Mystery Skype Let's Us Connect
When Suzanne Louttit first heard of Mystery Skype, she immediately saw it as an opportunity to not only engage her students, but provide them with a way for them to work together while learning about different regions of the world. Mystery Skype allows students to go beyond maps and make a connection to the people that live in different locations. Mystery Skyping helps students to connect with not only fellow classmates, but with kids from around the world. Suzanne's grade five class regularly participates in Mystery Skypes, and have become quite savvy at learning how to narrow their questioning strategy. As the students were interviewed about their experiences, they commented on the benefits, as well as a few tips for teachers in getting started.
What are the benefits of Mystery Skypes? The Mystery Skype gave them a chance to "learn how to work together better", "have fun" "meet people from different places and talk to people from around the world", "learn about maps, prime meridian, longitude and latitude", as well as, "connect more with friends because you cooperate and work together" What advice would you give to other classrooms and their teachers? "Start with simple areas just inside your province or just outside Saskatchewan and later move into the United States" "Start with just a few jobs, then as you get good at it, try more jobs" "You need to watch time zones and make sure that it's not too different." How do you get better at Mystery Skype? "Start off with a simple one, then once your teacher thinks you are good enough, you can then start going farther away." "We started off just in our province, which made it easier for us. Then for our second one, they happened to be in Indiana, which was a little harder to find." |
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