Primary 5 and Primary 6 were delighted to have a Zoom call with their peers from Monmouth, Illinois US this afternoon to conclude their joint partnership. Miss Martin and Miss McAlister have been involved in the pilot of the Reciprocity Project and have taken part in an article for the Rural Schools Collaborative. This can be found using the link below.
The Reciprocity Project engages more than 25 rural teachers from Wales, Northern Ireland, and the United States. The world of education is an ever-evolving landscape, constantly searching for innovative ways to connect students with their communities, both locally and globally. One initiative that has been making strides in this endeavour is the Reciprocity Project. This project, part of the I Am a Rural Teacher campaign, is a collaborative effort between the Welsh Government, Rural Schools Collaborative, Teton Science Schools, University of Denver, and the University of Colorado, Denver. It aims to create a network of international rural teachers and school leaders who work together to support place-based instruction and connect learning to the communities and the world around us.
To begin the project, all classes created short introductory videos to send to each other with a small amount of information, before beginning to research their own places. Students made posters to showcase this information, and these were sent to the pupils in Miss Garzee’s class in Illinois. Children in St. Brigid’s got to study the posters about the place of Monmouth and were then able to compare it with Ireland. Pupils made a Venn diagram to show the similarities and differences between the two places. Finally, we had a zoom call with all three classes, where the students got to take turns asking and answering questions they had after looking at the posters and learning about the other places. They asked questions ranging from clothing, weather, and school schedules to animals, sports, and games. We ended the zoom with a final conversation about our places. After logging off, students concluded that although our places are quite different, we have some interesting similarities.
