Seeking a teenage "guest speaker"

[Emily Saunders]

Hello SEELANGOVTSY!

I just wanted to follow up with a big thank you to all who responded to me off list.  I've got two guest speakers lined up for my class tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.  Thank you to all for the suggestions.  I am potentially interested in setting up something more structured for next year -- something more akin to a penpal connection -- but have not yet figured out how that might look.  Would also be interested in suggestions or advice from anyone who has done something like that in any of their classes.  My students are mostly high school aged (not college).

Thanks!

Emily Saunders
blendedschools.net

On Jun 2, 2014, at 5:24 PM, Emily Saunders wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> I'm writing in with a somewhat unusual request (and a somewhat urgent one due to incredibly poor timing on my part).  I teach (very) beginning Russian to high school students online (most are aged 14-15) and I thought that I'd had it set up for a teenage guest speaker (son of a friend) to log into our live class this Wednesday (the last day of classes) and just talk/answer questions.  But then I took a look at the time zones and the Russian Far East is the wrong time zone for a 12:50pm EDT class -- it'd be about 3am and it's hard to ask a 15 year old to log-in to the internet in the dead middle of the night.  But it would work okay for someone in Western Russia (a place where I have fewer personal contacts) to participate.
> 
> So I'm wondering if anyone in the SEELANGS world might know of a teen in Russia who would be interested in trying out their English, humoring some very bad Russian (on the part of my freshman 1st year students), and just informally chatting/answering/asking questions for about 30 minutes.  They would need access to a computer with a broadband connection, some sort of microphone, and preferably a webcam.  The online session is in Blackboard Collaborate (for those who have not worked in it, it's like Skype plus a powerpoint whiteboard).  The person would need to be free 8:50-9:30pm Moscow/SPB time Wednesday, June 4th.  A group of teens/friends would also be okay.
> 
> IF you happen to know of a willing and interested teen, reply off list.  We can chat and I can supply the guest link for logging in.  
> 
> And thank you in advance.  It's a very strange and last minute request, I know!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Emily Saunders
> blendedschools.net
> 
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