Videoconferencing Out on a Lim

My Michigan friends, if you’re going to the MACUL conference, don’t miss Linda McConville’s session on Read Around the Planet on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. in the TWICE room, W2-66. Linda’s class, back at her school, will be connecting to Bishop Gore School in Swansea, South Wales, in the United Kingdom.

I just received a CC of the emails between the two teachers, and look what a treat we’ll listen to from Wales!

Our pupils are divided in to 2 groups, one of whom will cover information and images about Swansea; the other half will explain the history and current details about our school. We have just held our patron Saint’s day at school ( St. David’s Day on 1st March) when we celebrate with an ‘Eisteddfod‘ which is a cultural presentation of music, song, dance, poetry and literature. My class, 7S, won the category of Welsh song, and they will perform this on Friday to conclude their presentation.

Just a little taste of the exciting sessions we’ll experience in the TWICE room, W2-66, this year!

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Thanks to Google Alerts I can share with you some more newspaper articles on Read Around the Planet.

• North Dakota & Alabama
• Rural Hall, NC connects to Michigan and England (two of my schools are in this list).
• Edmonton, Alberta Public Schools
• Dowagiac, Michigan (one of my schools) connects to Pennsylvania.

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One use of videoconferencing that I don’t write about too often is meetings! This week in three days we have 6 meetings totaling 30 hours of VC time here at the ISD. We are located 2 hours away from Lansing, where most meetings happen. Who wants to drive 2 hours to Lansing, sit in a 2 hour meeting, and drive 2 hours home??

Our superintendent has been strongly encouraging staff to participate in meetings via videoconferencing to save time and money.

It takes some time for people to get used to meeting over videoconferencing, so encouragement certainly helps. But after they’ve had a few successful meetings, they are hooked! Our staff are also getting to the point where they can run the camera and mute button themselves, so I just get them started and they are ready to go.

We have so many this week that I’ve been scrambling to get rooms set up for all the meetings. I’m starting to think it would be nice to have an office dedicated to one person meetings. Another item for my wish list!

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