This week I listened to a Classroom 2.0 podcast. To find this podcast first go to the Classroom 2.0 website, then click on the Achieves and Resources tab at the top of the page. The podcast that I listened to is a ways down on that page called Seeds for Success Using Skype.
As the name suggests the podcast was about how two teachers Jan Wells and Paula Naugle use Skype in their classroom. They had some wonderful ideas that are not just fun for the students, but also fit into the curriculum and meet some standards. Using Skype in the classroom gives students a break from the traditional academic work, while still learning essential skills for the real world. Jan and Paula talked about so many things, but I am only going to mention a few.
Jan and Paula are from two different states, but met on Skype. They decided it would fun to bring their classrooms together through Skype. One of their first mini projects used the poem “Them Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”. During a Skype call Paula’s class read one verse, then Jan’s class read the next verse, and so on. To further their project, students created original artwork to go along with the poem, then made a voice thread to explain it.
Another project they did was called OREO (Our Really Exciting On-line Project). Both classes got on Skype and watched each other stack Oreo cookies as high as they could until they fell over. The students collected the data of how many Oreos each student could stack, posted it on Google Docs for everyone to see, and found mean, mode, and other statistic related information. This actually was put into their schools curriculum to meet certain math standards.
Another great thing that Jan did was to bring in a reading tutor via Skype. She said that the tutor was fun and lively. It really helped her students become motivated to read. Staying on the reading topic, Jan also found a 1st grade teacher in another state for her 3rd grade class to be reading buddies with. The 1st graders read originally created books to Jan’s third graders, and the 3rd graders read picture books to the 1st graders.
Paula had some other great ideas including finding another teacher from somewhere around the world teach a lesson to your class via Skype. If they were more of an expert on the topic than you, why wouldn’t you give your students that opportunity? Skype could also be used to conduct parent teacher conferences with parents who are not able to attend the regularly scheduled meetings. This would be a great way to still talk to parents at their convenience.
I think these ladies had wonderful ideas that are very practical to use in an elementary class. However when using technology like this you should always have a backup plan in case something happens.
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