Partnerships

I asked Linda Duerr, Director of Programming at the Penn State Child Care Center at Hort Woods, to share about our classroom to classroom partnership.

"The idea for the partnership between Rwanda and Hort Woods emerged almost as if it was planned and yet, it was quite natural and spontaneous. Over a year ago, Carol Falke contacted me about the possibility of having our preschool children and teachers connect with preschool children and teachers in Rwanda.

Helping very young children have a global perspective and come to an understanding of the diversity of our world is a challenge. They are only just beginning to understand the world outside their own homes after all. In order to make this type of social studies curriculum meaningful it is necessary to consider how to present it to children in a developmentally appropriate manner.

I put the idea to one of our master teachers, Nina Fellin, and she took the ball and ran with it. Meaningful and rich curriculum has emerged with her guidance and support. We also have a teacher from Rwanda in our school and are able to learn about Rwanda in a very authentic way by way of her sharing her culture with us. We have exchanged images, drawings, artifacts and words to help us all understand the world of our friends in a small country so far away. We have formed a global connection between our two learning communities.

Photos:
*Grace Hakizimana, a teacher from Rwanda sharing her culture
*Linda Duerr and Nina Fellin at the preschool
*Nina's class learning about Rwanda