Students at Oxford Institute Rosario reaching out to peers worldwide: Coordinated by Ms Verónica Maser and always putting safety first, our students work collaboratively with students all over the world.
Como todos los años, comenzamos el 2023 comunicándonos con estudiantes de distintas partes del mundo. Esta vez 4th adol de Miss Natalia realizó video llamadas con alumnos de Letcher, Kentucky USA. Una experiencia sumamente enriquecedora donde el intercambio en español y en inglés se vió reflejado en cada pregunta.
Conocer sus gustos, sus costumbres, deportes que practican, comidas típicas e incluso sus rutinas en la escuela, nos acercó, a pesar de la distancia, encontrando muchas similitudes cómo también diferencias. Gracias chicos y Miss Nati por compartir ésta experiencia.❣️
Terminando un 2023 con proyectos interculturales!
En el mes de octubre, alumnos de 2nd adol (teacher Sara), 3rd adol (teachers Daniela y Noelia), y 5th adol (teacher Verónica) comenzaron a participar de un proyecto con estudiantes de Sterling Elementary School, Virginia, USA y del Colegio Leonardo da Vinci, Bogotá, Colombia.
En el mismo presentaron videos sobre diferentes temas como estudio, familia, hobbies y rutinas entre otros.
Más de 190 videos de las tres instituciones fueron compartidos en la plataforma educativa Flipgrid.
Felicitaciones a los alumnos y teachers que participaron de esta hermosa experiencia en la cual, una vez más, utilizaron el idioma como puente para conocer diferentes culturas.
Poner en práctica lo que aprendemos y conocer y respetar otras culturas, es parte fundamental del aprendizaje de otro idioma.
Vamos por un 2024 con muchos más proyectos!❣️
GYLC (Global Young Leaders Conference) is one of the many programs offered by Envision Experience, "focused on giving high-aspiring students in elementary school through college the unique opportunity to turn their career and life aspirations into reality." Needless to say, we can hardly put into words how honoured we feel at having being given this opportunity.
About a month ago, Ms Verónica Maser, our cross-cultural projects coordinator, received an invitation, as an outstanding Educator, to nominate students from our institute.
How we chose our nominees
We took into account not just their command and high level of English, but also personal qualities such as enthusiasm, maturity, responsibility, proactivity, leadership potential, willingness to work hard and in a collaborative way.
Projects our nominees have taken part in
Our students have worked in a number of different projects both at school and in the community as a whole:
participation in the course "Young Leaders" in the local Rotary Club
After barely a month into the school year, we already had great projects rolling.
April
Ms Naty's 5th Adol took part in an exciting SKYPE-A-THON with Ms Cass Parker's students in Wellington, New Zealand.
Ms Daniela's 5th Adol started exchanging emails with Ms Silvana Evans's students at "IGB International School"in Kuala Lumpur, Malasia.
May
Ms Vero Maser's 6th Adol started working together with Ms Catherine Tsai's students in Luisville, Kentucky. In this case, the students used a wiki and their teachers paired them up so that they could start writing to each other in the language they are learning.
This is the virtual classroom where the students interacted: Around the World
June
Time for another exciting SKYPE-A-THON. This time, Ms Susana's 3rd Adol chatted with students in Queensland, Australia.
Ms Danisa's 2nd Adol and Ms Magalí's 3rd Adol started working collaborately in another virtual classroom with Ms María Laskaris's students at "Dover-Sherborn Middle School" in Boston.
Another wiki was set up for Ms Susana's 3rd Adol and Ms Catherine Tsai's students in Emminence, Kentucky. It was incredible to see the quality of the work produced by the students at both ends, which goes to show how much more students can learn when they are working in a meaningful way.
By the beginning of April, and coordinated by Ms Verónica Maser, the first two projects of the year were well underway:
Learners aged between 11 and 13 started communicating with peers in Michigan, US.
Students aged between 15 and 17 did so with peers in Canada.
