School Tour: Virtual Exchange

Activity Objectives

Students will create a school tour by taking photos and recording videos introducing their class, showing where they eat and play, and describing other interesting areas of their school
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Then, students will watch their partner class's school tour to explore how their schools are similar and different from one another

This activity supports the development of the following social-emotional skills: self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills.

Create

Engage students in a conversation about meeting your Empatico partner class. You might explain: "We have an exciting opportunity to get to know a class that is located in another part of the world. We may discover that we share some things in common, and there may be some differences between us! To learn more about each other, we will exchange photos and videos that provide a tour of our schools."

Ask students the following questions:

What do you think our new friends are like?
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Do you know anything about the city / country where they are located? What do you want to learn about their community?
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What fun facts or stories can we share about our school? (e.g., where we eat lunch and play, or any other interesting areas or features of our school)
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What questions do you have for our partner class?
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Do you think we will share anything in common with each other?

Then, prompt students to take photos and record videos to create their "school tour", starting with a classroom introduction!

Use Empatico’s “Shared Folders” feature on the platform, or a tool such as Flipgrid or Padlet, to share your students’ photos and videos with your Empatico partner class. Review each other’s materials, and encourage students to respond to their partner class with comments or questions to learn more about each other.

Empatico Exchange

Flipgrid Activity

Reflect

Guide students through a post-activity reflection by asking the following questions:

What did you discover about our partner class from their photos / videos? What was something interesting that you learned about their school or community?
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Did you notice any similarities or differences between our schools?
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What has changed in the way you think about schools around the world?