Thursday, May 10, 2012

Globally Aware....If You Dare!

My school has been focusing on global awareness activities for the last month in all of our grade levels.  Our teachers have done amazing lessons, which have resulted in many creative and visually stimulating products in our hallways.  I decided to get in on the action and am so excited about Skyping with one of my old friends from graduate school tomorrow morning.  She is a school counselor at the TASIS American School in England.  After working out the technical difficulties, we decided to pair a second grade class at my school with a second grade class at her school.

Today, I went into Ms. Liberto’s second grade class to show her students the school website, as well as some video clips and pictures of the TASIS students.  After learning some general information about the international school, the students formed teams to  brainstorm additional questions they would want to ask the students in England.  Ms. Liberto and I stressed the importance of including ALL the questions students had brainstormed and emphasized we would choose ten questions from the lists that would help us get the most information about the international students.
After reviewing all of the lists, we will be asking the following questions tomorrow morning:
  1.  What are you learning about in second grade?
  2.  Can second grade students sleep at the school as boarders?
  3. What kind of uniform do you wear? What color is it?
  4. Do you have recess? If so, what games do you play?
  5. Do you have a cafeteria in your school? What kind of lunches do you have?
  6. How old were you when you moved to England?
  7. What countries have you lived in?
  8. What are your most popular sports in England?
  9. What do you do for fun? Do you play video games or do gymnastics?
  10. How many students are in your class?
 Following the Skype session, the students will be creating “Friend Venns”, an idea I found via Pinterest at justaddclipart.blogspot.com.
 It will be a great opportunity to discuss similarities and differences between our students and those who are attending the international school.  I can’t wait to see what the students learn and the products they make.  Some of these students might never leave the United States, or even North Carolina, but through education and the power of technology, we can expose them to life experiences that will broaden their minds.  That excites me, and I hope it will excite them!
                                       ~ Angela

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