Schools
VIDEO: Swampscott and Siyabulela To Link Up Today
Middle School students in the seventh grade will meet seventh graders from South Africa in a video conference today.
Busses will leave the Tuesday morning after attendance is taken to shuttle 70 seventh graders to Salem State University for a video conference with students from South Africa.
Can you explain the Thanksgiving holiday?
Is it true that all citizens in the U.S. are rich?
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Do you wear a school uniform?
Those are a few of the questions that students from the Siyabulela School in South Africa will be asking Swampscott students when the two groups link up in Meier Hall at Salem State.
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udy McKenzie, a world geography teacher at the middle school will have 70 students with her, asking and answering questions Tuesday from 9 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.
This will be the third time students from Swampscott will be meeting students from South Africa in a video link up. McKenzie started the exchange with a letter writing campaign, and it blossomed into a videoconference with some help from the U. S. Embassy in South Africa.
“It grew out of my desire to show our kids that kids around the world are just kids, they’re not that different from us at all,” McKenzie said.
“The program was immediately successful, and it grew from letter writing with the help of Opportunity Education, and now we’ll meet each other face to face in the broadcast,” McKenzie said.
Opportunity Education set the Middle School up with their sister school in South Africa.
The topics the kids will touch on will include food, music, sports, sharks off Cape Town, how much homework they get, the weather, length of the school day and everything else 13 year-olds want to know about other 13 year-olds.
“We’re very grateful that the Geography Department at Salem State was able to facilitate us and host us for the conference,” McKenzie said.
“The U. S. Embassy will bus the kids to the site in Cape Town, provide them with supplies and some lunch, it’s 3 p.m. there when it’s 9 a.m. here,” McKenzie said
The kids are amazed when the video link up begins, and according to McKenzie, it’s an incredible experience for all of the students involved.
“The kids are very grateful for the things they have and the lives they have when they see how other people live and learn,” McKenzie said.
After the videoconference wraps up, the students and teachers will head to Bertucci’s for lunch
