The first step of
Who-Am-I? is typically local
and face-to-face in a classroom, or some other meeting place, without use
of computers or the Internet. It is a preparatory exercise guiding them to
knowledge about themselves, their place, rights, friends, families, and roots.
When the group has reached some consensus, they
share conclusions and
views with peers through the Internet for questions and feedback.
Researching and writing a composition are only the beginning for the more
important "one on one" or group discussion that should follow on the
net.
Who-Am-I?
in its entirety supports Internet skills
training.
Introduce your class or group to those who are
participating in our program module. Include your school or group name, number
of students, your town, village or city and country.
(question
1)
Is it important to call a person by his or her
name and to pronounce it correctly? How do you feel when others don't use
the correct characters in your name when they use electronic communication?
(question
6)
Construct a life-sized collage with the names
of the students in your class. Send a picture of it to your online friends.
Construct a smaller collage with the printed pictures sent by your online
friends. Ask your online friends about the special punctuation marks in their
names. Practice writing some of their names
(activity
1)
Make an acronym of your name. Add a drawing.
Make a web page with all the acronyms of your group and invite your online
friends to visit your page
(activity
4)
Divide the class into 7 small groups. Each group
will be in charge of a different continent. Localize the seven continents
on a large world map. Give every student in each group an individual map.
Choose any country on your assigned area and go to the
Kidlink Nations
page. Check to see if there is someone from that country registered in Kidlink.
If there is, mark the spot with a blue letter K. If there is not any child
from that country try to explain to your group why this may be so
(activity
5)
Go to Kidlink's
public database of registered kids and make a search for the name of
the country you have chosen in the last activity. Look through the letters
from students in that country to find their names and make a list. Can you
tell if it is a girl or a boy's name? What is the most popular name for a
girl? What is the most popular name for a boy? See if they have any pets.
What type of pet? Check to see if the student mentions their pet's name.
Look for their favorite singer, group or type of music and write it down.
Make a table with the information you have: name of student, gender, kind
and name of pet, type of music, name of favorite singer, etc. Compare your
findings with those of the other groups of students in your class and those
of your online classmates
(activity
6)
Interview your parents and ask them how your
name was given. Who decided and why? What is the meaning of your name and
how was your name decided? Do any relatives have your name? What is the history
of your name? What is the symbol of your name? Is there an interesting story
about your name? What are your parents' feelings about your name? Add a
photograph of yourself to the interview if you like and share it with your
class and by email with the students from other classes participating in
the program module.
(activity
7)
If it is possible, bring your instrument to class
and play your favorite piece. If you do not know how to play an instrument,
bring a recording of your favorite music or group. What does this music mean
to you? If it is a song, what is the meaning of the song? Why is it special
for you? Ask your online friends about their favorite songs and music.
(activity
8)
Do you know any ethnic dances? Do you have to
wear special costumes for these dances? Share them with your group and take
pictures of the costumes and dances. Make recordings of the music. Construct
a web page with pictures of the costumes and dances. Insert sound files with
the music, you may add diagrams of the dances or even a movie file with the
dance so everyone can enjoy. Share this page with the students participating
in the program module. Ask your online friends about their dances and costumes.
(activity
9)
Let's find out your class career preferences!
Write on a piece of paper 3 careers that are attractive to you. Tabulate
the results to see the most popular careers in your class. This will be called
TABLE A. What is the favorite career among your classmates? If everybody
in your area wants just these professions - what professions would not get
any employees? Are there some kids in your class that would have problems
in finding a job because these jobs are so popular? Ask your online classmates
about the career preferences in their classroom. Share with them your results.
Are the career preferences similar among your online friends? Try to explain
your findings (activity
1)
When you are in the real world trying to get
a job, you have to compete with other people wanting the same position. Simulate
a real world situation: Every class will publish online different job positions
available in their imaginary companies. State the requirements for the position.
Everyone in your classroom and in your online classroom can send their
applications stating why they are the best candidates. Choose a person to
be the interviewer for each job position. This person will decide which applicant
is the most suitable for the job and will recommend him or her.
(activity 2)
Invite persons with different occupations to
visit your school and talk about their work online. Send invitations to the
other classes participating with you in this module. Every class will prepare
a list with questions they will like to ask that person. Do some research
on what the person does
(activity 3)
Separate in small groups. Each group chooses
a country from the wall world map.
