Teachers are always thinking of new, fun ways to get kids excited about learning, and one school in Highland Village recently took a geography class around the globe, overnight.
It's all through the power of the Internet.
"What we're doing tonight, we've never done in this district," said Briarhill Middle School teacher Rick Bleemel. "We're having a lock-in and spending the night here to give them the experience to talk face-to-face with some countries that we wouldn't be able to talk to during our school day."
Bleemel and other teachers helped the 11 and 12 year olds pull the all-nighter, and the caffeine was flowing.
"I'm hoping that our students can make it until, hopefully, 1 a.m. That's what I'm shooting for," said teacher Taylor Boase. "The point of this is to break down the walls of our time zone constraints during our school day."
The students communicated with other kids via Skype.
"They need to use their geography skills and get out maps and ask questions with them to find out where they are," Bleemel added.
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By daybreak, the students had chatted with kids in more than 20 countries.
"It's been a lot of fun, I'm glad I came," said one student.
"When we have to learn about other countries in the world, we just can't think of a better way than to talk to people who are there, and we can talk to them in real time about their country," Bleemel said. "This is something the kids will remember for a long time."
