A Teacher, Coach & Dad

Recently, I blogged about a Mystery Skype that we did with Mr Craig's class in New York. It was an amazing experience for our kids here at York Elementary School! Last week we completed yet another Mystery Skype with Shannon Smith (@brachsmith) and her kids in Illinois.

Instead of ME blogging about this engaging experience, I thought that I would ask four of my fourth graders to collaborate on a "guest" post for my blog. The instructions were simple. Students had to create a Google Doc, share it with the other collaborators and then have it to me by a certain date. Much to my surprise, the kids were done way ahead of time!

I am proud to announce that the first "guest" post for my blog was done by some of our very own fourth graders from York Elementary School! Here it is verbatim. Please feel free to leave comments for the kids!

4th GRADE MYSTERY SKYPE

Recently in library, Mrs.Peterson’s 4th grade class did a mystery skype with Mrs.Smith’s 4th graders in Illinois. In a mystery skype our Guybrarian, Mr.Badura, finds a teacher from a different state and asks if they would like to do a mystery skype with us. So far, two 4th grade classes at York Elementary have done them. After Mr.Badura finds a class, he sets the time and date for our mystery skype. At first, nobody knows where the other class is. That’s why it’s not just a skype, it’s a mystery skype!

When you do a mystery skype, you learn about different states by asking questions about where they live. Everybody has a different job, but we are all working together to figure out the answer, ‘’WHERE DO YOU LIVE’’? It usually it takes about 8 to 10 questions before you figure out where the other class lives. Our class and their class sat down in front of the camera and asked each other more questions about each others states until we find out where they live.

Mystery skypes are a good way to practice logical reasoning. Each answer we get helps eliminate part of the country. While most of us are working on the inquirers’ questions, some are communicating online by sending each other notes. You have to be sure not to give away big clues to where you live either. If you do, then it won’t be a mystery and you don’t have the fun of figuring it out.

I know Mrs.Peterson’s 4th grade class enjoyed it a lot and would LOVE to do it again! When you do a mystery skype your feelings might be like, ‘’ Wow that was actually pretty fun!’’, or ‘’ Mr. Badura is the best Guybrarian ever for letting us do this!’’ Our class loved doing this experiment with technology and states. This project helps classes by learning to work together. You also learn more about technology and the states and where the states are located compared to where we are located. We hope that Mrs.Smith’s 4th grade class had as much of fun as we did!

Mrs. Peterson’s class had a great experience! They had a lot of fun meeting with a class 500 miles away! They for sure wanted to do it again! Bye!

Written By,
                                                      Lindsey, Lilly,
                                                      Morgan, & Morgan

"It is today we must create the world of the future." Eleanor Roosevelt

I did something in class today that doesn't happen very often. I had EVERY SINGLE KID engaged. As educators, we all strive to differentiate our lesson so that it caters to all of our students. Yes, it is hard to do. Too often we can't reach that one student...no matter what we do or try, they will not respond to the activity.
Today, one of my fourth grade classes did a Mystery Skype with @DCraig42. I had EVERY SINGLE KID engaged. It was so fun sitting back, taking it all in and watching the kids do their duties.....and doing them well! I got the idea from my PLN on Twitter and thought it would be fun to let the kids take charge of their own learning. I did a little research and ran across this blog by @pernilleripp. I set up a Google Document with my kids to assign the roles that Mrs. Ripp wrote about in the article. We discussed the roles together and I even modeled what they would be doing.

I will have to admit that I was a little leery going in. I am somewhat of a control freak. I cringe at the thought of the unexpected in the classroom. "What happens if" was a question that constantly ran through my mind. After our Skype today, I was extremely proud of our 4th graders! Every single student did their job to perfection! Our Inquirers worked so well with my Mapmakers and Logical Reasoners to come up with the next closed-ended question! Our runners should be awarded a medal for their multitasking abilities!
If you have not tried a Mystery Skype, jump in! What a great interdisciplinary lesson for your students. Need to tie in that geography piece that you have been missing? A Mystery Skype will take care of that for you! There are a myriad of possibilities when it comes to Mystery Skypes!

Where do you start? There are tons of resources out on the net. Here are few that I tend to rely on:
4thchat Mystery Skype
Mystery State/Country Skyping
Cybrary Man's Awesome Skype Page <- Jerry's Twitter handle--> @cybraryman1

Highlights from our Mystery Skype