Jon D Pennington

I have taken a leave from Hunterdon Central to work as the head of Spanish at the VIMSIA, an International Baccalaureate school located on the Island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. This is a video that students made to introduce their school!

Since I am presently in Argentina with a group of exchange students and the program we built is going so well. I decided to propose a new exchange program to Argentine students to come to my new school St. Thomas.  The interest in the program has been amazing and already we have 7 kids who have put money to reserve their place in the program!  I am giving a presentation tonight to parents interested in the program so we expect even more students to enroll!
This is the Facebook fanpage for the exchange!

To expand the potential for global collaboration  between my students and counterparts their same age,  we included E-pals in our work since  it boasts the largest interconnected community of classrooms worldwide.  After registering and exploring E-pals we realized that it has very limited and controlled functionality.  So our mission became clear.  Our purpose was not to linger in E-pals but to connect with its members who were teachers in order to  bridge communication between their classes and our own.  After registering on E-pals, my students reached out to teachers from around the world and invited them to learn with us.  Students sent letters to teachers throughout  Latin America and Spain.  Included in their invitations was the link to our Twitter discussion group, Bilingual Connection.   Within nine weeks of sending letters, students built connections with many teachers who sent us class lists of over 400 students emails combined!!!  In each of these instances, communication occurred solely  between the students and the teachers abroad.   Once my students provided me the class’s names and emails, I created a Google doc for each list and linked each of them to a password protected blog page within our network, Learningconnects.us.

More videos from the Madrid class.

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Learning Spanish while building connections with native Spanish speakers from all parts of the world has sparked great excitement and curiosity in my Spanish students.  The connections they have made served as catalysts for increasing  the strategies, skills, and the confidence with which to engage native speakers within both digital and face to face settings.  Along with meeting regularly with the Latin-American students in the ESL classes of  our school to actively develop their linguistic proficiency, students also project their presence far beyond our school  to  demonstrate their passion for knowledge by using Spanish across various social networks pertaining to their interests.    Leveraging networking tools like Twitter and Skype , students have joined communities of global language learners such as Bilingual Connection and Soziety.   Some students shared their perspectives about their learning during a focus group.

“In last year’s Spanish class I didn’t learn any of the stuff I am learning now because we didn’t have conversations with Spanish people.”
-Allie, Spanish 1 student

“I can have a simple conversation with someone in a Spanish speaking country, that in itself is an amazing thing for me.”
-Sean, Spanish 1 Student

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 Hechos contra el decoro: Voz de Babylon: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This was incredible.  Last year my Spanish IV conversation students connected with students in Bahía Blanca, Argentina and had some powerful video conferences where students from both countries shared with each other typical products they use and some of the practices they engage in each day.  During these conferences, it was apparent that my students we looking for something even greater- a way they could actually experience the lives of Argentine students.  After much planning and coordination via Skype with Alejandrina, the Argentine teacher, our proposal for an full student exchange program between Rosario Vera Peñalosa in Bahia Blanca, Argentina and Hunterdon Central in Central New Jersey was approved by our district’s Board of Education!   The first part of our exchange program begins in February of 2010 when 10 Argentine students will be staying with students selected.   We will be traveling to Bahia Blanca this coming June of 2010!

Visit our Site (password to view is argentina2010)

Bahía Blanca, Argentina