Mystery Skype Success!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!

I am filled with so much excitement right now!! 

So, I have read a lot of other blogs about Mystery Skype and thought my class could totally do that!! I told my class that we would be doing our first Mystery Skype and I explained to them what it was and they were OH SO EXCITED!! If you are wondering what a Mystery Skype is... it is where you Skype another classroom in either the same country or a different country from your own and then you ask geographical questions to try and find out where the other class is from. They couldn't wait and, frankly, neither could I! We prepared questions and answers to commonly asked questions for about two weeks. We talked about our behavior and the etiquette we would practice while on our Mystery Skype phone call! They were so eager to do this Mystery Skype that their excitement was very evident. 

The day finally came!! It was scheduled for noon and that was all they talked about that morning. Once noon finally arrived we placed our phone call to our "Mystery State!" The kiddos were overwhelmed with emotions... I could tell they were nervous and a little scared. (It was a good thing for them to feel these emotions) Once the ball started rolling they did really well. I was so proud of them. They really got to utilize their map skills. It was wonderful.

Here are some questions I would recommend for first time Mystery Skypers:

1. Are you east or west of the Mississippi River?

2. Are you a landlocked state?

3. Do you border another country?

4. Are you one of the original 13 colonies?

5. Are you in Tornado Ally?

6. Are you touching the Appalachian Mountains?

7. Is your state considered to be in the North or in the South?

These were a few questions we used. Now, some questions will be ruled out considering the answer of a previous question. We had our question analysts figure out which questions we could no longer ask. Everyone in our room had a duty and they fulfilled their job really really well. 

If you were wondering....

Our first Mystery Skype was from a class in Oklahoma.

If you want to get started with your own Mystery Skype today just click here. I would highly recommend you try this experience at least once with your class. You will not regret it!!

Below are a few snapshots of our Mystery Skype in action: 

Given the Opportunity...

Wow... It has been quite some time... the world of a first year teacher is BUSY and I LOVE every minute of it...

Today, I want to share with you something I am very proud of and something that my students are extremely proud of! First, I have a question... How often do you let your students explore and show you what they can do? My answer to you would be... "You would be surprised!"

We started this project in September because I thought we would need all the time we could get... however, my students surprised me (why I ever doubted them is beyond me) and we were able to finish them in a little over a week. 

We started by doing a guided drawing of a pumpkin, once they drew and colored their pumpkin (kids love to draw!!) I asked them to pretend they were that pumpkin. I then asked them to decide the life the pumpkin would have... I told them that if I were a pumpkin I would be turned into many pumpkin spice lattes. (insert eye roll here haha) I then let their imaginations flow from there. 

I gave them a four square to organize all of their thoughts and then they wrote a complete paragraph using their four square. After that, they peer edited each others work (which by the way is amazing!!) and then we talked about publishing their work using a computer. We talked about typing and how I was not looking for anything fancy I just wanted them to be able to convert what they had written to a typed form on the computer. 

THEY WERE SO EXCITED! 

I heard many comments and mostly they led back to, "I feel like an author!!" When you as a teacher are excited about something and have such a passion for teaching them something new and the kids are thirsty for what you have, there really isn't any room for failure. 

We did face a few obstacles along the way at no fault of the students. We came across the issue of printing from the laptops and using my flash drive wasn't an option. Also, emailing them to myself was Plan C and that didn't quite workout either! Sure, we could have given up but we persevered through it and finally figured out a solution to our problem. 

What I am about to share with you is very precious and the students and I are both really proud of our finally product. We hope to share more of our published work with you soon!!