The 2nd grade classes at LeBleu Settlement Elementary participated in the Louisiana Region V Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center's (TLTC) Making Collaborative Connections (MC2) project by partnering with another class in Plymoth, Devon, United Kingdom using the ePals global community. The goal of the project was to connect our students with students in another country to communicate and discover how their cultures are alike and different while mastering writing and technology skills to meet state benchmarks and technology standards. This is our story!
To begin we learned all the safety precautions that must be taken when children are utilizing the Internet. Then we introduced the students to email using ePals. After practicing sending email to each other we began sending emails to the students of Pomphlett Primary. The students had so much fun reading emails from their new friends. They learned many ways they were alike as well as different.
To follow up the emails the student groups wrote about different aspects of their schools and videoed themselves to create a "documentary" about their school and community. We then exchanged "culture parcels" with the other class.
It was great fun to receive mail from our new friends including their DVD, newspaper, soccer magazine, a popular English comic, English candy (confections), and post cards on which the students wrote messages about the pictures.
We included our DVD, local newpaper, a visitor's guide for Southwest Louisiana, postcards, small bottles of Tobasco hot sauce, small packages of Tony Chachere's seasoning, Mardi Gras beads, a Cajun cookbook, postcards, an American Flag pin, and a stack of brochures about Southwest Louisiana.