In early June, one of our most cherished projects got to an end. For two years, our 5th Adol students had been exchanging emails with Ms Paloma Soria's students at "Pella Community High School," in Iowa, US, who were finishing high school and were therefore heading for different universities. Everybody was a bit sad but agreed that it had been an incredibly enriching experience and that they had made great friends in the process.
In September, our 4th and 6th adol took part in a "Mystery Skype" session with students in Owensboro, Kentucky, US. Tools like Google Earth and Weather Channel came in handy to help them discover where their peers were from. This kind of experiences help students develop not only their language but also their digital skills.
Some pictures of the session
Another lovely "Mystery Skype" session took place in October. In this case, Ms Jamie's students in Wisconsin, US, played with Ms Susana's 4th Adol. Everybody had lots of fun!
Also in October, there was another enjoyable Skype session, this time involving students of different levels. Ms Daniela's 4th Kids together with 6th Adol and FCE students chatted with students at "Pascack Valley Regional High School", New Jersey, US. During the first half of the meeting, the students at both ends played Mystery Skype. In the second half, they had a fruitful talk about their family and hobbies. It was a most delightful meeting, especially because the young kids managed to communicate quite effectively and fluently. Way to go!
The "grand finale" of the year was a two-month project involving students from "The Pascack Valley Regional High School" in New Jersey, US and our 6th Adol, 5th Adults and FCE. They worked collaborately using Canvas LMS to exchange mails, make videos and other artifacts, and take part is discussion forums.
Another year full of projects that got most of the students at the institute involved in fruitful interaction with peers around the world.
Our cross-cultural projects coordinator, Prof. Verónica Maser, set up mail exchanges using ePals, a community of collaborative classrooms. After spending some time writing to each other, students usually got the chance to meet live via Skype, and each of these encounters proved to be an unforgettable experience for all those involved.
So, come and see what we were up to in 2014!
3rd Adults with students from Lone Tree, Iowa
This exchange allowed our students to get in touch with students from a rural school, a totally enriching and charming experience that opened their minds to a different reality and way of life. Many thanks to our teachers Gisela and Magalí, and to Ms Christy Weitz in Iowa
6th Adol and 5th Adults with students from Dixon High School, Illinois
Ms Wendy Fitzanko(Dixon),MsSusana(6th adol) andMsVerónica(5th adults) worked very hard to get everything ready to go when the American students came back from their holidays. Needless to say, everybody had lots of fun and learned tons in the process.
4th and 5th Adol students with students from Milton Middle/High School (Vermont, USA)
For this project, our teachers Natalia, Ivana and Verónica worked together with Ms Angela King to give their students the chance to make the most of this experience.
2nd, 3rd, and 4th Adol with students from Platteview High School, Nebraska
Lovely project that involved younger students, who profitted enourmously from this exchange. Huge thanks to their teachers Daniela and Magalí and their colleague Laura Hilkermann in Nebraska.
6th Adol with students from North Valleys High School, Reno, Nevada
Ms Susana and Ms Verónica worked collaboratively with Ms Christie Loar to make this project a success. We had already had the pleasure of sharing projects with Ms Christie in 2013, so it was great to renew the partnership.
4th Adol and students at Pella Community High School, Iowa, US
Ms Verónica (4th Adol) and Ms Paloma Soria (Iowa) paired up their students and accompanied them in an enriching exchange of mails, photos and stories.
2nd kids, 3rd kids, 4th kids, 2nd adol and 3rd adol with Greece Odyssey Academy, Rochester, New York
For this super project, almost 100 of our students started corresponding with Ms Patricia Muchard's. Their teachers' guidance was a key factor in the success of such a huge project as, in many cases, they were young learners. Needless to say, a zillion thanks to all the teachers who made this possible!
This is going to be a long post because 2013 was simply packed with exciting projects. All the previous experiences with some groups had proved so enriching that we wanted to open this up to all our students.
