Virtual Exchanges : more than waving hello

Yesterday, the 4th grade students of JSIS (Seattle, USA) and Juan de la Barrera (PV, Mexico) had a virtual exchange on their study of the  native people of their land.

Although the kids were very exited in seeing each others - they exchanged some full arm swinging hellos at start and finish, these exchanges are more than saying hello. 

The 2 classes presented and discussed their finding on how native people lived, in their respective areas: what did they wear, what shelter did they have, what transportation did they use, what did they eat. The students of both side presented their findings and recorded the finding of the other class. They then exchanged questions and answers on the subject.

The benefits are numerous:

• the students practice a second language in context. It boosts their skills and their motivation in continuing to learn it. (in this specific context, this is especially true for JSIS).
• the students share their learning in a very exciting context. It helps them retain information in a deeper way - these students will remember the native people unit for a long time.
• the students hear about very similar yet different findings . This connection, yet expansion  opens up the student's curiosity, and motivates them to learn more.  

One of TINFA's desire impact is to nudge the students' love for learning.  We witnessed a demonstration of it yesterday, in 2 different classes, in 2 different continents, at the same time.