We will upload our student made movie once it's complete!  Be sure to check back after Spring Break!  Here is our Instagram Story that covered our 24 Hours!

Last Skype!!!!

We met with all five LISD schools that participated in this amazing 24 hour event!  Delay, Lamar, MHS9, FM9 & Briarhill shared their favorite experiences!  Lamar thought the most memorable events were Australia, New York City and the teacher's karaoke songs!  WE are tired and had an amazing 24 hours!  We covered 26 Skypes....20 Countries...7 Continents...142,697 Miles!  What an awesome experience!  Thank you for following along with us! We're going to bed!

Virtual Field Trip to Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is an amazing and adored place located in Wyoming. If you were to drive there from Flower Mound it would take a whole 20 and a half hours!! This giant park is approximately 1,309 miles North from us! The reasoning for this park to be so famous is because it was the world's first national park! The Yellowstone Park is home to many untouched resources. Cool, right! Another crazy fact about this beautiful place is it has many geysers. The dictionary definition of this some what unknown word is 'a hot spring in which water intermittently boils, sending a tall column of water and steam into the air.' But, these geysers are so rare and unique that they have to protect them. Nobody believed in such a thing and they thought it was all a lie, but it most definitely was not! After teaching us about the facts of this park, she taught us all about predator-prey relationships.  For example, a rabbit could just be hopping around, but what it doesn't know is that it is about to be a coyotes' dinner. As sad as it can be, that is how all the animals survive and it is the circle of life. After learning all about this park, I hope to travel to it some time in the near future!

Japan

         From Poland to Japan, we'll fly towards the finish line in our Skypathon. In Japan we met a nice gentlemen, Go Itokawa, who told us a little bit about himself and his country. He lives in Narita, which is close to Tokyo. Go tells us that he likes to eat foods similar to ours, but basically all his meals consist at least a little rice. Schools in Japan are pretty much the same, but ever school always adds its own touches and additions. Also Go also tells us that in Japan there are also main schools, like elementary school, middle school, etc. Popular sports in Japan include baseball, basketball, etc. Go personally does judo. The weather in Japan is similar to the U.S., but a little more humid. Go has been in the U.S., South Korea, Germany and China, as well as his own country, Japan. The most popular sides or foods are fish and rice. Go has tried a certain type of fish called Glowfish and claims that it's quite tasty. Before we obtained all this information, we couldn't connect with Go properly, but lesson learned: Don't let miscommunication stop you from achieving your goals and knowledge.

Poland

Now we begin our final steps into Skypathon, to Poland. Here we met Susan, who is a college student. In Poland, they eat a lot of dumplings, meat, soups, apple pies, cheese-cake, and Mexican foods. Another famous food, probably famous around the world is pizza. In Poland they put almost everything on a pizza, ranging from pinneapples to ketchup. Susan loves trying out new food because of Poland's varieties of foods. In Poland there are many historic buildings that are museums which represents Jewish incidents occurred there. Poland is a Christian dominated country, but they believe in many superstitions. There are 12 ministers who serve the many friendly people. Because of the cooler and snowier weather in Poland, Susan adapted to being a really good ski jumper. There is a difference between the drinking and smoking ages of Americans to Poland's. The age is 18, which is the age for many of the states for tobacco, and 21years for alcohol. People in Poland love to listen to pop and rock music, from the present time. A major type of school is a dance university, where they learn dance, and the history. Large Poland companies are the Lotos, and cruises. Taking a flight from Flower Mound to Poland, would be 14 hours! I hope someday, we can all visit Poland.

MEXICO CITY!

