Krystyna's Connection Reflection

Krystyna visits with Robyn Hrivnatz via Skype

The 2016-2017 school year has been the most powerful for connections using Skype in the library. Several classes have utilized our services to Mystery Skype or just to connect and collaborate. I have noticed a change in our learning community since these connections have become more frequent. First of all, students always seem to want more. They frequently ask, "When will we Skype again?" In addition, teachers are beginning to think beyond our state to connect their classes to far away states or countries.




Presentations and Skype-a-Thon

Earlier this year, I wrote about student makerspace presentations in the library for two education cooperatives that had visited us. Our learners did such a wonderful job, we started arranging for them to share their presentations with schools in other states via Skype. These students even had opportunities to present their innovations to the Follett Corporation and Microsoft. During the Skype-a-Thon, students had the chance to present to Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. On a separate Skype connection, students visited with Robyn Hrivnatz, Marketing and Educator Programs Manager, US Education at Microsoft. During that session, Krystyna, one of our high school students, asked several questions about the potential career paths to work for a major technology company. I remember she was clearly empowered by these connections during the Skype-a-Thon. She talked about the experiences for weeks following the events.I was curious to hear more about these experiences through the lens of a high school student. I decided to ask Krystyna to write a reflection so I could share it on this blog. She finally completed it this week. It was wonderful to learn about the impact of connecting through her voice. Her narrative follows in the space below:

How Meeting with Microsoft Changed My Life

Krystyna presents her robots to visiting teachers

A few months ago I had a life-changing moment along with other students from Lakeside. The library joined a Skype-a-Thon with Microsoft. I got to present my robots to Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. He virtually traveled more than 9 million miles around the world to answer questions that students like myself had. I would like to thank everyone that put the Skype-a-Thon together on the other end and my educators who help me find opportunities to expand my experience and share knowledge with others. I was completely amazed by the effort of the whole Microsoft community and I’m excited to see what comes next.

The 2016 Skype-a-Thon with Microsoft blew my mind. I was able to talk to a big time company that has done many amazing things for people. I never thought that I, a 15 year old girl, would be able to present my robot friends to Mr. Salcito. It made me feel significant and made me realize that distance is no reason not to connect. The Skype-a-Thon event really expressed the idea that connecting schools is important because it lets kids see outside of their own school. There are so many creative events that Microsoft comes up. These events make them a community of inspiring people who are willing to teach kids from around the world. Microsoft is a huge education sponsor that goes way past products. They make programs like Onenote, hold Skype-a-Thons, and sponsor school events for students to be able to be educated. The people at Microsoft come up with amazing ways to show how beautiful the minds of students are.

I love the idea of spreading the message across the world that connection and education is important. They dream big at Microsoft and I love the ideas they have to spread technology and knowledge. A few days after the Skype-a-Thon I Skyped with Robin Hrivnatz who also works at Microsoft. I asked her what the standards are to get a job at Microsoft. Mrs. Hrivnatz told me that there are so many branches in Microsoft that I would be able to get a job there even if I didn't go to college, though I am still going to college. It gave me a huge confidence boost to know that there are many more dreamers like me in the world and that I could connect with them. I knew for a long time that I wanted to work with innovative technology and program robots to help others, but now I have an idea who I want to work with and where I want to do it.

I hope that I get more amazing opportunities to share my voice. Thanks to amazing educators and opportunities like this, kids have a chance to have a powerful voice in this world, and I hope that never goes away. They really did change the lives of many students and showed them what they are capable of including myself. I, along with many other students, got a confidence boost from talking to such encouraging people who show us the possibilities of working hard and following our passions.Thanks to this event I learned that I love presenting to people about technology and the advantages of innovation. I am so glad that I could share my passion with Microsoft, and I am very thankful that they took time to listen to kids around the world and encouraged kids to continue sharing their works with others.

Next Steps

I have shared many times how connecting with other educators has enriched my practices and changed me professionally. Krystyna's account gives us all a glimpse into the potential power that awaits our libraries and classrooms. I want to give more learners the opportunity to present and connect to new distant school friends. Perhaps, one of the most important things we can do is invite students to share about the impact of

Krystyna with the library team

their experiences. How many other students might be willing to write a reflection I could publish here?

