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The Connected Classroom

“Information on and from Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis' Learning Division”

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 An Inside Look at the Civil War: Using Primary Sources to Increase Understanding

HEC-TV Live! Presents An Inside Look at the Civil War: Using Primary Sources to Increase Understanding for grades  4-8th.

Date: March 8, 2012 | Times:  10- 11 a.m. and 1- 2 p.m. CST
Cost:  NO CHARGE | Please register for this interactive videoconference here.

Abstract:
Fighting in the Civil War—what was it like to participate in that struggle?  What can we learn about the War by reading from artifacts used during it and hearing from people and seeing places that experienced it?  Take an inside look at the Civil War using primary sources.

Program Description:
America in the Civil War—a time of conflict, strife, and worry.  What would it have been like to participate in that struggle?  To march as an infantryman? To ride in the cavalry? To use artillery on the battlefield? To build an ironclad? To attack a rail line?  What can we learn about this period of history by reading from artifacts used during it and hearing directly from the people and seeing the places that experienced it? You can find answers to these questions and more as you join HEC-TV Live! from Oakville High School with members of their History Club who have researched the primary sources they’ll share with you during the program.  Read from an artillery manual, hear a poem written by a cavalryman, learn from letters and images of the time.

In advance of the program you will receive copies of primary sources that will be used during the show along with some worksheets designed to get your students thinking about these sources and what they seem to tell them about participating in the War. The focus in this program will not be exploring all the historic details of the Civil War, but it will be to provide students the opportunity to think like an historian as they go back in time through the wonder of primary sources. Participating students will have the opportunity to ask the History Club questions about the documents and their research process as well as interact with Civil War experts on the topics related to those documents. Tim Gore (pictured right) will field questions from the far sites.

PLEASE NOTE: The free morning program and the free afternoon program will explore different areas of life during the Civil War. The morning program will use primary sources to tell us more about life as an infantryman, cavalryman and member of the artillery. The afternoon program will look into the importance of rivers and rail lines on the war as we explore a Missouri battle focused on an important rail line and learn about James Eads and his work on ironclads.

HEC-TV invites you to join us and bring history to life!

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Midwest Education Technology Conference Store: Books, Shirts & Speaker Visits

Have you heard that the Midwest Education Technology Conference is next week? We certainly hope so! One returning high light of METC this year is the book store- check out what merchandise will be in stock by clicking here. Books will be sold at various prices; METC T-shirts are $10. (The store will accept cash, check and cards).

Book Store Hours (located by the escalators on the lower level)
Monday: 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:30 AM – 3:30 PM

Also, mark your planner – Tuesday’s Keynote Speaker, Dr. David Thornburg, will be having a book signing for STEM Education: From Sputnick to the 22nd Century in the store on February 14th at noon.

METC is a program of Cooperating School Districts’ Virtual Learning Center.

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Monday, February 6, 2012 One Week to Go ’til 2012 METC

The 29th annual Midwest Education Technology Conference- a program of Cooperating School Districts- is just 1 week away! We hope to you February 13, 14, and 15th. What are you most looking forward to at the conference?

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011 James Otis Thach – Connecting Near & Far

Look for more photos coming later today from the wonderful videoconferences from author James Otis Thach live at Cooperating School Districts! We thought this image was too great not to share right away. This is Kelsey, a young viewer from Texas. She, like the other children connecting to today’s VCs, learned from James how he became a writer, who and what influenced him, and heard him share the first chapter of his book, The Seal Pup. We will have a link to an archived session of his morning videoconferences by tomorrow- and we will definitely share it!

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011 HEC-TV Live! Presents Inside the Artist’s Studio: Drummer Boys, Battledrum, and the Civil War

HEC-TV Live! Presents Inside the Artist’s Studio: Drummer Boys, Battledrum, and the Civil War Videoconference — how do you take the world of Civil War drummer boys and create a compelling and meaningful stage production that is also historically accurate?  Meet the directors, designers, and actors from Metro Theater Company and historians from the Missouri Historical Society who are taking on that challenge with the play, Battledrum.

Date:  January 5, 2012 and January 12, 2012
Times: 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Central Time
Grade Levels:  4-10 | Cost:  FREE | Register

Program Description:
How do you create a compelling & meaningful stage production that is historically accurate?  To find out the answer to this question and more as HEC-TV invites you to meet the directors, designers, and actors from Metro Theater Company and historians from the Missouri Historical Society who are taking on that challenge with the play, Battledrum. For both programs, join them live from the auditorium of the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park where the production will take place.

Both the January 5 and 12 programs will include a tour of the set, question and answers with the director and actors, performance of a short scene from the play, examples of drummer boy drills used both by soldiers as well as in the production, and video showing elements of the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park’s new exhibition, “The Civil War in Missouri.”