           Our next country is Mexico! The class had a lot of things to share. Many things that are made in Mexico include chocolate, corn, and chilis. Their history originates from the Aztecs. Their most popular way of transportation is cars. Like us, they also love tacos and Six Flags. In their free time, they play soccer and Fortnite. Holidays that they love to celebrate are Halloween, Christmas, and Dia De Los Muertos. The altars of Dia De Los Muertos include favorite foods of theirs when they were alive and memories of them too. The event is a happy event to remember happy memories of them. The most popular instrument is the guitar and they showed us their skills. Their traditional music is Mariachi and their traditional types of clothing includes extravagant dresses and skirts. They love to party!They taught us how to make tostadas and they looked very yummy! They taught us useful vocabulary such as school, steak, sleeping, and hello in Spanish. "Hola, me llamo Juan." They taught us many different things from their culture and heritage. After they shared with us, we took them on a video tour of our school.  We showed them where things were, waved to people eating lunch in the cafeteria and enjoyed showing off our campus.  They even joined us for lunch because they wanted to continue talking!  This was one of our longest skypes yet, but we enjoyed every minute!

Mystery Skype, The Country is.... QATAR!

QATAR! Qatar is hours ahead of the USA. The main language is Arabic. One of their traditions is to celebrate Ramadan for Muslims. Some attractions they have are Souq Waquif, Pearl Qatar (a beach), and Museum Islamic. The main transportation is taxi, buses, and cars, but parking is difficult. Their currency is Qatar Ryuai. They have an constitutional monarchy. Their leader is Sheik Tamim bin Hamaba bin Khalifa Al-Thai. These are some of the interesting things we learned in this skype experience.

UK

 In this Skype, we interviewd Vivina Sardo!  She skyped with us last year!  She was born in Italy but she lives in the UK. She celebrates the holidays of Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and many other that we also celebrate. The transportation is very different because there is always a bus or a tram or train accessible, which is different from her own town. The heads of political parties are who actually has the most power, not the president. She likes badminton, but she is no longer as big a fan of sports. She loves to spend free time with her friends and family and the currency she uses is the euro. She enjoys learning new languages and she loves to do that. Where she lives the climate is cool and cloudy, and she is near the western part of Italy. Also, her time where she lives, is 6 hours ahead of where we are in the world. The main industries in the UK include books, supermarkets, and a few others. She feels that her life has changed significantly due to her moving.

Honduras

We are now making a skype call to Honduras. It was to a group of fifth graders.  Their teacher is friends with Mrs. Rhoades and Mrs. Collinsworth, so they were happy to see each other.  They started off by asking questions about us. They told us all about their dog and parrot. They live in a small town away from the city. They Love to visit the big cities. We figured out that they have the same time zone as us. They love chicken and playing soccer.  They like to spend quality time with their pets, one also loves reading. We saw that we had a couple things in common, it gets really hot! They are the second best country with the best coffee. Then Coach Inwood and Mrs. Gordon started dancing around on camera dressed as a banana, and a piece of bacon, they laughed really loud and happily. Instead of having spring break like us, they have summer break for a week. To get around they use mostly cars and the bus. They were very sweet and super kind. Thank You Honduras!

New Delhi, India

We are skyping with Mannya, from New Delhi, India! She is one of our fellow skypathoner's friend. She is explaining to us about her school and her school day. She also told us she is doing her annual exams and how she is under some pressure. Her favorite Indian dish is Chicken Biryani, and the time difference is quite odd. Now she is explaning how India gained independence, and some interesting facts about the British rule in India. Some of the traditions in her state Punjabi are Diwali ( the festival of lights), and Holy (festival of colors.) She apparently learned English from her childhood unlike other children who learn it in school. Most children in India play hockey, swimming, chess, tennis, and cricket. Her school has a uniform and are not EVER allowed to wear their home clothes. One of the most famous monuments in India is the Taj Mahal. She does western dance and does some other traditional Indian dances.

Mystery Skype -

          Pancakes for breakfast have never tasted better after a night on living off of caffeine and sugar!

Mystery Skype - Nigeria

           After cleaning up the entire library, and walking the final lap in the empty school, sitting down to work on a skype suddenly seems like the best idea ever!  This mystery skype with Hammed Abdulazeez turned out to take place in Lagos, Nigeria near the Atlantic Coast. Hammed likes to watch football and taught us that the official language in Nigeria is actually English, but over 520 languages are spoken in just that country alone. Hammad has always been in Africa, but tomorrow he is flying to  Singapore. Amala is Hammad's favorite Nigerian food.  Hammed Abdulazeez shows his opinions, but also some facts on his home country of Nigeria.  It is 88 degrees Fahrenheit, and Hammad tells us that it rarely gets cold in Nigeria.

