I admit it...I love technology - how it can help my students learn and help us connect to others. And let's face it, there's tech out there that makes you go WHOA...I NEED to stop and see or try that!
In December, my class tried their first Mystery Skype.
A Mystery Skype is where you call another classroom in the world and try to figure out where they're from. You only ask yes/no questions. We used jobs from Mr. Solarz's class website (http://psolarz.weebly.com/how-to-set-up-and-run-a-mystery-skype-session.html) so everyone was involved in the Skype. We had questioners, sharers, mappers, data enterers, task masters, sharer and questioner assistants, greeters, closers, and a photographer. Also, everyone was a researcher. I had laptops and maps available for all the students.
Before we started, we created a google doc to keep track of our questions and research tools. The other thing I would suggest is to come up with a list of questions in advance - talk about questions that would be too general and too specific (i.e. Do you live in Texas? would be too specific to ask near the beginning of the Skype). We also did a practice Skype with my mom! Thanks, Mom! She pretended to live somewhere in the world (because they knew her actual location) and that gave us a chance to test the technology and practice our jobs. The kids did great, and I really feel the practice helped us feel more prepared for our actual Skype. The first class we called was from Tennessee and the next week we called Ireland!! We have another Skype coming up in a couple weeks! What a great experience to be able to connect from such a distance. If anyone is interested in doing a Mystery Skype with my class, please let me know in the comments.
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