After reading Chapter 7 The Internet and Databases, it was fun to read about the Technology link 7.2. When I was student teaching, I had the opportunity to travel across the world to Thailand to do part of my student teaching. The other part I did in Corvallis, where I currently teach 3rd grade. I taught 2nd grade in Thailand and when I came back to the states I taught 2nd grade here. While I was student teaching, both my Corvallis and Thailand students were pen pals. We kept in touch via e-mail and letters. I was able to teach a large unit about the United States to my Thai students. Each grade level chose a country to research and later presented it to the whole school. My second graders were able to choose the U.S. and were able to teach the rest of their school more about it. We focused mostly on Montana. Our pen pals from Corvallis, sent us foods that were from Montana, like the huckleberry products. They also send us pictures of each of them with their favorite foods and things to do. It was such a great experience. Then, when I returned to the states, I was able to teach my students at Corvallis about Thailand. We continued using the internet and mail to send messages. This was a great experience for both types of students. To this day I am in touch with my family in Thailand.
Last year, while I taught kindergarten it was more challenging to have pen pals, but now that I am teaching third grade, this would be an excellent way to teach my students about different cultures. I really liked the idea in the book about having each set of students read a book and compare and contrast their different opinions. It is great to have students get different ideas from places all over the world. I know when I went to Thailand, my life was changed. I came back a different person and a more inspired teacher. I hope to integrate pen pals in my curriculum again because I know what a difference it made for my students.
One concern that I have about this chapter, is the fact that some of the kids in my class can not get on the internet. I would have my students set an account so they could chat with their pen pal, but some students are not allowed to be on the internet at my school. How am I going to give this student the same opportunity that my other students are going to have?
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Jamie, There is a program called WebWhacker that lets you download webpages and linked pages to a CD. You had the CD to your student and it looks just like the webpage, but the student is not on the web. By doing a google search for WebWhacker, I see that there are educational free downloads for a trail period. In the case of pen pals, your student could read the comments of the penpal and would have to write a response for you or parents to add to the original. Keypals are such a great opportunity to learn so much from other cultures!
ReplyDeleteThanks for you great ideas!
Joan