The Smithsonian's Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program offers Oakton High School Spanish 5 Honors students with Profe Natal, and North Andover High School AP World History students, with Mr. Sheehy, in Boston, an opportunity to participate in a series of virtual learning experiences to explore, and share the stories of our communities. Together, we are engaging in synchronous and asynchronous dialogue to get to know each other, and share our experiences and insights about America and the world. Our culminating student projects provide snapshots of the unique role we, as individuals, our communities, and our generation have played and play in the American experiment. We are very excited about this project and we are looking forward to celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary.
Mike Wilkins, Preamble, 1987, painted metal on vinyl and wood, 96 x 96 in. (243.8 x 243.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A., 1988.39
For our first asynchronous exchange, we exchanged snail mail. We wanted to find out about the North Andover students participating in the program and were excited to start getting to know them.
After making these connections, to prepare for our first synchronous virtual exchange, we explored our own identities and chose the objects that best represent them.
Choose an object that represents you and represents your story/history. How can you introduce yourself to others through this object?
- What is the origin of your object? Who made it? Where did you get it?
- Are there any details, colors, shapes in your object that represent you? Which ones? How do they represent you?
- How are you connected to your object? How and When do you use it? How do you take care of it and/or keep it?
- What memories does your object bring to you?
- What value or values does your object have? (sentimental, material, economic, cultural, historical, etc.)
- How are you connected to other peoples, places, events, things through your object? Explain.
- How does your object portray you? In which ways does it tell your story/history?
How are we connected to each other?
In one word: Our first session was:
We had lots of grows and glows:
I thought it was interesting to hear about the problems that their school faced and how similar they were to ours.
Interesting to hear voices from other schools, almost as if two worlds collided.
People were willing to connect with each other.
We should give more in-depth responses and get more comfortable with talking to each other next time.
I think we need to work on staying on topic until we have the time to talk about off-topic, sometimes silly ideas.
Our second session was about our connections to our communities. We mapped our communities and looked for that element that connects each one of us to them.
- In what way/s do you feel that you belong to your community?
- How do you fit into your community? What role/s do you play?
3. What special element, place, building, monument, landscape, object, person, etc., connects you with your community?
4. How does this “special element” tell the story/history or stories/histories of your community?
5. Is your “special element” also connected to other people, places, memories, etc.?
6. Has your “special element” changed over time? How? What was it like before? What is it like now?
Something Surprising, Something Interesting, One Question that you have.
What element represents you as a member of Generation Z in the American experience?
Choose an element: A historical artifact, a piece of clothing, a building, an artwork, a landmark, a written text, a piece of furniture, a song-music-sound, a food, etc.
- How does this element connect you with the story/history of America?
- How does this element tell the story/history of America 250?
- How does this element connect you with past generations?
- How may this element connect you with future generations?
Students wrote "I am from..." poems elaborating on, and incorporating details of their identity objects, their hand community maps and places that connect them to their communities, and their Gen Z elements. Students' poems also included other elements such as connections to their cultural heritage and their ancestors, their values and beliefs, and connections to the past, the present and the future of our country.
After students from each school wrote their poems, each student chose the most meaningful verse of their poem and we created a joint poem alternating verses in English and in Spanish.
We are all very proud of our projects and super excited to receive our completion certificates!