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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Skyping: 2KM and 2KJ in Australia!

 On Tuesday, we Skyped with our Quad Blogging Buddies in Australia. Interestingly enough, there were some major differences between the two classes!


1. It was not Tuesday at 2:00 P.M. in Australia, 
it was Wednesday at 9:00 A.M.!

2. 2KM and 2KJ's day was beginning, and Mrs. Yollis' class was ending!

3. It was autumn in Australia. In fact, it started on March 1, while it is still winter in the northern hemisphere and won't become spring until March 20. That is the day of the Vernal Equinox.

4. The students in 2KM and 2KJ are novice bloggers, while the bloggers in Mrs. Yollis' are more experienced. Mrs. Yollis' students have been in school since September, and 2KM and 2KJ just started school in February!


Surprise greeting from AA and BB, great contributors to our blog!
Everyone's favorite season...summer!




Tasmania came up as a topic of interest.



2KM and 2KJ asked terrific open-ended questions!


Questions came up about kangaroos. Miss Jordan shares a photo with this Australian marsupial!

Koala queries were also common! Here is a photo Jarod shared the students.





The Skype call was transcribed using TodaysMeet!
Adia, Jaden, and Miriam listened carefully and typed quickly!


 Transcript Typers: Jaden, Miriam, and Adia. 

Fabulous Photography from Nicolas! 
 *     *     *     *     *

What questions do you still have for your Australian buddies?

We might be able to Skype one more time before Daylight Saving time begins!

 

18 comments:

  1. Dear Mrs Yollis and your wonderful students,

    It, was so wonderful to be invited back to 2KM,2KJ to meet up with you and your students.

    I still remember back last year when we first Skyped with you BB and I were both so excited and yesterday was just the same. I do know Snowflake enjoyed meeting your students. She mentioned to BB she could not get over just how keen your students were wanting to learn about the different aspects of Australia.

    Yours students had ask some wonderful questions as so did 2KM and 2JK.

    It really is wonderful to watch and be part of this skyping/blogging session. I just love putting faces to names and with skyping you can do this.

    From your blogging pal down under
    AA. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Mrs Yollis and ciass,

    We are in 2KJ.
    We cannot wait to Skype with you next week.
    Do you want to sing your national
    anthem for us next time we Skype?

    Warmly,
    Bodhi and Harry

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mrs Yollis and class,

    What do you mean by BB and AA and 2KM?
    I think it's super cool that you skyped with people from Australia! This is one of my favorite blogs to visit because of the many things to look at! My class started a blog in January. If you want to visit it go to zwettlerclassblog.edublogs.com.

    Thanks!
    Your bud,
    Selena

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs Yollis and Wonderful Students,
    I, love your Skyping post and skyping with you all yesterday.

    Snowflake was really excited to see you all in real life while skyping.

    I would love to Skype with you all again. I learned so much about America last year. Hopefully I will visit. Maybe one day you will be able to visit us here in Geelong. For I would love to show you around.

    From your friends Bianca and Snowflake.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How did you get connected with 2KM and 2KJ in Australia? My class recently asked me if they could have penpals. I would like to try something like what you are doing? What suggestions can you offer?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ AA,

    What a treat it was to see the two of you! We loved getting to see Snowflake in attendance! Having our blog has really provided for unexpected friendships along the way! Love it!

    @ Bodhi and Harry,

    Thank you for a terrific comment! I love your idea of singing the National Anthem next week! Let's do it! We want to hear your National Anthem too!

    @ Selena,

    Thanks for writing such a wonderful comment! We're glad that you enjoy visiting because we like your thoughtful comments!

    You asked who BB and AA are from 2KM. 2KM is a class that we met through blogging. We frequently comment back and forth on each other's blogs. We have Skyped several time. AA and BB are people we met through 2KM. BB is Bianca, and she is now in 3rd grade. Her mother, who is a fabulous commenter, goes by the name AA.

    We will check out your blog!

    And...speaking of BB...

    @ BB,

    We ♥ having you and Snowflake be a part of the call! We are learning so much about Australia too! Hope you are enjoying your new class!

    Your pal,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Mrs. Sabolik,

    Thanks for visiting and for leaving a comment. We met 2KM and 2KJ through commenting. Each of our classes has a blog, and we began the relationship through leaving comments. That's how we built a relationship.

    I also joined the Student Blogging Challenge through The Edublogger. That is a great place to meet other classes.

    Hope that helps!

    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Mrs Yollis and her class,

    My name is Charlotte and I am in 2 JK and I asked the question about if you had any helpers that came into your class like we do.
    My mum was the one taking the photos that are on our blog and she is here now helping me type because she is a bit quicker and it's my bed time!
    We both enjoyed 'meeting' you yesterday and we are looking forward to skyping next week. My mum might be there again!
    Did you learn anything about Australia that you didn't know before?
    Warm Wishes,
    Charlotte and Martine (Charlotte's mum!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs Yollis and class,

    This morning Miss Jordan and I asked the students if they would like to skype again next week and the answer was a big yes!

    I like Bodhi's and Harry's idea of singing our national anthem. We did that when we skyped B4 and it was fun!

