stay-at-home parents is an occupation in itself.)
2. What is your top job description? What do you do at work?
3. What is the one piece of advice you would have for students my age?

The entire process will take you about 5-10 minutes and will be an incredible help to our class.

Can you help? Please email me at pharesr@edgewood.k12.oh.us .

Thank you

Skype

Below you will find a copy of a letter that was sent home to you with your child on Tuesday, December 14. A permission slip is needed for this activity. An online permission slip has been provided at the end of this post.

Dear Parents,

Skype is a free program that allows you to make videophone calls via your computer. It allows our students to see and hear each other. They can build academic relationships while collaborating on projects, sharing information and creating knowledge.

I believe we must vigilantly supervise students while teaching them about video conferencing. Here is how I plan on introducing them to Skype:

1. After introducing the students to Skype I plan on supervising them while they set up their profiles. This will be online profile so their safety and security is my number one concern.

· Students will only use their first name and last initial.

· Students will not provide an email address.

· Students will not complete their profile.

· I will provide students with a usernames and passwords.

2. After students set up their account, each student will call my Skpye account. During that call I will look at their profile information and confirm it is safely set up.

3. Students will then be able to begin to call other students in the classroom.

4. After I have spoke with each students I will demonstrate how to conference with two or more people.

5. We will discuss Skype safety and other issues.

As of now, we have two Skpye appointments set up for the first week of January. We will be making contact with the third grade class from Minnesota that we have been blog buddies with and the Edgewood Pre-K classes.

HOW CAN YOU HELP WITH THIS EXCITING PROJECT?

If you have a web cam, you also can Skype. I am planning on having a “What do I do while your at school?” day. I am asking parents to spend no more then 5 minutes during their child’s class time to talk to our class. We would like to know what you do during your day? Your child will be in charge of facilitating the session.

· The student will help parent set up their Skype account.

· The student will coordinate the Skype appointment between the parent and Mrs. Phares.

· The student will place a test call.

· The student will facilitate the classroom Skype call.

PLEASE COMMENT BELOW IF YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN A SKPYE CALL WITH OUR CLASS.

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I WILL NEED TO HAVE PARENTAL PERMISSION BEFORE STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO USE SKYPE IN MY CLASSROOM. YOU CAN FILL OUT A PERMISSION SLIP HERE. http://tinyurl.com/26vyo6l

Book Trailers, Third Grade Friends and Skype

Wow! We have been busy in room 301! My amazing students used their developing multi-media skills to create book trailers. After choosing their favorite books, they developed a storyboard and created a 30 second to 60 second iLife movie. Like usual, I was amazed at the level of their performance. Take a look at this book trailer by Kyle H.

My first three periods have been blogging buddies with a third grade class from Wisconsin. (Periods five through eight will have blog buddies next week.) I found this class through one of my Twitter contacts. This week they designed a Holiday greeting and posted it to their blogs. The third grade class was then able to practice their "comment" skills by writing back to us. You can see the results here.

• Period Two http://kidblog.org/PeriodTwo2/
• Period Three http://kidblog.org/ThirdPeriod2/
• Period Four http://kidblog.org/PeriodFour3/

This week we are busy working on our personal websites. Students were able to choose the topic and design a three page website. This is all new for them and the process is taking a bit longer then I thought. I am sure the results will be worth the wait.

SKYPE IS COMING

Very soon we are going to begin our unit on Video conferencing. We will be using Skype so students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. I am really looking forward to this opportunity. PLEASE LOOK FOR A SKYPE PERMISSION SLIP TO COME HOME TO YOU SOON.

You can send our class a word of encouragement by sending a comment below. Thank you for your support.