Tag Archives: Hand to Hand Connect

• The World’s Biggest School Assembly on the BBC: for one day, schools around the world have told us what matters to them
• We’ve heard from schools from all over the world including pupils in Burma, China, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Ukraine, Indonesia, UK, and Spain.
• A range of issues and topics have been covered so far including the environment, the credit crunch, education, social media, whaling, drugs, poverty, and Nicki Minaj.

Barbara Biddy’s Grade 6 Suffern Middle School Students:

• want a voice
• want to be respected
• want to be heard in their community
• care for their family and friends
• want a safe environment for themselves and their loved ones
• are upset by bullying by both children and adults
• think education is important
• care about art and music
• need to express themselves and to be appreciated for who they are as individuals

October 26. Barbara Biddy’s period 6 class used Polycom to video conference with James Hicks’ grade 7 class in Guillen Middle School, El Paso, Texas. Guillen resides about 100 yards from the U.S.-Mexico border. They shared Google Earth images with us to show their location which is over 2,000 miles from Suffern.

Suffern students prepared for the conference by refining questions and practicing speaking skills, including enunciating words and projecting voices. They learned how to look into the camera when speaking and the importance of being attentive. They also brought up the word, ‘polite’ as an important ingredient in a successful video conference.

Students volunteered for jobs which will be rotated in future conferences: cameras, microphone, note takers, welcome greetings and goodbyes.
This was the first conversation of this type for both schools and the students learned not only about differences and similarities, but about the skills of communication.

Our students are currently writing reflections about the experience. More information may be found on the Hand to Hand Connect wiki.  Many thanks to James Hicks and his students for speaking with us and to Edwardo Rivas for technical support.

Class discussion with Barbara Biddy reflecting on experience.