Falling 4 Skype

Fall is my favorite time of year!  Many view Spring as a time of "new beginnings," but as an educator, I'm the opposite.  For me, it's fall.  As the new school year approaches, I'm always looking to create change.  The focus of our PLC has helped me to keep my goals on learning and sharing with others here at my school. 

As a rural girl, fall is also the time for sunflowers and apples here in Randolph, New York.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was when my fellow PLC member, Tammie Thomas, contacted me about her idea!  She knew our class usually started with a mini sunflowers unit and her class apples, so Skype was added to the formula to connect our classes in a new way.

Initial Steps - Planning Phase: We did almost all of our planning through Skype with a combination of the chat feature and video calls.  Our purpose was two-fold.  First, we wanted to show our students how teachers, even at the same school, can communicate using forms other than little notes, face to face conversations, and emails.  Second, we also hoped to solve any technical problems prior to the actual Skype calls.  Personally, I love planning on Skype and have used it with many teachers at different schools.  My favorite part of it is that you have a little orange indicator with sound that informs you that you have a message.  Some would say that it's not much different than email, but it just seems quicker and easier for me.  You can then reply, at your convience.  You also know when the other educator is "on" Skype.  The second component that I really like is that classroom teachers often don't share any similar prep time, but they still need to talk in order to collaborate.  It really isn't the best to bring my whole class down to talk to another teacher and that's impossible if they aren't in this building.  But, if it was planned ahead, I can call for a quick 2 min clarification conversation while my students are working for a moment, just as if another teacher came into my classroom in person.
Area of Impact - Personally, I was thrilled to be working with an educator at my school who shares a similar vision for her students, who I can learn from, and always share my classroom successes with.

Monday - Let's Meet: This is fully needed for students who have never Skyped before.  They are so excited, rightfully so, to be on "camera", that they get overly distracted by this element and forget about the purpose - communication and collaboration.  We kept it simple and decided that each student would get their own webcam moment to share their name and something about themselves. 
Area of Reflection - After the call, I asked my students to take a moment and reflect on the call.  Even second graders, when challenged, have the ability to be thoughtful and genuine in their reflection.  I like to see what they think, both areas of success and concern before I give my thoughts.  The one comment that really stuck out was, "I liked how Mrs. Thomas called her groups up one by one so we could hear what each kid had to say." 

Wednesday - Sunflowers: My second grade class took their turn to share about sunflowers.  As part of our preparation, we read a non-fiction book A Field of Sunflowers by Neil Johnson.  Three student pairs chose their favorite fact, recorded it an a question format, and then illustrated a picture to correlate.  We also read a fiction story Sunflower House by Eve Bunting.  Three student pairs chose either the beginning, middle, or end to summarize and illustrate.  Last, two students were in charge of explaining the glyph that each of the students in both classes were going to create.  These two were so excited about it all they even made up their own little song that taught about phototropism. 
Area of Improvement - Well, they did such an impressive job getting ready and they were so excited, that during the call, many partners kept preparing.  We talked about how it's important to give each other our attention, so we can all learn from each other.

Friday - Apples: Now it was time for Mrs. Thomas' class to share about apples.  This time we tried to really focus on being a respectful and attentive audience.  Our tables were cleared of distractions and we were ready!  Student groups came up and taught us how an apple tree looks through the different seasons.  My class thought about when to clap and I gave them signals of when to stop.  They shared the life cycle of an apple tree, as well as the directions for the apple man craft.  But, then I put my class on the spot and asked them to come up to the webcam.  They were asked to say their name and one compliment of specific praise about their presenation - either about what they learned or how the students presented. 
Area of Success - Well, this was one of those moments that you realize that your students really have SO much potential.  We needed this moment as an entire class - both students and teacher!  When the camera was off, we were all smiles to say the least.  We all can't wait for the next adventure involving Skype!

This week - Open House: This was such a unique call for me, since we are both here at the same school.  Parents and students will be able to see the crafts from both classes and hear about how we are both getting our students prepared to be global communicators and collaborators in a world of ever changing technology. 
Area of Connecting - I can't wait to hear how my students describe elements of Skype to their parents and visitors they bring with them to our classroom.  It helps me to see what they understand and where to take them next!

Our door is always open -

literally, figuratively, and virtually! 

So, come on in and let's talk tech!