Bridges to Understanding

When I first talked with Phil Borges about a year and a half ago, I knew that the BRIDGES project would be a great fit for Hamilton International Middle School. Hamilton has a wonderfully diverse group of students, and a focus on cross-cultural understanding and technology. Since then it's been an exciting ride - often fun, occasionally frustrating, usually a challenge, and always a learning experience - as we continually experiment with ways to connect with kids and have kids connect with each other.

Our connection with Ollantaytambo, Peru began last spring. Realizing that we would always have the challenge of very different school calendars, we decided to get a jump start and seek out 5th grade students who were studying Spanish and planned to come to Hamilton in the fall of 2002. With the support and encouragement of Spanish teacher Sarah Coles at nearby John Stanford International School, six students were selected to compose and practice personal introductions in both Spanish and English. Then, in one frantic hour, we worked with students as they composed pictures of themselves around the school and sat in hallway corners in an attempt to find a quiet place to record their somewhat nervous introductions. The pieces were put together, and, just in time, success! Phil had a CD with the web pages to take with his laptop to Peru.

Then, in the fall, we began in earnest - finding the right group of kids, the right time, the right adults, the right location. We finally settled on an after-school program, working with the "Advanced Spanish Club" composed of sixth graders who had studied Spanish in elementary school. We were very lucky to have University of Washington student Monica Rodriguez appear on the scene. A native Spanish speaker and a natural with the students, she enthusiastically embraced the BRIDGES project.

Now it feels that we're finally in a rhythm. Each Tuesday before school ends we have a planning session. Monica is always prepared with great activities to help the students learn the Spanish skills most appropriate for working on the project. Nikki Hesketh (BRIDGES program coordinator) keeps us on track with respect to the BRIDGES curriculum, and brings her expertise in photography. And, Christine Paul keeps us up-to-date on our connections with Peru, sharing her experiences there, her fluency in Spanish, and her skills as a photographer. When the final bell rings, we're ready to meet with the students, get them snack, and enjoy their newfound after-school energy.

For me it's particularly exciting to see the students getting enthusiastic about using all of the communication tools. Not only are they using digital cameras, but also mp3 recorders. And, they've started to use Macromedia's Fireworks to process their pictures for the web. After just a quick introduction, they seem to be experts at cropping, adjusting brightness and contrast, and compressing for the web. (Oh, how I wish I could pick up these things so easily.) Next we'll have them edit their recorded audio with SoundForge, and start translating their web designs from paper to Dreamweaver.

The real satisfaction, though, comes when we see the students looking at the world in a different way - trying to imagine what it would be like to see through the eyes of their Peruvian counterparts, and working hard to try to truly communicate their humanness by using all the technology that they have at their disposal.

For more information on the Bridges to Understanding project, check out the website www.bridgesweb.org.