Sue Anderson, our librarian, worked to line up a couple of author visits for the end of the school year. One will be in person in a week and the other visited with us via Skype.
Our students filled the gym with great anticipation waiting for poet and cartoonist Vikram Madan to appear on the giant screen. The IT staff arranged for the Skype connection to go through an iPad so that Sue could walk around and have students ask questions directly to Mr. Madan.
Here is a video of his visit.
A teacher at my school recently used a simulation, technology and a subject matter expert to bring deeper understanding to her students’ understanding of Shakespeare.
Ms. Galland’s Advanced Placement Language and Composition class read Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, analyzing how a moneylender named Shylock demands repayment from a debtor named Antonio. Shylock asks that Antonio repay him his 3000 ducats with a “pound of flesh,” as promised in the verbal contract they agreed on.
The AP students held a mock trial in class before George Galland, an attorney in Chicago. Mr. Galland played the role of judge over Skype. The plaintiffs used legal opinions, evidence from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and other websites and articles documenting the climate and laws in Elizabethan England to present and defend their cases. Mr. Galland favored the defendant but was impressed with the AP students’ preparation, presentations, textual citations, and courtroom performances.
Acknowledgment: Hilary Galland helped author this post.
This will be my first post about the creativity of Michael Lambert. There will be many more as I worked with him for five years at the Upper Primary of HKIS. Many of the best practices that I posted in the Teacher Toolkit were ones that I picked up from observing Mike in action.
Working at Concordia International School in Shanghai, Mike, like many teachers of students in China, works to digitally communicate with parents as they are often away from home with their work. He uses the Web and e-mail to share information and video portfolios students take home to their parents. Mike recently used Skype to manage three parent conferences that many schools routinely have at the end of the first quarter of school. I understand that one had the father at the office while the mother and student were at school with Mike. This reasonable option pulls in the traveling parent who might otherwise miss many school activities.
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