Getting Global Partners: First Steps with Schools Online.

If you have decided to go ahead and build your school some International Links, the first step is to register with Schools Online, https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/

Once you have registered, you need to write a brief description of your school and the kind of partnerships you are looking for. This is how other schools will find you, so it's best not to make your description too wordy. Here is ours:

Hello from Moorside Primary School, Droylsden, Manchester! LOOKING FOR PARTNERS IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA!! We are an urban school on the outskirts of the City of Manchester, UK.  We are a relatively large school and currently have 420 pupils from age 3-11.  Moorside Primary is a very forward thinking, happy school where children enjoy and achieve.  Over the past 2 years we have had to focus mainly on English and Maths.  We now have a particular focus in developing the Art curriculum. We are also trying to get our Eco award, and have recently been awarded the International Schools Award. We are an experienced twinning school with links in Africa, Europe and Asia. We are very excited about learning about a different culture and about sharing ideas.  We hope to find partner schools that will help us to bring our curriculum even more alive and share ideas and experiences with us.  We are interested in developing ICT links (emailing, video conferencing, etc).  We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Make sure you use an email address which you check daily for this, as often schools will send partnership requests to multiple schools. If you don't respond promptly, they will find someone else to work with. 

It's also worth regularly re-saving your description, as this will then bump it to the top of the schools list.

When searching for partner schools, be aware that you may send emails to multiple schools and only get a few replies. Don't be disheartened by this - there are so many schools on there, you will find a partner.  

Mystery Skype

Thanks to @MrLTeachesU I have just signed up to Mystery Skype. Below are the instructions sent to me for how to get started. I'm looking forward to trying this with my class in September. I envisage it will encourage geographical discussion and problem solving. I'll update on here when we've tried it.

Almost all the connections were made througheducation.skype.com. Start by signing in with your Skype username, then click on the magnifying glass (do not enter anything in the search field). From there you can search for Skype in the Classroom lessons by subject, age group, etc. 

Here are links to some of our favorite Skype in the Classroom lessons: 

http://goo.gl/PLb56h (Amazon Rain Forest explorers. 2014 National Geographic Explorers of the Year)

http://goo.gl/DGHxzf (Live from Antarctica)

http://goo.gl/in7lNV (Has designed movie posters, packaging, etc. for Disney, WB, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Nickelodeon. Also designed the back of the California state quarter)

http://goo.gl/A3qiB7 (Teacher in Kibera Slums, Nairobi, Kenya. Largest slums in Africa. Due to the time difference we were only able to Skype with the teacher from his 12'x12' house, but it was live and still very impactful for my students.)

http://goo.gl/Uxf9Og ("Night Zoo Keeper." Story-teller from the UK)

http://goo.gl/IqKJp0 (Fun lesson (with music) on telling time)

Most of our connections were made through "Mystery Skype" sessions.

MYSTERY SKYPE:

In case you are unfamiliar... Mystery Skype is a game played between two classes where the objective is for each class to deduce the location of the other by asking a series of questions.

I've attached a document that pretty much spells out the way we like to run our Mystery Skype sessions when they are live. However, we do not always have the opportunity to do them live due to time zone differences. It's also a good idea to clear the guidelines ahead of time with the teacher so there's no confusion. 

When we cannot do them live, we have used Skype's Video Messages (Free, just "right-click" on the person's username and select "Send Video Message"), YouTube using a private link (Called "Unlisted" in preferences), Vimeo, or just recording a video with a cell phone and emailing it directly. Technically this it is no longer a Mystery "Skype" if Skype is not involved, so some like to call them "Mystery Location." However, since we did use Skype for about 90% of ours, I just stuck with the Mystery Skype name.

When we do recordings we follow a different format. For these, we use "Clues." For the Clues format, we give clues about our country. These should not be too easy, but not too difficult either. They should require the person on the other end to do some research, but not extensive. Some examples are: Our country borders 2 oceans. We are the 3rd largest country in the world. We are in the North-Western hemisphere. The puma is a native of our country. Our national bird is the bald eagle. We have a separate list of clues for California as well.

I hope this helps get you started. I did this for the very first time this past school year and we ended up Skyping with people in all 7 continents, 45 different countries, and 18 different states!

Again, please let me know if you have any further questions. I'd be glad to help! And I look forward to Skyping with you and your students in the coming school year!

Preparing for Autumn Activities.

This week I have been preparing for our visitors from South Africa. We have two teachers from Pelican Park Primary School in Cape Town visiting Moorside. This is a long-standing link for which there have been previous staff travels. In fact, one of the teachers visiting in September has been with us before.

One thing to consider when setting up partnerships where travel will be included is hosting. On this occasion both teachers will be staying with me. This is partly because my husband, who also works at Moorside, will be travelling to Pelican Park in October. As a staff we have discussed the fact that hosting will be expected if you are selected to travel to a partner school.

As part of the preparation for hosting, I have this week sent a letter of invitation to support the visa applications. This needs to be done with plenty of notice. Details required are the hosts name and address as well as the purpose of the visit, presented on our school headed paper.

As our African link is a trilateral partnership, also involving a school in Namibia, there will be a number of people to host during the October visit to Cape Town. We have decided as a school to offer to stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation to ease hosting pressures on our partners.

Some grants obtained through the British Council to some countries allow for hotel fees. Some, however, leave little spare to do this. It does give a more real experience if you can stay with a host family. Be sure to take British gifts with you for your hosts.