Going Global With Google Hangouts: First Graders Connect from Across the Country

A couple of weeks ago I received this tweet from none other than Karly Moura. She is always encouraging me to try something new with technology in my classroom. This is probably because she knows I'm willing to try just about anything, and that I love using new tech tools to engage and motivate my students!

The idea was to connect with one of Kory Grahm's 1st grade classes and participate in #Korytellers. This meant that one of Kory's 1st grade classes would read to my students, then some of my students would read to her class. I was intrigued and excited by this idea! Reading stories to another class of first graders clear across the country would be fun, exciting and a great way to build excitement around reading I knew some of my students needed. Not to mention I knew they would love!

So we set to work. Remembering to keep in mind the time differences between Minnesota and California, I signed up for a time with Kory that worked for both of our classes. There wasn't much to it since Kory has been doing this quite a bit; she had a Google doc all set up and all I needed to do was  pick a time and day that worked for my class. After that we sent a few emails back and forth to get the correct email to use for Google Hangout (GHO); a precise time frame and figure out what our students would be doing during our GHO.

When I first told my class what we would be doing last Wednesday they were so excited! They were amazed that we would be able to read a story to another class across the country! When the time came to receive the video call from Kory we were ready, we had picked our readers, what book we would read and practiced reading to the class. Of course with the use of technology comes technical difficulties, but you roll with the punches and try again. Once we got our sound and microphones working on both ends Kory read to my students first.

Even though my students knew we were doing a GHO with another first grade class in another state they were still a little confused at first and thought we were meeting with another 1st grade teacher at our school! This served as a perfect stepping stone for us to look up Kory's school on Google maps  and see how far it was from our school after our video call.

After Kory read One by Kathryn Otoshi to my class a few of my students read Eric Carle's Does Kangaroo have a Mother too? to her class.

(To the right is a video of my students reading from Kory's class's perspective! Below is a video of my class reading to Kory's class from our perspective! So neat!)


After we heard both stories our classes took turns introducing themselves and asking question about each other. Each student that asked or answered a question stepped up to the computer said their name then asked/ answered their question. Here are some examples of questions students asked each other: What are your school colors? Where are you from? How cold is it there? What do you do in school? etc.

Both classes had a blast, so did their teachers! This was such an amazing experience for my students and I think this is something that will stick with them for some time. I have already had students ask me, "When will it be my turn to be a reader?" and  "When are we doing another GHO?" This was so simple and something I would absolutely love to do again with my class. Thank you so much for the opportunity to connect with you and your first graders Kory!

This experience also has me brain storming other ways I could use Google Hangout with my first graders. One idea that really has my brain going is using it as an author's chair where students can share their writing by reading their stories to other first graders in different parts of the state, country, and/or world! Another idea I've thought about is reading several books by an author and then doing a GHO with the author where students could ask question, share their favorite parts of the author's work etc. Obviously this last idea would take considerable more effort on my part, but it would be so worth it! (If anyone knows of good children's author already doing this please let me know!)  GHO really opens a world of possibilities and experience for our students that would not have been possible without this technology. If anyone is interested in doing a GHO with my class in the future please contact me I'd love to do another one with my students!