1Carteret: Students. Sports. Success.

Lifetime Memories

There are some things you can’t learn in books or on the web! This was reaffirmed for me at last night’s pig-picking. I watched and listened as the students, teachers, principal and parents reflected on the value of the BMS / Rastrick HS cross-cultural exchange.

“The middle school pen pal project is a classic evolution of technology-inspired teaching and learning. What started as a paper and pen process soon evolved into electronic correspondence (keypals). Ultimately, NetMeeting facilitated the cross-cultural exchange between a diverse group of coastal NC middle-schoolers and their counterpart class in England.

It did not end there. The next year the British teacher visited our coastal community during her holiday. Then, our tech facilitator journeyed to England. As the project evolved, the British students accompanied their teacher on her return trip to the Crystal Coast. And last year, our tech facilitator traveled with the original class of keypal students (now high schoolers) to England to meet their digitally connected counterparts. Now, the Brits have returned.”

Every rendition of this trip is an experience of a lifetime facilitated by a true champion of technology, a true champion of her rich eastern North Carolina heritage, and a true champion of real-life learning for students. Janet McLendon has built a lot of relationships with this technology-inspired project. As I witnessed the laughter, hugs and tears–I can assure you that folks will not forget in a lifetime what happened at BMS last night!

Here is a cool clip of the Brits doing the morning announcements at BMS.

Bulldog Media

When students take ownership of their learning endeavors, when they create authentic products through collaborative processes, when they make work seem like play…we all are reminded of the true gold in our profession.

Check out the virtual tour videos from Broad Creek Middle School. The clips are slick, the students are articulate, and the content is informative…especially to rising sixth graders. Kudos to the students who made these videos. More importantly, kudos to the administration, media and tech personnel, and teachers who crafted these golden opportunities for the students.

You can access the clips directly from the Broad Creek homepage or this direct link to the video.

Hear Ye: Brits Invade BMS

Few web archives of student success exist as comprehensively as those managed by BMS and BES instructional technology facilitator, Janet McLendon. Her current triumph is a photo journal of the British Invasion. Students from Rastrick School in Yorkshire, England, have descended upon Beaufort Middle. Yesterday the students were at BMS, today they are at Fort Macon, and tonight they head to Ocracoke. All along the way learning opportunities are in place.

The beauty of this event is that the Rastrick student reciprocate by hosting Beaufort students in England on alternate years. What makes it even more compelling is that the deal started through snail-mail penpals, grew to keypals (e-mail), then to video conferences (NetMeeting). Finally, Janet and her Yorkshire counterpart said, “What the bloody heck! Let’s take it a step further.” Thus, the non-virtual trans-Atlantic crossings began. The students are the winners here.

Yesterday, I dropped by BMS and had the opportunity to meet several of the travelers. In the computer lab, the students were e-mailing their “mums.” And Janet was receiving e-mail from mums thanking her for keeping the daily photo journal of their children.

A few students did seem a tad perplexed as they scoured the cafeteria line for Shepherd’s Pie. It’s part of that cross-cultural exchange. I instructed them that for this week anyway it was “Hey” instead of “Hi” and American Idol instead of Pop Idol.