The International Exchange Project is a joint project between our classes and students in South Africa, Kazakhstan, and Australia. Norton Enrichment students have been communicating with students from these countries via e-mail. We are in the process of making scrapbooks filled with student made reports on landmarks in the North Central Florida area. These scrapbooks will be mailed to our international pen pals in early April. This project was developed in the spring of 1995 to link students with community leaders to give the students a more personal perspective of our community, the types of persons involved in leadership, and what their jobs entail.
Students also learn how their community has grown and developed.
Through electronic messaging students are able to communicate with area leaders who are typically very busy and relatively inaccessible to eight and nine year old students. This project also serves to involve community members with our school. Each student communicates through electronic mail with a local leader and discusses the leader's involvement in the community. Students share their letters with the class and discuss each community leader's duties. The students then write reports based on what they have learned.