Friday Reflection

Yesterday, one of my students and I had the opportunity to talk with students and teachers from Hawaii, Vermont, and Sweden. We met via a Hangout On Air. There was significant feedback from the audio and it took some time for the conversation to get started. I have been reading lots of blog posts about Hangouts because I find them intriguing and I see amazing potential for them to be used in an educational setting. I’ve been following some great advice and tips from people on Google+ who are experienced in organizing and implementing Hangouts On Air. I recently read that a Hangout should be thought of as “sitting on a porch” in a neighborhood having a conversation. I hope that I eventually get to this point, but for my first Hangout it was scary. It was also exhilarating. The video below illustrates perfectly how I felt during yesterday’s Hangout. George Courous shared this video during his keynote at Edscape. As long as I continue to feel this way, I know that what I am doing in the classroom will positively impact kids.