Commonwealth+Commons



**WELCOME TO THE COMMONS! ** In 1962, Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence after 160 years as a British Crown Colony. That means this year is our 50th anniversary of as an independent state. In our school's **[|Proud 2 b T&T]** project, we discovered a lot about our country that we never knew before, and about so many things that make us special and different from anywhere else.

But we also found out that there were a lot of countries with whom we shared a common history- at some point we had all been British colonies, and we were now members of the Commonwealth. Still we didn't know that much about them, other than what what we could find on official websites.

So this is our project and our hope... that by the time this is over, we will have connected with schools in all (or as many as we can) countries in this group and learned more about what it means to be a young person in your part of the Commonwealth. Please join us; we're really looking forward to meeting you and learning about your country!

** Project Goals: **
 * Students will learn about life as a young person in various Commonwealth countries around the world.
 * Classes will share what they know/ learn about their own country by creating entries using any means, including, but not limited to, photos, videos, text, Prezi, PowerPoint, Voicethread, Glogster and Edcanvas.
 * Classes will communicate with other classrooms via Edmodo, Skype and Google Hangout. (Teachers should sign up to participate and connect with classrooms to share their cultures and traditions).
 * Students will learn to respect and appreciate the cultures and customs of other communities around the world..
 * Students will recognise and appreciate the differences and similarities between themselves and others around the world.

** Start Date: ** January 1, 2012 - June 2013 ** Targeted Grade Levels/Age Groups: ** 5-12
 * How this project should work ** (although it is a work in progress, so please email me if you have any suggestions as to how we can make it better)

Teachers should email me to receive the code for the project's Edmodo group and have a page for their class, created in the project wiki. On that page you may share with us, in any format you like, those things a young person would really want someone to know about their country. You should feel free to use any form of Web 2.0 tool that is possible to use within Wikispaces e.g. videos, photos, PhotoPeach, Animoto, VoiceThread, Glogster, Prezi etc.Written pieces from your learners are welcome too, just make the page your own! Let your class join the project's Edmodo grouptoo, so they can get practice giving meaningful feedback; asking relevant questions and making adequate responses. If, and hopefully when, we are ready to connect more, we'll be ready to move onto Skype and Google Hangout sessions.

Please add a little information about your class, school and where you are from, so that our children can begin to make friends!

My classes and I are very excited about this project and really looking forward to meeting and working with all of you. Happy learning everyone!

Ms. Renee-amanda Heywood [|School Librarian] [|St. Joseph's Convent,] [|Port of Spain] [|Trinidad, West Indies]
 * Project Co-ordinator **