Fourth grade students of Resurrection Catholic School in Cherry Hill are working with students in Israel on a special collaborative project.
RCS teacher Debbie Shumaker and Karina Ebrani, who is a fifth grade teacher in Israel, have been using Skype to create a virtual classroom where the children meet face to face to work on creating a PowerPoint program.
Students from each country have been divided into mixed teams to research various places and cultural traditions in the U.S. and Israel. They interact face to face approximately once a week to share their research and design their PowerPoint slide.
In the end, the project will consist of a PowerPoint presentation of pictures and information on each country’s museums, government, national symbols, children’s games, favorite foodsand vacation spots.
“This is an exciting project that has brought our children together to share our culture, religion and national treasures. Most importantly, friendships are developing that will hopefully last a lifetime,” said Shumaker.
“The Israeli children speak English fluently, which makes our collaboration possible, but they are also teaching us some Hebrew,” she added. “We now know that ‘Shalom’ is used as a greeting, a goodbye and as a gesture of peace. Last week, we learned the word for ‘awesome,’ which is ‘babalo.’ It’s nice to see the look of amazement on each of the students’ faces when they hear each other communicating in our native languages.”
Ebrani’s students stay after a long day of school to Skype with the Cherry Hill children. They link up at 9 a.m. EST when it is 4 p.m. in Israel. Some of the students do not go home after school so that they can be present for the link up. Some come back to school to participate.
“The students have been making plans in the classroom and arranging times on the weekend to Skype from home. Our students get up a little early on Saturday or Sunday to Skype with the Israeli students in their afternoon,” Shumaker said. “This is truly an example of technology in education at its best.”
In related news, on April 15, Commander William Quinn and Adjutant Russell Smith, from American Legion Post 372 in Cherry Hill, presented Resurrection School principal, Sister Lydia Etter with a check for $1,500 to be used toward technology upgrades and computers in the school.
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