Part Two: Our Mystery Skype Experience
On the day of
the Mystery Skype, I set up the classroom on my plan time. I laid out
everything my kids would need (maps, markers, paper) and I gave them all
assigned seats with instructions. They each had a different job, and we
had discussed those jobs during our practice. I have a small class
(only 9 kids!), so they all sat around our big table.
We
waited "patiently" for our new friends to get to class and call us,
since their schedule is different with shorter class times. This was
great, because it gave us time to get settled and practice a bit with
Skype and being loud enough to be heard.
When the
other class called, we did introductions and jumped right into the
questions. My student Alice* (*names have been changed!) was our
Questioner and she did an excellent job at picking questions and
recording the answers, which she passed to the Mappers. My mappers used
Google Maps and various printed maps in protection sheets to eliminate
states and cities for our final guess.
After about
10-12 questions on each side, we were down to three states. One of my
boys (Frank*, who almost blurted out our state in the middle of
everything!) guessed Ohio and we were right! They then guessed our state
and we tried for cities. That was the tricky part because they were
from a small town, and we're technically in a suburb of our city. (That
threw them off a bit!)
Overall, it was a great
experience! My kids had to use their inference skills, as well as
context clues and questioning skills. I gave them a list of suggested
questions, but they also developed their own as we went, and got closer
to the answer. We also practiced map reading and identifying states and
directions, which are Social Studies skills, so we were cross-content
learning! AND it was so much fun! It was different than anything we'd
ever done, and we became global learners by virtually entering another
classroom.
After we were done, we did a little research
on the Amish, since one of their fun facts was that they live near a
large population of Amish people. My kids had never heard of the Amish,
so we researched their town and I shared my knowledge from books I've
read.
I then asked the kids for their feedback. 7 of them thought it was really fun getting to talk to another class and wanted to do it again. The other 2 liked it, but weren't sure they wanted to do it again. They all thought it was a good break from our usual schedule. We all agreed that it was hard for the groups to hear each other, so we think that we'll have to move the computer closer to the table next time or just talk much louder. (I have a USB webcam, but the sound runs through the computer... I think!)
I loved it! I thought my kids got a lot out of the experience, they were super engaged, and they learned a lot. We laughed a lot through it, especially when Frank* almost yelled out our state! I showed them the pictures and videos I took while we were Skyping, and they loved that. We even tweeted about our experience. One of my kiddos keeps asking to "do that Mystery Skype thing again," which makes me smile every time she asks. We'd love to set up another one or two before the year ends!
I love finding new ideas that hook my kids and help them practice all the skills we've been learning all year long!
Anyone else have experience with Mystery Skype?
Thanks for reading!
-Melissa
(*names have been changed!)
