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Technology allows students to 'meet' pen pals
The seventh-grade Academy class at Quincy Junior High School finally met their pen pals from the west side of the state face-to-face last week, but no field trips were needed.
The Quincy students met with their pen pals from Tumwater Middle School via video conference on May 5. The two groups of students had been exchanging letters since November, with each student given a specific pen pal to get to know personally. Questions asked during the video conference ranged from the personal, such as, “Do you play sports?” to asking what their town is like and what to do for fun there.
A system called Poly Tech View Station was used for the video conferencing.
“I intentionally emphasized the writing aspect over the technology side,” Tumwater teacher Suzanne Stottlemyre told The Olympian.
Stottlemyre taught in Quincy 18 years ago as a colleague of Quincy junior high teacher Jacque Rasmussen, an Academy advisor.
“We set up the pen pals about three years ago. Each year our students want to meet each other, but the cost of a field trip would make this impossible, so we decided to do a video conference,” Rasmussen said. “It was a fun and inexpensive way for our pen pals to meet each other.”
