Skype-a-thon!

Today in class we skyped with a teacher from Kansas for the Skype-a-thon! 

I've never used Skype before, especially not during one of my classes! It was an amazing experience that everyone seemed to genuinely have fun with. We're all so stressed out with finals and finishing up projects before the end of the semester, so it was nice to do something fun and different! We skyped with an 8th grade class in Kansas whom we've never met. During the call, we played a little game where we asked each other questions related to where the other class lives. Some of the questions we asked were, "Do you live in the Northeast? Do you experience bad weather often?" and they asked things like, "Do you live in America? Do you border the Atlantic Ocean?" There were many other questions asked, but those are a few of the ones that I remember. The kids had maps on their desks where one side has the whole world and the other just had America. Once they figured out that we live in America too, then they flipped their maps over to the America side and started crossing things out after they asked other questions. I loved the idea of doing this in a classroom; none of my teachers ever did anything like this and I think I would've had so much fun doing it. I'm in college and I still had a great time, so I'm sure it would've been even more fun in elementary or middle school! The teacher we skyped with does this kind of stuff all of the time and her students love it, so I really want to incorporate this into my future classroom!

After we each figured out where the other one lives, the teacher showed us how we would close the lesson if we were teaching it on our own one day. She had the students review which questions they asked to determine if they were good or bad questions. Bad questions would be ones that didn't really help or could have been more specific to help them figure out the answer quicker. Then she spoke to us about all of the different things that the students have done through the use of Skype and how much she loves incorporating it in her class to make memorable lessons. Her speech was honestly very inspiring and gave me so many great ideas. It was awesome to see a teacher using technology in her classroom and explaining ways to still do it even if your school doesn't have the best technology. I absolutely love the map activity and I definitely want to try it one day; I can't wait!!

At the end, we all gave each other a "high-five" before our class ended.