Teachers (left to right) Vicki Nelson, Linda Massucci, and Cathy Binkowski discuss the book The Seven Wonders Of Sassafras Springs with their third and fourth-grade students prior to a Skype interview with the book’s author.
Looking for examples of how to incorporate technology into your classroom? Teachers Linda Massucci, Cathy Binkowski, and Anne Grant, and their third and fourth grade students at Cornwall Consolidated School (CCS), made history at their school this past spring with a special technology collaboration project.
With the help of CCS technology teacher Vicki Nelson, the students participated in the school’s first Skype interview with Betty Birney, author of the book, The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs. The book is about a boy named Eben who wants to go away for the summer to Colorado, because there is nothing exciting to do in Sassafras Springs. Eben is challenged to find seven wonders in seven days in Sassafras Springs, and by the end of the story he is successful. He also finds a saw player who scared away a field of locusts, and he realizes that there are wonders everywhere — even in Sassafras Springs.
Cornwall resident Bill Lyons visited the school and gave students a real life demonstration of something they had just learned about in a book — saw playing.
The students read the book and developed questions to ask during the forty-five minute Skype interview with Birney in her Studio City, California home.
In addition to the Skype interview, the students in grades three and four collaborated to create interactive posters. They blogged for the first time using the Edmodo website, completed quizzes on-line, and participated in a variety of group projects pertaining to the book; including a special visit from a local saw player, Bill Lyons.
