Connecting and understanding is part of TINFA's DNA

The Virtual Exchange component

Being connected is one of the foundation values of TINFA. Connecting the community we live in (The Pacific Northwest) and the partners we work with is an essential part of what we do. Our world challenges are increasingly global issues: we need to understand what is going on in different parts of the planet, and acquire a perspective that goes well beyond the place in which we live.

Our partner schools currently do not have the economic means to travel. Connecting virtually is a tremendous opportunity for them to discover, most often for the first time, how similar and different students their age are in another country, on another continent.

It is also often the first time the Northwest students have the opportunity for such exposure, being able to listen, to another point of view they have not previously thought about, and a voice they haven’t heard before provides them a different perspective.

TINFA supports exchanges in between the schools we work with and schools in the Northwest. It includes and goes beyond the physical exchange of some Northwest students visiting their counterparts, by creating a virtual relationship throughout the year.

TINFA searches for interested teachers on both sides and studies their curriculum. We then work with these teachers on identifying modules in the curriculum that both classes are studying, and are doing so approximately at the same time. In cooperation with the teachers, the exchange part of the module is created. The exchange usually culminates with a 30 minutes Skype conversation in between the two classes.