Connecting to Two Different 'Mystery Classrooms' Using Different Applications

 

                                                

I am taking an online PYP course, and this weeks lesson engagement was to connect with a classroom from outside of my current school.  I ended up working with two of my cohorts.  I did the same lesson with both cohort classrooms, but we used different applications to connect.  One was done through Zoom and the other was done through Google Docs.  The activity was "Mystery Classroom". The objective was to get the students in each class to ask and answer 21 yes or no questions.  The students then had to use the clues from the answers to try to determine where in the world the classroom was located.  This activity reminded me a of a TV series that was popular with kids in America (U.S.A.) in the late 80's early 90's.

I informed my students about the games we would be playing this week. I did explain that we would be using 2 different applications to play the games.  Honestly, I thought for sure that playing the game through Google Docs. would not be as engaging as playing it in Zoom....Keep reading to find out the outcome to both games. 

Classroom 1.  (Ms. Anjana's Class). Application Zoom:

On Tuesday afternoon we connected with Ms. Angi's class.  My students had seen on our daily schedule that we would be making the call at 2:10 in the afternoon.  They immediately started to deduce which parts of the world the call could not be in.  I over heard their conversations with one another during "settling in time".  The kids were saying things like, "Well, It can't be in America, because Ms. Melissa has talked to us about her family in America.  We know that they are 12 hours behind us.  It would be 2:00 am over there so they would be sleeping."  I didn't respond nor did I correct them...because since the initial conversation occurred Day Light Savings has happened in the US and the time difference was now 13 hours.  That information would not have changed the outcome and I really just wanted to hear them talk freely.  Some of the students then began to talk about other countries that it couldn't have been, Japan was mentioned because kids knew that Japan was ahead of us in hours, and school wouldn't be in session.  They also talked about some of the Central American countries because they figured that they would be in the same time zones as America. It was fun to watch their inquire take place...uninterrupted and without any guidance from an adult.  

At 2:10 the game began Questions were fired left and right.  Kids answered the questions.  I found that 2 different times my students had asked a question that was previously asked.  My class knows that listening during a discussion is important to me.  So a few of my students said the their classmate, "That question has been asked already."  My students also know that I do not repeat myself if information is missed.  I do give the kids an out (because they are just that...kids who are easily distracted) by saying, "You can phone a friend to see if anyone is willing to be kind enough to help you out."  I like doing this, as it shows me who understand and who doesn't understand.  Kids also like to 'help' out at this age, and I find that they are happy to answer the question.  It puts them in the role of teacher...and it also builds a healthy sense of team-work in the classroom.  

Initially Angi and I were thinking that the activity would take about 15 minutes to play.  We decided we would fill the other 15 minutes with "getting to know you" questions.  To my surprise, the kids asked more than 21 questions and were excited to continue to ask questions.  25 minutes into the game, we asked the students to conference with their table mates to see if they could deduce where their 'sister' class was.  

My class answered first.  I chose a student who seemed very excited to give her answer.  Honestly, I didn't think that she would successfully answer the location, mostly because she is still at the beginning stages of understanding English.  To my surprise, the child answered the correct location.  When asked "what made you choose Singapore for the location?" her answer was. "Because uniform has lion. Singapore has Merlion."  This showed me that even though she may not have understood all of the questions and answers that were given, she was other skills to help with her reasoning.  It was a nice reminder for me to not 'sell a child short' based on their language skills.  

Ms. Anji's class was also able to figure out where my class was located.  This activity/introduction was such a success we have decided that we will continue connecting with one another throughout the remainder of the school year.  The energy and excitement in the classroom was over the top (in a good way) and the students had fun learning.  

Student asking a question 

Students discussing where their Mystery Classroom friends are from.  

Class 2 (Ms Arwa's Class) Application Google Docs:

This activity was spread over two days.  My students came up with 21 questions:

I put the questions up on my Google Drive and shared them with Ms. Arwa.  The next day we received the answers.  She also posted some questions that her students had for my class.  We answered their questions and then went over the answer to Ms. Arwa's class.  I screen shared a map of the world onto our display screen.  Each student in the class had the opportunity to hear the answer to a question.  They then went to the tv screen and crossed out the countries that each question eliminated.  At times, when a student wasn't sure of which countries to cross out, they would "phone a friend" who would help them.  

Once we went through all of the questions, the students guessed the country that they thought Ms Arwa's class was located in.  These are their two guesses:

Although the energy was not as 'electric' as the zoom call, it was apparent to me that the kids were having a lot of fun.  They were able to show their knowledge of the various countries around the world.  They worked as a team and the whole time they felt like they were solving a mystery.  My students are excited about learning more about their new friends.  

Although the activities were different in degree of interaction with the students from each Mystery Classroom, I realised that the outcome was the same...my student enjoyed the learning and connection that occurred in each activity.