We've written letters, received letters, photographed ourselves and printed and mailed them, sent fact cards about animals native to North Carolina with our own art, studied about elephant poaching in Kenya and created posters of awareness, watched netball videos and a documentary on how soccer is an important part of many people's lives in Kibera Kenya, and sent descriptions of how we celebrate our winter holidays.
On a side note: Many students from Kenya wrote about how they love netball. I had no idea what netball was. Was it another name for basketball? No! It is actually an Olympic sport and I felt silly for not knowing this. I told my students that it is wonderful thing to keep learning things your entire life and the best way to do this is reading, traveling, and getting to know people who are different than you. We were able to Google it and watch videos... super fun for my basketball players to see the differences and similarities. The funny thing is I saw a netball goal at the school in Wongonyi Village and assumed it was a basketball goal without the backboard. This was a lesson in not assuming things, too. (Have I mentioned I LOVE being a lifelong learner?!!!)
Now students are creating books to send to Kenya on "The Day In the Life of an 8th Grader". Working in groups the students are taking photos of their classrooms in action, what our lunchroom looks like, what the PE classes are doing, etc. Each student is writing a short description of what is going on in the classroom. We are hoping to get the school in Kenya to write descriptions back to us on what is going on in their day.
I love that my students are curious now... they are asking me questions I can't answer since I didn't get to learn EVERYthing there is to know about Kenya in my 13 day stay there! It is so wonderful that they can write and ask the questions themselves. The teachers in Kenya have been on strike for two weeks, but classes are set to resume on Monday so we are hoping to continue our correspondence with the government public schools now. I found out about the strike not from the news, but from hearing from Ronnie in Nairobi. When I Googled the issue I found many articles on it.
The latest:
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2015/01/teachers-due-back-in-class-monday-as-strike-ends/
This brought up a great thing with my students... news sources. We discussed how an educated person checks out more that one news source and that we don't always hear everything from our local news. Of course it would be impossible to hear everything going on in every country everyday, but to realize how big the world and how our own community is just a tiny dot in the whole picture is important to know. This also brought up how we sometimes only listen to one opinion (NPR, Fox News, CNN, BBC) and it is not necessarily a bad thing to try to listen/watch differing opinons. This helps us to understand other peoples points of view whether we agree with them or not. Being more global is hopefully helping us to relate to one another better with open minds and hearts. That is my wish for my students.
Oh- and while in Kenya my friend Steve's wife, Martha, was pregnant. They have had their baby and he is BEAUTIFUL! I have to share! Remember... Steve was my driver this summer in Kenya, but more of a travel companion! He is also Serah's brother and Ronnie's brother in law. : )
On a side note: Many students from Kenya wrote about how they love netball. I had no idea what netball was. Was it another name for basketball? No! It is actually an Olympic sport and I felt silly for not knowing this. I told my students that it is wonderful thing to keep learning things your entire life and the best way to do this is reading, traveling, and getting to know people who are different than you. We were able to Google it and watch videos... super fun for my basketball players to see the differences and similarities. The funny thing is I saw a netball goal at the school in Wongonyi Village and assumed it was a basketball goal without the backboard. This was a lesson in not assuming things, too. (Have I mentioned I LOVE being a lifelong learner?!!!)
Now students are creating books to send to Kenya on "The Day In the Life of an 8th Grader". Working in groups the students are taking photos of their classrooms in action, what our lunchroom looks like, what the PE classes are doing, etc. Each student is writing a short description of what is going on in the classroom. We are hoping to get the school in Kenya to write descriptions back to us on what is going on in their day.
I love that my students are curious now... they are asking me questions I can't answer since I didn't get to learn EVERYthing there is to know about Kenya in my 13 day stay there! It is so wonderful that they can write and ask the questions themselves. The teachers in Kenya have been on strike for two weeks, but classes are set to resume on Monday so we are hoping to continue our correspondence with the government public schools now. I found out about the strike not from the news, but from hearing from Ronnie in Nairobi. When I Googled the issue I found many articles on it.
The latest:
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2015/01/teachers-due-back-in-class-monday-as-strike-ends/
This brought up a great thing with my students... news sources. We discussed how an educated person checks out more that one news source and that we don't always hear everything from our local news. Of course it would be impossible to hear everything going on in every country everyday, but to realize how big the world and how our own community is just a tiny dot in the whole picture is important to know. This also brought up how we sometimes only listen to one opinion (NPR, Fox News, CNN, BBC) and it is not necessarily a bad thing to try to listen/watch differing opinons. This helps us to understand other peoples points of view whether we agree with them or not. Being more global is hopefully helping us to relate to one another better with open minds and hearts. That is my wish for my students.
Oh- and while in Kenya my friend Steve's wife, Martha, was pregnant. They have had their baby and he is BEAUTIFUL! I have to share! Remember... Steve was my driver this summer in Kenya, but more of a travel companion! He is also Serah's brother and Ronnie's brother in law. : )