Never underestimate the power of your own network, the use of Social Media to create connection and the willingness of really busy and important people to connect with students!
At the Warren School, the 3rd and 4th grade students in Heidi Hill’s classroom are doing research projects on topics they are interested in. Imagine that, no directive other than research something that you are interested in. The engagment was already there. They began their research as any typical student would… organizing their thoughts, googling their topics, finding their facts, fact checking and pulling relevant media and data into a presentation. All aspects of what it takes to execute a great research paper and presentation were at work except one big thing was missing...REAL CONNECTION. While glancing over their shoulders at their topics (Peregrine Falcons, Everest, Basking Sharks, John Muir, Animation, Acting etc…) I thought, how cool would it be to connect with real experts on their topics. I began with Everest, posting on my Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out if anyone had any connections. Within a couple of hours I had 3 names! Everest Climber Mike Chambers was our first connection. The students had an amazing conversation with him over Skype. He talked about his experience, showed us his gear, and took questions. He even connected with the student interested in Everest in person when he was visiting VT! After the success we experienced with Mike we are now calling our search for experts; “Operation Search and Connect”. Since Mike we have Skyped with Michael Branch, an author and expert on John Muir, Steve Faccio, a Peregrine Falcon expert, and tomorrow will be Bob Rosco, an award-winning screenwriter in Hollywood. On Thursday we’ll be talking with Cat Gordon with the Shark Trust in Plymouth England, and this is all in one week! “THAT WAS AWESOME!” “SO COOL", "WHO's NEXT" were all common phrases this week. SO much fun! Can't wait to scofold this learning and add my ideas for improvment the next time we do it.
Websites from our new connections and our new friends:
