August 2, 2016
The 2016 SEE Summit is behind us now. This is an incredible week of PD sponsored by SMART Technologies at their Headquarters in Calgary, Alberta. Participants (SEEs) are showed demos of products in beta, the roadmap is revealed, and an exchange of ideas between the President, CTO, VP of Software Development, other Program Managers, and developers is ongoing.
Each day is packed with different activities and presentations by SEEs and SMART folks. One such session was a sharing by two peers (Lotta Ramqvist and Jorgen Holberg) on their global collaboration project with their special needs students using SMART amp and LAB.
Kristin Skage (Norway) and I got to know each other at last year’s Summit because we had the unfortunate experience of arriving in Calgary after many hours of travel without our suitcases, which did not arrive for several days. We also both teach mathematics and eventually became Facebook friends after returning home. Over the past year we have enjoyed pictures and snippets into each others’ lives. As the Summit approached this year, we reminisced about our luggage mishap and made sure we packed extra clothes in our carry-ons. When we reunited in Calgary, I felt like I was seeing an old friend again! It’s amazing what a common experience and social media can do to connect two people.
Kristin and I decided we wanted to try a global collaboration project with our students. Hers are in grade 7 and mine are in 8th grade.
Our purpose is to connect our students who live halfway around the world from each other. We want them to celebrate their differences, recognize their similiarities, and appreciate their uniqueness. Hopefully they will become as passionate about learning about each other’s country and school system as we have. We don’t intend to teach math but we will certainly use math in our exchanges.
We’re both looking forward to this and will tell our story here.
GC Norway to Hawaii 