If you enter some 3rd grade classes at Sipley, 4th grade classes at Goodrich and 2nd grade classes at Willow Creek, you may find yourself biking Latin America on a 7,500 mile journey across Central and South America. The children in these classes are taking this journey virtually through the efforts of a group called Reach the World. RTW identifies volunteer travelers, manages web based educational content posted by these travelers, and delivers curriculum to classrooms.
The volunteer travelers our children are tracking this year are Stefan, Doug, Jenny and Kiersten. Many of you may remember Kiersten who helped spearhead the start of the first Seven Bridges Season Starter race that provides so much support to our Woodridge Education Foundation. The bike travelers left Cancun on October 5th and are now in Guatemala.
Our students have access to them in a number of ways. The Latin America travelers visited our classrooms in late September to introduce themselves, show the children their itinerary and have them experience the mode of travel and system of cargo carrying in place for the trip. Once they started off from Cancun the children have been tracking them via
www.reachtheworld.org
. The travelers have their itinerary set up based on finding internet access along the way so that they can load written information, pictures and videos as they travel for the children to view. Students can ask questions that the travelers work hard to answer each week. Each school has also developed a project coinciding with their classroom curriculum that accesses the travelers for observations, pictures or data that they can gain on their way. The students will also be video conferencing with the RTW group later in the year and have a final visit in late May when the travelers return from their trip.
This is truly curriculum and technology integration at work to provide the children with real life experiences virtually. We invite you to hook up to the website and see what is going on with your students.
