By KRISTA MARRS

Staff Writer

LACONIA — The city will be linked to the European country on the other side of the world thanks to technology allowing one middle school teacher to chat with school officials in Slovakia.

Memorial Middle School Integrated Arts Teacher Larry Frates said he will be taking part in a live video conference, beginning early today.

Frates said he planned to first test the link from his home around 2 a.m. and again at the middle school at 7:30. Later in the morning, Frates said, school and city officials are invited to join in for a third chat.

The chat is part of the iEARN Global Teacher’s Meeting and Youth Summit taking place July 11-17 in Kosice, Slovakia.

iEARN is an on-line K-12 network for teachers, students, administrators as well as community leaders.

This year marks the 11th annual Teacher’s Meeting and the eighth annual Youth Summit. Previous conferences were held in countries including, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, Russia, the United States and Spain.