Music, Teaching, Learning, and Life

This afternoon I experienced Skype with two of my 2nd grade classes. It was wonderful for all involved.

About a month ago, I saw a few tweets about skyping with students by three different twitter friends. Within a week, a music teacher from New Jersey posted a request for a class to share the experience with her students. Even though I was nervous about the technicalities, I jumped at the chance.

We used e-mail to work out the details. (I almost forgot to consider the time difference!) After a final conversation via Skype last night, and some help from a techie teacher on my end, we were ready.

Each class sang a couple of concert songs for our distant audience.  On our end, we heard the New Jersey children sing a song partially in Chinese while the classes here shared American Sign Language in one of our selections. Both classes were able to connect with the other. There is a Chinese speaking student in one of the 2nd grade classes here, and our new friends are familiar with sign language.

We made sure to allow time for a few questions about the music programs at our respective schools, as well as details about the weather and time differences. The classes were so excited and attentive!

Even though working out the details was a little tricky (scheduling music in a classroom with a big screen, projector, and web cam; scheduling around time differences, etc.), I’m so glad I took the risk. Now I want to plan a Skype session with a classroom in a different country! Time differences could be a challenge. Maybe I’ll start with the Western Hemisphere…