Ukraine Pen Pals

A while ago, Peace Corps told us about an opportunity to connect with other PCVs around the world to create pen pal connections between our students.  I've been working with a group of 10 kids from my class who will be communicating with kids their age in Ukraine!

Our first couple of sessions were extremely successful!  We started by making a KWL chart about Ukraine (What you KNOW/What you WANT to know/What you LEARNED).  Turns out there was nothing in our 'K' column other than being able to find Ukraine on a globe.  I was really impressed by the kids' curiosity as they filled up the "WANT to know" column with all kinds of questions.  We'll fill out the last column at a later date.

Then, I showed the kids a web graphic organizer about America that I had made as a preparation and visualization of my America powerpoint that I showed them after.  We looked at my powerpoint then talked about all the different subjects we could teach our pen pals about the Philippines.  The kids worked together to make their own web chart about the Philippines. 

Finally, we were getting to the good part:  using the computers!  After they prepared a rough draft of their slides on paper, we went to the e-classroom where I introduced them to PowerPoint.  After a very brief tutorial, they paired up and got started.  Because none of the kids really have much experience with computers, it has been a slow process to complete these PowerPoints.  However, as everyone who knows how to access this blog knows, it's incredibly important these days for kids to be computer literate!

We just finished up the PowerPoints today!  They're very simple but the kids were able to download some great pictures to go along with their information!  I didn't edit very much because it's important to me that the kids have most of the agency in this project.  Our focus is on cultural exchange, not perfect grammar.

After we saved our PowerPoints, the kids made name tags to hold in their portraits.  We'll send these portraits along to our pen pals, too.  

The wacky shot!

And the nice one!