    We are also practicing a fun food song. We could sing you a little next week if you like.

    Of course BB and AA are welcome to come and join us again!

    Talk soon!

    Your friend,
    Mrs M☀rris

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Selena,

    Thanks for your comment! You are an amazing commenter.

    Thank you also for giving a link for your class blog. It is great!

    BB and AA are great contributors to our blog. Bianca (BB) is a third grader in Australia. Her mom is a FABULOUS commenter and so is Bianca. BB and AA are always one of the first people that comment on our blogs, and they always are full of quality. Bianca earned her own blog. She really deserves it.

    On the other hand, 2KM and 2KJ are our blogging buddies from Australia. They are ALSO great contributors to our blog just like BB and AA. 2KM stands for second grade - Kathleen Morris, their teacher. 2KJ stands for second grade - _______ Jordan. You see, in Australia and some other countries people have their classrooms named after their grade and their teacher's initials.

    Thanks also for the compliment that this is one of your favorite blogs to visit!

    Your buds,
    Hannah and Adia
    (Mrs. Yollis' students)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Mrs Yollis and class,

    I'm looking forward to catching up on Wednesday with you all again to learn more about your America.

    What's the most popular toy in your grade? My favorite toy at the moment is mighty Beanz, I like the police and robin hood ones the best. My brother Tyler's favorite toy is his Thomas trains.

    I like Justin Bieber songs, do you like them?

    See you on Wednesday,
    Jarrod ★

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Mrs Yollis and class. I love your blog. You always seem to be doing such interesting things in your classroom.
    Skyping with 2KJ and 2Km must have been such fun. I Skype every week with my daughter. I love to see her but I also love to watch my 13month old grandson who is growing so quickly.
    I have you on my RSS feeder and will continue to follow you as I find your work inspiring.

    Our blog is only new but we would be happy for you to visit sometime.
    Mrs H

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is an excellent demonstration showing what blogging can bring to our classes. it's funny how we are all interested in Australian animals. I am spending some of today setting up skype at my school so maybe one day we will connect through some different time zones as well.
    Have you asked what a quater moon looks like? In South India it begins to lay on it's back. As demonstrated on the flag of Pakistan.
    Does the moon look the same in Australia and California?

    Mr E
    Hawes CP School
    England

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,

    We think it is great that your two classes were able to Skype. We have been able to Skype one time.

    We are located in Beijing, China at Yew Chung International School. www.ycef.com. We are a Year 4/Grade 3 class. We just finished a project called the Flat Classroom http://www.flatclassroomproject.orgthat was global collaboration. There were seven schools involved. We were able to Skype with one of them in Illinois. It was a lot of fun.

    It was Thursday night in Illinois and the students had come back to school to talk to us. For our class it was Friday morning. We were 14 hours ahead of the other school. That makes Skyping difficult for us. We would like to Skype with classes on our side of the world so the time is closer.

    We really like your blog and hope to read it more though we have to use a VPN (special software that allows us to visit from China) to do so. Our only VPN is on our teacher's computer in the classroom.

    We must go now as we have to go to the IT Lab.

    Year 4A
    http://year4atalks.weebly.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dear Charlotte,

    Thank you for writing a quality comment on our blog!

    We think that it is amazing that we are in different time zones! That is a fact that we did not know in the beginning of the year! Also, it is great that we have all these social connections that we didn't have back in the days!


    You become a better writer every day!


    What did you not know about California before we skyped?




    Warmly,

    Grace and Iman

    ReplyDelete
  16. @ Jarrod,

    Thank you for your comment. We do not know about Mighty Beanz, but we used to like Thomas Trains when we were younger. For boys, Legos seems popular, and for girls American Girl Dolls are easy to find. We know about Justin Bieber, and many of us like "Baby", but for some it is not their taste. If the toy you liked was here in America, we are sure we would like the police Mighty Beanz toy. Some more popular music singers are Hannah Montana and Lady Gaga.

    What are popular video games in Australia?

    From,
    Tucker and Ryan

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Mr. E,

    We are very happy that you sent us a postcard. We did not know that dale means valley until we looked at a dictionary. Near us there is a valley. It is called the San Fernando Valley.

    Thank you for noticing our 365 Project blog. When Jaden thinks of England, he thinks of the towers. When Ileanna thinks of England, she thinks of London.

    We have a question:
    Why when you comment does it show up as David and Adele?

    Best regards,
    Jaden and Ileanna

    ReplyDelete
  18. @Year 4A,

    This is Hannah and Adia from Mrs. Yollis' class. Thank you for leaving a quality comment on our blog!

    We noticed that you were able to Skype with Illinois one time. We have Skyped with Florida, Connecticut, Australia, New Zealand, and New York!

    When we Skyped with Australia, there was approximately a 20 hour difference! WOW!

    Out of ALL the times that we have Skyped with our blogging buddies, we have never had to have a class or our class come back to school at night just to talk to us.

    We have some questions for you:

    What does Year 4/Grade 3 class mean?

    What is the IT Lab? We don't have anything like that.

    Sincerely,
    Hannah and Adia

    P.S. We just checked out your blog, and we love it!

    ReplyDelete

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