SKYPING with the ONE and ONLY Tom Angleberger

It happened SO fast that I did not have time to get  nervous. I saw a quick tweet announcing that THE Tom Angleberger had a few spots left in his FREE SKYPE day!. After a quick exchange of tweets it was set: a 25 minute session where Tom would share details of new books with my kids, lead them in origami AND do a  Q & A!

Tom Angleberger was just fantastic!!! He was organized and considerate from the beginning which means a LOT. Even kids who have devoured his books did not expect to find him so funny. He was entertaining from the go and the kids were instantly and thoroughly engaged. The 25 minutes flew by in a hilarious, informative jumble and the kids were as amazed as I was that we had just spent the morning with TOM ANGLEBERGER!!!

If I never learn another thing from twitter I will be a most satisfied user. Being at the right place at the right time ...with the RIGHT author paid off enormously this week.

I downloaded Debut software before our SKYPE and was able to capture 9 minutes of the exchange. I don't know whether the software automatically shuts down at that point. Just having a little of the session is a huge perk, my other classes have loved seeing how funny and REAL this author is.

SKYPIN for RAA

After a few missed connections (you would think I would remember that we are MST not CST like ....well, like CST) and smoothing out the video on our end, one of my 4/5 classes enjoyed SKYPING with 5th graders from Iowa. To be honest, it was  a surprise for them and I think it did not have a chance to sink in until we had hung up. The kids LOVED it!! After we disconnected, they were full of so many questions and I know they look forward to connecting with the class again.

I LOVE the functionality of Google Docs that allowed so many librarians to connect in this new way, and many thanks to Tammy Massman @tammymassman and Noreen VandeWeerd @noreenvndewrd