My Take
This was a fun project with some excellent residual effects. My students learned the art of respecting perspectives, and many 'found their voice' in speaking up about their personal weather preferences that didn't match those of their peers. The best part, however, was meeting children who lived in a different climate and learning about their lifestyles. My students surf and swim on teams in outdoor pools and our buddy classroom spoke of ice fishing contests and ice hockey. What a blast! While my students certainly learned some facts and stats about the weather and climate of our area and of our buddy classroom, it seems that the "soft" skills learned had the biggest impact. My class definitely became more enthusiastic and curious about learning about the world outside our community, and we referred to this experience many times in the months following our video chat. I highly recommend Empatico lessons!
How I Use It
I taught the lessons from the Weather Outside My Window lesson. This served as a great introduction to our weather unit, and was a very comfortable entry task since much of it was based on student preferences. Beyond weather and climate content, the concept of respecting the perspectives and preferences of others was woven throughout. In preparing for our meeting with our buddy class, students were highly motivated and engaged to find out facts and stats about our local community, weather and climate to share with the other class,
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