Global Awareness Lesson - epals

I chose to use the epals website for my global awareness lesson. This website offers children a wonderful opportunity - to learn about other cultures from other students! I chose this avenue because many of my students will never have the experience to travel our own country, let alone another country. Many students in my classroom have not been out of Delaware and it's neighboring states. I chose to have my students communicate with learners in South Africa. My roommate in college studied abroad and worked in schools in South Africa, so I thought I could make that connection for my students as well. From this experience the students in my class with gain information about the quality of life, their value of education, and the general culture of other people. The students keep journals with Venn diagrams that log their conversation. Not only are they required to report out about their findings, but they must compare and contrast that information with their own way of life. It is my hope that through this experience students will appreciate the things that they have and perhaps find more value in their education and lifestyle. Globalization is a hard concept for the learners in my classroom because they have such little exposure to other ways of life and issues that are happening around the world. Their eight year old lives in our small town is all they are aware of at this point.