Traveling Teacher Skypes Into Class
Middle School English teacher Griffen Stabler had a conflict this week. He was scheduled to chaperone a school trip to Philadelphia, but his 8th grade English classes were also scheduled to start reading and discussing Romeo and Juliet. Not wanting to miss the first class discussion of the play, Griffen decided to Skype in. The class set up a laptop at one end of the Harkness Table and connected it to the SmartBoard. At the appointed hour, Griffen's face appeared on the screen and the discussion began.
Students said there was some delay at first and they felt a little awkward talking to the laptop. Griffen couldn't always see whose hand was raised, but after a few minutes they forgot the awkwardness and were in deep debate about the star-crossed lovers. Griffen even had students act out scenes, playing to the laptop of course. "It actually felt like one of his normal classes," a visitor said. "It's just that his face seemed so huge." The students simply made small adjustments and got down to business.