Denton School students traveling world via Flat Classroom Project

Richard Tedesco

Fifth graders at Denton Avenue School are becoming virtual world travelers this semester, interacting with students in classrooms around the world on the Internet through a program called the Flat Classroom Project.

The flat classroom was originally conceived by high school teachers Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, working in North Carolina and China, respectively. In September, at the urging of Denton School fifth grade teacher Lisa Parisi, the duo helped facilitate the first Elementary School Flat Classroom Project. Flat classroom takes its name from the concept of flattening classroom walls through flat computer screens.

The Denton Avenue students are among the first group of elementary students participating in it. “A Week in the Life…” is the first project the students are working on, with the objective of giving elementary school students in other countries and other parts of this country a window into one another’s lives and environments.

“The goal for this project is to look at other kids around the world, not only the differences but the similarities,” Parisi said, adding that her intention also is to “open up the world enough for them so that whey they become policy makers, they can’t possibly go to war anymore.”

For openers, Parisi and her teaching partner Lauryn Tiedeman have divided their fifth graders into groups with the assigned tasks of developing information in five areas: school time activities; languages and clothing; housing and transportation; leisure time activities and food and celebrations.

Their students are now in the process of developing video and audio presentations in those subject areas to exchange with their peers abroad and across the country. The other schools participating in the project are the American School of Bombay in Mumbai, India; The Falcons School for Girls in London; the International School of Prague in the Czech Republic; Yew Chung International School in Beijing; The Phoenix School in Salem, Mass., the Mill Creek School in Geneva, Ill., and Yarmouth Elementary School, Yarmouth, Maine.

The idea is for the students to collaborate with their peers in four of the other schools to produce a presentation on each topic in multimedia form.

“One of the things we’ll do in the end is to see what each group comes up with,” Parisi said.

Initially, they’ve exchanged questions and answers about basic aspects of their lives and school routines. And they’ve started communicating in chat rooms through Edmodo, a chat room specifically set up for the “Week in the Life…” project.

The Denton School students have already engaged in interactive writing projects with students in other schools in the U.S. They’re currently engaged in a science project with a school in Nevada, and another project with a school in Brazil, so interacting with children in other parts of the world is just another school activity to them.

“To my class, it’s just another thing they’re doing,” Parisi said.

But at least some of the students in Parisi’s class sounded as though they appreciated the opportunity to gain insight into the routines and culture of their peers in what may as well be other worlds.

“You get to see what other people do and you get to know about other people,” Tanya Sarin said. “We get to see what other people are thinking and doing.”

Erica Lorenzana said she’s enjoying her part of the project, learning about foods and celebrations.

“It’s fun to communicate with people. I get to find out what other people celebrate and what they eat around the world,” she said.

Nicolas Ryan, who is focusing on housing and transportation, is interested in finding out “how they get around and how it’s different for us.”

Alexandra Gootman focused on the technical aspect, saying, “I think it’s really cool because we can put pictures on,” but added, “It’s like so different. I really want to see what they do.”

On the Internet, through the flat classroom Web site, https://aweekinthelinfe.flatclassroomproject.org, they’ll be able to do just that.

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