Swampscott school board meeting goes international

SWAMPSCOTT – The School Committee traveled abroad at their meeting Wednesday night, viewing multimedia presentations to learn about collaborations among Swampscott students and students in South Africa and Madagascar.Swampscott and several other communities in the area have adopted initiatives to encourage students to become more global citizens, said high school math teacher Chris Ratley. One component of this “Global Initiative” includes travel and service and experiential learning, Ratley explained. Ratley was fortunate enough to accompany eight students to Madagascar last summer for a month spent trekking, volunteering at a local nonprofit school and learning about a different culture.”Being in a different country is a totally different experience,” student Adriana Armano told the school committee. “It was incredible to see how dedicated to learning and inspired the students (in Madagascar) were. It made me appreciate all the opportunities that I have here in Swampscott.”Not only did Armano say that she was inspired by the people in Madagascar but she said that the experience also taught her a lot about herself. Students volunteered at a school run by the Dodwell Trust, a charity in the United Kingdom dedicated to assisting the people of Madagascar, helping both in the classroom and doing maintenance tasks. But Armano said the most difficult part of the trip was a three-day trek through the jungle.”We were literally bushwhacking,” she said. “Physically and emotionally, it really changes you and challenges you.”Students raised the money for the trip themselves.Swampscott Middle School students had a less physically strenuous but similarly rewarding international experience.This is the third year that 7th grade social studies teacher Judy McKenzie has led her students in a videoconference with the students’ pen pals at the Siyabulela Primary School in Langa, Cape Town, South Africa.”I’m not looking to shock students about the differences among students’ lives in Swampscott and South Africa, I’m looking for them to recognize the similarities,” McKenzie told the school committee after showing excerpts from a videoconference between the two schools that occurred last spring.McKenzie said that the students exchange letters five or six times a year and annually gather at Salem State University for a videoconference. Some students who began the pen pal relationship two years ago still communicate with their South African friends, she added.”I want Swampscott students to see that these are real people in other countries,” McKenzie told the school committee. “I’ve never found a better way to do that than with this program.”School committee members said that they were impressed with the students’ experiences.”That was just so inspiring,” said School Committee Chair Jacqueline Kinney. “I want to go on one of those trips.”