20100107_Skype Call and Updates

Dear Anne,
Thanks for your help in setting up today's Skype call with your 4th graders. Your kids were wonderful and believe me, my kids are a lot louder than they were on the call. I keep trying to get them loud at the right times :-) Please tell me the name of your 4th grade teacher. I can't quite make it out on the audio of the call. She was great!
We have put together a 40 sec. snippet of the call and posted it on the website. The call was over 20 min so the file is too large for the site. I hope we can get of few more calls posted. I put it on the 'our videos' page.
The program I used to record the call is 'Call Recorder' It has a 7-day free trial if you wish to take advantage. If you like it and wish to purchase, it is $20. It comes on automatically when a Skype connection is made.

Pizzicato, your schedule works for us. We can try a three-way call. If we have problems, you can chat with Anne for 10 or 15 minutes and then call us to take a turn with you. You and Anne work out the time and we will match up with you.

Judy, this call will be at @ 7 pm for us. Not all of my kids will be there, so it would be great if some of yours could join us.

Everyone, please include Judy when doing team emails. She is very much a partner in our project. Her kids are doing some amazing things that will be on the site soon.

Also - we need banners and backgrounds
- we need more podcasts + comments on those posted
- we need more blog posts + comments on those posted
- we need someone to create of collage of student pictures - tell me who will do it and I will email our pics.
- we need to have out students continue to post on NiceNet.
MOST IMPORTANT
- we need to create additional content showing the "Helping Focus" that GBSI requires.
IDEAS?
-We will be sharing some philanthropy stories involving plants we have grown at our school.

Hey, just thought of something that combines some ideas I have read or heard about.
What if one or more of us could each plant a tree of some variety on our school's property. I know schools in Croatia and Israel who planted an olive tree together as a symbol of peace. Olive trees don't grow here. But I digress. Our tree could be a pine but our ground could still be frozen after GVC ends. Here is the idea. Our students send each other letters and cards of friendship and goodwill. As the tree is being planted put the letters in the hole. The idea is that as the letters decompose, they are absorbed by the roots and become a part of the tree and the tree becomes a memorial to our friendship - a living, GVC0906 Memorial. Thoughts?

Anyway, I know this was long. Just had a lot on my mind.

All the best,

Rick

20100106_GVC Team 6

FROM: Global Virtual Classroom


Chia, Rick and Anne-

I hope that most of us are returning from a break and are refreshed, reenergized and ready to go! I know that I definitely needed the break and now I am ready for the big push. We are reaching a critical time in the GVC Contest. We have only a few months left to complete the project before the deadline. We have done a lot of great work so far and we need to continue with that great work over the next couple of months.

I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that I am here for you. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or just want to say hi, please do not hesitate to email me. I am here to help you, your students and your team succeed.

I am very proud of the work that we all have been doing and the opportunities we provide our students. Let’s continue with the tremendous effort and the amazing work.

Thanks,
Charley

20091230_SKYPE

Hi Helen and Pizzicato. Hi to each member of our team.

Anne tells me that she is going to do a SKYPE call with you. We love Skyping, too. I need to know your skype username. Mine is richardalanglass. I will try to join Monday but our students are out of school. They return Tuesday. I will be working, though. I have a program called Call Recorder. It will record the audio and video of a two-way Skype call. If you or Anne can record your call, that would be a great video to add to the site. Let's try to set up a time for our students to share as well and I will record it, too. If I did the math correctly, we are 13 hours different. 7 am your time would be 6 pm our time. If that is not too early for you, I could have some of my kids meet me in the early evening here. I have never been able to do a 3-way video (audio only) conference with skype, only two-way, but at least the audio is good. If you or Anne know of a way to record a 3-way video call, let me know.

Happy New Year to each of you,

Rick

20091228_Good morning everyone

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. Helen sent me some great things from Raey Guang. I have posted two new podcasts by their students. She also sent me a great group of slides by featuring Professor Lai and his program on plants they are studying. The slide show is featured in the Our Albums section. Those things are loading as I type this note. So if you check the site immediately, you might have to refresher your browser in about ten minutes. You are each doing great things with your students. Keep up the wonderful work.

Best to you,

Rick

GVC- Did you received this?

This message is forwarded through Nicenet's
Internet Classroom Assistant
-------------------------------------------
FROM: Global Virtual Classroom


Hi GVC Teachers,

If you have already received this message, I apologize, but my records indicate that I have not received a response from you regarding the situation. Please read the following and respond. Thank you.

We have heard from some of you that our emails are not getting through your spam filters. Some of you have also told us that you must send us an email and for us to reply to your email in order to get through the spam filter. If this is the case for you, please send us an email so that we can reply to you.

