Learning about the History of the Olympic Torch

Yesterday, seventh graders had the opportunity to Skype with a former London 2012 Olympic torch bearer, Jon Tait.  During Bulldog Time, Jon did a presentation all the way from Great Britain (2:55 pm our time was 7:55 am his time) on the history of the Olympic torch, how he was selected to run in the relay, and the impact that it has had on his life.  The students were excited to see the real torch that he carried!

Thanks to Skype's generosity, we were able to use Skype's free group calling feature, allowing Jon to present to all seventh graders spread out across six different Bulldog Time classrooms.  Jon did a fantastic job answering their questions which ranged from "Was the torch hot?" to "How far did you have to run?" to  "Did you have to do any training before you ran?"  Our students truly enjoyed learning more about the torch and connecting what they learned to their previous Language Arts/Social Studies projects where they created persuasive videos to convince the Olympic Committee Chair to choose a country that they researched as the host of the next Olympic games. (You can view the top 10 videos at http://www.newlondon.k12.wi.us/midint/olympicvideos.cfm).

To learn more about Jon and his story, you can visit his blog Edutait.  You can follow him on Twitter @TeamTait.