Elementary students in Brazil and Wisconsin, USA participated in the Journal Swap for Peace project created by Know My World. This particular project first brings awareness to students in relation to their environment. They start to explore their daily lives through discussions and recordings. These two classrooms used kidblog.org as a platform to communicate. The students then engaged over a 7 day period, writing in journal’s about their daily events.
Students shared their journal entries via kidblog and started corresponding back and forth almost daily. Critical thinking questions were formulated around their partners journal entries and experiences. Whole group discussions were had to bring more understanding and deeper processing to the students.
A few of the students shared a peek into what they had to say!
How long do you go to school for? We have to go eight to three o clock that is eight hours. What is your favorite subject in school? Mine is ART! I have won lots of awards for ART. What is your favorite sport? Mine is gymnastics. I hear people in Brazil play football in the united states football is not soccer. My favorite football team is the green bay packers.
Hello, how are you? I like your letter. I’m sorry you got hurt.I lost 3 of my front teeth. I put them under my pillow. not all together. I don’t remember what i got from the tooth fairy. I have two brothers and one dog named Tobi. Some time ago I went to my daddys work. Its at a petrolium plataform in the ocean. All the days my daddy goes there by boat. Then he stopped because he wants to be with us. and then he get other job that is not in the ocean. My mama will be a doctor. She is not finished studying yet. What do your daddy and mommy do? And what do you want to be when you are big? I don’t know what I want to be yet.
Good – bye
Some people like basketball here in Brazil but I don`t play basketball. I usually play tether ball, catch catch, and cars at my house. After lunch I`m going to play tag with my friends. Do you have fire drills at your school? We do sometimes.What foods you don`t like to eat? I don`t like soup with things inside like carrots, meat, rice. I went to the beach with my daddy. We picked many beautiful shells. I have six fish at home. 4 are small and 2 are big.
bye-bye
The teachers also had a few words to share!
I would like to thank you two (and Lisa DP too!) for having participated and shared all we did during this project and also for being so supportive even with my personal life and goals.
I believe it’s part of the whole exchange project to also develop connections between us educators as people. I really appreciate having shared my time and thoughts with you!!!
-Karen/Brazil
I can’t express enough how thankful I am to have met all of you. This has been an amazing experience for myself, as well as my class. If I had not made this connection I would have never learned about Bali and wouldn’t be off in less than a month! I wish the best for you and wherever life may take us, hope that we will continue this friendship.
– Katie/USA
