About+Us

flat = **In the Beginning** =

The //Global Classroom// was born in the minds of Deb Frazier’s (@Deb_Frazier) young students in March 2011: > “Our first grade class [in Ohio, USA] was thinking about the ways people around the world meet their needs. We began to do some research, diving into books about various cultures. While sharing new learning about India, Puju, whose family is from India, commented “My dad says that’s not really true.” > > //**From there we knew we needed more than books ...**// //**We needed to talk with people in other cultures to really discover the many ways in which they meet their need**//s.”

And thus, the //Global Classroom// came to be … Deb published a blog post on [|//Primary Perspective//], and shared it on Twitter. A few retweets brought together 6 teachers from 5 countries, and led to the creation of an amazing global project: > > “Through Twitter, we worked collaboratively to connect our classrooms using one single [|VoiceThread.]To date, this VoiceThread has had over 1,000 views and nearly 200 comments from kids all around the world! Not too bad for a project which was developed and ran for only four weeks due to the end of the American school year! > > The power kids felt in being free to question their learning gave them ownership and motivation. The questions and the voices of children gave Global Classroom authenticity. VoiceThread and the Global Classroom 2011 made a powerful impact on kids around the globe!”

=From little things, big things grow ...=

Following the completion of Global Classroom 2011, our thoughts turned to the future ... //Where would we go next? Would we find any other teachers interested in joining? What projects might we run?// We created a //Google Doc//, shared the link on Twitter … and wsoon found ourselves on the cusp of the biggest project of our careers!

//@Global Classroom 2011-12// grew to involve over 330 teachers from 35 countries, across 6 continents. Rather than hosting a single collaborative project, we sought to create a global learning community, //"building the// //**collaborative spaces**, **resources**, and **global network** to enable teachers and students to share, learn and collaborate on the world stage" .//

We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.

= Looking Forward to 2012-13 = //Global Classroom 2012-13// is an exciting opportunity for you to make a positive difference - in your classroom, community, and around the world. We hope you will join us on this journey, and help us realise the full potential of this amazing learning community. We will officially launch in late October 2012, and run through to the end of the Northem Hemisphere school year in June 2013. Over that time, we will be hosting a wide range of global projects, and providing opportunities for new and experienced teachers alike to explore new ways to learn, share, connect, and collaborate worldwide. Working together, we can make this dream a reality.