Sophomore honor students at Eli Whitney recently celebrated Read Around the Planet by participating in a video conference with students from Charleroi High School in Pennsylvania.  Charleroi students recited the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock followed by Eli Whitney students who read the biography of the famed author, T.S. Eliot.  Both schools participated in a dialogue discussing the poem’s meaning as well as their thoughts of the author.  Students also participated in a “get to know you”  session where they shared information about their school. 

Some student comments included: 

"I thought it was an awesome opportunity to interact with students my age in another state, especially on the web.  It was a very pleasant experience."

"It was live!"

"It was hilarious when the two kids did the Soulja Boy."

Read Around the Planet is a celebration of NEA’s Read Across America. Classrooms use interactive video to connect with other classrooms “around the planet” and read to each other.  The month-long event is sponsored by TWICE and Polycom in cooperation with NEA.

Funding for this activity was provided by ACES’ Transforming Learning with Videoconferencing interdistrict grant.  Conferences supported by this grant have  successfully connected students from economically, geographically, and culturally diverse communities for the past six years. The grant provides students and teachers from various districts the opportunity to become virtual partners and work collaboratively to develop an authentic task that extends their classroom curriculum. Transforming Learning with Videoconferencing addresses many of the foundation skills and competencies as outlined in The Connecticut Framework and the Connecticut Common Core of Learning. Students work towards developing the proficiency, confidence, and fluency in speaking, listening and viewing needed to meet the literacy demands of the 21st century. Students explore information and arguments from various points of view to think critically and creatively to solve problems. Through the natural progression of the collaborative process, students begin to appreciate the world views and perceptions of other students based on their cultural identities.