Season 10 - Polycom Special Event Season Finale!!

[Elaine Shuck (polycshuck)]

Last week we completed our 10^th year of providing our Polycom customers with FREE curriculum-rich videoconferencing connections. The 3 Bears and Goldilocks, a re-telling of a classic fairy tale with kindergarteners and first graders.

One Season of Hope, a Jim Stovall first in his Historical Homecoming series for 7th and 8th graders.

  And Tillie the Terrible Swede, that tells the story of an 1890s bicycle racer for 3rd and 4th graders.

As we close this school years Polycom Special Events and prepare for the coming year, I would like to “shout out” the impact we have had in educationally touching students and faculty from around the word. We take great pride in knowing we can help educators see the value of integrating our technologies into their curriculum.  

During the 2015-2016 school year Polycom hosted 26 Special Events. We had approximately 3000 participants from the following states: AK, AZ, CA. MI, MO, MT, NJ, NY, NC, ND, Oh, PA, SD, SC, TX, VI, Wi.  And from the following countries: Alberta, CA, Ontario, Costa Rica, Germany, Australia, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic.  Events include connections with renowned authors, experts in the field, famous people, professional development and much more. 

Read Around the Planet, an outgrowth of the U.S. National Education Association (NEA) Read Across America program, is a global celebration of reading using videoconference technology. Combined with World Book Day, RAP is designed to promote reading and opportunities for classroom videoconference collaborations. Polycom provides the funding to support TWICE who manages the program including registration, the classroom partner matching service and support documentation. Tied to Dr. Suess’ birthday, RAP registration opens around September with events occurring in February and March. RAP is open to primary, elementary and secondary education institutions.

Here is the impact this event had globally:

RAP 2016 Numbers

Registration/Classes: 844

Student Estimate: 25000

Countries/Registrations:

Canada/43

Costa Rica/6

Guatemala/8

US/779

United Kingdom/8

Languages: English (782); Spanish (28): ESL (22); Special Education (12)

Polycom recently celebrated their 25^th Anniversary and we posted a blog titled A Walk Down Memory Lane if interested in seeing the many Special Events we have had throughout the years. Check out Collage of Curriculum for Polycom Customers if you want to read more.

For next year’s events go to Polycom Special Events at the end of August and this page will be updated. We will be working on the line up over the summer. 

Have a great summer and “Stay tuned for our 2016-17 line-up of events!”