Google+ Hangouts: Cool Conversations and BookTalks Without Borders
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This is a story about Sister Libraries, Twitter, Google+ Hangout, and connecting kids! It all started with a Tweet by my dear friend & Tweep Tiffany Whitehead aka The Mighty Little Librarian and her awesome BFF EL teacher Alaina Laperouse both of Central Middle School in Baton Rouge Louisiana! She had been inspired by a Tweet she had seen about sister classrooms started between @heisereads and @brianwyzlic
- you know, like sister cities? She said she wanted a sister library
& I was like I'm willing!! After a few Tweets back and forth a bit to establish time zones (because
I'm an idiot when it comes to time zones!) we finally got our kiddos to meet and chat using Google+ Hangout! I've connected with classrooms before using Google Hangout before & blogged about it - but this was different, this was establishing a steady partnership!
Our first chat happened in Kristin Cullison's classroom with her 6th grade research seminar class (and my media helpers!). Tiff's kids didn't know where we were from so they asked my kids questions to discover our location - after a few clues (including steamed crabs and the Chesapeake Bay!) her kiddos correctly guessed Maryland! I shared that one of our favourite books was Weird Maryland and her kids said that they loved the book Weird Louisiana! It was a super fun moment of a shared love of urban legends where the kids each held up the respective books to show each other live & It was a magic moment! To celebrate this, the next day I sent them the Maryland book! LOVE Amazon Prime! (See pic below from Tiff) My kids were so impressed with the lovely behaviour & charming Louisiana accents of the CMS kiddos & were urging to connect again!
Our latest chat happened in our respective school libraries with the kiddos trading prepared book talks! Great for summer reading!
To extend this relationship for next year I'm thinking of having our kiddos both join United Classrooms where they can chat back & forth and have moderated discussions. Maybe share those urban legend stories and collaboratively create an urban legend wiki or group on Edmodo, or perhaps start a semi-virtual book club! A cool idea I haven't tried yet is we could create a chat room for the event with Today's Meet and using a second laptop or computer joining in the Hangout - sharing screen, you can have a moderated chat going on at the same time!
Google Hangout TIPS: • Practice beforehand!
• Make sure your plugins & browsers are updated & use Chrome!
• Sign in early
• Consider recording via YouTube it to embed or view later
• I added clip-on TV Studio lights nearby to improve the camera shot
• Have kids talking sit close to the laptop for better sound quality
• Practice with your kiddos speaking slowly & loudly - consider recording with a flip camera & previewing their performance
You can see ALL the pictures I took of this growing relationship on my Flickr slideshow below or skip directly to our gallery!
If you're interested in trying this out there is a Google+ Community for connecting Google classroom Hangouts! You can also check out the website Google Education OnAirto join in scheduled LIVE Google Hangouts, connect with other interested educators or get tech help to get started! The Twitter hashtag #eduonairconnects educators with other classrooms creating conversations & relationships.
Tiff was moderating our conversation with her official Harry Potter wand! Oh! Tiff & I are both ardent Harry Potter fans, so I have to share this amazing video below of Tiff - the Mighty Little Librarian getting her own wand! It's magical if you're an HP fan! My eyes got a little leaky about halfway through! [snif!]
Aww I love this post and I love that we now have our very own Sister Libraries!! Our kids have loved sharing book talks and hearing from your kiddos!! I'm SO excited to see what fun we get ourselves into next year!
Aww and I love that our kids got to see & talk to each other! Next year - watch out! Have a great last week of school - I'll try not to be too jealous! LOL ~Gwynnie
It's really awesome to read about your libraries without borders. Thanks for sharing your tips for using Google+ hangouts with students - you've inspired me to try it out.
Hello there dear blog readers and my Twitter / Instagram family and friends. Here's a kind of mirrored post that I put out on my Daring School Library blog for my kids, parents, and community . That post is pretty school and district specific but I thought I could post over here some resources from our national educational partners like PBS Learning Works, Capstone, PebbleGo, MackinVia, and Scholastic. Since our schools closed down last Friday companies have been very generous and forthcoming to provide FREE resources for our out of school kiddos. Seems like more are coming out every day. Please note that I a Middle Grades (ages 10-14) and Young Adult specific educator and not Primary or Elementary. There are plenty of great people out there for those little squiggles. Bless their hearts. Here's what I said: I’m not gonna lie, it’s kinda weird out there right now but I truly believe we’re going to be OK. Things will get back to normal. They always do. #History.
How to be a Teacher Librarian Rock Star - Branding Tips & Tricks First thing I gotta say, I don’t know that I really love the term Library Rockstars because I think ALL Teachers, Librarians, Teacher-Librarians, Educators....we're all rock stars or each of us has an inner rock star just waiting to come out. I also think it sounds a wee bit elitist. OK, a whole heck of a lot of elitist. But who doesn’t want to rock it at their job? (BTW, I was asked to write this "Rock Star" article for another publication and using the Rock Star theme was their choice - So, I'm answering their questions - I did the best I could! They highly edited my responses, and I think I ended up sounding like a total prat, but here they are in their entirety.) To what do you attribute your success? I try to...... Work hard Be Reliable Be Reflective Be Positive Hard work, a sense of humor, tenacity, and a stubbornly fought for positive mental and professional attitude. Yes,
I swear to you, yet again, dear reader, that I am NOT a paid spokesperson for Bitmoji! In fact, they haven't even answered, commented, acknowledged, or even liked ANY of my Tweets or Instagrams or blog posts where I've mentioned them. I am just a total fangirl. A lonely neglected ignored (by them!) fangirl. Wow, that sounded pathetic & needy. Truth hurts. But here I am again sharing something NEW that Bitmoji has brought out that I think is pretty cool for teachers! W00t! They've created, just in time for Back to School, NEW Education themed cartoons. With these new graphics, you can make classroom door signs, positive behavior or badge programs, run off on self-adhesive stickers for easy cute student feedback or add to your SMS Canvas messages & emails home! You can download the Bitmoji and then add your name using PicMonkey . I've blogged before about how much I LOVE PicMonkey . (Still, not on their payroll - just a fangirl, but at least th
Aww I love this post and I love that we now have our very own Sister Libraries!! Our kids have loved sharing book talks and hearing from your kiddos!! I'm SO excited to see what fun we get ourselves into next year!
ReplyDeleteAww and I love that our kids got to see & talk to each other! Next year - watch out! Have a great last week of school - I'll try not to be too jealous! LOL
Delete~Gwynnie
It's really awesome to read about your libraries without borders. Thanks for sharing your tips for using Google+ hangouts with students - you've inspired me to try it out.
ReplyDeleteChloe
Thanks Chloe! For your comment & your readership - we all inspire each other every day - make sure to Tweet me if you do a G+ hangout!
Delete~Gwyneth