Search in the Kidlink's public member database to find more about the
career preferences of children from the chosen country. What is the favorite
career in that country? Tabulate your results in TABLE B
(activity
4)
Tabulate the results found by both your classroom
and your online classmates in TABLE C. Name the careers that were
chosen by both girls and boys. What influence has culture, traditions and
where you live in choosing your career?
(activity 5)
Make a list of famous people. Read about their
lives and achievements. What type of personality can be applied to each of
the famous people? Explain how do you think your chosen famous people
accomplished their fame. Make drawings to illustrate your work and share
with other classes participating online. Publish your work on Kidlink's
publishing place: Kidspace
(activity 6)
What is the main concern of the children in your
class? War, drugs, violence, environment, prejudice, other? Search Kidlink's
public database of registered kids to see what are the answers of children
to the 3rd Kidlink question. From their answers you will learn what worries
children in other parts of the world. For example: drugs, environment, prejudice,
etc. (You may choose the same countries that you chose in the last lesson.)
Tabulate the results. What is the most important problem for the children
in each country selected? Can you explain your findings? Ask the students
participating in the program to do this exercise in their class and share
the results by email to the list
(activity 1)
Imagine you can change anything you want, what
would you change? Write an essay explaining the things that make you worry
about your family, your school and your country today and how would you like
these things to be in the future. Send your essay to the list to share your
ideas with the rest of the students participating in this program module
(activity 2)
Picture your community 100 years from now. Write
a short story describing something in your community in this future year
showing the picture you imagine. Give the story a creative title. Make a
web page to publish the stories of everyone in the class. Add pictures. Share
the address with the other Who-am-I? program participants
(activity 3)
Prepare a list of famous persons that have
accomplished something (good or bad) that somehow has lead the world to be
as it is now. Choose one of them. Make a poster of this person explaining:
What did this person accomplish that makes him or her famous? Why do you
think others remember this person? Add pictures, anecdotes and quotes from
this person. Construct a web page using posters done by you and your class.
Ask students participating in the program to do the same. Study their chosen
famous people. List characteristics that can be found in all the famous people
studied (activity
4)
Construct a web page with photos of places in
your country that you want to protect. Plan a "picture taking" outing to
some of these places with your friends. Invite other children participating
in the program to look at your web site
(activity 5)
Create a drawing that expresses your vision of
a better future. Send this picture by email to your online classmates and
ask them to do the same for you. Print and label the drawings with the name
and country of each artist. Design a giant poster with all the printed drawings
(activity 6)
Search Kidlink's public membership archives to see what are the answers
of children to the 4th Kidlink question. From their answers you will learn
about the commitment of children in other parts of the world. For example:
"do not use drugs", "pick up trash", " do not judge a person by his or her
position in the community", etc. (You may choose the same countries that
you chose in the last lesson.) Tabulate the results. What is the most cited
solution for the children in each country selected? Why so you think so many
students wrote that one. Do you think it is a quick, easy answer? Do you
think they gave it some thought? What is the most interesting solution? Can
you explain your findings? Ask the students participating in the program
to do this exercise in their class and share the results by email to the
list. (activity
1)
What do you have to do now to make the world
better? Take in consideration your community, your country and the whole
world community and their problems. Write an essay expressing your ideas
and your feelings toward having a better future for all. Make a real commitment.
Send your essay to the list of students participating in the program module.
Print some of your favorite essays and organize them in a folder to share
with your community and your family. Enlist their help in shaping a better
future for all.
(activity
2)
Make an electronic address book. Construct a
web page with the name and e-mail addresses of all your classmates. You may
add a photo of each one next to the name or you may use a photo of the group.
Ask your global classmates to do the same with their class (activity 3)
List the ideas you have to help your classmates
and your online classmates to make a better world. Add a drawing and send
to the list so everyone in your global class can enjoy. Print your favorite
letters and organize them in a folder. Share this folder with your family
and your friends
(activity
5)
Make an acronym with the word LOVE. Send a copy
of your acronym to the list of participants in the program module. Print
the letters and create a poster with the acronyms from all the students in
your global class
(activity
6)
Find what are the endangered animals in your
region, make a web page with the names and pictures of the animals. Explain
why those animals are endangered. Invite the other students participating
in the program module to visit your page. Ask them for suggestions that could
help to minimize this situation. Add their ideas to your web page.
