Recently, U.S. teachers Karen Ditzler and Jamielynn Griffith used Skype and Storybird to connect their classes through collaborative storytelling. After we read their story and various tweets about the project, we invited Karen to blog about how things went down and their surprise ending.

Storybird is one of my favorite tools for digital storytelling. So when a member of my PLN, Jamielynn Griffith, and I were discussing how to connect classes for a project, we decided Storybird was the perfect tool.

We connected two small reading groups (4-5 students). I worked with Mrs. Plever’s second grade group in Pennsylvania and Mrs. Griffith’s group was in New York.

First we allowed the students to meet via Skype. During this conference, the students introduced themselves and the teachers explained the task. The assignment was to write a collaborative story using Storybird. We shared our screen so that the students could browse through the pictures together and choose a collection of artwork. They chose artwork done by a wonderful artist, Andy McNally. Mrs. Plever’s class worked together to write the beginning. Then they passed it on to Mrs. Griffith’s class. The students read what was written and added to it. The story was passed back and forth six times.

While the students worked on the story, they focused on word choice, sequencing, and story elements. Then the students met for another Skype conference. They discussed the twists and turns of the story, wrote the ending together and gave the story a title Mr. Bobblehead’s New Gadget and the Valentine’s Surprise.

Mr. Bobblehead’s New Gadget and the Valentine’s Surprise on Storybird

We were so proud of their work that we posted their story on Twitter. We were pleasantly surprised when Andy McNally commented on the story and contacted us. He is a talented artist and was honored that the students chose his artwork for their story. His art inspired our students to write a great story and our students’ story inspired him to create another piece of artwork. He sent each class an original piece of his artwork. He also reflected on how he created it in his blog. Mr. McNally graciously met with both classes through Skype. He spent time talking with the students about his life and inspiration and what he does as an artist. They had many questions for him. He was so wonderful with the students!

We have connected many other classes since then to create Storybirds together. It is a valuable experience for the students and it raises their level of motivation to write!

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Karen Ditzler is an Instructional Integration Advisor with West Shore School District in Pennsylvania, USA. You’ll find her on Twitter, Skype (karenditzler), and Wikispaces.

[Editor's note: if you're a teacher and using Storybird, you'll be happy to know we're soft-launching Class accounts. We haven't put up a landing page or video FAQ, but you can hop in and start playing today. We'll have a blog post up on this shortly.]