Teachers and student leaders from all four schools involved in the Tanzania Penpal Project met over Skype for the first time last week: Santa Fe Prep, the Irkisongo School in Arusha, theMajani ya Chai School, and Azania School in Dar es Salaam.
8th grade global studies teacher Dan Murray, 9th grade biology teachers Lindsey Reader and Marc Reynolds, 10th grade world history teacher Russell Spinney, and student TAP leaders Ajax Nöe ’21, Jonathan McHorse 20, Hayden Colfax ’20, andAbigail Francis ’20, gathered at 7:30 am in order to connect, given the ten-hour time difference. Meanwhile, the Tanzania schools stayed after hours to do the same. All were very excited to meet each other and look forward to continuing to “meet” in this manner.
Currently, students and teachers are writing their second penpal letters of the year, and some are communicating on their own via social media. Students are also surveying one another about what they have learned from each other so far, as well as what they would like to learn from each other and teach each other, in the hopes of developing more intentional collaborative forms of learning as the year unfolds.