On Friday morning my reading class and I Skyped Mr. Gilbert's second grade class in Zurich, Switzerland! I was able to establish Mr. Gilbert as a Skype contact when I visited Zurich last March. His students were preparing for afternoon dismissal while we were just beginning our school day (the readers thought this was very funny!), as Zurich is 6 hours ahead of Baltimore.
Mr. Gilbert did not tell his class where they were Skyping so his students asked the readers a series of questions, such as, "What time is it?" and, "Where do you go to school?" before finally asking, "Where are you from?" We learned that Mr. Gilbert's class plays some of the same games we like, such as UNO.
The readers were understandably nervous and excited as they waited to ask questions of their new friends. I am proud of my class for being brave despite their nerves, and I'm sure the more people we meet over Skype, the less anxious some will become.
After Skyping, the readers and I discussed how the conversation went between us and our new Swiss friends. We agreed that when talking to someone over Skype your voice has to be:
- loud (not so loud you are yelling, but louder than your normal talking voice),
- clear (this was important because the Swiss students had British accents and we have American accents so the clearer we were in expressing ourselves, the easier we were to understand),
- slow (when we talked fast we often had to repeat ourselves), and
- full of expression (adding inflections when asking questions or acting excited was important).
We decided that the qualities we used to speak to our new friends are the same qualities we must remember as we read orally. It is important to speak so that others can hear us, read distinctly and slowly, and add inflection to our voices.
We wrapped up class by re-reading the textbook story,
Dan's Pet, recalling these sentiments.
Excellent job to my class and our new friends! Thank you, Mr. Gilbert- we look forward to chatting again soon.
