Connecting Your Students Globally

Students learning from Steve from South Africa

I believe that one of the biggest impacts we can have on our students today is to expose them to the world around them. Especially if you are from a small, rural community like I teach in. I love to connect my students with teachers and students from other countries. They jump at the chance to learn about other cultures...what they eat, the languages they speak, what their schools are like...and I love to see the excitement in their faces as they learn.

Doing a Mystery Skype with Govinda from Nepal

My third graders are studying cultures and comparing and contrasting them to our American culture. I'm a hands on kind of teacher, so, of course, we couldn't simply learn about cultures through books and the Internet...no, we had to talk to someone from that culture first hand! This week I am connecting each of my third grade classes with teachers from around the globe using Skype and Google Hangouts!

These are staples in my classroom! Skype and Google Hangout are tools that we use constantly to learn and share! How are you using them in your classroom?

Let's Skype About It!

Checkout our newest Skype project started by our awesome art and music teachers!!! Comment if you would like to participate! The more the merrier!!!

Christmas Around the World

My 5th graders do a unit each year entitled Christmas Around the World, where they learn about the different beliefs, traditions and symbols of Christmas in different countries, including Russia, Germany, Italy, Canada, Mexico, etc. This year I would like to up the bar and have them connect with someone from each country that they are studying! This would give them an opportunity to get a first hand description of Christmas in different countries! So what did I do??? I created a Skype in the Classroom, of course! Click below to join my project and connect with my students!

What's the Hype with Skype?

So today I did my first Skype session with a group of 2nd graders in Mrs. Cozart's class. We connected with another 2nd grade class in Baltimore, MD! The kids had so much fun introducing themselves and learning about one another's school, classroom, and community! I could not believe how easy it really was! All I had to do was sign up for a Skype account, install it on the computer, plug in my webcam...and off we go!!! To find the class, I simply signed up for Skype in the Classroom and created a project looking for 2nd grade classrooms around the globe who would like to do a year long connection with another group sharing what they were learning throughout the year. I got messages back almost immediately!

We plan to reconnect with the class again within the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we will be able to connect with some other classes around the globe throughout the year as well. We would also like to add some authors, illustrators, and people of different professions to our contacts as well!

If you have never Skyped, you don't know what you are missing! It is such an awesome global project for kids of all ages! It helps them to learn about the world around them while talking to others their own age! To learn more about Skype and how to get it in your classroom, click here! What are you waiting for? Join the hype with Skype!!!