Skype

bemindfulchange
Skype in the classroom with students who are at home sick!

For the past two days I’ve had two different 7th grade girls absent from my last period Spanish class because they were sick. They were so responsible that they emailed me in the morning to tell me they were sick, but wanted to know what they were missing so they could get their work done. On Monday, the one student and I were instant messaging back and forth on Skype most of the day. I asked her if she was feeling up to it, we could Skype her into class and she could participate. She was so excited (and so was I) so we called her, placed my laptop at her desk where she usually sits, talked to her as if she were really with us, brought her around the classroom as we met with different partners practicing vocabulary words and even played a fly swatter game on the dry erase board with her on the computer. She even had her own fly swatter in hand during the game, was raising her hand to ask questions, and all the while had her dog resting at her side. It was so fun!!! The students loved it and so did I.

We loved it so much that we repeated it all today with another student who had been up all night coughing so her mom had her stay home. We called her. We read in our books with her and translated a story. She worked with a partner as we completed exercises in our books, and at the end of class, we said adios and she did not miss a thing! Skype is so awesome and so are my darling students who truly WANT to BE in class with us and are sorry to miss a day! What a great place I work in! What wonderful little minds I get to sculpt in a new language five days a week!

Published by bemindfulchange

People. People important to you, people unimportant to you cross your life, touch it with love or carelessness and move on. There are people who leave you and you breathe a sigh of relief and wonder why you ever came into contact with them. There are people who leave you and you breathe a sigh of remorse and wonder why they had to go away and leave such a gaping hole. Children leave parents, parent leave friends. Acquaintances move on. Friends love and move on. You think of the many who have moved into your hazy memory. You look on those present and wonder. I believe this is all part of a master plan. People move in and out of our lives, and each leaves his mark on the other. You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who ever touched your life, and you are more because of it, and you would be less if they had not touched you. So far this is who I know that I am... PS I am a Spanish teacher (lucky enough to teach grade K-8!) living in the Chicago area. I am a yoga alliance registered and certified yoga instructor. I am pursuing MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) certification and simply happy to be alive to write this and share with others.

13 thoughts on “Skype”

  1. Sounds like great fun! I’m not able to use Skype much at school (the tech guy claims it uses too much bandwidth) but last year they let me use it to Skype in a senior to my AP Spanish class from the local children’s hospital where she was receiving chemo for Hodgekin’s Lymphoma. The local news even did a story on it. It was such a great tool–and she was the only student in the class to pass the AP exam. Wish I could use it more! Good for you and your kiddos!

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  3. That is so amazing that you could do that. The way you describe it your pupil felt a part of the class!
    I’m also blown away by the fact that you could techinically do that – you have a laptop, wifi…
    Didn’t you have to wear a microphone? How large is your class?
    In short – wow!

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  4. Since I was home sick today, I almost SKYPED into your class today during your 8th grade class. (but you weren’t on when I checked) Hey, I could use this if you want me to watch the behavior of your students… Thanks for providing this great opportunity for our kids.

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    1. You can SKYPE in any day. I am ALWAYS online, but had myself as invisible (forgot and left invisible on) because some of the kids add me as their contact now and want to call me at night…sometime I am not up for a Skype call with the kiddies at night time, ya know? SO call me any time, any day, any where!

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      1. Lauren…this is awesome! Being able to never have a reason to miss Spanish class… I love it! I also think it’s great that Debbie can actually “watch” your students from home. Thanks so much for all you do to make learning so exciting for our kid.

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  5. I had a student last year come to class after a day away and say that as she was lying in bed she thought, “I should email Mr. Wees and see if he can set up a Skype chat for me,” but decided against it.

    I love that your students want to join class even when they aren’t at school. đŸ™‚

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  6. Pingback: Thank you SKYPE! « Be the change…

  7. Invisible vs visible. I had two Skype accounts. One for me (this one) and one for classroom. Left CR visible when available for class, office hours, etc.
    Trying to figure out how to Skype two absent students simultaneously.

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    1. You can do a group call with free Skype account, but you will only be able to hear each other. You can pay for a subscription to Skype and then group calls are included…of you can use ooVoo. It is just like Skype, but group calls are free.

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