Photo courtesy of Mary Evans.
Tara Davis, Clementine Clingan, Elle Warren and Frances Scott are prepared to begin the Mystery Skype.
Crestline Elementary third-grade teacher Tara Davis recently conducted a Mystery Skype activity with her class.
Skype is a computer program that allows conversations with others around the world via webcam. In a Mystery Skype session, a call is received by another class, but neither class knows the location of the other.
Using geography questions, students use maps and construct yes or no questions to ask the other class in order to determine their location first.
Davis found a third-grade teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Twitter who was willing to participate in the first Mystery Skype. In this connected learning experience, Davis’s students were assigned partners and roles ahead of time, such as greeters, question-choosers, question-askers, note takers and more.
The students in the class collaborated silently during this session using a live Google doc on their Chromebooks. Critical thinking skills were applied as they all typed possible questions to ask the other class in response to the answers already given.
The Mystery Skype was highly anticipated, engaging and fun for the entire class. Davis’s students are counting down the days until their next opportunity.
– Submitted by Mary Evans.