Libraries are wonderful places to connect people with information and technology. A new goal for me will be to seek out students that have connected with resources that interest them in the library (technology, books, and more). I want to give students a voice when they connect in the school library. There are so many valuable stories waiting to be told. I can't wait to share them here.

Other Posts That Might Interest You: 

Connect your library with Skype!

A recent graduate shares her library story.

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Future Ready Libraries Change Lives

In October, I had the privilege of co-presenting a TL Virtual Cafe Webinar about Future Ready Libraries. Since that time, I continue to think about the Future Ready movement. I have also been learning more about OER (Open Educational Resources) after hearing Andrew Marcinek (@andycinek) present about these important tools for teachers during the same TL Virtual Cafe Webinar session.

I have enjoyed connecting our students to other schools this fall. Recently, we have been encouraging our students to connect to distant places for the purposes of reading to younger students, Mystery Skype, and student-led innovation presentations. We have also held several collaborative events in the school library. I want to use this space to talk about two of my favorite Future Ready Library components from the fall semester of 2016.

Build Instructional Partnerships

There are so many opportunities to build instructional partnerships in the school library. School libraries have numerous resources and physical space for a multitude of possibilities. They also have information professionals that are able to assist teachers in building immersive programming to deepen student learning. Several times per semester, we work to assist our teachers in grades 8-12 to bring their classroom novels to life in the library. The following are just two examples of such programming.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mrs. Judy Morton, 12th Grade English teacher, approached us about a collaboration based on Hosseini's, A Thousand Splendid Suns, at the first of the year. We were very excited about this possibility because she wanted her AP Literature learners to prepare immersive content about life in Afghanistan for her other classes to experience. The two-day program was a great success! Her AP classes did a wonderful job of presenting the life and culture of Afghanistan during the program. I am hoping one of the students that participated in the event will team up with me to write a future blog article about the collaboration. I think it will be interesting to learn about the impact of the event from a student perspective.

Students taught about Afghan clothing at this library station

All of the student presenters wrote reflections about their projects. These are a few of their writings that stood out to me:

The students we taught learned more about the culture as well as the war and laws in Afghanistan. For example, before the war, women were allowed to express themselves with different styles of color and clothing pieces; however, with Sharia law partially dealing with women's rights, the government limited women to what they could wear out of the house. The most valuable thing about our project was that we were very involved with teaching the students about the different types of clothing. People volunteered to let us put hijabs on their heads so they could get a feel for what some of the Afghan children had to wear... - Erica H.

These students presented about Afghan literature

The most valuable part of this project was becoming a teacher, which forced our group to know our information like the back of our hand. It was interesting to watch my group mates get more comfortable as the day went on as I also tried to do. It was awesome seeing our group stand together and lead the lesson. The project also allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and speak confidently... - Caleb D.



I'm so glad that this student-led event was transformative for all involved. I hope that Mrs. Morton will collaborate with us again in the library.

Fearless

I recently wrote about the Fearless collaboration we presented to students this year. This 8th-grade collaborative program (based on Fearless by Eric Blehm) has been a success since we started it in 2012. The book is based on the life of Navy SEAL and Arkansan, Adam Brown. This year we decided to have the event close to Veteran's Day which allowed us to use that as a powerful theme to better connect the content to local civic services. One of the most important changes we made this year was inviting local military (Army National Guard), law enforcement, and emergency service personnel to attend and show their vehicles on the last day of the three-day program. This seemed to connect with many students.

The vehicles on display were a big hit with students

After the program, I interviewed students on video if they gave me permission to do so. One student said, "I never would have thought about thanking a soldier or firefighter or a police officer if it weren't for this program... It opened my eyes." (See the video of his comment in the YouTube link below) The program was transformative for this learner. I wonder how many other students were impacted this way? We are so glad the library could be a part of this experience for our learning community!

Lead Beyond the Library

I love helping create an environment of innovation and collaboration in the school library. In addition, I like to knock down the school walls by connecting students and teachers to distant places. If you have a webcam and Twitter available, you can connect your learning community virtually anywhere! By choosing to do this, you will model what a connected classroom can look like. Teachers will want this for their own classrooms! We have connected more than ever this fall. I want to share some of the most powerful moments of the fall Skype adventures for our learners.