 

Mystery Skype - Germany

Mystery Skype - Germany

 The Skypathon team figured out that the class was living in Berlin, Germany by asking a series of yes and no questions. The class from Berlin had trouble finding our town. They got extremely close (Denton, Dallas,), but they never got to Flower Mound. They explained that there was a wall between east and west Berlin that was a landmark from World War II. They also noted that their school is half German and half American. Additionally, they told us that being in a city is very different from being in the suburbs, and that they had many hobbies. After that, they asked what are some tourist attractions in Dallas, and we told them the Dallas Cowboys were really popular. In Berlin, the winters are very cold. An interesting fact is that Flower Mound has 50,000 residents, but there are over 3 million people in Berlin. They asked what the weather was like, and we said that the summers were very hot.

Mystery Skype - China

            After another round of Coach Inwoods adventurous activities and a mini karaoke party, we're back with another mystery skype! We're skyping with Lauren Tininerka at an airport in China! Lauren as been living in China for around 10 years. In China right now is around the same climate as we have right now in Flower Mound (not much snow, hot humid air, etc.). China is 14 hours ahead of us, so in China it's 7:45 pm. Lauren is a kindergarten teacher and enjoys teaching the smaller children, but in her free time she likes to run and says that there are also many shops to shop at. She says that the transportation is completely different from the United States transportation; in the U.S. we mostly us cars, while in Shanghai, subways are the most popular way of getting around. Lauren tells us that the Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language, but there are many different types of dialects of that language. She also tells us that in China, almost every meal is eaten with rice, but Lauren also like our fast food and says that there are also some fast foods chains in China, such as KFC.  The Chinese celebrate holidays, such as Golden Week, Labor Day and of course, Chinese New Year. With the help of Lauren, we can compare the United States to China and learn about the different lifestyles.

 

            

Cultural Skype with Spain

We talked to a class from Maristas School in Malaga, Spain. We learned a lot about the different culture in Spain. They eat five meals a day. They eat dinner 9 pm to 10 pm. One of their most popular foods is a sandwich called a Campero. They are at school from 8 am to 2:30 pm five days a week. They do three lessons in the morning,a 30 minute lunch, and another three lessons in the afternoon. The other two days they do Athletics. Some sports at there school are basketball and handball. Handball is a mixture of basketball and football or as we know it soccer. Popular in Spain are handball, football, and basketball. Many Spanish people follow the NBA. One of the popular sport's teams is the Barcelona football.  They celebrate Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. Kids during Christmas bring lots of different foods for classmates. Their summer's are very hot. A famous museum is the Picasso Museum or in Spanish Museu Picasso. Some interesting things about their school is they celebrated their 200th birthday last year, and they go on school trips all over the world. In this Skype we learned a lot about Spain's culture and I think a lot about Texas culture.

Kenya

Our 10th Skype of the night is Kenya. In 1966 a man moved him family of 7 to Kenya then the family ended up staying there spreading religion. The weather us basically "perfect" all year long. Since the town they are in is right on the equator the weather is not to hot for an a/c but not to cold for a heater. We asked if he were to only be able to live in Kenya or the united states for the rest of his life what would he choose? He decided that America was the best fit because he misses out on his grand kids lives. His one of his grand kids attends Keller Central Middle School and he said that he is familiar with Lamar Middle School because we beat them in band every year. He lives in an apartment or compound in Kenya. They hold a pastor's meeting every year. They hold hundreds or pastors at this meeting for 5 days and 4 nights. They send 4-6 thousand bibles along with guitars, bug spray, and other things to give to the multiple different leaders. This container of goodies gets shipped out of North Richland Hills. They are holding another conference in a month they will hold 500-700 leaders. When the leaders come they give them multiple resources and counselors. They also communicate and work with a boys orphanage in east Kenya. It is 11:18 am in Kenya currently. There are these buses or vans that run through out the country called  a matatoo . Most public transportation is buses or cars. The national language is English(that's what they learn in school), there primary or "mother tongue" is Swahili. Most young people can speak 3 languages. Since your in the southern hemisphere, people drive on the left hand side of the road, sinks and toilets flush to the left, the handle for the toilet is on the wrong side, Kenya was colonized by British so everything is done on the left side. Ugali is a traditional Kenya food that is consumed everyday. It is very similar to grits or polenta . Ugali is made of corn and salt. Kenyans eat Ugali everyday they feel like if it is not consumed that they have not eaten. People pile there plates high with Ugali then top with beans, greens(spinach), goat, and chicken(rarely very expensive). People have feasts with goats since it is a very common protein. They celebrate the day they gained freedom from Britain, the ending of Ramadan is a holiday,  Christmas ,they also have a few holidays based around special people. The government can randomly make up holidays a week before it happens. The shilling is the Kenya currency 1 U.S. dollar = 100 shillings. Even though we have major differences from the way our life is we still have many similarities and similar motto's in life.