(activity
7)
Think of ways in which the education you get
and the way you treat others could help you make the world a better place
to live. Send your ideas by email to the list of students participating in
the program module. Ask the other students participating in the program module
to share similar lists with you. Create a booklet of ideas using the information
from all the lists. Print and distribute the booklets in your class.
(activity
8)
Work with your teacher and divide your class
into groups to find the latitude and longitude for your location. Some of
you will use atlases and maps while others will use electronic media to do
this. Compare your results. Are they close? Which do you think is more accurate?
Who was able to find the coordinates faster, those using paper sources or
digital sources? Place a marker on the map to identify the places where your
online friends live. (activity
1)
Keep a record for these two weeks of the daily
low and high temperatures as well as the sunrise and sunset. Compare results
with other groups in our project.
(activity 2)
Plan a website or display board with your teacher
about your school, town or country
(activity 5)
Create a timeline with your online friends and
identify important events that happened in your countries. Select at least
4 important things that happened and put it on the line. Select one as old
as you can possibly find, one or two important and one or two close in time
(activity 7)
Connect to the
KidSpace and look at some of the personal spaces other kids have created.
Compare them with some of your own special places
(activity 8)
What are the main occupations of the parents
of the students in your group? How can you find out? As a class, brainstorm
ways to get this information. Share it with our group and then compare the
results with those in our project. Why do you think there are differences?
What does this tell you about your village, town or city?
(activity 1)
Talk to mom, dad, extended family members, neighbors
and friends and gather recipes that are specific to your region. Make a recipe
book to share with other classes and our project participants.
(activity 3)
Plan an 'International Dinner' to be held at
the end of this online project. Gather recipes from the participants in our
project and include them in the menu. Form teams now to plan the event.
(activity 4)
Planning team - (includes your class teacher)
decides when and where the dinner will be held, who will attend and establishes
other teams for the distribution of responsibilities. Finds parent volunteers
to help with the event.
Decorations team - prepares table and room
decorations
Setup Team - arranges the room, tables etc.
Food Team - makes sure a variety of foods are
selected for the menu and recruits student volunteers who will cook the recipes.
Entertainment Team - plans multicultural games,
'quiz shows' and music for the evening.
Publicity Team - creates invitations for the
dinner, posters, arranges for photos, etc.
Research Team - helps classmates find resources
for their chosen country while planning the music, food, entertainment.
Clean up Team - helps tidy the area when the
dinner event is over
Make a 'travel brochure' of your city. In it
include the habitats of plants and animals in your town. Is there a zoo close
by or an aquarium? Find pictures in magazines or draw them yourself. Use
printed materials as well as online sources to gather details about the places
in your brochure
(activity 5)
Meet your online friends on
Kidlink's Chat and have a 'Learn A New Language Day'. Try to learn some
phrases in another language
(activity
10)
Compare journals with the other students who
are participating in this project with you. What data do you think you can
compare? Make a list of questions that you would like to see answered such
as: (activity
2)
Are students in school the same number of hours
and minutes each day around the world? Do some students have more time in
school during the year than others? How can you find out the answer to this
question?
Are there subjects in schools around the world
that kids your age like best? What are these subjects?
Who does more homework, boys or girls? How can
you find the answer to this question?
Arrange for a
Kidlink Chat meeting and discuss education. Compare notes on the weather,
the animals that teach you, subjects you like and other things that educate
you (activity
6)
Plan how you are going to maintain life-long
learning. Write an essay or a letter to the others in the project on how
you plan to keep yourself educated throughout life. What learning methods
are you going to use? Will the media (Newspapers, TV, radio, Internet, etc.)
help you to continue learning? Tell the others about media that you think
would be helpful. If they are on the Internet make sure you send a link to
it for the others to see
(activity 7)
Tell us something about your place/area/country
by writing a poem. If there are poems from your area share them with the
others. You could even find a song from your area and share it as a midi
file (activity
1)
Are there certain celebrations in your area/country?
How are they and why are they? Do you have a national day? What should it
remind you about? Do you like it? Would you like to have more such days or
less? Share with the others in the project your traditions on celebrations
(activity
4)
Make an 'Alphabet Book' with pictures for your
online friends. This can be put on the web or sent in the postal mail to
friends participating in our project. Kidlink students from Japan, Brasil
and the USA helped to make this
Alphabet Book
(activity
6)
Create your own special place on the
KidSpace so others will recognize it as something that is a part of you.
