Doncrest Public School's Canadian
Friends and Flags Web Site

Project Coordinator: Micheline Joseph

Doncrest Public School, York Region District School Board.

Contributors: Lynn Nash, Rob Graham, Lolita Carinci, Jenny Lai, Deborah Martin, Elsa Crowley, Cindy Linder, Anna Whitby, Darren Pamayah, Carmen Ng, Judy Bouktsis, Lisa Brooks, Marilyn Pinchuk, Betty Kerr, Carole Croteau.

The "Friends and Flags International Educational Project" was discovered and introduced to our school by a Grade 6 teacher Irene Alderdice, while searching on the internet for an interesting project to supplement her social studies program. Upon registration at the website www.friendsandflags.org, schools and their classes from different countries around the world are connected in partner circles. Country partners are responsible for creating a package about their school and country, which is to be exchanged with their partners from different countries. The first year that Doncrest Public School participated in this project, Irene worked alone with two Grade 6 classes and was connected to four other classes from different countries. At the end of the year, Irene presented what she had worked on with her students to the staff. She suggested that participation in this project could benefit all the students from Grades 1-8 and suggested that we try to collaborate on a joint school-wide venture. Although Irene transferred from the school, sixteen teachers from Grades 1-7, named as the contributors above, indicated an interest in working together on this project for the following September 2001. Since we had so many classes involved, we registered with two circles and divided the multiply classes into two groups, each preparing 5 packages to be exchanged with their foreign partners.

I volunteered to coordinate the school-wide project and that summer I registered our school with the "Friends and Flags Project". While working with the teachers and students from the different grades, as well as connecting with the teachers from other countries via the Internet, I quickly perceived the potential benefits this project had to increase global awareness in our students. Also, I surmised that for there to be an actual cross-divisional collaboration while working on this venture, the project needed to support some curriculum expectations for each grade. These two assumptions developed into the basis for the action research questions that I attempted to answer. Can an international multi-cultural exchange program support curriculum expectations for cross-divisional grades and increase student global awareness?

These educational research questions were explored through the school-wide integration of "Friends and Flags" project at Doncrest P.S. This multi-cultural collaborative Internet project is based upon the principles of cultural awareness and mutual respect between nations. These principles are well aligned with the York Region District Board of Education mission, which is to "unite in our purpose to inspire and prepare learners for life in our changing world community".

During the year we sent and received packages from Denmark, Sweden, Israel, Mexico and the United States. Also, students from Grades 4, 5, and 6 exchanged pen pal letters and communicated via the Internet website student forum. Staff and students from Grades 1-7 collaborated to prepare ten Canadian cultural packages. The whole school community, as well as the local media, was invited to view the packages as well as the ones we had received during our very successful "Friends and Flags Celebration" display in the school library.

Methodology:

Participation by the staff and students in this project was carried out between September 2001 and June 2002. The "Friends and Flag" cultural packages were compiled as vehicles for completing and supporting curriculum expectations. The teachers met several times to determine which sections of the packages each grade would be responsible for preparing. Following the guideline provided by "Friends and Flags", we decided on which section could be best integrated into which grade curriculum. Most of the work for the packages were completed by January 2002 and mailed out by March. We began receiving packages from our foreign partners between March and May. The packages that were received were studied by individual classes, as well as by most of the school during our display in the library.

The following is a suggested grid correlating the project sections for the Canada cultural packages with the grade curriculum to which it corresponds. The second grid is the collaborative organization at Doncrest P.S. that was implemented for the project in 2001-2002.

Data were collected from staff, students and parents to determine whether this project had been a beneficial learning experience for the students and was able to answer the research questions. The following survey questions were collected between March and June 2002 after all of the classes had completed their sections of the packages and after some classes had investigated the packages that were received from the other countries. The parent surveys were collected at the end of June. Although students from Grades 1-7 participated to various degrees on this project, not all were surveyed due to age and/or extent of participation. Responses from 51 students from Grade 6 were collected answering the questions below. Nine teachers responded to the first teacher survey question and 12 teachers responded to the survey questions #2 and #3. Six parents responded to the parent survey. Data was collected, tabulated and analyzed from survey questions stated below.

Students from two Grade 6 classes (51 responses collected) were asked to reflect on their participation in the "Friends and Flags" project by answering open–ended questions on a reflection sheet. Similar responses to the following questions were categorized and tabulated with the results displayed on the accompanied chart. Please note that the students from the researcher and project coordinator's Grade 6 class were most involved with this project, exchanging pen pal letters with partners in Israel and Denmark several times during the year and communicating through the Internet forum more regularly than other classes. Therefore, the responses that mentioned writing letters or e-mails were collected from only one class (27 responses collected).

1. What did you like the most about the Friends and Flags project? Why?
2. Do you think this project was a good thing to participate in? Why?

" I liked to meet the people from all different countries and compare their life to mine. You can see the differences in many little things such as different Coke can designs and different foods. I also like to learn about other peoples religions and cultures and how their languages are different then ours." - Cathy

"I liked the talk to other people, tell them more about me and Canada i.e. peaceful country, what it is like, etc. If they have trouble I comfort them or encourage them to think the positive way. I am happy with my new friends." - Joan

"It was terrific for us to participate in this amazing project…It is a world of sharing, so I think it was a great opportunity for us to share and show our best to people around the world." - Jane

"…I had lots of fun doing my part and opening packages from other countries. Participating in this project making relationship between our country and others stronger. Becoming better friends!" – Susan

"Yes it was a good idea because we become better friends and we can get more peace. I wish the whole world can participate in this project." - Christine

" It was a great idea because it shows that we are friendly to the other countries and we get to learn about other countries and they can learn about ours. We also cooperated a lot and worked very hard." - David

Through their written and oral comments, the students from these Grade 6 classes were able to articulate their appreciation for the benefits of participating in this international exchange program. They enjoyed making friends and learning about children like themselves from different countries. They were also cognizant of the learning about Canada that they were providing their new friends while working on the packages and appreciated the cultural sharing that these packages provided everyone.

