Barnhill Memorial School

Project Leaders: Laura J Taylor

Town: Saint John

School Name: Barnhill Memorial School

Project Name: If you can’t travel the world, have the world travel to you!

• Our grade six curriculum is all about world cultures. In my opinion, the best way to learn about cultures is not just through textbooks and teacher led discussions, but from authentic, hands-on experiences, meeting real people who can share their culture and experience.

• I want students not only to understand and remember what they have learned, but to feel engaged, empowered, and excited to not only learn about culture, but to think, reflect, and feel driven to make change and to reach out and meet community members with whom they can make connections.

• Therefore, it is my objective to link with two community organizations (Saint John Multicultural and Newcomer’s Centre And PRUDE (Pride, Race, Unity, Diversity and Education) and have a variety of community members from different cultures come to class and share a piece of their culture (everything from their story as a newcomer to teaching a cultural art project) and go on a cultural excursion to value how different cultures have impacted their own city.

• The duration of time would to have each guest speaker in for a class period (4-5 periods). In 2018-2019 there are an estimated 4-5 classes of grade six social studies.

• The money will be used to pay for supplies for different cultural activities and to pay for a token of appreciation for guest speakers.

• The project is one that can last all year, from September until May, where our guest speaker will be chosen based on the curricular outcome we are currently covering.

• Our end project will be to put together a human library (Video library), a memoir PowerPoint of our journeys as an end of year review, and a collage mosaic created by each class. Students will also have a reflections journal, “Notes from my travels.”