The project invitationIn a nutshellCurricular ConnectionsWhat and whenRegister on-line

The list of participantsThe field trips available

Project Steps
Print this page and keep it as your Project Planner.

Teacher planning

As soon as they have been paired with an interested partner, teachers, with the help of the facilitator, will work together to plan the exchange and make sure that they feel comfortable with the technology required.

View the Teacher Steps

Class activities

Each class is the master of its own learning activities. But there are benchmark communications objectives that must be met in order for both partners to benefit. Please notice the lines of communication at each step.

View the Class Steps

TEACHER PLANNING AND COMMUNICATIONS

1- Welcome. Let's Begin!

The project facilitator invites you to participate in a three-way e-mail exchange in order to:

  • Clarify what aspect of the theme or topic your class is interested in studying, and explain to your partner how you plan to deal with it in your class. You want your partner to get a good sense of what your inquiry is going to be about to make sure you can meet each other's expectations and needs.
  • Establish and agree to a timeline for your class to class exchanges, from presentations to final product.
  • Share a list of resources both classes can use for their research on and around their topic or theme.
  • Respond to the Skills and Technology Inventory to let the facilitator know your comfort level with technology and what hardware and software you use.
  • Clarify what you think you need to learn in order to complete the project steps from a technology stand point.

2- Learn and practice
 Before you begin work with the students, we will, if necessary, plan some simple activities that will allow you to test, learn and practice certain procedures, according to need and the technology you have. You might be asked to:
3- Reflect and give feedback
When the project has been completed, we will ask you to tell us about your experience and give us feedback so that we can improve over time!

TO TOP

CLASS ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS

Field Observers

Virtual Partners

The steps described below are not necessarily linear. Things can happen in overlapping order. A lot will be happening in class to prepare for the communications required at each step. Give yourself and your students enough time. An Inquiry-based approach would work very well to produce the benchmark e-mail exchanges throughout the project. Work can be done by groups or individuals in your class but, please, make sure that it is always regrouped into a single organised collective class message.

Step 1
Who are our partners?
Who are our partners?
In a collective message, classes present themselves to their partner class. The objective of this e-mail exchange is for students to get an immediate sense that they are working with a distant partner class and that each will contribute to the work of the other in some way.

Be imaginative, be creative. Both classes could go beyond the typical presentations and already talk about the project and theme they are interested in researching together.
Step 2
What is our project about?
What do we need to find out?
What is our project about?
What do we want you to find out for us?
Whether you are planning the event or will be attending it virtually through the questions your students send, your class will be doing research on an overlapping topic or theme.

Research
 Engage in the preparatory research using a variety of resources (web, books, videos, experts, …).

  • Students frame questions, organise them into categories, select the useful ones.
  • They make a plan, locate sources of information, choose or create data-gathering or observation tools.

Get ready
 Your event will be one source of information… so make sure they are ready for it with questions and data-gathering tool. The students will eventually add their Virtual Partners questions to their own. Find good ways to divide up the work load.

Research
Engage in the preparatory research using a variety of resources (web, books, videos, experts, …).

  • Students frame questions, organise them into categories, select the useful one.
  • They make a plan, locate sources of information, choose or create data-gathering or observation tools.
  • The event attended by their distant partners will be one source of information. So they select and group the questions they need to ask them.

Synthesise
To help their partner class understand the meaning and context of their questions, the class prepares a short document that explains what they already know about the topic or theme and what it is they want to find out. This text could be the result of collaborative work in class.

Create your Mission Carriers
To make their "virtual" presence real in the other class during the event, your students can create "mission carriers". These pictures (scanned drawing, digitally created pictures, composite digital images, …) will be sent along with the questions and will act as reminders for their partners that they have a mission to fulfil for their buddies. It is an interesting motivational element that adds value to the project.

Examples:
- A visit to Domaine Cataraqui
- Caractéristiques des oiseaux de proies
- Un nouveau monde
- À la découverte de l'art québécois

Suggestion: group the questions into meaningful categories and associate a Mission Carrier to each set of questions.

Communicate
Send your partner class:

  • the short explanatory document
  • the grouped questions
  • the digitised "Mission Carriers"

Note: If you and your students are proficient at Web publishing, post all this on the Web instead and send them the URL.

 
Step 3
Investigate-Inquire
Gather and process information
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Gather information
Your class participates in the planned event or activity. The students use the planned information gathering strategies to make sure that they seek answers to the questions sent by their virtual partners. They take notes and pictures. The "Mission Carriers" are there as reminders they are not alone and that they are they eyes and ears of their Virtual Partners

Organise information
Back in class, the students sift through their information.
They identify essential elements, find out what is missing and attempt to complete it.
They choose a way to organise and communicate it.

Suggestion: the students could answer questions one by one, but it might be more profitable to group information into themes and to have groups synthesise what they have learned on each theme. Digital pictures could be used to illustrate aspects of their presentations.

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Step 4
Communicate the results
Communicate the results
Communicate the results
The resulting production (text and pictures) are sent to the partner class by E-mail or posted on the Web (according to your comfort level with technology)		 Complete the research
The class can now complete its research cycle using the information received from their partners.
In the same way their partners did, the students sift through their information.
They identify essential elements, find out what is missing and attempt to complete it.
They choose a way to organise and communicate it.

Communicate the results
The resulting production (text and pictures) are sent to the partner class by E-mail or posted on the Web (according to your comfort level with technology).