We also need to see if we are able to communicate with you through this Nicenet site. The emails that are sent from this site are forwarded to your using your given email address. We need to test to see if you get this email.

Please reply to this email with a "YES" so we will know that this email has reached you.

Thanks,

Charles Esley
and
Andrew Ezzell

20091223_Website updates

Hi everyone.

I believe I have uploaded everything you have sent to me. The podcast from Raey Guang is wonderful. The Living Museum pix from John Muir are excellent. I have a good bit from Harrison to get put up yet, but I think we are looking pretty good. I know the site map needs updated but I will probably let that go until I am sure of our pages. Keep sharing your feedback. I need to know your thoughts and ideas.

Merry Christmas,

Rick

Reminder of Judging Criteria

This message is forwarded through Nicenet's
Internet Classroom Assistant
-------------------------------------------
FROM: Global Virtual Classroom


Dear GVC Participants-

I hope this messages finds everyone well and hopefully most of us are getting a well-deserved break. I just wanted to remind everyone of the judging criteria that we use for the judging for the 2009/2010 contest.

Consistent with the goals of our sponsoring organization - the Give Something Back International Foundation – in 2008 we added a new criterion related to the "Helping Focus" of your websites. The breakdown of the now four criteria is as follows:

- Content (25%): To what degree is the website appealing to a worldwide audience?

- Presentation (25%): How well is the information presented? How well does it use the Web medium?

- NEW in 2008- Helping Focus (20%): To what extent does the website help users share cultural differences and/or understand environmental or social responsibilities and/or helps others and/or learn about key topics or issues?

- Collaboration (30%): How fully did the students participate in the project? How well did they work together to create their website?

As you can see, the Helping Focus criteria is an extension of the Content criteria, explicitly encouraging teams to include content related to advocacy or involvement in the topic of the site.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your hard work and participation in the GVC Contest.

Charles Elsey
GVC Program Manager

綺_Website updates

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of the great materials you sent today. Anne, I put introductory things on the Muir page with hyperlinks to two more pages. I would like to know your thoughts.
Helen, your pictures are in the albums page and best of all, the hard copies you sent arrived today. My kids were so excited. We took a lot of pictures and those are on the site as well.
My kids added a two podcasts and made many more that we will have to edit. Both the blog and the podcasts pages have reply buttons for kids and us to respond. As this grows, we should each respond from time to time.

So please, take a few minutes this weekend and check it out. I'm looking forward to your advice and comments.

Rick

Practice site update

Hi guys, Rick just sent a update news to us.
He mentioned the growth of the practice website and also what teachers and students should do in the following days.
He also mentioned the podcasts, and he added very good videos from him and his students.
I think maybe we can also create videos and make them podcasts!!
Take a look at Rick's letter below.

Pizzicato


Hi everyone.

Our blog is now working on the practice site. We wrote an entry and set up to allow responses. We would like to have many entries from each school. Give your students a topic, have them write a few paragraphs and email it to me. If you have a photo to go with it, please send that as well. Anne and Joy, a few stories about Camp Palomar would be perfect. Pizzicato and Helen, we would love to see stories from your students. Judy, this would be a good venue for our philanthropy activities.

The warehouse page is up, but I renamed it the greenhouse page. It is for student work we are waiting to place. Let's see what grows here. :-)

We added our first student-created link on Harrison's Native Trees and Plants page. The kids were really excited about this. It is about the American Elm tree. The student did a great job on citing his work.

I am also ready for podcasts. Do each of you have the means to create them? They are really simple, especially if you have a Mac. If not, Send me a video of yourself or the student(s) who record it. I can convert most formats, but make your file sizes as small as possible to save space on our site. The same is true for movies you make as well as slide shows. Let me know what formats you are recording in so I can plan accordingly. Students will also be able to post comments to the podcasts. I will try to post one or two tomorrow as an example.

Don't hesitate to create a podcast, write a blog post or respond to those of others. GVC likes to see the teachers sharing with each other and with the students. Everyone on the team needs to show collaboration.

Please let me know weekly what your students are doing so I can post the information in our report on Nicenet.

Thanks,
Rick

GVC Reminders

We just got a letter from the GVC committee.
Take a look at what they said:


Dear GVC Participants:

It has been a great start to the contest this year and I am very excited to see the progress of each team and how excited the students are during this time.

I would like to also take this chance to remind all teams that each week I should receive a progress report from one member of your team. This helps me get a closer look at what your team is doing, where you are planning to go and it will help me provide any assistance that is necessary.

Lastly, each team is also asked to send me a Team Plan. For those of you who have not yet submitted your team plan, please include the website topic, any plans to overcome challenges (such as differing school schedules and language differences), a statement describing how often teachers and teams will be in contact, and a schedule for putting the website together.

Keep working hard and as always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask or send me an email. Thanks for all that you do.


Charles Elsey
GVC Program Manager

GVC- Did you received this?

GVC committees concern if we can get their mails.
We do!
So, just take a look at their mail.

Hi GVC Teachers,

We have heard from some of you that our emails are not getting through your spam filters. Some of you have also told us that you must send us an email and for us to reply to your email in order to get through the spam filter. If this is the case for you, please send us an email so that we can reply to you.

We also need to see if we are able to communicate with you through this Nicenet site. The emails that are sent from this site are forwarded to your using your given email address. We need to test to see if you get this email.

Please reply to this email with a "YES" so we will know that this email has reached you.

Thanks,

Charles Esley
and
Andrew Ezzell

FROM: Global Virtual Classroom

Chia, Rick and Anne-

I just wanted to check in with the team and see how things are going.

It appears as though we have made some progress but I would like to see the communication increase between the students over the next few weeks. We are getting to the time where the site topic needs to be decided and the content starting to be developed.

Keep working and having fun.

Charley

Idea from Rick

Our partner, Rick, is ready to set up a website called Friendship Blossoms. This meaningful name is from Rick's students. It means as we share our learning, we help each other blossom and strengthen our roots. He also hope us to send lots of pictures, slideshows and videos on Friendship Blossoms.


Rick said,

My Tech Club has been working hard on our practice site. It is simple and will include everything our students submit. We will send you the URL this week. Here are some questions.

Here is our big idea for our site. Last week, when I shared Anne's native plants ideas with my students, I asked them to find a connection to the Helping Focus. They would like to suggest this to you and your students - Friendship Blossoms. Their thoughts were these: We each have roots like the plants we are studying. When we do our best, we bloom and blossom. As we share our learning, we help each other blossom and strengthen our roots. We prune our work and ourselves in order to show our best. Sharing our learning will help us become great friends and we will share our best together. They are anxious to hear what you think.

Please send lots of pictures, of everything. Collages of students are nice touches for the site. Slideshows and videos of elements of our projects will also be important. If you have kids who can make some music loops in Garage Band, we can find places to use them. For example, one school could create a podcast of part of an event and a loop from another school could be added to the track. The third school could create a page background or frame for the podcast. That kind of shared work is valuable for our students and makes judges smile.

plants would be a good theme

Dear Anne and Rick:

Sorry for the late reply. In the past few weeks, our team discussed the topic we are going to discuss with you and we also think that plants would be a good theme. We think that our students can start from campus plants and move toward tropical plants in our hometown or in Taiwan. Students will be expected to do free research on plants they are interested in. If possible, students will also be given tours to some of the plants centers in our province or they will be given lectures about plants. And, students can also make art crafts about plants, such as dried flowers or leaves. What do you think?

Students have been working on the introduction of Ping-tung and they will be done next week and sent to you then. If you have any introduction of your hometown, please kindly send to us, too. We can introduce you to our students!!


Best Regards,

Chia-pin

GVC Team FTP Information

FROM: Global Virtual Classroom


Here's the ftp information for access to your GVC webspace...

HOST http:// gvc0906.gvc09.virtualclassroom.org
USER ID gv09c06
PASSWORD 06g09vc



Your webspace is limited to 200mb. Please keep that in mind if you intend on using significant video components in your site. While you may use some video for introductory and team-building purpose but not for your site, if you run low on space, you'll want to consider deleting non-site material.

Your material should be placed in the httpdocs directory at your domain.

Keeping in mind the fact that this may not be the final long-term server location for your site, be sure to used "relative" linking for links and images within your site.

When building your sites, please do not use filenames that are spelled the same but are different in case (filename.html and FileName.html, for example) in the same directory. The server we use for development accepts these as different files, but one of them gets lost in the transfer process. Please name your files distinctly.

Also, please use the standard .html suffix for you pages instead of .htm

Also, if you use the webspace for things that are related to your team process but not going to be part of the final public site content, please keep that team material in it's own directory, which you should name as "team_temp", which will be deleted for long term storage of the site.

FROM: Global Virtual Classroom

HI to all 2009 GVC Teachers,

The following link is from a blog of a former GVC Teacher from 1999. He is writing about the GVC program and has a great video interview of his students that participated in the GVC Contest.

Check it out and you might want to let your students view the video and learn what it takes to be successful in the GVC Program.

http://betch.edublogs.org/2009/11/07/a-decade-of-global-learning/

Hello Team:

Hello Team:

I wanted to check in with everyone and make sure that we are all progressing. If you have not enrolled your students yet, please do so as soon as possible. If you have any questions on how that process, please do not hesitate to ask. Also, it is important that the students and the teachers are communicating, getting to know one another and sharing ideas. Thanks for participating in the program.

