School-to-School

Today we have a guest writer, Elizabeth Underwood. Elizabeth is an elementary school teacher at Battalion Park (Calgary, Canada) and is helping to foster a School-to-School relationship between Battalion Park and the T.E.A.R.S. School. Yet this fostering is not simply being done from many miles away. Elizabeth has been visited the T.E.A.R.S. School on numerous occasions leading teacher teams that have facilitated teacher workshops and formed close friendships with the staff and students.

“Last year, Battalion Park, a public school in Calgary, Alberta, began a partnership with the T.E.A.R.S. School. Students in Calgary learned about the D.R. and raised money during the 2007 Christmas season which went toward supporting one lunch a week for the T.E.A.R.S. students. Later in the year, several parents at Battalion Park worked together to create a quilt to auction, and the parent council made a donation to purchase math curricular supplies. A similar quilt was presented to Joy Reyes when she came to visit Battalion Park in October. This quilt now hangs in the T.E.A.R.S. school as a symbol of our partnership.

This year, we have focused more on building relationships between the two schools. Each class in the DR is linked with a class in Calgary, and children within those classes have, been partnered together. After Joy’s visit, the students were inspired not just to raise money, but to get to know children in Maria Auxiliadora and learn about their lives. Videos, photos and letters go back and forth between the classes. Before Christmas, Battalion Park students wanted to continue the sponsorship of the lunch program, and this time either did chores at home or asked for money in lieu of a Christmas gift, to raise almost $11,000 CDN. These students now see the children in the DR as their friends, frequently writing stories about them, drawing pictures, posting their photos on fridges, and asking how their “buddies” are doing. Other students not directly linked with a class in the DR have also wanted to become involved, and several young children have had garage sales or hosted “DR birthday parties”, with guests bringing a donation instead of a gift for the child. This has been a transformative relationship for many students in Calgary according to parents and teachers who have watched the change in their children. We look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 8:49 am and is filed under T.E.A.R.S. School, General, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.