Skype links Wesley Chapel schools

Julie Horrigan's kindergarten class at Watergrass Elementary appeared on the computer screen and her students waved.

The excited children in Luisa Ojeda-Vera's kindergarten class at Sand Pine Elementary waved back.

The two classrooms might be 10 miles apart, but distance is no barrier these days. The two teachers have brought their classrooms together regularly for about three months using Skype, a computer program that allows videoconferencing over the internet.

"I think it's an excellent thing," Ojeda-Vera said. "We don't have to pay for it so for teachers it's the best."

For Ojeda-Vera, school isn't an island isolated from the rest of humanity. Skype helps drive home the point that there's a bigger world out there for the children to get to know about and communicate with.

Once a week, the two kindergarten classes meet to share writing assignments or other projects. On Wednesday morning, several children took turns reading short sentences about lessons they learned this year. They also showed off drawings that reflected those lessons.

"I learned to be quiet on the carpet," Marcus Dixon, 6, read.

The carpet is an actual carpet near the front of the classroom where students gather for their lessons.

"I learned to do my work," Alyssa Duran, 5, read.

"I learned to listen to my teacher," Obed Calero, 6, read.

The genesis for these weekly long-distance class meetings came during a Sand Pine Elementary father-son breakfast when one of Ojeda-Vera's kindergarten students used Skype to talk with his father, who is serving in Afghanistan.

The boy munched on a donut as he chatted with the video image of his dad. Ojeda-Vera said it was moving to watch as Skype brought together the father and son separated by war.

"We were telling the other teachers what happened, and we were crying," Ojeda-Vera said.

That gave her the idea to use Skype for all her students to teach them how technology allows them to be closer to people elsewhere in the world.

Horrigan was a natural partner because she and Ojeda-Vera once worked together at Wesley Chapel Elementary.

Ojeda-Vera said she had used Skype at home to communicate with family and friends, but this was the first time she incorporated the program into a classroom project.

Skype has become a popular medium for schools throughout Pasco County, though.
Oakstead Elementary students have communicated with schools in China and Sweden.

Sign-language students at Sunlake High School practice their signing skills by linking with students from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine

Fox Hollow Elementary used Skype on Wednesday to connect 40 students with Jacqueline Davies, author of "The Lemonade War," one of the books on Florida's Sunshine State Readers list.

In March, a first-grade class at Bishop Larkin Catholic School in Port Richey participated in a Skype call to a third-grade class in Vietnam using equipment donated by the University of Central Florida.

Also in March, three reading classes at Gulf Middle held a question-and-answer session with children's writer Patrick Carman.

Ojeda-Vera said her students and the ones at Watergrass Elementary have shared science projects and Mother's Day projects during their once-a-week Skype get-togethers.

The main way they share, though, is to read aloud their writing assignments, just as they did Wednesday.

"I learned not to run in class," Gustavo Lopes, 6, read.

"I learned how to write, and I learned how to read and play nice," Lauren Riddell, 6, read.

"I learned how to count to 100," Samantha Chapman, 6, read.

Horrigan told Samantha that her students had learned to count to 100, too.

Then it was time to sign off until next week.