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)