Rock Our World - An International Collaboration

Happy Thanksgiving! This is my absolute favorite holiday. What a great tradition to bring our families, friends and neighbors together to praise God for his bountiful blessings. What a nation we live in! There is no end to our abundance. I recently listened to a radio host explain how he hosted some very wealthy Russian friends in his home in Naples, FL and when he took the family to a local food store, they wept. There was such an abundance of foods that it was so overwhelming to them. We forget how we have been blessed beyond measure, but I am particularly thankful that we, as a nation, set aside one day a year to give thanks to God for how blessed we are. This "tuesdays" was going to be about giving thanks, but instead I thought it would be appropriate to share an amazing global project that exemplifies the uniqueness in each of us to collaborate, create and share what creativity we have and to be thankful.

      
   

Recently I have watched on Facebook an amazing teacher who has taken a global outreach to teachers and student around the world, battle with a physical trial that impede the impact of her global outreach. Carol Anne McGuire created a global project that has far exceeded her expectations. Rock Our World has been connecting students and teachers to collaborate in composition of original music, making movies, and meeting each other in live video chats. From the Rock Our World website, it is best explained in their own words. "Using Apple's GarageBand, each country creates a 30 second drum beat.  Every Friday, that drum rotates to another country, where the bass guitar is added.  It keeps getting passed along, from country to country.  At each stop, one more instrument is added.  When it comes back to the original country, it has touched students from all over the world! While the music is moving, students are meeting each other in live video chats to discuss various topics of curriculum.  Together, we have worked with the following companies:  Apple, Fablevision, Discovery, American Film Institute, Smart Technologies, NASA, Visual Learning Company, Lintor Publishing, Mariner Software, actor Will Smith and more!" Kudos to Carol Anne and her team to pull off this year's Rock Our World despite her physical set back.

One of the most important elements of the Common Core is to raise the level of student communication skills through reading, writing and thinking like a 21^st Century learner. The Rock Our World project (ROW) sets the bar high for teachers who are looking for a way to collaborate in a safe environment. Although there is a need to use a Apple computer, every campus has at least one (even if it's in the TV studio!). Being creative combine with the power of music, the universal language, gives students and teachers the avenue to speak, share, dance, communicate and learn about each other in a non-threating manner. I would love to encourage you to get involved with a global project to give your students the opportunity to broaden their horizons. They will learn geography, social networking skills, and communication techniques, enhance their creativity and broaden their horizons. Thank you, Carol Anne for taking the risk to walk the narrow path for your students and all those you have impacted through this project.

How do you get involved with the Rock Our World project? Begin by investigating their website. Watch a few of the videos they have provided: Getting Started, How to Use GarageBand to share the collaborative music adventure, How a Chat Might Look Like, and Family Night at the End of the Project. Thinking larger than ourselves is always good for the students. Please consider doing a global project this year. Your students will thrive in the Q&A that is spontaneous once you connect with students from around the world. Who knows? It may be this generation that gives peace a chance once they all meet each other.

"Carol Anne McGuire put together the most innovative, collaborative learning environment I've ever seen across all the continents."

John Couch, Vice President of Education at Apple Computers, to the United Nations on 9/11/06.

Founder and Lead Rocker

ipadio   

LiveBinders 

Doceri 

NASA's Image Gallery 

Popplet 

Zoey's Room
Finance in the Classroom
Fotopedia 

The Common Good Forecaster  

Google Earth 

UJAM 

Symbaloo.edu 

Google Science Fair 

Stossel in the Classroom
Word Sift 

Lee Kolbert