Are you ready to take the Skype Challenge in your classroom?
Once you have a contact in mind, begin considering any activities you might want to use to prepare or follow up after/before/during your Skype call. This is a part of the planning process I would be more than happy to assist with so please don't hesitate to contact me!
After you have some ideas and a contact(s) ready to go, I can help in whatever way possible to make sure you have the right tools you need to make it happen.
Skype in the classroom has always been a fun tool for me. One of my favorite memories is using Skype to host an online clinician who worked with my choir in preparation for contest. The video below explains how that worked.
Elementary:
- Ask a parent, grandparent, or relative to Skype in to your classroom to read a book, give a story problem for the day, or talk about their work
- Talk to someone who may be serving in the armed forces
- Contact an author for a book you may read or have read - you might be surprised if you just ask them!
- Contact a politician, police officer, or lawyer to speak about a topic or just talk about their job
- Contact another classroom somewhere in the city, state, or country
- Contact another classroom outside of the country
- Speak with someone in another country about differences in that country
- Have a 'debate' by asking opposing viewpoints to give their side of the story in separate Skype calls
- Skype with a feeder middle school to talk about what to expect in middle school
- Take a field trip somewhere through Skype - the iPad makes it easy for the person on the other end to take your class on a tour! On the other side you could give someone a tour of your school with an iPad.
Middle School:
- Connect with someone in the armed forces and talk about the hardships and reality of their day
- Connect a foreign language class with a native speaker
- Contact politicians and hear their election ideas and conduct a mock election
- Contact an author and speak with them about a recent book study or discussion
- Connect with another class in the district, state, or country and challenge them with some kind of class challenge
- Contact a professional athlete to speak about the work that goes into participating in professional athletics
- Hold a debate where students respectfully oppose an argument someone is making for their cause
- Skype with a university professor or recruiting officer to start asking questions about going to college
- Skype with a feeder high school about what to expect in high school
- Take a field trip somewhere through Skype - the iPad makes it easy for the person on the other end to take your class on a tour! On the other side you could give someone a tour of your school with an iPad.
Looking for More Ideas?
Find a Skype project at Skype Education - http://education.skype.com/