Saturday, April 16, 2011

Skyping With Our New Friends In Indiana and Massachusetts

We had a very busy week!  We were able to participate in Mystery Skypes with Mrs. Goodwin's 2nd grade class in Indiana and Mrs. Carroll's Class in Massachusetts!   We were able to learn so many wonderful facts about both states.  It is such a great way to learn about the United States!   It was also nice to see the class participate in more roles during the skype!  We added two two students  backchanneling, a greeter, a photographer, and a videographer to our skypes this week! 
                                          Each student has a role in our Mystery Skype
                 Our class is watching the class from Indiana on our big screen
                                Students from Indiana are sharing clues with us.
                  Students are backchanneling about the skype with Indiana!
                           We are sharing information about Michigan!

     We started recording our skypes this week by adding a videographer!

   Students were very eager to backchannel during our Massachusetts skype!
           Mrs. Carroll's class from Massachusetts sharing clues with our class!

Thank you for actively engaging in this wonderful experience!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE this information you shared!!!!!! I definitely want to try some of these ideas; what an excellent way to get the whole class involved. Could you explain backchanneling a little more? Are they chatting with the other class at the same time of the live chat just from a different computer?

Unknown said...

Thank you very much! Actually, this past week my students were backchanneling on Edmodo with our class on our classroom computers. The skype was taking place on my computer,which was connected to a projector for all to see! Our next goal is to backchannel with the class that we are skyping with over Edmodo! If you are interested, maybe we could try this with your class! The students love to interact and connect with others! Skype has been such a powerful learning tool to our social studies curriculum.

Anonymous said...

I shared this idea with several educators on Skype for Educators...they LOVED your idea :) We'll have our first one hopefully next week. I'm a little nervous that my kids won't be able to do with with thinking through the clues. How did it go for your class in the beginning? Do you have any suggestions of what to do or not do? Thanks for your input :)

Unknown said...

Thank you so much! I cannot take credit for the idea- another teacher shared the idea with me. It was such an amazing experience, that I wanted to continue finding others to play Mystery Skype. Each time we Skype my students become more comfortable with the process. They love taking on more roles during the Skype( photographer, blogger, videographer, etc.) Have fun and enjoy it! It is such a valuable learning tool. I also have a map in the front of the classroom to help them think about the clues. Visual aids always help! Hope we have the opportunity to Skype with you in the future!

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