KHS - Skype with Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda

Today at KHS, Tara Doyle, technology teacher, and Elena Wetmore, 1st grade teacher, communicated with a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, Emily, a friend of Ms. Wetmore's. Emily first wrote a letter to the class. Then the class wrote letters back to her asking questions. One boy in the class asked Ms. Wetmore if Emily had the Internet and Skype so they could talk with her. Ms. Wetmore wrote to check that out and found out that she did have a computer with Internet access. Many pictures were shared so students could see where and how Emily was living in Rwanda. This is a picture of the road to Emily's job.


Ms. Wetmore and the class talked about the different location, Rwanda, and came up with questions to ask Emily. A script was created and each person who wanted to speak had a part. It was practiced many times. Here it is:

Script for Skyping

Student1: Hi Emily! We are Ms. Wetmore’s Class.
Student2: How are you?
Student3: We are from Westport, CT in the USA.
Student4: Where are you from?
Student5: Did you get the letters we sent you? Were they torn at all?
Student6: What time is it there right now?
Student7: We are growing beans, pumpkins and sweet corn during
science.
Student8: What types of plants are in Rwanda? Do you have a garden?
Student9: Do you have pets or animals around your house?
Student10: What do you miss most about the USA?
Student11: When are you coming back to the USA? Maybe you can come
visit us sometime.
Student12: What is your house like?
Student13: We read about water pumps. How do you get your water?
Student14: Thanks for skyping with us.
ALL: Chow for Now!

As it turns out as they were talking more questions were thought of so there was a line that formed at the microphone.

Although there were some technical problems and the connection was lost, students did get a chance to see and talk with Emily.

Tara Doyle, technology teacher, helped Ms. Wetmore a lot with the technology part of it since it was the first time Ms. Wetmore had used Skype. Because they needed to meet when Emily was available, they did not use their regular computer time, so they met at a different time with Ms. Doyle for the Skype session.

Ms. Wetmore said, "The kids were so into it and learned a lot. I loved seeing them come up with other questions as they heard things (a skill we had worked on when doing a podcast interview about a person's history with Ms. Anctil our library media specialist). "

Map of Rwanda from Wikimedia Commons (Click on image to enlarge.)

SHS:Dan Geraghty Creates an Amazing Author Visit with Craig Mullaney

Craig Mullaney

Last Wednesday afternoon, March 22nd, Dan Geraghty, English teacher at SHS, interviewed author, Craig Mullaney, via a live Skype connection. Students from Dan Geraghty’s sophomore English 2A, B and contemporary American literature classes, with Christina Richardson’s speech class made up the audience. Craig Mullaney is the author of The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education (Penguin Press) and a U.S. Army veteran.

Dan Geraghty originally read the book because of personal interest, specifically related to his connection to Craig's background: Craig and Dan served in the same military unit on active duty in the 10th Mountain Division. Both are Army Rangers and Infantry Captains. They both left the military after a period of service in order to pursue other interests. Dan was using the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien as a class text and he realized how relevant Craig's story would be as a non-fiction supplement to the text. Dan was able to connect with Craig Mullaney through Facebook, and Craig was enthusiastically willing to "visit" Dan's classes via Skype!During the 45 minute interview Dan Geraghty had prepared his own questions and selected some questions from his students. (The full video interview will be available soon and added to this blog post.) Craig Mullaney reflected on his life experiences at West Point, Oxford University and as the leader of his army platoon in Afghanistan. The interview was riveting and poignant. Craig's story is archetypal and his focus on growing up and taking responsibility for something greater than himself was inspiring.

I do not think that this interview would have been any more powerful if Craig Mullaney was actually at the school. For all intents and purposes he WAS fully present, which speaks to the power of video conferencing and Skype.

Inklings, Staples school newspaper, published an article today with more information on this amazing event.

CMS: Harvard Expert "visits" CMS

Recently Meg Berkowitz, English teacher at CMS, used Skype to connect her students to an expert in Renaissance Literature at Harvard University. Here is her story about the experience...

After a few years of doing the same research project on Elizabethan England where kids were put into groups and asked to research one aspect of Elizabethan culture and present it back to the class (via PowerPoint, no less!), I decided that the project needed to be "spiced up" a bit. Last year I made a few changes to it by turning it into a webquest, however I still felt that the kids needed more of an opportunity to make their own inquiries based on the questions that they had about this topic.

As a result, I enlisted the help of Christine Barrett, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University who specializes in Renaissance Literature. Ms. Barrett agreed to be "interviewed" by students over Skype which allowed them to ask the questions that they most wanted answered. Prior to the interview, I asked each of my classes to compile a list of the questions that they thought were most imperative to ask. They were also allowed to ask additional follow up questions on the day of Ms. Barrett's presentation.

After the presentation, students completed a newspaper project where they created stories based on the information they learned during the presentation, combined with any supplemental research they did on the era. The students really seemed to enjoy the presentation and liked having the opportunity to talk to an expert in the field.

REFLECTIONS ON THE USE OF SKYPE

I found that Skype was really easy to use and very user friendly. I loved that I didn't have to shuffle all 100 students down to the auditorium for a guest speaker; by using Skype I was able to seamlessly transition in between my lesson and Christine's presentation. Also, it was much more of a casual conversation than that of a formal presentation which seemed to be more engaging to the students, considering that they were driving the "conversation" with the questions that they had compiled.

What I found the most interesting, though was the comfort level that the students had using this technology. Even something as minute as proving wait time in between when they said hello and when they asked their question proved that this form of communication is not nearly as foreign as it is to us. Put it this way... I had every technological mishap possibility running through my head for days prior to this. On the actual day, we got cut off for a brief moment and I had to call Christine back. I was sweating bullets; not one of them batted an eye. Why? Because it happens to them all the time.