On the 30th of May our class (6th), Skyped with a 5th grade class in New York. The class had organised a conference with schools all around the world, to share their ideas on Community, and they planned to talk to over 20 schools. The conference was named ‘9 to 9 Skype Conference’, because the class planned on Skyping all these schools from 9am to 9pm! They even got to order pizza to keep them going! After the first three schools had Skyped with them, it was our turn. Mr. Quinn set up his iPad and the projector, together with a music stand, to have the people talking in front of the iPad camera, and the rest of the class watching on the Whiteboard.
The 5th Grade pupils in New York introduced themselves with a few Irish phrases that they had learnt from a Irish teacher they had in their school. We listened to the lullaby they sang, along with some kids in their class who accompanied them with a flute and clarinet. It was lovely, and we gave them a big round of applause at the end. Proceeding with the conference, they asked us about our rules in class, and about our thoughts and ideas on community in the classroom which we had done some work on in advance. They asked us a few questions about our culture/life, and we showed them a hurley and slíotar. A boy in their class told us about a sport called Lacrosse, which was hard to understand, but the boy explained it in detail. Some people went up to talk about the GAA and the Riding Stables, and a few other important areas around our community. In the end, we were talking for about half an hour!
Mr. Quinn was tweeting all the time, and here are a few of the tweets:
@tsc5thgraders are telling us how they play Lacrosse. We told them how to play hurling and Gaelic Football. #9to9skype
— Mr. Quinn’s Class (@mrquinnsclass) May 30, 2013
@tsc5thgraders play a game called Spoons to build class community. We are telling them about our Friendship Squad. #9to9skype
— Mr. Quinn’s Class (@mrquinnsclass) May 30, 2013
@tsc5thgraders are telling us about how important Respect is for a school community. #9to9skype
— Mr. Quinn’s Class (@mrquinnsclass) May 30, 2013
One of the New York kids wrote on their blog:
“My favorite Skype so far is the one in Ireland because we got to talk in Irish and sing an Irish lullaby to the class and it felt good when they applauded loudly because I felt I did a really good job.”
Another blogged:
“Some things we noticed are that we all value the same values, such as respecting each other and working together.”
By Luke (Rang VI)
June 4, 2013
