educating for the journey

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”
- Mark Twain

One of my favorite quotes of all time; pretty stoked that it actually fits with a Journey post.
Last Friday was the Carol Morgan Elementary School’s international fair. It is probably a lot like you may imagine it to be: each class selecting a nation and turning their rooms and themselves into that nation for the day. The giant leaps forward that have been made by elementary school teachers are nothing short of astounding. The international fair has gone from something that could be seen as, “a nice show without much learning” to a school wide activity integrating aspects from a vast array of disciplines. It has been transformed by hard working teachers from a show of posters cut and pasted from the CIA WorldFactbook to the incredible show of student centered learning that was on display on Friday.
The limited video footage i have leaves a lot to be desired in camera work and sound quality but not wanting to break a promise to a class of fourth graders here are some snippets from my journey to New Zealand:

(this was accompanied by a tour through New Zealand’s history on their living timeline as well as an dynamic slideshow presentation)

Special thanks to all of the ES teachers and specialists for your extra effort this year it definitely paid off with the best international fair i have seen during my tenure at CMS.
Congratulations teachers and students!

I will be updating this post with more videos as i get them from teachers so check back (or keep an eye on your NetVibes) to see a little bit more of our world in the coming days.

more videos:

from Ms. Diana (more NewZealand followed by other GREAT photos):

With international thoughts and collaboration on my mind i have recieved a number of emails from the World Virtual School project that i am taking part in at this year’s JOSTI conference.  Introductions are complete and upon a quick examination it is obvious that i am going to learn a lot in DC from this crew of experienced techies; ifeel fortunate to have the opportunity to attend.

image from: http://international.ua.edu/programs/images/globe.JPG