Students make global connection with Mystery Skype activity

 

Anyone can tell you that the quickest way to learn a language is to talk to a native. That’s just what Mr. Robalino’s Spanish 2 Honors class got to do during their Mystery Skype activity on Tuesday, November 8th.

Mystery Skype is a critical thinking challenge where classes from two different parts of the world connect on Skype and try to figure out where the other class is from by asking yes or no questions.

Fran Siracusa of Calliope Global Education Initiatives, a company whose mission is to empower teachers and students from around the world to connect, is the one who partnered with Mr. Robalino. “I’m so happy Mr. Robalino was willing to take the time to plan this live interaction for his students,” she said. “I hope that the students will continue to interact with the Spanish students in the future.”

After questions such as “Do you use Euros?” and “Is Spanish your main language?”, our students determined that the other class was at Escola Pia Santa Anna Mataró in Mataró, a city northeast of Barcelona in Spain.  

After the students figured out where our students were from, they talked about Salvador Dalí, an artist from Spain who has a large collection of artwork on display in the St. Petersburg, FL Dalí Museum. The students in Spain also sang the song of their local futbol team, Futbol Club Barcelona commonly known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça.

“I’m just thankful Fran selected our school to try out this new technology,” Mr. Robalino said. “I’m thankful that the students got the opportunity to connect with other students around the world.”

The activity was covered in Spain by a news crew from Mataró’s TV3 news station.