In effort to open the walls of our classroom through technology we played an exciting game of Mystery Skype today. We called a class somewhere in the world using Skype (arranged by myself and the other teacher ahead of time through Twitter). The students then used resources such as atlas, globes, and Google Earth and Google Docs to try to figure out where the other class was located and keep track of our questions and answers. Sadly for us, the other class found us in only 3 questions! But they played on and let us try to find out where they were located. Each student had a job and while some jobs were more vocal than others everyone took part. We are a 3rd grade class and they are a 6th grade class. It was great to see how they communicated once they knew the age differences. My students even asked to be their pen-pals Afterwards we reflected on how it went and how we can make it go better next time. One reflection was that we need everyone to stick to their jobs better to make things more equal. Another was that we communicate with the other team that no one should ask about countries to encourage only talking about geography. All in all, students are asking when we will do another Mystery Skype. This was one lesson packed full of relating skills and resourcefulness and even quite a bit of resilience. Here is the Doc I shared with my class. This includes job descriptions and a spreadsheet for collecting questions and answers. Next time I will have my students apply for jobs they want to allow more student choice and add another layer of importance and engagement to their roles in the activity. Here are some other really useful links: https://education.skype.com/mysteryskype http://pernillesripp.com/2011/10/25/so-you-want-to-do-mystery-skype/ http://mysteryskypes1213.weebly.com/
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Kate White
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