Virtual Office Hours Example

I know I've discussed the topic of Virtual Office Hours before, but I thought it might be helpful to give an example based on a way some 5th grade teachers from Watkins Glen participated recently.

They met with us on October 22 by video conference and gave us a list of subject areas and specific topics they wanted us to research for them. They were interested in ideas for using distance learning primarily in Math and ELA.

We spent two weeks looking for video conferencing ideas that would complement their areas of focus and presented our ideas to them on November 5 by video conference.

The following is a list of some of the ideas we presented to them (I hope they are helpful to others!):

Geometry MysteryQuest – a collaborative project that could be done with 2 or more classes. Each class chooses a geometric shape and develops a list of clues to help the other class (on the other end of the connection) figure out which shape your class chose. Reveal the clues one at a time to the other class to see how many it takes before they guess correctly. To keep everyone interested and if you have time, you could break classes down into groups and each group presents their clues.

For example:

Clues:
Headquarters of the US Department of Defense in Washington, DC.
Cross-section of okra
Sum of its angles is 540 degrees
It has 5 lines of symmetry

Answer: Pentagon


MysteryQuests could be done with many topics (choose a state in the US, a country of the world, an author, a book, historical time period…)

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Math Content Provider: National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum (Problem Solving)

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Mary Hutz is working on a connection where students compare fractions, decimals, and percents.

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ELA & Math integration: Monster Match – descriptive writing activity done as a class-to-class connection – students work on directions for the other class that include very descriptive language to help the other class draw or build what they describe. Math skills can be incorporated by having students use fractions and mixed numbers along with precise measurements to help the other class as they collaborate to draw or build the monster. [It may be fun to have your class build or draw the monster first so you can compare with the other class and see how they did]

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Poetry SLAM
There is a poetry slam scheduled to start in February 2009. It is being coordinated by ONC BOCES. Fees for participation can be paid through at least Arts-In-Ed and Distance Learning CoSer monies (if approved by the district). If there is enough interest, we might also be able to create our own version of this event. If you are interested, please email us and we will send you the brochure about this opportunity! (DL@gstboces.org)

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Remember!

We have the Empire State Video Conference Collaborative coming up on December 3 & 4. E-mail us (DL@gstboces.org) if you would like the brochure about this training. Space is limited! The registration deadline is November 17th.

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Don't Forget!

CAPSpace is another resource we shared and I thought we should probably mention it here again! It's a great place to sign up to find classes that would like to collaborate with you and your students. Here's our previous post about CAPSpace.