Skype-A-Thon

            Who would have ever thought that one day we would have the ability to travel all over the world in just one day virtually? Not me! But today in class we did just that. We were introduced to “Mystery Skype” when I first heard that I wasn’t exactly sure what we would be doing but Dr. Smirnova explained to us that today we would be on Skype with and 8^th grade science class from Kansas. During this Skype Call we were given instruction to answer yes or no questions based off of our location in the world.

            When we first answered the call we were able to see the 8^th grade class in Kansas. They began to ask us questions about our location. With just a simple yes or no question they had a job to do and that was to figure out where in the world we were located.  One of the first questions was a great question to ask and helped the students a lot when it came to determining where we were located. “Do you live in the United States?” that was a big question asked which gave them an advantage right off the bat. This class has been on Skype all day with classrooms all over the world, so figuring out our country early on was important. There were many other questions asked such as, Are you on the West Coast? Are you right of the Mississippi river? Do you boarder the Atlantic Ocean? After all of these questions were asked the students begin narrowing down our area. In front of them they had big maps where they were circling clues to figure out where we were. We were able to ask the students in Kansas questions as well. We guessed their location first and then they were able to come up with where we were located. New York it is kiddos !

            After we figured out our locations there was a lot of talk and information provided to us by Andrea, their teacher. She informed us on how their Skype was set up, where the camera was in the classroom and the significance of having these Skype calls with individuals all over the world. One of the most important things in the world being a teacher is to make sure you have an impact on your students lives. Give them something they are going to remember. Andrea told us “What from your class will students remember 40 years from now?” It is important to make these impacts on children’s lives and to teach in a way that interests them and gives them a memory that will last a lifetime. Global teaching is a wonderful thing. I think it is amazing that children now -a-days are given the opportunity to learn in their class virtually and even learn information from people all over the world. Today we were able to find out how many miles these student have traveled throughout the world today virtually. They still had many more stops to make throughout the day,

            Having children work together to find out information, use their thinking skills and engage with one another to come up with a final answer is all part of the inquiry process. These students are given the ability to engage with one another and interact with us across the world at the same time. The students spoke about a memory that they have form when they were in sixth grade. They spoke about how they came up with ways to help individuals in Africa have clean water to drink by using filters that were made. This was an awesome activity that these students did at such a young age and it is a memory that they have now and will keep with them forever. I loved that we had the opportunity as college kids to Skype will a classroom and ask questions to see how children worked with one another, even in a different part of the country. Throughout this Skype call Andrea encouraged us to use this one day in our classrooms, it is fun and easy to do and the students love it. It gives them the opportunity to use technology, work with one another when it comes to problem solving and interact with people all over the world.

            When our Skype call was coming to an end we were given the chance to ask any questions we might have had for the teacher. She let us know that she is always available to us if we ever have any questions for her and she strongly suggested we use this in our classroom one day, which I believe is a great idea and I would love to do. I think it is so amazing that we have the opportunity to look in on classes all over the world and work with individuals we have never even met before to come up with answers and discuss information with one another. I really enjoyed this today, and I hoped the children in Kansas did as well. At the end of our Skype we all got together and took a picture giving one another high fives virtually through Skype and it is not a picture their teacher has that she can post on Facebook and social media. Today was an awesome and memorable experience! I cant wait to use this in my classroom one day!