Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Skype Brings Governor to Storm Lake High School

On Thursday, October 27, Mr. Jason Stoltzfus' Government students will be Skyping with Governor Terry Branstad. The topic of discussion will be the governor's blueprint for improving Iowa education. Information about this plan can be accessed at the following website:

Branstad-Reynolds administration’s blueprint unveils vision for Iowa’s education remodel

Mr. Stoltzfus and the students have submitted questions to the governor's office but will also have an opportunity to ask questions that come to mind during the session.


For those of you who are unfamiliar with Skype, it is a free product that allows you to video conference through the Internet with people in different locations. Governor Branstad will be able to see and hear the students here, while they will be able to see and hear him. This is such a wonderful way for our students to use technology to learn about something that will impact them directly. Other departments in our district have used Skype successfully to check out the weather in other parts of the country, to hear from educational experts from distant places, to conduct interviews, and to collaborate with students in other classrooms. It is a good EdTech tool to have in one's toolbox.

It's also a great way to stay in contact with relatives who are far away!

37 comments:

  1. I just dropped by the Skype session this morning and was just so pleased to see the room packed full of high school students who, at the time I was there, were taking turns asking Gov. Branstad questions. What a great way to expand student learning to outside the four walls of our high school!

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  2. What a great experience for our students to interact with Governor Branstad and an added bonus Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds. How often do you get a chance to talk with the VIP's like that and have a meaningful conversation.

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  3. we talked to the Governor and Lt. Governor... it was pretty cool because skype allowed us to see him and interact with him as if he was in the room.

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  4. Seems like a great way for our school to be heard,and have our questions about the way Iowa's government is run answered. Although I wasn't there it still seems like it would have been a great expirence.

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  5. It sounded like a great experience to be there and get to exchange some thoughts with the governor. i would have liked being there to ask him a few questions of my own

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  6. It's a cool oppurtunity to be able to use Skype to chat with the Gov. Hopefully he can use what we had to say and help make better changes in Iowa.

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  7. Knowing that he'll be able to answer all the questions flawlessly is incredibly amazing. It's good to know that he has his point to everything he wanted to put into the school district but, honestly I still don't like the idea of switching everything up. Everything is going to be harder than he thought it would be.

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  8. Technology is helping bring the world closer and it's cool to see what new technology will be like in acouple of years.

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  9. It would be cool to skype with him if I would have been able to be here for it. Wish I was there.

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  10. I think that it is great that students had the opportunity to get face to face (almost..) experience talking to governer Branstad. This education bill may not be effecting us directly as students but will effect our children, and it is a good idea to learn as much as possible about it. The future of education is going to change and we do not want to be left confused about it's changes....

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  11. I thought i was really cool when we saw the govener through Skype ...

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  12. The idea of students having to raiser their own standards can be frightening. No more laziness I guess. If you want something in life you are going to have to work hard for it. This is what we have to get back too.

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  13. It was a great opportunity to be in the room and hear what he had to say about our school and education. He answered a lot of questions but I am still a little confused about all his changes.

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  14. It was a great oppertunity to question governor Branstad. Hopefully the vote between the new district would not be successful.

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  15. It was a lot of fun learning about what the govenor intends to do with the sducational system and such.

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  16. What a great way to expand our working knowledge of Government!

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  17. I thought it was really cool that something as simple as an email to get the govenor's attenetion.

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  18. It was an awesome expirience to be able to talk with the governor. Though it kind of felt like he was just talkeing in circles but for the most part he answered some of our questions upfront.

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  19. It was a great experience to be a part of. What the governor had to say was very insightful and interesting. I enjoyed sitting in on the Skype intereview.

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  20. New and interesting thing to do in class. Never Skyped in class before. We got the chance to see many of the Governor's plans for the future.

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  21. it is a great opportunity becuase not everyday someone important like the govenor of iowa takes time to talk to students and listen to their views.

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  22. I was impressed to see the number of students that showed up to skype with the governor. I half expected someone to make noises or distractions in the background because that's just what high schoolers do, but it was nice to see that we can handle ourselves in a mature fashion.

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  23. I think it was an awesome experience to be able to skype with the govenor and lt. govenor, I wish we would have had more time to ask questions but it was really cool to be able to have done that.

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  24. yea its pretty cool and the fact that the governor talk to us was alright.

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  25. i thought it was cool to skype the governor and ask questions. alot of people showed up

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  26. It was really neat that Governor Branstad actually took the time to do somthing like this with us. It'd be neat if somthing simular happened again on a different subject in the future. Very interesting.

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  27. IT was preatty cool to see the governor kinda in person but i have nv talk to a governor in person or payed attention to them

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  28. I was relieved to find that our governor actually knows what he is talking about.

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  29. I was in there. it was reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllllllllllyyyyyyyyyy cool. I just wish more students had the opportunity to speak with him. I at least think it would have been cool if moose put the entire classroom on camera for the governor to see

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  30. I thought that that skyping with the govenor was an awsome experience but it seemed he would go off into another topic and then it was as if he did not want to answer the direct question but instead give off other information

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  31. It was really cool to skype with the governor, it was interesting to hear about where he would like our education to be in the future to go. Hopefully we can do something like this agian.

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  32. I believe it was awesome that the Governor took time to skipe with the government class in Storm Lake High School.

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  33. It was a Wed. morning and it was the morining that the SLHS Gov't and Econ. alumni were going to speak with Govn'r Branstad. The teacher was NERVOUS, but excited as well. The alumni were in a situation that does not happen often. We were in luck. Anyways, I took the opportinity to "read" Govn'r Branstad while he spoke. What I got out of the whole reading was that the Govn'r veered off topic by giving us information on what we (Teacher & alumni) asked. He gaves information to try to get us off task. What I comprehended was that he was so NOT ready for the questions we had in store for him. I was pleased that we could challenge the Govn'r and beat him at his own game. Fantastic experience and hope that the future upcoming pupils for this class have the same opportunity.

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  34. It was cool that Governor Branstad took the time to talk to us. It would have been better if the students were able to take some time and research the blueprint and actually discuss it during class. Maybe that way we could have asked different questions that would have challenged the Governor. It doesn't sound like too bad of a deal. Students will be pushed, and teachers will have to teach. No more days of sitting in class doing nothing, or hearing stories that have nothing to do with what we are learning. "No more laziness I guess. If you want something in life you are going to have to work hard for it. This is what we have to get back too."

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  35. it was an opporutinity of a life time and i hope that the upcoming future alumni have the chance to have the same experience or better.
    it was also pretty wicked.

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  36. I am looking forward to the day when teachers can teach, and NOT just sit on their butts' and tell the class irrelavent stories, or teach with their mouth full of food, or spend class periods allowing the students to play games online, or youtube videos. This plan will make teachers account for their actions or lack there of. Better teachers= Better prepared students.

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