On May 5th the students who were involved in a video conference with Will Smith published this video clip on the Pt England School television network. So I'll leave it to Tanielu, Leoden, Paulitia and Sela (Year 6 students involved) to tell it from their viewpoint....
To read a blog post through the eyes of a ten year old you need to visit Leoden's blog.
Will Smith was honoured by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Museum of Tolerance, in Los Angeles on May 5th for his humanitarian work. In preparation for this he decided to include students from around the globe in co-creating a poem about Tolerance. This logistical challenge was co-ordinated by Carol-Anne McGuire who is known to us as the Queen of Rock our World - the collaborative project Pt England students have been part of for a couple of years now. She is also the Technology Integration Specialist at the school Will Smith founded. So during the Easter holidays the kids got to spend half an hour sitting virtually in the same room as Will Smith having a discussion about tolerance and particularly how aspects of intolerance have impacted their lives. And as they mention in the video clip, Peni was called back a couple of days later for a follow-up interview. We have no idea if the footage from this will ever see the light of day, but even if nothing more comes of it these kids have had an experience that will be remembered for their lifetime.
We were very excited and privileged to see the finished Will Smith video on tolerance when we were at Carol-Anne McGuire's home a couple of nights ago. The students from Pt England featured first up and did New Zealand proud. I was particularly struck by the impact contributing to this collaboration seemed to have on all the students. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to have their voice heard and the significance of the moment was not lost on them. I appreciate that we were fortunate to see the video and I hope that it is released on the web soon as it deserves a wider audience.
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteWe were very excited and privileged to see the finished Will Smith video on tolerance when we were at Carol-Anne McGuire's home a couple of nights ago. The students from Pt England featured first up and did New Zealand proud. I was particularly struck by the impact contributing to this collaboration seemed to have on all the students. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to have their voice heard and the significance of the moment was not lost on them. I appreciate that we were fortunate to see the video and I hope that it is released on the web soon as it deserves a wider audience.
Kia Kaha,
Fiona