Crossing My Fingers

I have read the information for our project assignment many times. I have been reluctant to get started (obviously) for a couple of reasons. One is that I feel like my idea for a project is a baby step. I am also new to many of the tools and ideas that are essential to the project. I have spent hours thinking about this concept and trying to convince myself that baby steps is good for both me as a new comer to embedding digital literacy and for my students who are relatively young. After reviewing Blooms Digital Taxonomy, "Remembering" is pretty much where I am so I guess my idea is a perfect place to start. So now it is time for me to just take the leap and do it no matter how apprehensive I feel. (On a side note I am feeling a little hypocritical because I encourage my students to be risk-takers on a daily basis, yet my fear of the unknown and failure has been the cause for my major league avoidance up to this point.)

So the idea for my project is to Skype a Mystery Reader into my classroom for a Read-A-Loud session. Mystery Readers are visitors to my classroom who come and share books with the students. My students look forward to Mystery Readers and get very excited about guessing who it could be. By using Skype I am hoping to show students we can connect to people even if they are far away or away from home. The reader will be a parent that is away on business. The parent has visited the class before so they know who he is. I will also use Google Earth to show where we are and where he is. I am hoping to hit ISTE Student Net Standards Number 2: Communication and Collaboration, by using digital media to communicate with someone at a distant location in real time, and Number 6: Technology Operations and Concepts, by using technology systems. I may even hit a few of the ISTE Teacher Net Standards.
So now to actually pull this off cross your fingers for me that technical karma is with me during the big event and Skype hooks up and works.P.S. Kim I'm sorry my avoidance has trickled down and caused last minute work for you.
P.S.S. Jeff - Thank you for introducing me to Creative Commons Search! So now I am able to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility when adding pictures to my posts.