The January 12 program will also include the unique opportunity for students to interact with Doug Cooney, playwright of Battledrum. Thus, in addition to the opportunity to meet the actors, designers and historians involved with the production, students will be able to ask questions of the playwright himself about his writing process in general as well as about his creation of this particular play. For this January 12 program, part of the preparatory materials will include a segment from the play for students to read in advance to help them develop questions for Mr. Cooney.

(photo from The U.S. National Archives Flickr stream via Creative Commons)

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Thursday, November 17, 2011 2011 Show-Me a Movie Entries Due Next Month

Show-Me a Movie is a digital storytelling contest for Missouri students to demonstrate their creativity and digital movie-making skills. Based on curriculum and with a content focus, the movies will showcase what students know, care about, and are able to do. Join us in this fun event!

Prizes and Judging
Cash prizes will be awarded to the different divisions of each category. In addition, judges may choose a movie or movies for special recognition. Checks will be made out to the winning schools. The judges reserve the right to switch movies into categories they deem appropriate if they feel the movies do not belong in the categories they were originally entered in.

Movie Length
Movies may have a running time of no more than 2 minutes, excluding title and credits. Movies that do not adhere to this rule may be disqualified.

Contest Timeline & Submission Guidelines

  • 2011 Contest Deadline: FRIDAY, December 16th.
    Entries must be received no later than 3 p.m. Entries received after this deadline will not be considered.

    Send entries to:
    Show-Me a Movie
    Cooperating School Districts
    Virtual Learning Center
    1460 Craig Road
    St. Louis, MO 63146

  • Movies must be submitted via the web or on CD. For movies posted online, teachers are to email CSD the link to the film. Include Show-Me a  Movie in the email subject. Examples of acceptable websites include SchoolTube, Vimeo and YouTube. Movies must be tagged or include Show-Me in the title when uploaded to these sites.
  • If submitted via CD, movies must be formatted as either QuickTime files or Windows Media Player files. DVDs will not be accepted! It is required that the school keep a master copy on file. Winners will be required to provide the movie in its original format upon request. If there are any questions regarding the format, please contact CSD. NOTE: The 2011 contest year will be the last that movies will be accepted on CD.
  • Grand prizewinners and category/grade level winners showcased at the Midwest Education Technology Conference at the St. Charles Convention Center.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 going the distance

This week marked the second meeting of the Distance Learning Academy here at CSD; participants discussed that kinds of ways they had utilized Skype since our last session (family connections, HEC-TV Live! program, planning a foreign language connection), plus the group learned more about Moodle and were introduced to SchoolTown. At the end of the evening, they had paired off into groups for their collaborative projects, to be presented at the end of the year. It was a good evening!

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Friday, October 21, 2011 From Inspiration to Bookstore Shelf

Using examples from all six of her books, author Amy E. Sklansky answers the question during this distance learning session: Where does an author get her ideas and how do they become a book?

With PowerPoint slides, original artwork (like that featured in this post!), and other props, she touches on many aspects of the creative process – sources of inspiration; generating ideas; structuring a story; revising; the roles of the artist and publishing staff; etc.  Participants are encouraged to interact with the author and will develop an appreciation for both the creative writing and publishing process. From Inspiration to Bookstore Shelf (grade 3 up) is a 45 minute videoconferencing or Skype session. Register with Rebecca Morrison. For Videoconference/Skype: New Links members pay $155, nonmembers pay $195.

You have a chance to receive this session for free- see the blog’s sidebar for how to enter to a contest to get a program of your choice at no cost!

Friday, September 2, 2011 2011-2012 Polycom Special Events

Polycom Special Events are designed to provide Polycom customers free curriculum-rich videoconferencing connections in order to demonstrate the power of the technology to support learning.

Polycom Special Events include: connections to renowned authors, experts in the field, famous locations. Some events are even dedicated to specific groups, like professional development for teachers or reading programs for ESL and reluctant readers.

Author interviews: require a book to be read and use the ASK Process (Authors Specialist and Knowledge) Link to the ASK process preparation – http://askprocess.wikispaces.com/

Click in the comments section of this post to see registration processes!

Friday, April 8, 2011 CSD’s Character Education Conference Tackles Cyberbullying


The Character Education Conference 2011, presented by Cooperating School Districts’ CHARACTERplus, takes place on June 23-24. The theme for CEC this year is Healthy Minds · Healthy Bodies · Healthy Schools.

One CEC keynote speaker is Tina Meier, mother of Megan Meier. Megan’s 2006 suicide was attributed to cyberbullying through MySpace. At CEC, Tina will speak about bullying, the Megan Meier Foundation and how to keep kids safe. The Foundation’s Mission Statement reads: “Bringing awareness, education and promote positive change to children, parents and educators in response to the ongoing bullying and cyberbullying in our children’s daily environment.”

The annual conference will be at the St. Charles Convention Center (sound familiar? That’s where the Midwest Education Technology Conference is held). For more information on CEC, visit CHARACTERplus‘ website.

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