FlipPals anyone?

[tomerf]

Last summer the idea was floated to connect classrooms through the exchange of flipcharts. I ended up connecting with an amazing teacher from Ohio, Laura Smith , and we exchanged a couple of fun, engaging fc's created by students for students. Several goals were met: writing for an authentic audience, motivating research about community on many levels, and (of course) integrating technology in meaningful ways.

I would enjoy pairing up with classrooms from anywhere on the Planet. 4th graders (9-10 years old) in my district study the continents. This is also a great activity for us to learn about our state (Illinois) so a couple of partnerships would be ideal.

If this sounds interesting, please send me a private message. I had a lot of fun with this last year and hope to make it a regular part of our year.

Tom Erf
Washington School
Evanston, IL USA

[davidlloyd]

That's a great idea Tom. Could you post your experiences and flipcharts please?

[markrobinson]

This also sounds like a nice article for the blog...

http://blog.Prometheanplanet.com

Do please post some info..

[hlh422]

Tom,

That is a great idea! I teach just down the hall from Laura and heard a little about your partnership. (And you're right, she is an amazing teacher!) I would love to do the same with any third grade teachers out there (8-9 year olds) if anyone is interested.

[Margaret Allen]

Having posted that original thread I am thrilled you are up for it. We have had some success with this. A school in the US is joining up with a school in the UK and sharing a flipchart or two through stories. I saw this as a sort of way of being a bit more creative other than just using email....

I also then saw it as a way of hopefully populating the children's area of Planet....

Lets get this humming with exchanges from all over the Globe or the Planet!!

[htemske]

Maybe it could be mentioned at NECC and Boston user group too. I'm sure there are lots of great canidates out there that might not be following all the forum activity. I had been a user for 1.5 year and hadn't even been in here until it was talked up at the Sarasota user group.

[caroleu]

Heather (Hamker)

I teach 3rd grade in Baton Rouge, LA. I think this is a great idea and I'd be interested in a flipchart exchange. Would this be a flipchart about the class, the area, or what? BTW, I recognize your name from flipcharts I've downloaded and used!

Carole Underwood

[hlh422]

Thanks Carole! I'm glad you found my flipcharts useful!( I'll PM you about your post and working together.)

Here's another idea for the forum that I was thinking of... I'm sure you guys have heard of the traveling teddy bears...Flat Stanley's, etc. In the past, I've done a traveling teddy bear around the world and each class would send something back to my classroom about their region. We learned a little about geography as well as that part of the world. What about a traveling flipchart? Every few weeks the flipchart would get sent to a new classroom and that classroom would add a page or two to the flipchart about their area and then send it off to another classroom? By the end there'd be a whole flipchart of different places that everyone could use in their classroom. Instead of a traveling teddy bear or class mascot, it could be the Traveling Promethean Man. There's no postage, no items to mail... just a flipchart that the class would devise? Any thoughts on trying something like this? If anyone wants to take part and give it a try, I can work on putting something together.

[srchlc]

I teach fifth, but if you are interested in multiple grades, I'm in!

Holli

[Rosie MacAlpine]

I've just got to add that I love your idea of the travelling flipchart Heather!
The Amazing Adventures of Flippy the Flipchart...