Today I received an email from two of our partnering project teachers, one from Inverness, Mississippi and the other from Boston, Massachusetts. The teacher from Boston is using this project with a class of Developmentally delayed Grade Seven learners, many who have a reading level of Grade 3. She has adusted a number of the activities so that these students can participate. Here is an email from Laurie Wasserman:

Brenda,

"Oh how I wish I had a digital camera and a way to show you what we did today! The kids loved the affinity diagram. I had them for 2 blocks which was so perfect! They were very unsure of their ideas, spelling of thoughts, etc. I just let them write what came to mind without worrying. Some of them were a little unsure how to put their brainstorming ideas into categories for “What is a Home?” But, once I passed out easel paper with markers, and had them put the sticky notes from the board in categories onto paper, it all seemed to have made sense. They then presented individually because it was really done as one group (a class of 10). They actually seemed disappointed when the bell rang and it was time to leave! You must understand the majority have a COMBINATION of ADD/ADHD, medical issues, severe reading and writing disabilities. It was so fantastic.
I wanted to send you some pictures of our projects when we are done (about 2 weeks). The kids stand and pose with their posters of their Mindmaps. They remind me “I want my picture taken for the teacher in Canada, don’t forget, Ms. W.!” They are so excited like you wouldn’t believe! I have a young man who spends every minute he is in school, coming up at lunch, etc. making power points of his project with sound and motion! Understand he decodes on a high first/low second grade reading level! Understand that he had undiagnosed ADHD/ADD (can you have both?!) His mom tells me he talks about this project at home! They can’t wait for Monday-we have a double block of LA for 92 minutes. Do you know how much you have inspired my students, Brenda? You rock, honey!" ~ Laurie


Bland Campbell, the teacher from Mississippi, is working in a school that has a high minority population. Here is his email:

Hi Brenda:

This week has been a busy week for us. We have worked through part one and part two of "Oh Give Me a Home". The children really got excited when they started the Afffinity Diagram, using the word home. They have never done an Affinity before. It was a wonderful experience for them. They divided into one group of 5 boys and another group of 6 girls. I wonder why that happened? Both groups worked hard and came up with a good infinity and were surprised at what words came to mind when they thought of home. They discovered that there was a lot of overlapping of words. When putting the words under agreed upon categories they discovered that some of the words could go under more than one category and since some words were repeated they divided some of them into more than one category. They did discuss breaking down into more or smaller categories but decided they liked the ones that had agreed upon. A discussion of what makes a home was lively. I took some pictures to document their work and will sent copies later.

A couple of days later the students did a mind map using the word "homeless". They worked hard on their maps and even came in after school to spent time working on their maps. I was really pleased with the final product. Their maps looked good. You could easily see what came to their minds when they thought about being homeless. They had lively discussions on the struggles of the homeless and the hardships they endure. We also explored where we got our mind pictures of homeless people. This challenged the students to think and explore their beliefs about the homeless. Again I took pictures and will sent them to you later.

I feel that we have gotten off to a great start. I haven't seen the students this excited before. They are now writing letters to your students. I am also having the students e-mail their mail to me and I will paste them in one long e-mail to you and you can copy, cut and give to your students. There will be 14 e-mails, one for each of your students. Three of my students have said they would write two letters. I will try to get them to you next week. We are off all next week for Thanksgiving. But I will try to set aside time to get the e-mails forwarded to you. When we get back from the holidays we will start on another part of the project. We are documenting every step of the project with pictures and writings. Our goal is to make a Power Point presentation of the project. When finished we hope to present it to the students in assembly. I also have hopes of going and presenting it with the students to different community and educational groups.

The students are interested in learning more about Canada and the Calgary, Alberta area. We will be researching and learning from you and your students.

When we get back from Thanksgiving maybe my students can write sharing their thoughts on an American Thanksgiving and maybe your students can share their thoughts on a Canadian Thanksgiving which I believe is celebrated on the 2nd Monday of October and had its beginning in 1879?
~ Bland

I think its exciting to have three so diverse classes doing the same project. My students and the students from Mississippi will be emailing each other next week. Both classes are really looking forward to that.