Skype in the Classroom

This year we have been utilizing technology to help us learn!  

*For a published article on how our district as a whole uses technology, click on the link below and scroll to page 38*

 Technology in the Jefferson Township School District

Part of our learning objectives in Social Studies are that we should learn about similarities and differences between ourselves and others, celebrate differences, and also learning about communities and maps!  Here is what we know about our community:

Our town is named Lake Hopatcong after the lake we live around.  We go to Ellen T. Briggs School, a small school with grades K-2.  We live in northern New Jersey about 1 hour drive away from New York City.

In the morning class, we connected with Mr. Brandt's 5th grade class in Vinton, Iowa to do a Reader's Theater exchange and in doing so learned all about their community! We learned that they live in a small town with only a one screen movie theater and that they go to a large school that children from several towns go to from grades K-5.  They got to hear our "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" Reader's Theater, and we got to hear their fractured fairy tales.

 

 
Click to See Our Reader's Theaters

 In the afternoon class, we were able to connect with Brian (Mrs. Curry's brother) living in Brazil!  He told us that he had to take 4 plans and a 3 hour car ride to get to where he is living!  He told us that the time is one hour ahead of us and that they are almost in their winter but that it stays hot because it is a tropical community.  Students had questions about the plants and animals and we learned that some are the same and some are different!  Check out what we learned in the photos below and the video link (I apologize for the shaky camera work!).

Skype Session to Brazil