The Netherlands

Since our translator is still learning their language, we will mostly be writing facts. In Netherland they are more laid back and she said, "Here you can walk out in your underwear, and no one will judge you." Their favorite sports to play are soccer, field hockey (not on ice), gymnastics and basketball. They are about nine years old and we are talking to a classroom, not an individual. There are many places in their country where they can bike. Fun fact, in Amsterdam there is a "parking garage" that instead of parking places, there are places to park your bike. Did you know: On average, Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. When the kids start kindergarten, they have been with each other since the age of four.

Skyping with Japan!!!!

     This is our 1:00 A.M. Mystery Skype! Who will it be?? Our Skyper is Mr. Mark Colby and we have an inference that he could be Dubai?! They are in Asia, BUT don't consider themselves a part of Asia. He is in Japan! He works in Tokyo. He is RIGHT next to THE Tokyo Tower! On the weekends he goes to the farm he owns and takes care of it with their 2 dogs! Some of their holidays are Western New Year. He moved to Japan to study Judo when he was just our age! The Japanese currency is the Japanese Yen. It is worth $100 U.S. dollars! Japan has the lowest number of Christians! Only 0.1% of the population are Christian! We learned how to say 'hello my name is,' in Japanese.  This city is EXTREMELY SAFE compared to the U.S..  They HAVE to take a test to get into kindergarten, middle school, AND high school! There is practically NO IMMIGRATION, Japan is 99.9% Japanese humans.

Mystery Skype - Vietnam

  We're on to our next mystery skype.  We figured out they were in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We asked about their school and we learned they were an International School System, they are a private school. Some of their traditions are celebrating the Chinese and Lunar New Year.  They also celebrate Christmas and Halloween like us. Even though they don't like to wear uniforms, they do. They were friendly and taught us how to say "hello" in Vietnamese.

Mexico City

  We just finished our mystery skype to Australia, and we are on to our next Skype to Mexico City! We had a very sweet lady named Karen who we talked to. She loves to swim in her free time, and eat meat with beans and cilantro which she loves very much. She listens to a lot of mariachi bands-- the music of her home town. She celebrates El Día  De Los Muertos which is The Day of the Dead and Independence Day. On these days she doesn't have work,  and Karen and her friends throw parties and enjoy themselves. Karen has been learning English since kindergarten and was a very interesting person to talk to. we can't wait to meet our next skyper!

    

Mystery Skype - Australia Classroom

   Our next mystery skype took place with an elementary classroom in Guildford, Australia. This classroom consisted of all boys, ages eleven and twelve. These boys have to wear uniforms and they like to play basketball, tennis, water polo, and rugby. These boys go to a school located thirty minutes away from the Indian Ocean coast. Their climate is pretty close to ours except it is opposite because they live in the Southern Hemisphere, so their seasons are inverted. The boys celebrate the same holidays as we do, such as Christmas, Easter, Lent, and Halloween. They like to eat pizza and KFC.  The time difference is 14 hours ahead of us. A quick fact they told us was that Australia was founded in 1829. The boys also like to play a popular video game, Fortnight. Australia and Texas relate in many ways, like the language and climate, but they also have some differences which really show how diverse the world is!

