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SARATOGA SPRINGS — For a classroom in Saratoga Springs, the Winter Olympics in Sochi have been a lesson in just how connected the world really is.
Fourth-grade teacher Lewis Young saw social media boom in the 2012 Olympics and decided this year his class would join in. He hoped to teach his 34 students at Riverview Elementary in Saratoga Springs about Internet safety while cheering for Team USA.
“I’m constantly thinking about ‘How can kids learn how to interact appropriately with each other?’ ” Young said.
At first, it was all about learning Internet safety — and then the athletes started responding.
“The first time anybody responded to anything, it was six minutes after we had tweeted," he said.
The students, who all use Google Chromebooks that Young received through a grant, learned about the athletes online and made posters with information about them. Then, they had the tough assignment of watching the Olympics. As they cheered on Team USA, students wrote tweets for their teacher to send.
@mrle
wisyoung that poster is awesome. Please
tell them thank you for me. Maybe I can stop
by and check it out in person when I get
home.
— Christopher Fogt
(@christopherfogt) February 21,
2014The students — ages 9 and 10 — quickly realized they could send something that would buzz the phone of an athlete’s pocket in Russia and it changed their perspective.
Kelsie Rhodes and her twin, Kylee Rhodes, 9, feel a bond with the athletes they’ve followed. Kylee is a Steve Holcomb fan and Kelsie is a fan of Ted Ligety and his sport of Alpine skiing.
“I’ve been watching skiing, snowboarding, ice dancing, skeleton and mostly the luge,” said classmate Keira Whiting.
When they tweeted a picture of the poster they’d created for bobsledder Christopher Fogt, he tweeted that he’d try to come visit the class.
“They freaked out. It was like a bomb exploded in the room,” Young said of the students' excitement.
Feats like this are not unusual for Young’s class. Already, his 34 students have lobbied the City Council to change the street in front of the school to The Otter Way — after the school song and mascot. They also wrote weather forecasts to be announced over the school PA system and have written stand-up comedy routines to learn about puns.
To Young, it’s about teaching students how to write for different audiences. But the perk of communicating with athletes that have become their heroes isn’t a bad one.
“They don’t care about the medals," Young said. "They care that an athlete from the U.S. is representing them and seeing something they wrote.”
