Skype

I had such an amazing class on Monday!!! I had fun. The students had fun. So what did we do, you ask? :) We Skyped w/a successful entrepreneur in San Francisco, CA. While looking on Inc Magazine's website, I saw an article called "30 under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs." I emailed one of the listed entrepreneurs & she got back to me. I thought it would be neat to connect with a young entrepreneur for my students to ask questions, hear her story, etc. They so often read about entrepreneurs but are usually years, if not decades, older than they are right now. Anyway, I arranged to Skype with Kyle Smitley, who created barley & birch, an organic environmentally friendly, made in the USA company. :) We spent over an hour talking with Kyle via Skype & the students LOVED IT! They actually seemed to like it more & were more engaged than if I actually would have had a "real live" person presenting to them in the classroom...strange. It was a great class. I left excited about my Skype connection and also excited that the students especially enjoyed class. Also, an article is being written for the local newspaper about it....so I'm excited to see/read the article about my Skyping session! I will definitely continue to use Skype in the classroom. I am going to be working with another colleague this summer to put together a list of XHS alumni who are now around the country/world who will be willing to Skype with other teachers about various topics. Hopefully by doing some of the upfront work of finding people, the teachers will then take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that they can provide their students by Skyping (or another videoconferencing too).