Illinois Middle School Students Connect With Friends in Other Countries
An international studies teacher in Waterloo, IL, is
using
free video chat technology to connect his middle school students with
students
their age in other countries.
Bill Theobald, who teaches middle school students at Ss. Peter
and Paul Catholic School about other countries, has connected his
students to
counterparts in Norway, France and Canada, all by using services like ePals, Skype and Edmodo, available to schools at no
charge.
And that's the key, Theobald said. "It's all free so
schools
can afford it," he said in a news report from the Sun Herald.
That's why his eighth-grade class was recently able
to connect
with their "keypals," an updated version of "pen pals," in Kathrine
Kopperud's
eighth-grade class in Norway, the students in Illinois calling in at
9:30 a.m.
and those in Europe at 4:30 p.m. Oslo time.
The students shared opinions about their favorite
holidays —
Christmas for the Americans, National Day (May 17) for the Norwegians —
and
their favorite foods — ham, potatoes and cookies for the Americans and
pinnekjott
for the Norwegians.
"It's amazing the picture and sound from 7,000 miles
away,"
Theobald said. "The world is so small."
During one video chat before Christmas, the Norwegian
students
— whose English was much better than the American students' Norwegian —
helped their
United States-based friends to learn how to say "Hi" in their language ("Hei")
and "Goodbye"
("Ha det").
While Theobald's eighth-graders will continue to make
friends
with the students in Norway, his sixth-grade students regularly connect
with
students at Aberdeen Composite School in Saskatchewan, Canada, and his
seventh-graders
with similarly-aged students at College Les Gorguettes in Cassis,
France.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.