HSD Videoconferencing

On Thursday November 20 three Hempfield High School students participated in a MAGPI sponsored event that explored dance styles with the 2007 Pew Fellows in Choreography. The format of the event was a showcase documentary of each choreographer’s work, Charles O. Anderson, Dorothy Gordon Wilkie and Kate Watson-Wallace, followed by a panel discussion. Our students appreciated the opportunity to interact with these artists and look forward to more videoconferencing events that focus on dance and choreography.

Link for 2007 Pew Fellows Documenaries

Mr. Lehman and 7 of his AP Art students participated in a videoconferencing event sponsored by MAGPI on Tuesday, November 18th.  Hempfield was one of eight schools that were present for the session.  The students viewed the works of the 2007 Pew Fellows in craft - Ed Bing Lee, Adelaide Paul, and Julie York.  They learned about the artists’ inspirations, influences and ideas that go into creating their works of art.  The students also  participated in a discussion with the panel of artists.  The students were excited to explore future videoconferencing opportunities.

On Monday, Steve Schoessler and Dana DePaul, took their Economics classes on a virtual field trip to The  Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  The students learned that a hot dog only cost 10 cents in 1929 and a World Series ticket was sold for $5.50 in 1940!  The basic lesson taught by the instructor at the Hall of Fame was to teach the students how baseball history reflects American economics in the early 20th century.  The students examined primary source documents from the olden days to the modern days to examine value of the dollar.  The class discussed the law of supply and demand and how it ultimately determines the economic ebb and flow of baseball.  We all enjoyed the enthusiasm and knowledge of the presenter!

HHS students simulate the Great Wall in China

Today was the last day of videoconferencing between the HHS Chinese 2 class and grade 6 special interest students. Five students from Rohrerstown Elementary learned simple greetings in Chinese, how to sing Happy Birthday and exercises common in Chinese classrooms from the HHS students. At the end of the event the students enjoyed Chinese candy!

We learned a lot about collaborative videoconferencing this week including planning and facilitating the event. Our HS students did fantastic adapting to the size of each class and learning from their experiences to make each day unique for the 6th grade students. We look forward to repeating this event next year and exploring other opportunities for collaboration between our high school and elementary or middle school students.

Explaining the origin of Chinese characters

Today, HHS Chinese II students videoconferenced with 6 special interest students from CES. The high school students shared their knowledge of the first Chinese Emperor, the Great Wall and the Terracotta warrior soldiers with the elementary students. CES students asked many great questions regarding the Chinese characters and cultures. This was a very interactive session!

HHS students with Mr. Fan

On Tuesday, HHS Chinese II students videoconferenced with 4 special interest students from MES. The high school students enjoyed sharing their love of Chinese culture. Our Chinese teacher, Mr. Fan, played a musical instrument called “Erhu” while all the students sang Zhu Ni Sheng Ri Kuai Le (Happy Birthday). Everyone enjoyed the event!

National Distance Learning Week is this week Nov 10 through Nov 14. We are celebrating this week by holding videoconferences between the HHS Chinese 2 classes and sixth grade gifted classes who have studied Ancient Chinese culture. Today was the first videoconference between HHS and EPES. The two elementary students who participated asked excellent questions including what was harder for the high school students to learn, to speak the Chinese language or to write it. The high school students unanimously replied that it was more difficult to write than to learn to speak the language. Tomorrow we move to MES followed by CES on Wednesday and ending on Thursday at RES. Friday the HHS students will take their annual trip to Chinatown.

Next week we will have three videoconferencing events. Two high school Economics classes will explore economics through baseball with the Baseball Hall of Fame and the AP Art class will videoconference with 4 Pew Fellows in the area of art.

Next week during National Distance Learning Week the HS Chinese 2 class will be videoconferencing with a sixth grade class who have studied ancient cultures on each day Monday through Thursday. On Friday the Chinese students will participate in their annual trip to Chinatown. The HS students will introduce Chinese culture, language and greetings to the special interest students who will be asking the students and Mr. Fan questions about China. The participating schools are MES, RES, EPES and CES. The participating teachers are Gisele Siebold and Eileen Little. We are excited about this unique opportunity for all the involved students!

On Nov 3 Mrs. Buckwalter’s classes held a videoconference with the New York Institute of Technology Culinary School. The chef discussed yeast breads versus flat breads and demonstrated how to create rolls, breadsticks, knotted rolls and braided loaves. The students picked up several tips including using egg wash, how to braid and a technique that would have been helpful last week when they made pretzels - wet the surface with a spray to make the dough just a little sticky. All the breads made looked very good - good enough to eat!!  That is the only negative to videoconferencing - we couldn’t sample what he made! We look forward to the student evaluation responses to this videoconference