Virtual pen pals in West Hempstead

First-grade students at the West Hempstead Union Free School District’s Cornwell Avenue School have established 21st century pen pals by creating videos through the program Flipgrid.
Kara Maguire’s first-grade class at Cornwell began a relationship with students in her sister Meghan Hunt’s first-grade class at Manor School in the Seaford Union Free School District. During the introductory lesson in Maguire’s class on Dec. 7, students utilized Flipgrid on an iPad to introduce themselves, shared interesting facts and asked questions to be answered by Hunt’s students through the virtual classroom.
Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create “grids” to facilitate video discussions. For this lesson, the grids act as message boards to create communication between the two groups.
The classes are expected to continue the pen pal relationship throughout the remainder of the school year in hopes of creating new friendships.

Compiled by Nakeem Grant