Inspiration, Imagination, Innovation!
Posts tagged Skype
Skyping Mrs. Kistler & the 49′ers
Mar 9th
Hooray! Hooray! It’s Skyping Day!
Today our first group of Techie Kids had their first chance to Skype while they were at school. We were able to meet Mrs. Kistler and the 49er’s. We were so excited!
This year, 3rd graders learn about our great state of Michigan. We have worked hard to find out about Michigan’s natural resources, symbols, and landmarks. Today we were able to learn about Texas from kids who actually live there!
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This is a Google Earth screen shot of the 49er’s state taken by Ben.
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Madisyn used Google Maps to calculate the distance between our schools. We found out that we are 1,469 miles away, which was about a 22 hour drive. We thought we’d need to pack some snacks, like pretzels, for that drive!
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Here is some of what we learned:
One of Texas’ natural resources is oil.
They use salsa as frequently as others use ketchup.
The bluebonnet flower is a symbol of Texas and you better not be caught picking one on someone else’s land!
Summers in Texas are very hot.
Dr. Pepper was created in Waco, Texas.
The Alamo, Sea World, and the River Walk are some of their landmarks.
One of their state symbols is a Cowboy!
Ants in Texas bite!
You better double and triple check your backpack before you go anywhere…you just might find a stowaway scorpion!
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Check out our backchannel!
Today's Meet with the 49'ers by
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Our student photographers and videographers did an excellent job capturing the excitement!
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Thanks for a great learning call, 49’ers!
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What will you remember most about our Skype call?
What new facts did you find out?
Do you have any other questions you’d like to ask?
Skyping with Mr. Kruger’s Class!
Feb 29th
Today we were able to connect with Mr. Kruger’s 3rd grade class in Minnesota.
It is always fun to meet new friends. Both of our classes were ready to talk about our communities. Here is some of what we learned.
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For fun…
They visit the Minnesota Zoo or the Como Zoo. The Como Zoo is free!
The 3rd graders can go to the Mall of America, but this isn’t just any mall. It’s the biggest mall in the United States. They even have roller coasters inside called Nickelodeon Universe! Mrs. Moore has actually been there and can verify that it would take a long time to visit all of the stores and see everything there is to see. 
Photo shared by jpellgen Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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Many students visit their cabins on the weekends.
Their community has the largest free fair in the state. It is held in August.
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Several of the students shared about some special jobs that their families have.
Gopher Sport makes athletic and fitness equipment.
Viracon-This company makes the glass and tints for windows. Their glass is being used in the new World Trade Center building in New York.
Construction and Insurance- This area provides insurance to many large companies.
Josten’s- They created the designs for the Super Bowl rings.
Mayo Clinic- This is a very special, well-known medical center that helps to diagnose and treat patients.
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Their community has about 25,000 people.
We discovered that our temperatures are very similar, which makes sense because we are very close in location. They are hoping to get some snow tonight!
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Thank you for helping us learn more about our world!
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Do you have any questions you did not have time to ask?
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Tell us a fun fact about the area you live in.
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Skyping With Mr. Avery’s Class
Dec 9th
The Techie Kids are so excited because they were finally able to Skype with Mr. Avery’s class! This was the first time that students in this building have been able to Skype at school. For many of the children it was their first time using Skype ever! 61 Techie Kids were able to sit in on this call.
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We have learned so much this year from our blogging buddies. Here are just a few of the things we learned when meeting our friends.
The capital of Massachusetts and most populous city is Boston. Massachusetts is ranked 14th in population out of the 50 states in our country. That’s pretty significant because they are one of our smallest states in size.
4 of our United States presidents were born in Massachusetts! They were John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Herbert Walker Bush. That is pretty amazing!
Massachusetts’ state bird is the Black-Capped Chickadee, their state dog is the Boston Terrier, and their state cat is the Tabby cat. A few of the Techie Kids have Boston Terriers and Tabby cats as pets.
The Massachusetts state flower is the Mayflower. That got our students attention because we had just learned a lot about the ship the Mayflower in the weeks leading up until Thanksgiving.
Their state nickname is the Bay State.
Massachusetts is 10,555 sq miles.
The highest point is Mt. Greylock at 3,491 feet.
Mr. Avery’s class likes to play soccer and football.
We compared their life near the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean to our life near the fresh waters of the Great Lakes.
We learned that their wildlife is very similar to ours with the exception of the Right Whale! Right as opposed to “left” or “wrong.”
We couldn’t believe that so many of them were able to go whale watching.
Mr. Avery’s class has really inspired our students to create their own videos. They even shared their movie making process with us. To see some of their amazing videos, CLICK HERE and HERE.
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Check out some of the pictures that the Techie Kids took during our Skype call.
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Take a peek at this website and look for fact sheets on each of the states in our country.
Enchanted Learning- U.S. States
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Thank you Mr. Avery’s class!
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Are there any other interesting facts about Massachusetts that you think we should know?
What was your favorite part about our Skype call?
Family Feud…Skype Style
Jun 6th
And the survey says…this is a great idea!
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Image provided by Roadsidepictures under Creative Commons license-
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
But then, Mr. Curran is full of great ideas. We jumped at the opportunity when he and his 4th grade class invited us to participate in this game. Both classes took a Google Form survey and gave their answer to several questions. These were used as the data for the Skype Feud. The hands-down favorite question for this fun, end-of-the-year activity was, “Name a good gift for a pirate.”
True to the style of the classic Family Feud game show, two students faced off in a race to ring the buzzer (bell) first and give the answer that received the highest number of responses. There were 8 fast paced rounds that began with points at face value then progressed into double and triple points.
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It was a close, exciting game that actually came down to the last question. The Techie Kids emerged victorious! We were just so grateful that we’ve been able to connect with so many wonderful classes this year.
