New Ways To Travel Around The World With Our Students and Flipgrid!

Skype in the Classroom has been one of my favorite places to go for global connections, virtual field trips and connecting our students in Iowa to others around the world. It has brought so many amazing experiences to our students and teachers, not to mention what we have shared with others too. 

This month, Skype in the Classroom made a very special announcement.  Even though the Skype in the Classroom site is closing, there are lots of NEW ways to travel around the world.  

Here are the ways you can stay connected, as shared on the Skype in the Classroom site... 

🎬 Live Events: Tune in to our weekly live events featuring authors, experts, and amazing sites from around the world. Explore all upcoming events at aka.ms/EDULiveEvents.

🌎 Classroom Connections: Join the Flipgrid community to find educators who are interested in sharing new cultures and experiences via GridPals. 

Once you've found a match, contact them to arrange a Teams meeting for a live connection or set up a shared Flipgrid to connect your classes.

💎Content Partners: Explore amazing content from our virtual field trip providers, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, California State Parks, Epic! Books, Scholastic, and more, in Flipgrid's Discovery Library.

Within Flipgrid's Discovery Library, 

we can find so many amazing ways to connect to the partners experiences and content they provide. 

For example, within the California State Parks Discovery Library, 

there are wonderful collections that will lead you to...

...different topics and places.  In the Integration Notes, you will find ways to connect with that specific organization or place, just like how we did within Skype in the Classroom.  

When you click on the link in the Integration Notes, 

it will take you to that site where you can sign up for virtual field trips and connections.  

Another favorite of mine is the Discovery Library Collection from Capstone that you can find here.  There are tons of fun ways to make connections with Flipgrid to PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next and eBook topics like...

..this one for book talking your favorite books. 

In the Discovery Library, you can also find Topics of the Day, 

around a variety of topics and age levels. 

I love this one about Teen Talk on Cyberbullying. 

And check out the Wonders of the Day, from our friends at Wonderopolis. 

When you look through these fun topics, make sure to look at the Integration Notes where you will find lots of suggestions for using these with your students.  

As we are learning in different ways this year, Flipgrid's Discovery Library, GridPals and Microsoft's Live Events give us so many ways to keep our students learning, connected and engaged while giving them a global perspective and love for all. 

As you use these new resources as a way to bring the world to your students and school community, share your amazing adventures by tagging @Flipgrid, #FlipgridForAll, and #MicrosoftEDU.

Have fun connecting and learning together, friends!