Tuesday 19 February 2013

Mystery Skype Reflection

Last week we had two super quick, back to back Mystery Skypes. We got to meet students from Ms. Nochumson and Ms. Nim's classes. Ms. Nochumson teaches a class of girls at a private school called Sacred Heart in New York City. Ms. Nim teaches a class in Delaware.

It was a very interesting process and we experienced a mix of emotions throughout!

Today, the students in Room 209 reflected on their experience.

Here is what they wrote:

Questions we could ask next time that would help us narrow the options down more quickly:
-are you on the eastern side of the world? (Camden)
-are you in the northern hemisphere? (Thomas)
-are you north of the equator? (Hunter)
-does your state/province border another country? (Pat)
-are you on the border of your country? (Mollie)
-does your flag have a specific colour on it? (Thomas)
-are you surrounded by ocean? (Vickie)
-are you in a coastal city? (Hunter)
-does your state/province begin with a certain letter? (Pat)
-do you have three or more syllables in the name of your country? (Jack)
-is the first letter of your country in the second half of the alphabet? (Jack)
-has your state/province/country ever fought for independence? (Pat)
-are you affected by all four seasons? (Hunter)
-is your country in the United Nations? (Hunter)
-do you have a queen? (Mel)
-do you speak in a different language at your house? (Fin)
-do you live in the capital city? (Fin)
-do you constantly get droughts? (Fin)

Things we learned (facts and/or elements of the Mystery Skype process):
-doing Skype on Isaac is very hard because the volume does not go high enough. (Thomas)
-communication is really important because everyone has to be on the same page (Pat)
-I learned that Lady Gaga went to Sacred Heart in NYC. (Thomas)
-I learned that Mystery Skype is very fun. (Thomas)
-I learned that you need to pay to get in to a private school! (Vickie)
-you always have room to improve (Pat)
-137 countries have red in their flags (Hunter)
-I am really good with Google Maps (Hunter)
-Mystery Skype is very overwhelming (Sophia)
-people in the U.S. are a lot like us! (Camden)
-you can find someone somewhere else in the world pretty fast; under half an hour (Camden)
-Americans are nice! (Camden)
-Skypes don't normally have very good vision (Jack)
-there are lots of schools in New York (Jack)
-I love taking pictures (Madi)
-I'm OK at typing and I like typing (Madi)
-I learned that our class works quite well together. Sometimes we don't, but I think this time we did! (Fiona)
-I learned that there was such a thing as Mystery Skype! (Fiona)
-I learned that Delaware was in the USA (Fiona)
-many continents start with an A (Mel)
-the Question Keeper job is SO hard! (Mel)
-I am a really fast typer (Fin)
-there are 50 states in America (Millie)

Things you think could make things even better next time:
-people in the background could be more quiet (Thomas)
-the Messengers should not put questions in the Inquirers faces (Thomas)
-we should use Pat's idea and have a Think Tank at each table (Hunter)
-give a secondary job to the Problem Solver becasue he/she doesn't get much time doing their job (Jack)
-ask better questions, because the questions that people asked could have been a lot better (Jack)
-everyone gets a turn to ask a question (Madi)
-I think it would work better if there was just one Answerer and 1 Inquirer, because I found it was too hard with two of each (Fiona)
-spread the Skypes out instead of having them right after each other (Mollie)
-maybe, Messengers only talk to Inquirers when the other class is speaking (Mollie)
-people should work hard not to yell out names (Vickie)

Things that went really well:
-everyone worked well together (Thomas)
-we got the cities relatively fast (Pat)
-people went to their jobs quickly (Sophia)
-people worked quickly and well with each other (Camden)
-half an hour was the perfect amount of time because on the first Skype, we both figured out each other's cities within half an hour (Jack)
-I think the back and forth went pretty smoothly (Fiona)
-we asked really good questions and got it pretty fast (Mollie)
-most people worked hard and started very fast (Vickie)
-I think it went really well how everyone was focused with a job! (Erika)

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