This space can be as much like your room, your house or your city as you
want it to be (activity
7)
Create a web page for your new town. How would
you like to introduce it on the Internet? Ask people to visit your site and
add a guestbook and/or pages where you put comments from others
(activity
8)
Did you make a new language for your town? Create
a dictionary and share it with the others on a web page or by e-mail to the
project (activity
10)
Review how KIDLINK kids have answered the 4 KIDLINK
questions in our membership
archives. Do our names identify our country? Divide your class into small
groups and look at the archives. Make a list of 10 student names you see
there. Be sure to choose as many different countries as you can. Share your
list of 10 names with the other groups in your class and see if they can
correctly identify where each person lives. How correct were everyone's guesses?
(activity 2)
All of you have our own special personalities,
hobbies and interests. Think of some things that are small enough to fit
into a shoebox that describe you. If you like to draw you might put a box
of crayons or inkpens in your "shoebox." If you like music you would put
your favorite CD. Bring your shoebox and contents to school and share with
your classmates. Make a list of the items you would put in your shoebox and
send it to the mailing list. See what others have done in an exercise like
this (activity
3)
Arrange for a Kidspace discussion. Debate the
concept of open adoption with another class. Decide ahead of time which school
will be the affirmative and which the negative. Arrange for two students
from each class to be the judges
(activity 4)
Do kids in some countries have more freedoms
to express their opinion? Ask your friends in this project from other countries
what kinds of decisions they are able to make for themselves
(question 4)
Arrange to meet another class on Kidlink's chat
network and discuss some of these questions
(activity 3)
What are anorexia and bulimia? Search the Web
for information. Is the information you found reliable? How do you know?
(question 7)
Write an essay, "If I Were in Charge of the
School..." Post in Kidcom
('activity 2)
Zlata (10), who lived all throughout a war in
Yugoslavia,
told her story to Kidlink kids on KidCom. Read and discuss her experiences
as a class. (activity
4)
What games do kids play around the world? Ask
your friends participating in
Who-Am-I? to tell you
about the games kids play in their country. Ask grandparents to tell you
about games they played when they were young
(question 9)
Prepare a debate on how much the minimum wage
should be for kids who are old enough to work. Use the Kidlink Kidspace
environment for the debate and invite other schools to watch or take part
(activity 2)
Work in groups in class and describe the "ideal
school." Join other classes on Kidlink's Chat Network and present your school
to them. Draw a picture of your ideal school.
(activity 1)
Read what others say about their schools. Tell
them what you think about their school and ask for clarification about things
you don't understand. Is there something in the schools that others have
that you don't have? Would you like to have it?
(activity 3)
Use a Web search engine and learn more about
countries where children do not have many rights. Share your findings with
our group, (question
8)
Search the Web to find places where children
around the world do not have rights that you have. What sources did you find?
Is the information reliable? How do you know?
(activity 3)
Do research on organizations dedicated to helping
secure children's rights around the world
(activity 12)
In this activity everyone in the class
begins by writing 6 things that characterize a good friend. By the end of
the activity you will narrow your class's list to only a total of 6.
This is how you do it:
(activity 1)
Each and every one in the group or class makes
a list of the 6 most important things that characterize a good friend.
Divide into 3 groups and make a new list
with the 6 most important words from your group based on your individual
lists.
Write the words from the 3 groups on the blackboard.
Then the whole group or class has to make a list of the 6 most important
words.
Consider these questions after you have finished
the classroom activity:
Why did you choose these 6 words? Why are they
the most important?
Did you discover that many of you listed the
same words in your lists? Why do you think this happened?
Did you get any of your own words on the list
for the group or class?
How did you feel when you did?
If you didn't get any of your words on the this
list, how did you feel?