Charley
GVC Program Manager


Class Name: rgps2009
Your Class Key: 9282Z92R94

Welcome to the 2009/10 GVC Contest

Hello Global Virtual Classroom Contest Applicants...

Welcome to the GVC 2009/10 Contest.

This note is meant to acknowledge your application and provide you with
information on getting started and prepared for team assignments and start
of activity.

The purpose of this note is to provide you with information on entering the
GVC "Teacher's Lounge" set up for the program, and through it, re-confirm
your intention of participating. This area is open to teachers before teams
are assigned so you have time to get accustomed to the Nicenet environment
before your students get involved.

Once you are signed into the GVC "Teacher's Lounge," you'll see a message
from me in the "Conference" area instructing you to send me a "Personal
Message" through the Nicenet Internet Classroom Assistant system to let me
know that you have registered here and that you should be in the list of GVC
schools to be teamed up with others. If you have decided not to participate
in the GVC program after completing the online application, please let me
know by replying to this email without signing into the Nicenet "Teacher's
Lounge." And please do so before the September 25 deadline for applications.

OK -- To get you signed into the GVC 2009/10 Teacher's Lounge in Nicenet...

On the web, go to...< http://www.nicenet.org >

If you are new to the program this year, or if you have forgotten your login
information from previous years and want to set up a new username, click
where it says "Students: Join a Class" under "New Users Start Here." (Yes,
for this purpose, you are a "student.")

(If you have been part of the GVC program in past years and remember your
username and password, or if you can retrieve them via Nicenet's "Forgot
Your Password?" link on their front page, log in the way you used to, and
click on the "Join" link under "Classes" in the left column, and enter the
class key given below.)

You will be taken to a page that asks for a class key. Enter...

E276754GZ4

...in the space provided and click the "Join the Class" button.

You'll be taken to another form. This is designed to be a fast and easy way
to get started. You will have more options once you have joined your class
(the Teacher's Lounge in this case). The information you provide can be
changed later.

NOTE: Do not use this form if you already have a username and password that
you know and want to continue using. If you can access your user account
from previous year's programs, Log In (
http://www.nicenet.org/ICA/login.cfm ) and then join your class by following
the links under the Classes menu on the navigation.

The form makes a distinction between required and optional information. For
the GVC program, all of the listed items are REQUIRED:

Username: ----- WRITE THIS DOWN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
Password: ----- WRITE THIS DOWN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
Email*:
Email Confirmation*:
First Name:
Last Name:

When all these are entered, click the "Join the Class" button. You'll be
taken to a page that feeds back to you your user name. Hopefully, you wrote
down your password. You'll also be given some fine print about Nicenet and a
button to "Finish Registration." , click it.

Next stop is a page asking for your username and password. Enter them and
click on "Log in to the ICA" button. You'll be taken to the home page for
the GVC 2009/10 Teacher's Lounge, where you'll see access to personal
messages (for private or small group communication), conferencing (for
public messages), link sharing, and documents.

Before you start exploring the environment and interacting with each other,
look to the left for a link that says "Edit User Profile." Click it and add
an abbreviated name of your country in the "Phone" field to help identifying
yourself. I'm asking for an abbreviation because when teams are assigned at
the end of September, you'll be adding your team number to it as well and
don't want to use too much space.

(If you were a previous GVC participant from before we started using
Nicenet, make sure you identify your country in this way, and delete any old
GVC team number that you might have entered last year. Also, if you are a
previous participant, while you're in the User Profile page, be sure to
choose GVC 2009/10 Teacher's Lounge as your Default Class. Later, you'll
probably want to change this to your new team space.)

After adding your country abbreviation and default classroom, click on the
"Edit User Info" button at the bottom of the page, and you should find
yourself back at the Teacher's Lounge home page. Please explore the various
Nicenet features so you are ready to use them by the time your teams are
assigned and your students arrive. I'll be loading some information in the
conferencing and link sharing areas. Feel free to look through them, ask
questions, and contribute yourself. The conferencing area here will be the
primary center of communication between you and I during the program.

Once you're in, please explore what I've started in the Conferencing
section, and be sure to look for the posting there that asks for your
confirmation of successful entry into the Teachers' Lounge.

Let's have fun...I'll see you on the web....

Charles Elsey
GVC Program Manager

--
Charles Elsey
Program Manager
Global Virtual Classroom

ICA: GVC 2009/2010 Teachers Lounge

This message is automatically generated by Nicenet as confirmation of your registration in the Internet Classroom Assistant. Nicenet recommends saving this message for future reference.

Username: rgps015

(password not printed for security reasons)

Class Name: GVC 2009/2010 Teachers Lounge

Date Created: September 30, 2009

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