Feeling Invigorated- Monday Motivation

It's 9:00 a.m. on a Monday morning and I have already taken part in a Google Hangout with a former Oakridge grad and friend to set up an exchange between her students and ours. Take that Monday! Lauren has lived in Spain for 4 months now and works at an academy where she teaches 8-10 year old students English after school. She reached out to me asking if I was interested in setting her up with a group of students at Oakridge who would be interested in a Pen Pal relationship in order for her students to practice their English speaking and writing skills and our students could practice their Spanish speaking and writing skills. I then reached out to our 5th and 6th grade Spanish teacher who was ecstatic when I mentioned this idea to her. Lauren's students started the pen pal conversation by hand writing letters to our students that she will scan and email to us. The 5th and 6th grade teacher here at Oakridge wants her students to become more confident and comfortable with their speaking skills so she plans to respond by having her students create iMovies. The iMovies will include an English introduction of themselves, things they like to do for fun, where they live, what life is like here and so on. At the end of the iMovies, the Oakridge students will ask questions in Spanish to the students in Spain. Next, the students in Spain will respond to the video in writing and continue the conversation. We are excited to see where this journey takes us and I plan to upload sample writing pieces and videos as the kids produce them.