Starting in January, the second graders at our school will be doing a research project about other countries. They will have some choices available. However, it can be challenging and overwhelming for kids to make that kind of choice if they don’t have a lot of background knowledge or interest.
So, I had an idea. What if people from or in other countries invite our students to research about other countries? That doesn’t instantly turn a student into an expert, but then a student would be able to imagine what a person from another country might be like. Then, I could attach these videos to our school morning announcements. They would be like commercials or video postcards from people around the world! My hope is that it would get students interested in learning about other countries, even countries that they have never heard of or knew much about before.
Here is an example. Cornelius is from Democratic Republic of the Congo:
I like that the video is about thirty seconds long. He gives special reasons why students should study his country. He chose his words carefully so students could understand him. (I will probably write some subtitles before I show it to students, but I think it is important that they hear people speak with accents. It’s good active listening practice.)
If you are willing to do a video, please let me know. You can comment here on my blog, or you could email me at email@example.com. You can send me a video or you could upload a video to Youtube yourself and send me the link. If you want to address students more directly, you can start by saying, “Hello Aviators!” because that is our school team name. You can say an interesting fact about your country, or teach a word in a different language. You can show us cultural food or clothing. Really, almost anything will do! But thirty seconds is a good amount of time – no more than a minute, please. Shorter is okay too. You can do it by yourself or with a friend. We welcome creativity.