ejourney with technokids

I was walking down the corridor, when I passed a year nine boy carrying a box with straw in. When I looked to see what he had, it was a blue tongued lizard. So, I suggested he see if he could be dismissed from his usual class for 10 mins or so, as we were about to skype with Korea Uijeongbu Science HS again.
As we logged on, Nat came in with the lizard. So we were able to show our friends in Korea, the lizard which is an Australian animal by placing him up to our small web cam. The Korean students could actually see the little blue tongue poking in and out.
Next, our students asked what the weather was today, and the reply was that it was snowing. To our amazement, they took their camera to the window and we could see a school yard of beautiful snow falls complete with a Korean sweeping the snow with his stick type broom. It was simply amazing!!! We do not get snow at Hawkesdale.
So to continue on, another question posed to us was “do we play cricket”. Cricket!!!! What a question! Of course we play cricket. One of the girls tried to describe the game but it was difficult, so without asking a male student was off, collected a cricket ball, stumps and bat and demonstrated a game of cricket in the library. The questions soon came about the ball – was it soft or heavy? etc. Students lost their nervousness with each other and the self activated education flowed.
Of course, we then had to get a meat pie – one of our favourite foods and show it to the camera. It is also difficult to describe verbally but is reasonably obvious visiually (at least looks, shape etc, is). “Is it sweet?”, one student asked? Vegemite was next on the list. The staffroom provided a jar of vegemite, the lid was opened and its contents exposed to the camera.
Korean students then were able to show us their mobile phones. These are used on the trains etc to watch TV and have usb attachments for use with computers. Next they lined up with their uniforms, which were beautifully tailored and we showed then our summer uniforms via the camera.
In no time at all our bells rang, and it was time to go. So much to learn and so little time. Such powerful learning!! It is such a shame that Gail is returning to Australia and that our school year is nearly ended.