Skype-a-Thon

Last week I reflected on our participation in Microsoft's Skype-a-Thon activity. This was significant because our learners had the opportunity to connect with professionals from the Microsoft Corporation and the Department of State in Washington D.C. Planning such events takes a lot of time and preparation for our students to participate, but it is worth it. One of our students, Krystyna, had the opportunity to interact with both Microsoft employees over the two-day Skype-a-Thon event. She was able to ask Robyn Hrivnatz (Marketing and Education Programs Manager, US Education at Microsoft) questions about getting a job with the giant technology company. Following the interactions, Krystyna's thinking was changed, she realized she could possibly someday work for Microsoft. Through connecting and inquiry, Krystyna was changed forever. Learning from Robyn helped her envision a new possible future. This is the power of connecting with others, and it is why I want to connect our library to new friends frequently! I'm hoping Krystyna will write a reflection for me to publish on the blog so we can learn more about this through her own voice. She said she would, so I am hopeful (and I hope you are too)!

Future Connections

Through Twitter and the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert community, I'm able to connect with more distant educators. Recently I connected with Mio (@mibra_mio), an English teacher in Japan. She emailed me a video her students had created of daily life and clubs at her school. I have been showing it to our lunch crowds at school. If students have questions about what they see, I Tweet the questions (either in text or video clip form) to Mio. She is going to have her students respond back! I can't wait to see what they say.

I was so excited to meet Soheir in Egypt via Skype!

I also had a Skype session with Soheir (@sou_2022). She is a science teacher in Alexandria, Egypt. It was very exciting to talk to her about potential connections next semester as our 9th-grade civics classes transition to geography! We have lots to look forward to in the coming months. I've already been talking to several of our faculty, and they are very interested in connecting with Soheir and her students.


Leading beyond the library can happen much easier when school librarians have good relationships with teachers. Most of the faculty at our school are open to trying new things with us in the library. I believe that helping teachers connect outside of our state and country is a worthy activity. It helps our students become global citizens!

Conclusion

As I reflect on these two Future Ready components (Build Instructional Partnerships and Lead Beyond the Library), I realize that they have the potential to enhance the lives of students and teachers. Our library collaborations with teachers have helped deepen the learning of our students each year we have presented them. I also reflect back to Krystyna, the 10th-grade student that visited with Microsoft employees via Skype. She now knows it is possible that she could work for a company like Microsoft someday. That connection may have transformed her life and given her new goals!

Future Ready Libraries change lives. It's a great time to be in our profession!

How we held the 2016 Skype-a-Thon in the library!

My table of contents for the blog is here!

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Skype-a-Thon 2016 In The Library

Check Out This Blog's Table of Contents Here

I was selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert in the fall of 2015. Shortly after receiving that honor, I learned about the global Skype-a-Thon event. This activity encourages educators to connect their classrooms to get as many virtual miles as possible over the two day period. During the Skype-a-Thon in 2015, we participated in a few Mystery Skype activities. It was a lot of fun for our learning community, and I knew I wanted to try to participate again in 2016.

Test Skype connection (& selfie) with Robyn Hrivnatz

 Planning

We wanted to use the Skype-a-Thon event to give our learners an opportunity to connect with professionals outside of Arkansas during our lunch periods. There are typically 50-70 students in the library during lunch periods, so it is a perfect time to have programs like this. I began emailing colleagues to see who might be available to connect with our students. It didn't take long for a schedule to develop.

Anne Menotti, U.S. Department of State

Anne Skyped with us from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms

Anne works at the Diplomatic Reception Rooms for the U.S. Department of State. I collaborated with her previously during the first year of the Arkansas Declaration of Learning program in 2015. This program encourages participants to select art and objects to create powerful collaborative lessons for students. (I plan to write more about this experience on the blog in the future.)

She agreed to connect with us and share about her job in Washington, D.C. Our students really enjoyed learning about the many American art pieces and objects in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms. She even showed our learners the very desk where the Treaty of Paris was signed! Anne offered to connect with us again at a later date so we can invite some of our history classes to attend. This is a future opportunity I am very excited about!

