School Twinning

This post is for all at Queen’s and in schools in Nova Scotia I’ve met during my last two weeks in Canada. Your interest in global learning and social justice teaching, in “making the world a better place” as Isatu in Mapaki says, is deeply inspiring and gives me great hope for what we can collectively achieve. Thank you! Information relating to the two most common questions from Queen’s can be found at cdpeace Visitors and Schools Material Support. The Nova Scotia schools visit has generated some very exciting school twinning plans. In Antigonish, after reading African literature and books on links between Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, students will work with their Sierra Leone twins to develop a presentation about connections to present to the community at a heritage fair. Students in Antigonish will also be studying the same novel (Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart), as their twins and could have the opportunity to discuss this novel together. Junior high students from Lawrencetown and North Preston, which has strong historical links with Sierra Leone dating to the founding of Freetown, have already started their letter exchange and have a deep interest in learning more about their twins. In Granville Ferry and Annapolis Royal, primary school students who have also started a letter exchange will be working with their community to organize an African meal and will make gara fabric (traditional tie die from Sierra Leone) as a way of learning more about the activities and culture of their twins and to raise funds. Numerous other schools from New Brunswick to the Yukon and Minnesota have also been in touch via email about various ways of linking to their twin schools. I’m looking forward to a very exciting year of creating connections and building new knowledge and solidarity. Stay posted!