Our First Live Video Chat

My class with Ms. Fenny

In one of our recent Weekly Reader articles, my class learned about the celebrations and traditions of Chinese New Year. Fenny, one of my very dear friends and a Chinese-Indonesian, celebrates this holiday. Using Skype, we were able to chat with her from her home in Springboro, Ohio and learn more about how her family celebrates. 

Ms. Fenny on Skype

Prior to the chat, each student wrote two questions that they wanted to ask Ms. Fenny. Some of them were specifically about Chinese New Year, while others were about what life was like growing up in Indonesia. We learned about the foods, they like to eat and she even showed us red envelopes used to pass out money as gifts; just like ones in the article.

My favorite part of talking with Fenny is that she does such a great job of sending the message to kids not to take for granted all of the freedoms and opportunity that we have as citizens of the United States. After the chat we worked together to complete a Venn diagram to compare life in Indonesia to life in the United States. Each student then wrote a paragraph with the sentence starter, "If I went to Indonesia I would...".
I love finding new ways to connect reading to live people and events. I have learned so much from having Fenny as a friend and I was really glad that I had the opportunity to share that with my students.