Educator, Nicolle Boujaber-Diederichs from Orlanda, Florida, joined us in 2007. At our annual International Teacher and Student Conference, held in Morocco in 2009, she partnered with educator Said Belgra to co-facilitate the project My Identity, Your Identity along with Huri Cinar from Turkey, Budi Setiawati from Indonesia and Asmaa Al Beriki from Oman.
A truly collaborative global team of educators!
She wrote to me about the project activity this year, “Enthusiastic students from Morocco, Oman, Turkey, the United States and Azerbaijan are collaborating in the project with the goal of teaching each other and learning about their local traditions, holidays, clothing, music, dance and historical landmarks. Students are also busy gathering and preparing cultural items for their cultural exchange packages which they will mail to students at a partner school in another country.”
“As a result of their participation students become more cross culturally sensitive and understand that teenagers in other countries are more similar to them than different. Students also become more globally aware as they learn about countries that they didn’t know existed and about religions that are unfamiliar to them. For example, most of my students are Latino Christians and many of our partner schools are Arab Muslims. It really opens their minds and their worlds while breaking stereotypes at the same time. ”
Thank you Nicolle, Said, Asmaa and Budi!
Here’s a photo of students at Cypress Creek High School students receiving a cultural exchange package from a girl’s school in Bahrain.
And interacting with their partner classes in our secure online project discussion forum:
The project is open to educators from around the world.
You’re welcome to join and experience how global collaborations can expand you and your students’ horizons.
iEARN-USA 