collaboration with our small independent school in Michigan

[Nola Whetstone]

Hello! I work at a small, rural, independent school in Michigan. I teach 2nd grade, but we also have teachers looking for collaboration partners in grades pre K-5th. We only have one grade level teacher for each grade, and our PYP coordinator has asked us all to find a collaborative "buddy" teacher at another PYP school. Would anyone out there be interested in being a collaboration partner with my class of 7-8 yr olds/and or me? We have started our first unit on recycling already this year....

[Trent Nichols]

Hi Nola,

My name is Trent. I'm currently working as a K - 5 ICT specialist in Kobe, Japan. We're very fortunate in our school to have a great deal of technology resources at our disposal, and we try to make the best of these tools to broaden students' perspectives, communication skills, and knowledge. Which leads me to why I am replying to your post. One of my professional goals this year is to work on developing cross-cultural understandings, communication, and collaboration. I currently have a 4th grade classroom teacher who is interested in working with me to pioneer a cross-cultural project. If possible, I would like to start reasonably small, and then decide if we can expand from there.

I realize that you are teaching 2nd graders (and if you're not interested, I won't be offended). But if the following does interest you, read on:

With the goal of increasing cross-cultural understandings (perspective-taking), perhaps we could use a 'collaborative blog or wiki' to address PYP concepts such as 'change' or 'perspective.' Students could be required to post one idea and one comment every month. (i.e. partner A posts an entry about the importance of recycling .... and partner B comments (sharing their own perspectives/background knowledge); In the same month, partner B may post something about their experiences moving to a new neighborhood (and partner A will comment and add their own perspectives/experiences).

If the above idea(s) appeal to you, and you think this is a suitable activity for your class, then we can go from here. I can create Google blogs/wikis and provide you with a URL, and a list of students' names so that we can group them accordingly. The rest will be up to the creativity of the students.

Sayonara,

Trent