     

Hong Kong

     Gary Ng lives in Hong Kong, China, but has been to Taiwan, L.A., and the Dallas area. Gary's family includes him, his wife and two kids. He told us that he actually learned English at school as well as Chinese. He also told us about Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is never set each year because each month each year has exactly thirty days. During Chinese New Year, they give out pocket money to family members that are still single in a red envelope. Gary also told us that he celebrates English holidays such as Christmas. Gary works at an English arts and crafts store, Micheal's. Gary lives halfway across the world, but he also has some similarities in his culture to ours.

Mystery Skype ; Russia

 After we Skyped Antarctica, we started a mystery Skype! Then, we found out that we were skyping  a college teacher from Yaroslavi, Russia! There are more than 600,000 people in Russia, and they have 11 different times zones!  It is currently -17 degrees Celsius there in Russia. There are many different holidays, and on one holiday they eat pancakes! Their traditional foods are bread and soup. Out of all the different types of music she choose classical music as her favorite! The United States and Russia may have some differences, but that doesn't mean that they can't have some similarities too!

Antarctica

We have now expanded our journey to Antarctica, which is 8,691 miles from Flower Mound, Texas! In the South Pole, we met Raffaela Busse and Johannes Werthbach, who are both from Germany. They work for a company called Ice Cube, as scientists, to get powerful cosmic energy for engines. The Ice Cube laboratories are 2.5 km deep. There are 15 countries working with Ice Cube! It's located at the South Pole because it's one of the only places containing clear ice for light. To get there, they have to board a military aircraft, which is mainly filled with cargo. The aircraft is loud, crowded, and has no windows. Not only do they work, but they also have a lot of fun. They play football (soccer), go hiking, run, ski, enjoy wildlife,  and enjoy beautiful landscapes. Even though they have 24 hours of day, and 24 hours of night, they still enjoy these activities. Sunsets occur for a couple of weeks. Also there is no humidity. Most of their food is canned or frozen, which isn't awesome. But something awesome is that they have 24 hours of ice cream available! At the most, it has been 10 degrees Fahrenheit there. At this moment, it's -39 degrees Fahrenheit in Antarctica, and in Texas it's 63 degrees Fahrenheit! This was a really fun and an informative Skype! Can't wait for the next one!

This is our awesome group ready to spend 24 hours together Skyping, learning and having fun!  #lmsworldwide

     Our first Skype was a mystery Skype and we found out that they live in New York. The two twins, Lydia and Lauren, actually grew up in Flower Mound, went to Lamar, and graduated from Marcus High School! Although it's known for its fancy runways, and job opportunities in the arts, there is also much history behind all of it.  They have many known traditions, such as the New Year's Eve ball drop. The twins talked about all of the parades and how noticeable it was that people talk more when they are dressed up and in costumes. They are also passionate dancers and actors.  Lauren recently completed a world tour and was also in a play by the author of Hamilton. The twins say that they were mainly excited to move to New York for the experiences and fast pace of life, but they still miss Texas. Some of the main things they enjoy are the diversity in New York, such as Chinatown, and the many parades and exciting festivals. While on Skype, we were surprised by Lydia and Lauren's mom who rushed from her home in Flower Mound to see her daughters on Skype. They gave us some great advice about their experiences as we wrapped up.

The whole group is here!  Getting ready for our first call - #lmsworldwide - HERE WE GO!

We're getting ready to start our 2018 #lmsworldwide Skypathon!!!!! This is going to be a blast!  Food is here - snacks everywhere - fun to be had - lots to learn!

To get you in the mood....Last year's Skypathon video!

😍 😆 😃 😊

This is our last official meeting before our 2018 #LMSWorldWide Skypathon!  We have our stations set!  We know our interview teams for the first part of the night and everyone is excited!  Less than 3 days to go!

Prepping!

Shopping lists, game planning, and finalizing the schedule!  Wanna know some of our destinations?  Mexico, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, Kenya, Antarctica, India, Japan, Honduras & Yellowstone National Park just to name a few!  The rest are a MYSTERY!