Several years ago I was introduced to Skype as a teaching tool. I joined a community of educators and guest speakers who were using Skype in the classroom. I joined several projects and collaborated with a third grade teacher at my school to hold mystery Skype conferences with other classes in the United States. Our students enjoyed meeting students from other states. This was a good place to begin our adventures in video conferencing.
The next year we joined the Global Read Aloud Project with Pernille Ripp and colleagues. Our students connected with a class in California as we read and held weekly discussions using the book Marty McGuire for seven weeks. We learned lots during this time. We secured an inexpensive external microphone and a set of speakers to add audio quality. We also established a speakers chair where the microphone sits during conferences. Since no participant goes to a conference without a plan, every week we used discussion questions created by both classes.
Last year we kicked off our year of Skyping video book conferences with the Global Read Aloud Project in early October and quickly found other classes to connect with throughout the school year. We utilized different books expanding our reading horizons. Our students found their voice and confidence as speakers due to the requirements of the sessions.
One first grade teacher wanted in on our fun lessons last year and her class took part in the author study section of the Global Read Aloud Project. Her class connected with other classes by sharing activities on a padlet wall and by e-mail. We even took part in an old school post card exchange with other classes from around the globe. After the Global Read Aloud Project we connected with a librarian from Florida who held a weekly read aloud with our first grade students. She still does!
We are always looking for opportunities to expand our Skyping boundaries. We seek ways to develop the geography skills, comprehension skills, speaking and interpersonal communication skills of our students. My colleagues and I continue to take our students to new heights using this tool for instruction and collaboration.
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