Today I had a blast with my kids, both 6th and 7th grades. That’s not to say that I don’t have those days every once in a while, but today was just plain…well…cool. I hooked up my webcam, got on Skype and video conferenced with Mrs. Moore’s 6th grade classes at our county’s other middle school across town. What a blast these kids had!
We were discussing sequencing and plot in language arts, so we decided to put our two classes together and do a short introduction to the topic using Photo Story and Skype.
I did a video call to Mrs. Moore’s class and her students got to see a big picture of me up on their screen while my kids got to watch Mrs. Moore. I did a short presentation using our “first story” approach to learning Photo Story. I showed them 5 random pictures (a small child, a lion, an alarm clock, someone jumping in the air, and a picture of someone holding a heart-shaped Christmas ornament in their hand). I demonstrated how to randomly select the order of the pictures and write a short story complete with conflict and resolution in five easy sentences.
Then, I put up five different pictures for the kids. We gave each class 10 minutes to decide what order in which to put their pictures and write their stories. After that, we looked for volunteers (and volunteered a few) to stand in front of the webcam and read their stories to the other class. The kids loved it!
I’m looking for a way to get another classroom teacher involved so that all of my kids can participate. Our other middle school operates on a block schedule while we have 50 minute classes. But that was really our only problem. Skype worked great, the Internet connection held, we finally got our speakers working well, and the kids were engaged.
What will be even more interesting is finding a way for my 8th graders to join Mrs. Moore’s 6th graders next semester. Can you say challenge time?
My special thanks to Mrs. Moore and her kids. This is what makes teaching fun in the 21st century!