Electronic Pen Pals and Video Conferencing
Hatching Chicks On Line

Ms. Dill and Mr. Bratcher on line.

In February, Regina Dills, Bryan Station High School English teacher, and Michael Bratcher, Breckinridge Elementary teacher, began a simple pen pal project between Regina's 2nd hour sophomores and the 5th grade students in Mr. Bratcher's class. The project was embraced enthusiastically by students on both sides. As Ms. Dills states, the high school sophomores " . . . showed tremendous enthusiasm with each new letter they received from the fifth graders at Breckinridge. . . . [they learned] their pen pals birthdays, favorite colors, movies, music, and even shared family information with each other . . . " The project moved to email after a few weeks, and then culminated in a video conference between the two schools, where the students who had corresponded with each other could meet each other "face to face" through the network. 

A BSHS student meets his Breckinridge pen pal

Ms. Dills elaborates: " . . . As a first year English teacher at Bryan Station High School, this collaboration has been extremely successful and been one of the highlights of the school year. My students not only develop and improve their writing abilities, but also learn things such as the importance of being a role model and corresponding with other students at different grade levels. It is a project that I would definitely like to repeat in the future." Mr. Bratcher adds" " . . . As part of core content and Kentucky standards, fifth grade students are to become more aware of technological advances; email, NetMeeting, and video conferencing . . . we plan to meet the students again via another video conference after the spring vacation."

[If you wish further information on electronic pen pals and/or video conferencing between schools, contact Jeffrey L. Jones at jjones@fayette.k12.ky.us, or your technology resource teacher.]

Liz Watt's, second grade teacher at Garden Springs Elementary made a commitment to herself this year to learn more about technology and how to use it to benefit her students. She entered her class into the FCPS Technology Exposition Competition and began planning a science, math, literacy, and technology integrated unit on Hatching Chicks. The PTA puchased an incubator for their classroom, 12 eggs were obtained and the countdown to hatch day began. A network camera was borrowed from the Department of Technology at Central Office and plugged into a network drop with its own public IP. The video was streaming until the traffic prevented teachers in the school from getting their email because of the slow down in their school network. Those chicks were just too popular for their own good. 

Nature, at its best, decided to have the chicks hatch two days late and on a non-school day, but the event was captured on film for prosperity and Alternative Schedule schools, other schools in Kentucky, and Mrs. Watt's second graders were all watching from home during the blessed event.

One very effective classroom integration tool connected with the Egg Cam has been the message board set up for visitors to leave their comments and questions for Mrs. Watt's class. The class then answered each message by email and posted them on the website.