Programs

BRIDGE vignettes

Blayney Public School, NSW

Partner school:

Hakjang Elementary School, Busan

Students at Blayney and Hakjang have been communicating via Edmodo (a secure social network for student collaboration) on a range of topics such as sport, family, celebrations, food and the Korean and English languages. Blayney students from Foundation to Year 6 have been involved in Korean cooking, counting, learning about clothing (having photos taken in Korean costume) and learning about sports and traditional celebrations. This has led to widespread interest in teaching about Korea across learning areas.

Teachers from both schools have worked collaboratively over the last 12 months to share professional ideas and strategies. Blayney staff have also gained knowledge of how to support learning in Korean and Australian classrooms. Regular video-conferencing is planned for the future.

Bribie Island State High School, QLD

Partner school:

Daeseong Middle School

A strong connection between lead teachers at Bribie Island State High School and Daeseong Boys Middle School has paved the way for the establishment of collaborative learning activities between students that focus on language and intercultural understanding. Students have created online profiles on Wikispaces to share information about themselves, local cultural practices and colloquial language. A creative approach has been taken to connect the Indonesian language class at Bribie Island with the Korean English Language class to compare how languages are learned.

Calvin Christian School, TAS

Partner school:

Imae Middle School

The study of Korea has been strongly promoted at Calvin Christian School as a result of this partnership and Korean language classes are now offered. Key to this partnership has been annual student and teacher exchange. Each year this has involved the lead BRIDGE teacher plus two other staff members from Calvin Christian College visiting Imae Middle School with 17 students for a five-day homestay program. Activities for students have included participation in Korean classes, dance and singing lessons, mathematics lessons, English lessons, teaching Koreans how to play cricket, and a Lotteworld visit with homestay hosts. Calvin staff teach the Korean students and participate in school activities.

Jindalee State School, QLD

Partner school:

Daejeon Moksang Elementary School

This partnership has engaged in a variety of collaborative learning activities. Examples include a ‘Flat Travellers’ project (students send avatars of themselves and embark on a journey with their partner to cultural sites), a photo exchange to support cultural awareness and an online collaborative project focused on sharing cultural practices. Daejon Moksang Elementary School also sent one teacher and three students to Jindalee in 2012. Both schools have reported that BRIDGE has strengthened the intercultural understanding of their students and fostered interest in each other’s country.

John Paul College, QLD

Partner school:

Sunsim Middle School, Gyungsang

John Paul College is pursuing new ideas for creative projects for Australian students based, among other things, on the Andong Mask Festival. Activities have included the creation of Australian-themed masks using traditional Korean clay painting techniques and material.

Year 7 students at John Paul College have also created a series of personal projects in their design subject to share Australian culture with their South Korean partners. This has included making candles, bath bombs and foods using native Australian ingredients. The final products were taken to Sunsim as gifts for students and teachers. South Korean students will reciprocate this through the creation of short films and knowledge hunts on Korean culture to share online with their Australian partners.

Partner teachers plan for students at both schools to use a range of technologies such as Tellagami (a digital storytelling app), videoconferencing and Prezis to collaborate throughout 2015. Partner teachers have chosen language, cooking, celebrations, sport and music as the main themes for more in-depth learning. Some examples of activities scheduled include students creating Tellagamis to teach their partners about cooking food from their country, development of short films on how to play local sports and ‘a day in the life of a student’ publication using avatars.

Kirwan State High School, QLD

Partner school:

Dong Incheon High School, Incheon

Students from Kirwan have prepared videos and letters introducing their school and themselves for the students at Dong Incheon. These videos were presented to each class, and letters given to each student in the South Korean Year 10 class. A series of one-minute chat sessions on various subjects were recorded by the Australian teacher. These will be provided to students each week, with the goal of improving the English fluency and pronunciation of students at Dong Incheon and supporting the editing skills of students at Kirwan.

Kirwan plans to introduce Korean content (texts, resources, etc.) across learning areas in Years 8 and 9. Among other things this content will be used to provide a basis for facilitated online discussions. Other projects planned include:

• Life as a Teenager – a digital portfolio introducing a topic that students have selected as important to their life
• Guidebook to Incheon/Townsville – students will select the medium in which to present their information along with a specific location, including relevant detail to help visitors understand more about the area
• Let’s eat! – South Korean students will be asked to find and translate recipes for Korean dishes, with Australian students cooking the food at school and documenting their experiences.

Laurimar Primary School, VIC

Partner school:

Kumma Elementary School, Iksan

Partner teachers have focused on culture, traditions and history for student collaboration. Activities have included the creation of a video interview of the South Korean partner teacher talking about the various Korean cultural practices. Students have also created an image bank – ranging from K-Pop to Australian animals and traditional to contemporary artefacts — exploring the differences in their cultures. Students have also exchanged letters with their partner school, contributing to Kumma Elementary School students’ composition skills as well as intercultural awareness.

Plans are underway to develop a ‘Flat Travellers’ project that will have students exploring different historical and geographical sites of both Melbourne and Iksan. Students will create an online publication of their research and share these with other year levels in their schools.

Lindfield East Public School, NSW

Partner school:

Naeri Elementary School, Busan

Communication became the platform for the two schools to begin building personal friendships at every year level via writing about themselves and their buddy, retelling traditional Korean and Australian stories and sharing photos of school activities.

