Over the past several years, my class and Mr. Parker's class in Japan have collaborated on learning projects. One year we were learning together across the miles, and an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, resulting in catastrophic damage just north of our friends across the sea. 

     The earthquake resulted in a treacherous tsunami which washed over parts of Japan on March 11, 2011. When the tsunami struck, it washed over several nuclear power plants, resulting in radiation leakage. My students read Mr. Parker's student blogs on their wiki, which echoed fear and sadness. Kids were not allowed to go outside to play anymore, many families moved back to the United States. I remember one little girl that was afraid to let her dog go outside because of the radiation in the air.  

     Instead of helping each other learn about nouns and verbs, our class began studying natural disasters together. Even kids who had moved from Japan continued to collaborate on the classroom wikis. We wrote poetry together online, we wrote news articles on Tween Tribune, and we collaborated with top children's science author, Janice Van Cleave.

     Our hearts ached when reading the student blogs, and my students felt very powerless to help. One day, children's author Sharon Creech sent me a picture of a group of knitted dolls she called Comfort Dolls she had knitted for orphaned kids in Africa. My little light bulb went on! A week later, we were knitting dolls for our friends in Japan! This was extremely challenging, given the fact that I had no idea how to knit! Luckily, Youtube tutorials were available, so all the teachers learned how to knit! The teachers, in turn, taught the kids how to knit and weeks later, we mailed off a big box of Comfort Dolls, in hopes of easing the pain and fears of our friends across the Pacific.  

    My hope for your children this year is to take learning to a different level. My goal is to create lifelong learners, to connect the curriculum to the real world, and to inspire kids to grow up and change the world.  

Knitted dolls - Propped up on Sharon Creech's couch.