Today we have a very special event, a MysteryQuest International session with 3 countries represented (Canada, the US and Pakistan). I was a bit concerned about the various accents represented in the session, but with PowerPoints and visual clues and time to repeat the clues, everyone was able to get the clues written down.
We had a nice variety in the presentations, with a news show, a National Geographic show, and clues presented in amonst many beautiful pictures.
After asking clarifying questions, we realized that everyone had probably guessed the right answer. So we didn’t give the classes time to reconsider their answers as we usually do. Then one of the classes had opening ceremonies with the national anthem and school announcements, so we listened to their opening ceremonies. It was nice to have time in the schedule for the little interruption.
The classes were creative with their clarifying questions as well. Some questions were: “Is there a TV series named after your city?”, “Does your city have a hockey team?” (you can guess which country asked that question!).
This is the first time in all of the MysteryQuest sessions I’ve run that everyone got the right answer right away. I think it was partly because the classes chose large cities in their countries to present, and there were less classes participating so many heads found the answer quicker.
After finishing the usual MQ agenda, we took an extra 30 min. or so to ask each other questions. The conversation covered a broad range of topics such as weather, time, textbooks, teaching methods, lenth of school day/year, languages, snow, sports, especially hockey and cricket. We had a friendly rivalry interchange between the Toronto Maple Leaf fans and the Red Wings fans. The sports teacher in Pakistan also explained the game of cricket. Our Michigan students were concerned about the after effects of the earthquake and wanted to know how the students in Pakistan were affected by it.
This was a very special MysteryQuest event and it was a wonderful experience. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again. If you are outside the US reading this and interested in participating in the future, please email me! jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us