On Friday the students in my 5th period math class got to participate in our first Mystery Skype call this year. Joan Young, a 4th grade teacher and member of my PLN (personal learning network), and I planned our call via Twitter and email. We used this post and this post to help us learn how to do a Mystery Skype call.
About half hour before the Skype call, Joan sent me an IM on Skype reminding me to remove my city and state from my profile. I quickly did so. The Mystery Skype call would not have been much fun if I had placed the Skype call and Mrs. Young's students could see where I was located. This is how my Skype profile looks now. (Click on imagine to enlarge.)
We decided which students would be greeters and questioners, and which students would be researchers and helpers. Then the call was placed and the questioning began.
Mrs. Young's class graciously let us go first. We asked if they were located in the United States. Yes, they answered. Are you located east of the Mississippi River? They answered no, and I was so caught up in the game that I forgot a no meant our turn was over. As we tried to ask another question, Mrs. Young reminded us of the rules. So it was their turn. They asked if our state touched an ocean. We answered no and got a turn again. And so it went back and forth.
Mrs. Young's class asked such great questions, they were quickly able to determine that we were located in Louisiana. It took us a little longer to discover that they are located in California. We tried to extend the activity by trying to figure out the city each other is located in. Again, Mrs. Young's fourth graders beat us and zeroed in on New Orleans rather quickly. My kids kept commenting about how well they played and how smart they were.
Mrs. Young's Class Cheer Their Victory
We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and learned some important geography skills along the way. We can't wait until our next Mystery Skype call.
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2 comments:
Paula,
It was such a pleasure to be with you and your class for the Mystery Skype call! As we debriefed about our call, it was so great to hear my students talk about how we had an interesting advantage: since we are at a small school, these kids have been together for many years, and know how to work well together to solve problems.
They really appreciated the fact that it was your class' very first time doing the Mystery call as well.
I came away from the experience so grateful to have you in my PLN. You inspire me on Twitter every day, and the fact that we were able to connect our kids was so great!
I look forward to further collaboration with you, and tell those great kids that we said hello!
Joan,
Thank you for being a member of my PLN and being so supportive and passionate. You know how much I love sharing with others.
Thank you so much for asking me to do this activity. It was a great collaborative experience and my students learned much from it. Let's definitely connect again in the near future.
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