As can be seen in previous posts, Prof. Verónica Maser had already organised very successful ventures and we were incredibly lucky to have her accept to take on the coordination of our cross-cultural projects. None of the projects below would have been possible without the invaluable work of Verónica and all the teachers who took part in each of the endeavours. Just click on the links and you'll see their names all around :)
Rosario in Autumn
This was the kickoff project. By June, it was well underway and had our 3rd Adol students working enthusiastically with the help of their teachers to show what our town is like in autumn. They worked together with Miss Mafferetti's class in Virginia, USA
This is just a picture. Click HERE to go to the wiki.
THIS is the wiki in which they showcased the works they produced using a variety of tools such as Voicethread, One True Media, Pixorial and Windows Movie Maker.
It's worth visiting the links to the different classes (Daniela's, Gisela's, Vanesa's, Noe's and Vero's) to see the wonderful artifacts the students came up with.
E-mail Exchange with Prof Patricia Muchard's Students in Greece, NY, USA
Come September, groups of our students started exchanging emails with students from Greece, a town near New York, who were learning Spanish. Needless to say, this required lots of organization on the part of the teachers involved so as to pair students up, but it was well worth it.
Students introduced themselves and talked about their town, school and friends. Each group had to use the target language and answer their partner's questions.
E-mail Exchange with Prof Christy Weitz's Students in Lone Tree, Iowa, USA
November found us involved in another exchange organised along similar lines but, in this case, it was our 2nd, 3rd and 4th Adults students who were corresponding with peers in the USA telling each other about their family, hobbies, favourite sports and holiday destinations.
It was fantastic to see how much everyone enjoyed the experience of using the language they are learning in authentic communication.
Project with Karolina Duzy... (or how we made the headlines in Poland)
For this project, our students worked with peers in Zespół Szkół Nr 2, Rzeszow, Poland. They corresponded on a weekly basis and, by the end of the year, sent each other postcards and letters.
Here's a video showing our students when they received their postcards from Poland. Total elation!
Then, just a month ago, Karolina told us that the project, which teachers from other countries had also joined, had received national coverage in Poland, and had appeared in a couple of newspapers like Gazeta Wyborcza:
As 2011, this has been a year full of very successful intercultural projects and interaction.
Letters from Sapulpa Middle School
The year opened with very exciting news for our students. They were truly delighted to receive a mailing from the students atSapulpa Middle School-Oklahoma,USA, with whom they had been interacting via their wiki and Sype during 2011. The package contained Christmas cards and letters from their American epals and showed what a close connection they had established by working together in their joint venture.
Our students opening and reading their letters in class:
Of course, they had also sent cards, letters and presents to their peers in America and had already heard about their excitement when receiving them.
New "cyber encounters"
On May 9th, our students had a new opportunity to meet live with their peers. The preparation prior to the video conference involved the same steps as in the previous ones: negotiating topics, and exchanging photos, posters and presentations in their wiki. You can read more about the preparation stage HERE.
First minutes of the live session:
Later on, on 17th May, a new Skype session took place, this time with students from a school in North Carolina, USA.
The students in both countries had been looking into the topic of bullying so that they could exchange views and experiences during the web conference, and discuss ways to tackle this problem.
Then, they went on to talk about a less serious subject: typical places for a holiday in both countries. The students had brought photos of their favourite holiday resorts and had a great time showing each other their pictures through the webcams.
One of the highlights of the session was when our students walked around the institute with netbooks and laptops, showing the place where they study to their peers in America - they even walked into the balcony to give them a view of their street! In the process, students from other classes also had the opportunity to say Hi to the American students, who then offered us a tour of their school.
We are sure our students will always treasure this experience. Projects like this make learning more memorable and meaningful. Students can see that what they are studying is relevant to their life and enables them to communicate with people in other countries. Another pedagogical gain is that students, without even noticing it, get intensive and extensive practice in the four skills: reading and writing (letters, posts, comments), listening and speaking (in the actual conference). Perhaps even more important is the fact that students become aware of cultural differences and learn to respect and accept them. Also, the projects involve creating different artifacts using web tools like posters, voicethreads and videos thus allowing them to manipulate web tools in a meaningful context
Terminando un 2023 con proyectos interculturales! 
