It finally happened! We made a real and true connection between my students and the students in Kenya! I have been reluctant to write on the blog about the connections I have been trying to make for my students until I could feel like they were really real. We have a new thing at our school called WIN time (What I Need Time) and I was a chosen teacher to take a team of 8th graders every day for the year for about 45 mins first thing in the morning. I knew this would be my "Kenya Time" because I would be able to reach a whole team of students (about 100 of them) and I would have them once a week every four weeks for an entire year. I am supposed to incorporate literacy during this time and making global connections is definitely what my students need! It is a WIN win situation!
We have looked at the photos on my blog, read about Kenya, researched everything from what are typical foods to the government and shared our findings with the class, read about Satao and created posters for the school against poaching of elephants for ivory. We have written letters to the students, traced our hands and sent them with the letters and a photo of ourselves to make it more real for the students in Kenya. We have viewed the video Without a Fight and discussed it. We have researched native species in North Carolina and created Fact Cards with original artwork on them from my students to send with a pile of hand cut paper snowflakes to send them Christmas cheer. BUT... today was the day we opened the letters from Wongonyi Village.
The package arrived on Friday in my mailbox at school. When I saw the students first thing this morning and started to call out who the letters were to you could have heard a pin drop. The students passed them around sharing them with one another and when I started walking around the room to see how the students were reacting I came across students taking photos of their letters with their phones, looking up a couple of Swahili words in the letter to find the meaning on the iPad, and then I came upon one of my female students with tears streaming down her cheeks. "What is it?", I asked. "The letter", she gasped between tears...
we exchanged a few more words as tears filled my own eyes and then I knew for certain. She had made a global connection. A kindred heart had been formed.
We have looked at the photos on my blog, read about Kenya, researched everything from what are typical foods to the government and shared our findings with the class, read about Satao and created posters for the school against poaching of elephants for ivory. We have written letters to the students, traced our hands and sent them with the letters and a photo of ourselves to make it more real for the students in Kenya. We have viewed the video Without a Fight and discussed it. We have researched native species in North Carolina and created Fact Cards with original artwork on them from my students to send with a pile of hand cut paper snowflakes to send them Christmas cheer. BUT... today was the day we opened the letters from Wongonyi Village.
The package arrived on Friday in my mailbox at school. When I saw the students first thing this morning and started to call out who the letters were to you could have heard a pin drop. The students passed them around sharing them with one another and when I started walking around the room to see how the students were reacting I came across students taking photos of their letters with their phones, looking up a couple of Swahili words in the letter to find the meaning on the iPad, and then I came upon one of my female students with tears streaming down her cheeks. "What is it?", I asked. "The letter", she gasped between tears...
we exchanged a few more words as tears filled my own eyes and then I knew for certain. She had made a global connection. A kindred heart had been formed.
When I left Kenya I left a very small amount of money with Serah to buy mathematical sets for Murangi Primary School. When the sets were delivered Isaiah who had walked me there and introduced me to the school took photos and sent them to Ronnie. Ronnie in turn sent them to me (and so did Zach).... this in itself was amazing that all my friends in Kenya would know that I would enjoy seeing the photos of the students receiving the sets. Here are those photos!
And lastly... to get all caught up... a couple of the elephant posters we will send to Kenya (the rest are all over the halls of our school) and my students holding their animal fact cards which I have ready to put in the mail this week!
And most of the slideshow down below is sideways, but I will have to fix it later... bedtime for this art teacher... I have WIN time first thing in the morning!