The Korean partner teachers have targeted English and creative arts for their class engagement. To date, students have been involved in a range of activities that include making Jegis and boomerangs, writing stories about traditional dress, animals and school, and publishing booklets on their adventures with their South Korean/Australian ‘Flat Travellers’. All these activities have been embedded as components of Australian and South Korean curricula, with more than 400 students in Years 1 through 4 involved in one or more of these activities.

In 2015 15 to 20 Lindfield East students will visit Naeri Elementary School and see world heritage sites in Korea in September. In the following month fifteen to twenty Naeri Elementary students will return the visit. Other activities are planned for this year too: more ‘Flat Traveller’ activities, a joint art competition and exhibition, and sharing of Korean folktales which the Australian students will illustrate.

Melbourne Girls Grammar, VIC

Partner school:

Ansan Ganseo High School, Kyounggi-do

Year 10 English students in both schools have undertaken a shared learning activity on ‘symbols vs stereotypes’. This was used as an ice-breaker to get students to know each other and explore what it is to be an Australian and a South Korean.

Partner teachers are planning two large projects in 2015. AuKo Hangouts (videoconferencing) will provide students in both schools opportunities to connect, learn and share virtually their daily lives and experiences as teenagers in South Korea and Australia. The second project, eCoach, is an online English as a Second Language proofreading, editing and conversational practice activity between Year 10/11 students involved in creating Ansan’s school newspaper. Students from Melbourne Girls will act as support editors through the eCoach project and also create some content about life in Australia.

Ringwood North Primary School, VIC

Partner school:

Dongsung Elementary School, Busan

This partnership has targeted students from Years 2, 3 and 4. They have shared traditional games and contemporary pop songs and discussed similarities in both countries. There has also been a focus on Korean art with Australian students creating traditional Korean fans as gifts for their partners.

In 2015, the Australian Year 4 and a South Korean Year 6 class will collaborate on a range of projects. The first will focus on each class creating a ‘introducing my school’ video that shows the different classrooms, introduces all the teachers, and profiles a range of students from different year levels. Students in the two schools will also undertake an energy saving research activity in common. Students will create short films of their results, share these clips and discuss different views on energy saving in both countries. Both schools are also quite keen to pursue sporting connections and teach each other a range of games via videoconferencing.

St Stephen’s School, WA

Partner school:

Daesung Junior High School

Students at St Stephen’s have strengthened their understanding of Korean culture as a result of the visit of their Korean partner teacher. Lessons on Korea have been delivered in history and physical education classes. Korean volleyball tactics were shared during training sessions and resulted in increased success in inter-school matches! Plans have been made to communicate with other teachers at Daesung to strengthen cross-curricular activities. Student exchange is also being considered.

Thirroul East Public School, NSW

Partner school:

Guhag Elementary School, Busan

At the end of 2013 Thirroul Primary School conducted a school community survey uncovering a desire to extend the multicultural aspect of its education. The BRIDGE Project became part of a whole school plan with all stakeholders taking part in its implementation. The initial results were impressive. Thirroul, now enrolling 140 students in Korean, has become one of the major Korean language teaching centres in the region.

Students at both schools have exchanged letters and photos about themselves, their families and their school. The collaboration between the students has focused on a ‘buddy’ system whereby the South Korean students act as mentors to the Australian students. This has supported all students to practice their English writing and reading skills and found to have been particularly useful for the younger Australian students (Year 3) and older South Korean students (Years 5/6). Australian students have also been able to build their basic Korean language skills through videoconferencing with their partners.

Edmodo is currently being used by the Australian and South Korean students to share responses to the letters and there are plans to move all collaboration onto this platform.

Planning is also underway to have students from Guhag create short films on Korean games to teach Australian children how to play them. Other planned activities include videoconferencing to support Korean and English language learning in both schools (targeted at Years 3 to 6) and a students and parent exchange program.

Wollumbin High School, NSW

Partner school:

Chungju Junior High School

Collaboration between these two schools has included the creation of digital knowledge hunts focused on each other’s country and quarterly video-conferencing to support language learning (in both countries). These activities have evolved into deeper levels of engagement with students having direct communication with each other. The Wollumbin school community has become more supportive of the Korean language program reinvigorated by the partnership.

Wooranna Park Primary School, VIC

Partner school:

Kangnae Elementary School

Curriculum content related to Korea has increased across the curriculum at Wooranna Park generating increased student interest and engagement. Initially, the school’s Korean language program was delivered as an extra-curricular class with only two students. Following participation in BRIDGE, 12 students have joined the Korean language program and regular lunchtime classes are being offered, some with a live Skype hook-up with Kangnae. Both schools plan to extend the sharing of language and cultural programs.

Wynnum State High School, QLD

Partner school:

Suwon Foreign Language High School

Partner teachers from Wynnum and Suwon have established an innovative school partnership linking the economics and English learning areas. Two new units prepared together, ‘Doing business in Korea’ and ‘Business English’, successfully integrate the two learning areas and have facilitated collaboration. A strong plan for interaction between the two schools has been developed built around the effective use of a variety of ICT to support student learning.