This school year, Donna Román’s fifth-grade class at Mill Creek Elementary School participated in the first ever elementary Flat Classroom Project, a worldwide project that joined elementary students from eight schools through technology.

Eight schools from five countries participated in the project, called “A Week in the Life …”  The project centered around sharing what life is like for students in their respective schools and countries and encouraged students to connect and communicate with their peers worldwide.

Participating Schools in “A Week in the Life …” 2010

• American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India
• Denton Avenue School, New Hyde Park, New York, USA
• The Falcons School for Girls, London, UK
• International School of Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
• Mill Creek Elementary School, Geneva, Illinois, USA
• The Phoenix School, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
• Yarmouth Elementary School, Yarmouth Maine, USA
• Yew Chung International School, Beijing, China

Topics for the project included school time, languages and clothing, housing and transportation, leisure time, and food and celebrations. Geneva students researched the categories and then taught students worldwide about their category as it relates to their school and country. They also learned about the same categories from students throughout the world.

Flat Classroom Projects are award winning projects that have been running for the past four years for middle and high schools students. The original project, The Flat Classroom Project, is based on the concepts found in Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and subsequently has been included in the reprint of the book in 2007.

The project began in the fall and culminated in February.

For more information, contact Mill Creek teacher Donna Román at 630-463-3400 and go to http://aweekinthelife.flatclassroomproject.org/.

This article is courtesy of Mill Creek Elementary School.