A note from Ms. Christie-Blick
This summer I had the opportunity to visit Yew Chung International School in Hong Kong as a participant in the Global Educators program. In preparation, my fourth grade students completed classroom projects that helped them better understand their own culture while sharing aspects of their American lifestyle with children in another country. The Hong Kong students did the same, resulting in a cultural exchange that is educating and delighting the children on both continents.
The American children made a Culture Box and Culture Quilt, a video of themselves, and two life-size paper American children. I presented them to each of the six classes I visited at Yew Chung, explaining them, and using them to initiate discussions. In addition, slide shows, Tootsie Rolls, American pencils, Beanie Babies and books were presented to the Hong Kong Chinese.
In return, the students from Yew Chung drew pictures, created books, gathered objects for their own Culture Box to send to America, and video-taped themselves sending greetings to their Cottage Lane counterparts. Slide shows, a classroom journal, souvenirs, and this electronic journal will add to my students' understanding of the Hong Kong Chinese culture. I look forward to sharing these with them in the fall.
It is hoped that these cultural exchanges will help build interest, understanding, and future sharing between children and teachers in different countries a half a world apart, and yet so close and with so many things in common.
Kottie Christie-Blick
August 2000
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