#GRAPax and our First Mystery Google Hangout

Today we had our first Mystery Google Hangout (otherwise known as Mystery Skype) session for the Global Read aloud. I was not sure what to expect but we were armed and ready with learning tools! Students are reading Pax all over the globe. To see where students are reading the book click here to see the map I created for teachers to pin their location. When I started the map I had no idea how many miles it would reach. It shows you the power of social media and sharing links! The students were shocked at how many kids were reading this book! 

The Mystery Google Hangout allows us to communicate with other students who are reading the book and break the walls of our classroom. Students had to ask questions to figure out where this other class was in the world such as Are you in North America? What ocean are you close to? What landmarks are by you? Where is a good pizza place? The answers to these questions helped our students work together to decipher where our mystery class was from. They also asked us questions to figure out where we were.

The whole class was engaged and excited. Jake S. started us off as our greeter. It is always nice to welcome others to our classroom. Jake W. was our observer, making sure everyone was on task. Julia took photographs (to be posted later). Anthony, Archith, Charles, and Katie were our Google Mappers. Using Google Maps they began to hone in on where our class could be from. They figured out a close range and then were able to zoom in. Quinn and Alexis were our Google researchers and were able to quickly locate the landmark and the pizza restaurant to determine exactly where this class was from. Shawn and Stella were our moderators, asking the questions, while Ryan, Emma, Iniyan, and Josh answered questions. Marissa, Rayyan, Dylan, and Maddie had giant flat maps and sticky notes to determine where the class could be and worked hard to narrow out places they were not. Zoe and William took notes on the answers we got to our questions. It took about a half hour to figure out where exactly in Connecticut they were and they figured out where we were near before deciphering our hometown. Students were jumping up and down at their feat! Charles then figured out we were 150.9 miles away, bringing some math into our lesson. Olivia closed the activity out by thanking our mystery guests and letting them know we hope to talk to them about Pax soon. Next week we will be discussing the book with two classes from somewhere on the globe! I wonder where they will be from!