First Graders Build International Friendships with Egyptian Children
Under the character education program umbrella at Carmel Elementary School in Woodstock, Georgia, is a component for students to develop relationships with international students. To complete this activity, ten first-grade teachers met with a former teacher of the Egyptian MISR Language School who provided contact information to the team. The former teacher, who is also a parent of a Carmel student, presented to first-grade teachers information on the culture and demographics of the Egyptian school. Then, over 200 students at Carmel created writing projects to communicate with their Egyptian first-grade pen pals. The books Carmel students created during this process were: All About Me, Our Cookbook, A Day in the Life of a Carmel First-Grader, Sports in Georgia and America, Things We Like, and the Scrapbook of the Carmel Community. Students also created video presentations which were shared with their pen pals by way of the internet on the teachers' websites. The principal of Carmel also communicated by e-mail to the principal of the Egyptian MISR Language School.