Send your 6 words to the mailing list, and add
a few lines about why you chose them. Please add a few sentences telling
how you felt about doing this activity. Print messages sent from other
participants and discuss them in your class. Compare the words the others
have chosen with those of your own class/group
Make a special folder for all of your new online
friends. Place copies of their e-mail to you in this folder. Be sure to reply
to all messages as soon as you can so that you do not disappoint your new
friends (activity
8)
Write "Friendship Poems" and post them in KidSpace
(activity 6)
Print out e-mails about this from the others
on the list, read them and compare them with your own
(activity 2)
Make a short role play about bullying
where 4-5 actors take part. Decide in the group how your play shall end...
with a happy or sad ending. Write the text and send it to the list. Print
out the role plays which you receive by e-mail and play them in class. Let
us know what you think about the plays you have received by e-mail
(activity 3)
In groups, talk about memories of people that
were important to you and died. Please write down your thoughts about losing
a family member or a friend. Even if this hurts, try to tell us all about
it. Describe how he/she was (face, smile, words... ), what you remember most,
your feelings and thoughts when you first heard, what you have done to overcome
the sorrow and pain, and how you feel today. Write it as a story or a poem.
Please remember to send your texts to the list
(activity 1)
Do a survey of your class and find out what place
in the family birth order each student holds. Place yourself into three groups:
the oldest, the middle children and the youngest. Each group discusses what
the advantages or disadvantages of these positions and then presents this
to the whole class. Be sure to share these ideas on your module's mailing
list (activity
1)
Read about the Japanese "Coming of Age Day" in
the
KIDLINK Multi-Cultural Calendar. It is found in the January holidays.
Do research to find out if any other countries celebrate this right of passage
from childhood to adult
(activity 9)
Families are expensive. Make a survey about how
much it costs to provide for an average family in one week in your class.
Talk to your parents and make a list of all expenses including food, mortgage,
phone, insurance, car, petrol, movie, sweets etc.
(activity 10)
While working with this activity, please consider
these questions:
What do we really need to have a good
life?
Are there "things" we could do without?
Do material goods make us happy - or are there
other values in life?
Does your feeling of having a good life grow
with the amount of money you spend?
Send the results from your survey to the mailing
list. Make graphs comparing the results from the other messages sent to the
list.
Make a survey in your class about the number
of people who work at home or somewhere else, what kind of work they do and
what they get paid every week or month.
(activity
11)
Please add comments about:
The amount you are paid.
If you work outside your home, do you share your
money with your family?
What can you buy for the money you get?
How many movie tickets or hamburgers can you
buy?
Send the results from your survey to the mailing
list.
Make graphs comparing the results from the other
messages sent to the list
Now is the chance to write a poem or a song to
the new friends you have made in this module. You might have got a friend
for life. Perhaps some of you will go on writing e-mails long after this
project ends. Pictures or drawings are welcome or you can make web pages,
if you prefer. Make a special greeting card for a family member or buy someone
a present. Don't forget the new people you have met through this project
by exchanging greetings and messages on this e-mail list. This is your chance
to say farewell, or to make plans to continue the relationships
(activity 1)
Kidproj has a
Multi-Cultural Calendar with lots of festivals and celebrations. Add
the descriptions of your festivals on the Multi-Cultural Calendar web page
(activity 4)
What was happening in the world during the month
you were born? Search the web to find out. Tell us some of the interesting
things that were going on in the world. Ask your online friends who are doing
this module with you to tell us what events were taking place in the world
when they were born (question
2)
While searching for the occupations of your relatives
did you find that you don't know what some of the words mean? Do you know
what a "clapman" or a "gummer" is? One means the town crier and one means
a person who improved old saws by deepening the cuts. Search the web or visit
the library to find occupations that existed in your country more than 100
years ago. Do all of the occupations still exist today? If they do, has the
name changed? If the job is now gone why do you think it is gone?
(question 18)
Did any of your ancestors speak another language
because they came from countries outside the country where you live now?
If so, make a simple dictionary of words in that language. You might have
to find other KIDLINKers who speak that language to help you if no one else
in your family still speaks that language. Search
Kidlink's membership database for
Kidlink kids living in other countries
(activity 4)
Make a diorama (three dimensional scene in miniature)
of a house in the time of one of your early ancestors. Make sure that the
items you place in the house were actually invented by that time. Do research
in the library and on the web to make sure your diorama is authentic
(activity 5)
Why do you think people move from one country
or part of the world to another? List your reasons and give examples in history.
