For the inter-school collaboration, I was paired up with another 7th grade Social Studies teacher, Scott Broadway. He was teaching at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, named Lipscomb Academy. In my public school setting, Watertown Middle School, Watertown, Massachusetts, we shared a similar student caseload of about 100 students. We wanted our students to be able to think about, show, then compare and contrast local answers to the question, How do geography and the environment influence me? We thought that if they could do this in their local setting, maybe they could also transfer that skill to global comparisons.

In each of our classes, students worked in small groups of 3-4 and were asked to brainstorm ways in which their lives have been influenced by geography and the environment. After viewing teacher examples, students were tasked with creating their own slides (1-3 each). They worked on these independently, then rejoined their groups to consider edits to their final slides. Students used their written and visual communication skills to practice their “citizen diplomacy” skills (curiosity, empathy). As teachers, we were also striving to expand students' perspectives to consider how different life can be in other parts of the same country.

After viewing the slides of the partner school, students came up with observations and questions to continue the conversation. Sadly, we did not have time to continue the conversation, however I'm certain that the kids would have loved to do so! It seems as if both sets of students were very excited to interact with the others, so engagement was at an all-time high.I loved  bringing this larger theme in our modern context, as it provoked had absolutely fascinating conversations about the cost of living, average pay, price of housing, etc. As I'm thinking about it right now, I'd love to do this project again. I will have to reach out to Scott!

Prior to arriving in Taiwan, my fellow Fulbrighter, 2nd grade teacher Meghan McGuire, from Washington state, and I were asked to put together a lesson on an American holiday for students somewhere between 1st and 6th grade. Given my 25 years of 7th grade experience, I was glad to have Meghan as a partner! We immediately discussed the 4th of July as the quintessential American holiday, but quickly thought the better of it due to Taiwan's complicated independence status. Then we wondered about Thanksgiving, but quickly abandoned that because of the parallel tricky relationships between indigenous and colonizing peoples. Meghan remembered that the school in Yuli was working on integrating more SEL (Social Emotional Learning) work with students, so maybe the simplicity of friendship at Valentine's Day would be good? It would mean that we could each read a sweet book about how love shows up in our everyday actions, I could do a "circle" with my students (see slide deck below on the left), her students could write Valentines' cards, and I could bring candy to distribute. 

We created a draft of a lesson slide deck to share including different types of holidays in the US. We then narrowed in on Valentine's Day (see below on the right). When we learned that we were to teach to 2nd graders, we recognized that it was absolutely altogether too much information and too many activities, however, did not want to be caught empty-handed if we were somehow super-efficient. Needless to say, we cut it way back on the day we taught the lesson, showing students photos of Meghan's students having Valentine's Day parties and my class doing a "circle" discussion based on the children's book (they were sad to hear that there are no parties in 7th grade), and giving the Valentine's cards to the kids and blanks for them to respond with phrases of friendship and love. It was sweet and simple and the kids were engaged (or motivated by candy in exchange for card completion?). Friendly language was written and exchanged. 

When we returned to the conference room for a break, the director of the school surprised us by explaining that he and a few other teachers wanted to share what they saw in the classroom. The only thing I recall is his pointed question asking, "Why would you choose to teach about Valentine's Day? It's purely an adult romantic holiday." [Whoops, cultural faux pas?!  Maybe we should have reviewed the lesson with them beforehand, but we hadn't been given any time to do so...mild panic filled my body for the potential offense we had inadvertently made...] Luckily, my calm, cool, collected co-teacher, Meghan McGuire, explained our thinking about how we wanted to do something that aligned and supported their SEL efforts at the school. I would be curious to know what the conversations were at home that evening.