1. Do you think working on this project benefited your students’ learning and achievement and your own professional growth? In what way?
2. Was this method an effective vehicle to help students address curriculum expectations?
3. Was this method an effective vehicle to help enhance student global awareness?

To determine the benefits of this project and whether the research questions could be answered, the participating teachers were given two surveys. The first survey was an open-ended summary and reflection of their experiences working with their students on this project. For the purpose of this study, only one question (question #1 above) was included. Nine responses were collected in February 2002 after the projects were completed. The quotes below are examples of teacher responses to this question and demonstrate the positive experiences that they observed.

"I am glad that I participated. My students really look forward to viewing packages from other countries. This exercise has enhanced their view of how others live. I like being part of a school wide project." Ms N. – Grade 6

"Yes, it was great goal for learning and studying the material. Professionally, it’s a practical extension of what the students can do with their mastered skills. It shows others what you taught them. If others can see it…it’s there." Mr. P. – Grade 4

"The students learned that Canada is such a multicultural society – and our menus reflected that."- Mrs. L. – Grade 3

"Not only did the students benefit from the research, it was a very practical use of the time spent in the library." – Mr. G – Grade 2

The following chart shows the results of the second survey given in June 2002 that asked the teachers to rate more specifically their opinion of the effectiveness of this project (question #2 and #3). These questions addressed the research questions; twelve teacher responses were collected.

From these results, 66% of the teachers participating felt that the project effectively supported the curriculum expectations for their grade. On the other hand, 83% felt that the project helped enhanced their student’s global awareness. When asked if they would be interested in participating in this project next year, nine responded "yes", three responded "perhaps", and none responded "no". One can conclude that a strong majority believed that this was an effective method to increase global awareness and engage their students in learning from the world around them. Still a majority, but to a lesser degree, believed that it was an effective means to support the curriculum. These results could perhaps be increased with more careful integration of the curriculum expectations into the section prepared by each class.

1. We would like to determine whether this project is a beneficial way to promote global awareness. Please comment on this experience.

The parents of one grade 6 class were surveyed at the end of June with only a very limited number of written responses collected (6) and more informal oral comments made throughout the year. The open-ended question resulted in positive comments that appreciated the benefits of enhancing their children’s global awareness through this project. The following are some anecdotal quotes from the parent written responses received.

"I think this multi-cultural exchange project is very good, because they learn a lot about other countries (cultures, languages, education, etc) and it makes them aware about the world. It also makes them think about current issues (globally) which I think is a great idea. It is an excellent learning tool."- Mr. Y.

"We feel that the "Friends and "Flags" project is a wonderful way for all students to learn and experience things from other cultures and similar children around the world." – Mrs. Q.

"Our kids here in Ontario definitely need more hands on and practical experience when it comes to global awareness. Awareness of other nations is crucial and is lacking here in North America. We have the multicultural advantage here in Canada, but we still have a long way to go. My daughter enjoyed the project and couldn’t stop talking about it." – Mrs. A.

In conclusion, our school-wide participation in the "Friends and Flags" project was a positive experience. We found that the exchange of authentic information and artifacts prepared by the children of each of these countries and the ability to communicate with other children provided our students with real-life connections to different parts of the world. In this way student global awareness was increased. Students were given the opportunity to learn first hand about different cultures and become friends with children from different parts of the world. In light of the problems in the world today, this has been a wonderful opportunity to encourage our children to communicate with one another and to promote peace in our global community.

The data collected from students, staff and parents indicated the benefits of this program and answered the research questions. It shows that this international multi-cultural exchange program did support curriculum expectations for cross-divisional grades and increase student global awareness.

I hope to facilitate Doncrest P.S. in another school-wide collaboration with "Friends and Flags" next year. I will need to introduce this project to a majority of new teachers since due to transfers and assignment changes (included myself) there will be a radical change of staff. However, from casual discussions with the new staff as well as the results of my survey, I am hopeful that there will be continued interest in this project next fall. To increase the integration of curriculum expectations for each grade, I intend to assist and encourage curriculum planning that will make the project more closely connected to the curriculum. I hope to help the teachers more easily identify the application of the curriculum while working on their individual sections on the cultural packages. I will also, encourage more communication with our global partners by each class in the forms of pen pals letters and e-mails. I will again encourage the classes to investigate the packages we receive to more thoroughly learn about the people and countries in our circle.

Regionally, provincially and globally, I will continue to promote the benefits of this project. I presented our school-wide collaboration with "Friends and Flags" at the Alternative Approaches: Innovation Fair in June 2002 and have been asked to present at the Ontario Educational Research Conference in December 2002. I wrote an article on our school’s participation that was featured in the "Friends and Flags" website. I was one of the teachers globally who nominated and wrote a testimonial that awarded the international coordinator Karen Eini, the Global SchoolHouse Network Online Shared Learning Award 2002.

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