Share this with us on the mailing list
(question 1)
Have you ever been to the country where your
ancestors lived? When did you go? Did you live there? Describe the place
for us on our mailing list and ask the other kids in our module to do the
same (question 8)
Zlata (10), who lived all throughout a war in
Yugoslavia,
told her story to Kidlink kids on Kidlink's
chat network. Arrange to meet other participants in this module to discuss
her experiences. (activity
2)
Take a survey of the students in your classroom
and find out how many have moved to your area from another city or country.
Ask them how they were accepted when they arrived in their new home. Was
it an easy transition? Graph the information you find. Share the results
with the module mailing list
(activity 3)
How many people lived in your area 50-100 years
ago? Ask your relatives or a librarian to help you find this information.
Search the web to find countries ranked by population, population growth,
and projected growth . How has the population of your country grown since
1950? How is it projected to grow for the next 25 to 50 years
(question 3)
Think back to the times when you sat down with
your older relatives and they told you stories. What are your most favorite
memories of these times? Share some of those stories with us. When others
on the mailing list share their stories don't hesitate to make comments or
ask questions. Encourage each other and tell each other when you like what
they share (question
1)
On the KIDLINK
KidSpace, create an artifact that is a special part of your heritage.
The description might include how it looks, what it was used for, what country
it was/is from, what it means and what it means to your family or culture
(activity 8)
Imagine you have to design a new logo for your
country (or for another country). You can include anything you think represents
your country, but try not to include flags or other national symbols. Draw
or paint your designs and have a discussion to decide which logo suits your
country the best. Use Kidlink's Chat Network to see if you can design a logo
with someone in another school or to talk about the symbols you have chosen
(activity 9)
What is your global address (longitude and latitude)?
Look at this Webpage and find out
(question 3)
During the first two weeks you will write
an invitation to kids all over the world to come to visit your area.
Go to the library to find books about your area. Make notes and write them
down. See if you can find anything on the internet about your area (remember
to write down the web addresses - you can put them in the invitation). On
the
Resource page you can find some useful links
(activity 1)
Write an invitation: You can write a letter and
send it to the mailing list or you can make a poster with pictures and text
about your area, scan it and send it to the list. Or you can make a web page
with the information you have gathered. Perhaps you would like to make a
videotape and send to those interested in making a visit. A postcard, a
photograph or a picture would surely be welcome. You can draw pictures in
the computer or on paper
(activity 4)
After having sent your invitation, write to the
mailing list and ask others if the information you gave them is clear enough.
If anyone needs more information about your place, find it and post it to
the list (activity
6)
E-mail requests to the mailing list for further
information about places on the invitations, discuss with your new friends
what you could do and if you have a request ask if it is possible to fulfill
it (activity
5)
What about the Internet? I am sure you will be
able to find many interesting resources about countries there! Write to the
mailing list and discuss with others how to choose a country to travel to.
Ask the kids that wrote the invitations, if you want more information. Use
the mailing list (activity
9)
When you have chosen where to go as "virtual"
tourists, please send your message to the list informing everybody of your
decision (activity
14)
What about the price of food? Can you cook for
yourselves or do you plan to dine out? What kind of food do you want to have?
Do you think it is available where you are going? Are you going to try some
local food? What kind of food is there? You can use the mailing list to ask
your hosts (question
2)
Search the web to find out about the weather
where you are going. What kind of weather can you expect? When you have found
out about the weather, discuss what kind of clothes to bring with you
(question 3)
What kind of money is used in the place you choose?
How much is 100 in their currency in your currency?
(question 10)
Now it is the time to start making arrangements
for your virtual vacation. Get in touch with your hosts and reach an agreement
with them about when to come. What is the easiest way for you to get to the
area (activity
1)
Write down the places you want to see and things
you want to do on your vacation and send the list to your hosts via the mailing
list (activity
5)
Find out what is the best way to travel to the
place you are visiting. You might be able to find information on timetables
for flights, trains or other transport methods online. Or you can either
send an e-mail to a travel agency or visit one to find out exactly how you
are going to get to the place you are planning to visit.
(activity 8)
Write a "Travelers Diary" and send it
to the mailing list. You arrive and your friends are there to welcome you....You
visit the places you have heard and read about. Your plans and schedule for
the visit will now be put to a test. Tell us all about what happens and how
your plans work out
(activity 1)
Draw pictures of what you saw on your trip. Share
them with others on a web page or send them to a place recommended by the
moderator (activity
5)