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Skype Feud from Kelly Moore on Vimeo.
Thank you Mr. Curran and students for being such gracious hosts!
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How could you use this idea in your class?
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What would be a good question for another Skype Feud with an academic focus?
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What game show would you like to try out on Skype?
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Skyping with Mr. Eldridge and Hawes Primary!
May 30th
We finally had a chance to meet our friends in England. The 3rd Grade Techie Kids were able to Skype with Mr. Eldridge and his students at Hawes Primary School. We loved their accents!
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Here is some of what we learned.
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They call their recess, break time.
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Each break time begins with an assembly.
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They like to sing songs, play football, and hula hoop.
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The children enjoy Mr. Gum books. We had not heard of that series before.
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They also enjoyed Captain Underpants books. Many of us like those books too!
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Charlie shared that he enjoys pizza with cheese, ham, and tomatoes. They also shared how they are learning to focus on healthy eating habits.
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Hawes Community Primary School has 75 students who are age 5 through 11 years compared to our 400!
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They call jump rope, skipping and soccer is called football.
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They wear red, blue, or green shirts to school each day. We do not have set colors or uniforms. We thought it was a fun idea because their teams were already set by color for school competitions.
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Our school was built 35 years ago. Hawes school was started in 1879. That’s 132 years ago!
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We hope we can chat with our friends again soon. Thank you for helping us learn more about our world!
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What was your favorite part about using Skype?
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Do you have any other questions to ask the Techie Kids?
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What should we try the next time we Skype with our friends?
Skyping with Mrs. Lynch and Room 102!
May 25th
We are photographers and global learners. Now we want to learn to speak French! The first grade Techie Kids were so excited to be able to talk with Mrs. Lynch’s class in Quebec, Canada.
We loved that they knew how to speak French. Our class asked them how to say a couple of words and phrases and Room 102 translated it for us.
Hello! Bonjour!
I like to play with my friends. J’aime jouer avec mes amis.
I like to play on the computer. J’aime jouer sur l’ordinateur.
I like to eat. J’aime manger.
I had a holiday yesterday. J’ai eu un jour férié hier.
Their language is beautiful!
After our time together, the Techie Kids kept talking about other languages. I shared a story with them about when I was shopping in the Grand Bazaar in Turkey. Each of the shop owners talked to the people who were passing by to encourage them to visit their stall. One of the owners went through 7 different languages trying to get my attention. I was amazed! We think it is a wonderful idea to learn more than one language.
Here are a couple of games to help us begin to learn words in French.
French Phrases
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Fruits and Vegetables in French
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Foods in Spanish
This is a bonus Spanish language game.
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Thanks for helping us learn globally!
What languages are spoken in your family?
What strategy could you suggest to help others learn to speak another language?
Skyping with Mrs. Watson and the 2/3′s!
May 1st
This week, we were able to Skype with our friends in British Columbia, Canada. It is always great to talk with Mrs. Watson and the 2/3’s! Our classes decided to try something different this visit. We thought it might be fun to read together.
If you’re going to read together, why not share a poem from You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You.
This fantastic book allowed the 2/3′s to practice one side of the text and the Techie Kids to practice the other side.
Our text was colored purple and
the 2/3′s text was colored pink.
When the blue text appeared in the middle, we read together!
Listen to see what our poem, The Two Mice, sounded like.
You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You from Kelly Moore on Vimeo.
After reading, we learned some super-cool facts about each other.
The 2/3′s have 46 children in their entire school compared to our 400!
There are 17 students in their class compared to the 27 Techie Kids participating in this session.
Our school day is longer by 1 hour and 15 minutes.
We thought it was very cool that some students were able to go home for lunch or have hot lunches delivered to them.
We are very interested in how their class can play in a temperate rainforest.
Everyone thought it would be fun to have a little friend like Chippy the Chipmunk!
Here are some pictures that were taken by our second grade Techie Kids.
We can’t wait to learn more with our buddies!
What was the most interesting thing you learned?
What connections did you make?
What would you like to learn more about?
Skyping with Mrs. Webb-Scheers and The Classroom Connection!
Apr 29th
This week, the Techie Kids were able to learn about New Brunswick, Canada from some very special friends. We were so excited to meet our Quad Blogging Buddies in The Classroom Connection! This was a super-exciting experience for our 52 fourth graders. It was their first time using Skype!
We asked 4WS to teach us about the jobs they have when they prepare for a Skype session. We read about all of their expertise and thought it would be important to hear what they have to say.
Click here to read about their jobs.
We found out that both of our classes were using posters created by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. I found out about her fantastic resources through Langwitches. Mrs. Webb-Scheers found out about them through Around the World in 80 Skypes.
Here is some of the information that The Classroom Connection think is important to research before Skyping with a class:
What is the main language spoken by the other class?
What is the weather like where they live?
They create 3 questions to ask the other class that cannot be answered by “yes” or “no.”
They never share the name of their school for Internet Safety.
They also shared with us that they have a local sports team called the Slammers.
We found out that they do have special classes like Music, Physical Education, Technology, and Art just like we do. Mrs. Moore thought it was great that they talked about using “21st Century Technology.”
We found out that they eat “poutine.” The Techie Kids had never heard of that food before. 4WS shared that is was French fries with gravy and cheese. Yum!
Image by Joe Shlabotnik . Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Take a look at some of the pictures our student photographers took…
Skyping with The Classroom Connection on PhotoPeach
Thank you so much to our Canadian friends and Mrs. Webb-Scheers for helping us learn globally! I would also like to thank Mrs. Johns and Mr. Mittelstadt for letting me bring their classes back into the technology lab during their regular instruction time!
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