Becoming a Global Classroom Through Mystery Skypes
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How do teachers get to know other teachers outside of their district?
TWITTER!!! (Click here to find Mystery Skype partners.) How do students get to know other students outside of their district? Mystery Skypes! What is a Mystery Skype? Mystery Skypes are Challenge-Based Learning episodes where students in one classroom try to guess the name of the school, city, and/or state of students in another classroom using only Yes and No questions. Everyone in both classes are assigned roles which makes everyone feel part of the team! Teachers try to stay out of it! If you are curious, feel free to watch parts of the video to the left of one of our past Mystery Skypes - it is a screencast and mostly shows the other class. It is an hour long, so just check out the parts that interest you. |
Teaching Suggestions:
Before your first Mystery Skype, teach your students how to ask general questions. We did this by playing a mystery game where a situation was presented and the students had to ask Yes or No questions to try to solve the mystery. As they asked questions, I helped them refine their questions to be more general to narrow in on a correct answer. When students ask "specific" questions too soon, it is often a waste of a question.
Good examples (General Questions):
Poor examples (Questions are too specific):
Additional Thoughts:
Have students try to stay on their train of thought unless they feel like it was a poor question to begin with! For example, Do you live within a 65 mile radius of Chicago? Do you live within a 40 mile radius of Chicago? Do you live within a 25 mile radius of Chicago?
Creating a Google Doc that everyone has access to is a must! Everyone researching can suggest questions for the "Questioners." The Questioners can choose between everyone's ideas to pick the best one each time. No need for shouting out or competing for the next question!
Click here to see the Student Page regarding Mystery Skypes. It has all of the roles, how many students are assigned to each role, etc. It also has some great links for getting started with Mystery Skypes!
Have students turn shirts inside-out if they have the school name on them (or sports teams, etc.).
Make sure the Sharers and Greeters never say the name of the school or city or state in their comments.
The teachers should call each other Mr. S instead of Mr. Solarz to prevent students from looking up a teacher's name online.
When Skype is opened, the name of the caller is prominently displayed. It would be best to slide the window to the left so that the name is hidden.
A day or two before the scheduled Mystery Skype, be sure to add the other teacher as a contact in Skype. If possible, have a quick practice call with them.
Make sure that your scheduled time is taking into account time zone differences. I always say, "Central Time Zone" after the time when I schedule, even if they are in our time zone.
Good examples (General Questions):
- Do you live east of the Mississippi River?
- Do you live in a state that starts with the letter A-L?
- Do you live in the northern half of your state?
- Do you live within a 65 mile radius of Chicago?
Poor examples (Questions are too specific):
- Do you live in Oregon?
- Do you live near Springfield?
Additional Thoughts:
Have students try to stay on their train of thought unless they feel like it was a poor question to begin with! For example, Do you live within a 65 mile radius of Chicago? Do you live within a 40 mile radius of Chicago? Do you live within a 25 mile radius of Chicago?
Creating a Google Doc that everyone has access to is a must! Everyone researching can suggest questions for the "Questioners." The Questioners can choose between everyone's ideas to pick the best one each time. No need for shouting out or competing for the next question!
Click here to see the Student Page regarding Mystery Skypes. It has all of the roles, how many students are assigned to each role, etc. It also has some great links for getting started with Mystery Skypes!
Have students turn shirts inside-out if they have the school name on them (or sports teams, etc.).
Make sure the Sharers and Greeters never say the name of the school or city or state in their comments.
The teachers should call each other Mr. S instead of Mr. Solarz to prevent students from looking up a teacher's name online.
When Skype is opened, the name of the caller is prominently displayed. It would be best to slide the window to the left so that the name is hidden.
A day or two before the scheduled Mystery Skype, be sure to add the other teacher as a contact in Skype. If possible, have a quick practice call with them.
Make sure that your scheduled time is taking into account time zone differences. I always say, "Central Time Zone" after the time when I schedule, even if they are in our time zone.
Reasons to do Mystery Skypes:
- Creates a global community of learners
- Critical Thinking
- Geography skills
- Listening and Speaking skills
- Student-Led
- Using Resources
- Authentic purpose for research
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Challenge-Based Learning
- Creates partners for future projects
- Gets teachers to collaborate globally
Resources:
Some directions to go over before doing your first Mystery Skype.
Set-up for each Mystery Skype.
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Number of students doing each job. Qualities needed to be successful for each job.
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Our classroom layout for a Mystery Skype. All students have laptops or desktops.
Possible jobs and their responsibilities (https://sites.google.com/site/moreseedstosuccesswithskype/02-skype-jobs-video-and-chart).