Students listen to Anne talk about the Diplomatic Reception Rooms

Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft

About a month before the Skype-a-Thon, I received an email from Marketing and Education Programs Manager, US Education at Microsoft, Robyn Hrivnatz. She asked me if I would be interested in having our students Skype with Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, during the Skype-a-Thon. I was very excited to say yes! Anthony stays up for 24 consecutive hours each year to connect with schools all over the world during the Skype-a-Thon event. Since the organizers offered to allow our students to showcase their work, we decided to invite the students who had recently presented to an education cooperative that had visited us to learn about innovation spaces.

Jared shows off his Minecraft creation

Krystyna shows off her robots

The EAST team presents their 3D printing technology

On the day of the big event, our students did a wonderful job. Madison and Zoey served as our hostesses. Krystyna presented about her robots. Jordan and Jared presented Minecraft. Four EAST students presented about their 3D printing technology. Nathan and Hayden presented about their Breakout EDU faculty presentation. Anthony was very interactive with each learner. It was an event we will never forget. Our learning community was extremely grateful to be selected among 43 schools globally and 5 nationally.

Robyn Hrivnatz, Marketing and Education Programs Manager, US Education at Microsoft

Robyn on the screen of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4

I had met Robyn in person this past summer while attending the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert US Forum in Denver, Colorado. I was intrigued to learn that she had previously been an educator before moving into her current position at Microsoft. I knew a Skype session with her would be inspiring to our learners, especially if she shared her career path to Microsoft. She was actually my first contact to request a session for the Skype-a-Thon. Robyn replied back quickly that she could do the session with us. We were so excited!

On the day of the event, Robyn shared how her career journey started as a public school educator to approximately 30 students that attended the session. She discussed how building relationships, connections, and growth mindset had helped her move forward in each new opportunity eventually leading to her current job at Microsoft. This truly inspired our learners. In fact, one student, Krystyna, asked Robyn how to go about applying for a job at Microsoft. Krystyna was still talking about the interaction with Robyn two days later. I have encouraged her to write an article for this blog to share about how this connection changed her thinking. (Hopefully, she will take me up on this!)

Robyn speaking to our library lunch crowd

A student asking Robyn questions

Student Reflections

I asked our learners to reflect on their experiences after the Skype-a-Thon. These were the responses they shared with me:

"Being able to converse so normally with someone so important was truly inspirational. It's good to know that hard work can get you anywhere in life." - Nathan E.

"I really did enjoy calling him, because he works at Microsoft! We all got to show our achievements to him, and how it will impact the world. I had an awesome time." - Jordan L. 

"Today I had an amazing opportunity to present, via Skype, with an employee from Microsoft. I presented my robots and got amazing feedback from him. I also got to ask him about new products that were innovative and got information on the Microsoft OneNote and the Hololens (my favorite thing since sliced bread), which he had sitting by. I am very excited for future events like this and I am anxious to find out other ways to talk about robots with others from around the world. We can expand our horizons and dream big thanks to Skype and an open library staff at Lakeside! Thank you for making my voice heard." - Krystyna V.

Next Steps

I don't think any of us will ever know the full impact of these three experiences on our learners. Each Skype session was unique and very different from any previous sessions we have attempted from the school library. My biggest takeaway is that I need to take bigger risks to get connections for our learning community. These sessions gave me confidence that our learners are ready to communicate and learn from anyone (or any organization) in the world. As I reflect back to the nervousness we all experienced (students included) as we discussed connecting with important personnel from the U.S. Department of State and Microsoft Corporation, I now realize that this uneasiness is normal. These two days caused us all to grow outside of our comfort zones.

American businessman and writer, Max DePree, stated that "In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are." I will work harder to make our students' voices heard. I will also continue to seek out new connections and learning opportunities for our learners at Lakeside High School. As I've written many times before, I can't wait to see what happens next!

How a Recent Graduate Shared Her Library Story With Us

How the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Program Changed Me

I have a monthly email newsletter for the subscribers of the Library Media Tech Talk blog. If you are interested in exclusive content not appearing on the blog, be sure to subscribe by submitting your email address! Subscribe here!

Contact Me/ Follow Me

Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

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Follow me : @stony12270