Skype Session with Huntington's
Sister School
It seems as if a new idea is being hatched at Huntington High School just about every day. The teenagers filling up the building are a creative bunch and their wheels never seem to stop turning.
Take senior Cody Jacobs and sophomore Frank Yeh, for example. Ms. Jacobs is the determined type. She recently took the initiative to establish a sister-school relationship between a junior high in the town of Eh-mei in northwestern Taiwan and Huntington's freshmen. Separated by thousands of miles and a vast ocean, students from the two schools recently met with Skype technology.
Mr. Yeh played a key role in helping make it all happen since his aunt just happens to be the principal of the Taiwanese school. Joseph Leavy, Huntington's director of humanities, called the whole thing "quite amazing."
Last Wednesday night, while most Huntington High School students were most likely studying, sleeping or attached to some electronic device, a small cadre of ninth graders and the two catalysts made the Skype connection with a group of four Taiwanese students, their English teachers and the school's principal.
Rae Montesano, district director science and instructional technology and Noreen Heffernan, a district computer technician that helped make the technology work, helped pull off the successful experience.
After signing on, Taiwanese students Alice, Vicki, Shoa-wei and Daniel, were soon joined by their classmates in a conversation with the Huntington teenagers. The interaction continued for more than an hour.
"After some reluctant introductions, and some minor adjustments to the camera and microphone, the students, teachers and administrators on both sides were chatting in English, Chinese, and at some points with hand gestures - not to mention the laughs, jokes, and all around fun in building new friendships by sharing common and distinct interests," Mr. Leavy said.
The teenagers took turns talking about their hometowns and schools as well as a variety of topics, including basketball, rowing, music and family. Mr. Yeh and Mr. Leavy were able to share stories of places in Taiwan familiar to them from their travels, the same places that are the backyards, avenues and localities of their new friends from the Republic of China.
Mr. Leavy sees the relationship between the two schools growing. The next video conference is set for May 25 at 8 p.m. EST. Due to time differences halfway across the globe, it will be 8 a.m. in Eh-mei, Hsinchu, Taiwan on May 26.
The Huntington organizers are looking to get more freshmen involved. Those interested in participating should seek out Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Yeh or Mr. Leavy.
"The 'visits' are planned for twice a month, sometimes their morning and sometimes ours," Mr. Leavy said. "The partner has to stay up late because this is live!" The sessions are expected to explore how the two groups of participants are different "and in the process come to realize that we are actually far more the same," Mr. Leavy said.
Since students in Taiwan learn English, most of last week's conversation was in that language. "But there is a growing interest among our Huntington students to learn some Chinese, to be able to speak to the new friends in their language, as well," Mr. Leavy said.
"I have been so excited about creating the International Sister School Initiative and the video conference was a major step in creating a sustainable sister school with Huntington High School," Ms. Jacobs said. "Frank and I are so committed to making this Taiwanese connection successful. Such an enthusiastic response from the Taiwanese team was especially inspiring, as we were uncertain going into it. We are on the verge of a great program that will hopefully open up student's eyes to an increasingly global world."
Mr. Yeh hopes the initiative eventually leads to a foreign exchange program to allow students from sister schools to experience life and learning in another land. "I believe that this project will become very successful," he said. "Not only will it become very successful, it will also expose our students to a new door of exciting journeys - learning a new culture, especially one that contrasts so much with our American culture. It may also become catchy and draw more and more people into this new part-learning, part-fun vortex of cultural diffusion."
"The next video conference will be a lot of fun," Ms. Jacobs said. "Frank and I are going to create a funny skit to start with and so will the Taiwanese team. It's going to be a really fun process to break the ice and we are reaching out to anyone that would like to participate."