Congratulations to Hill City Elementary School/Longfellow Middle School for winning the Kansas in the World Award for Excellence in International Education 2008!
Longfellow Middle School and teacher Scott Parker have been part of the GenYES program for ten years, starting when GenYES was a federal Technology Innovation Challenge grant. At Longfellow, GenYES students help teachers throughout the school integrate technology in their classrooms, and in TechYES, 7th and 8th grade students do projects to gain a technology literacy certification. Students worked on Rural Symposium projects and tied them into international studies through the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN). See the student projects here.
Longfellow GenYES students have also been at the forefront of working with Liberian students who are part of the new Liberia Renaissance School of which GenYES founder, Dr. Dennis Harper is a board member. Their Liberia projects are on the LREC/LMS website here.
In addition, many of the TechYES/GenYES students are involved in the “Schools Fantasy League” program based on England’s Premier League soccer. This project is designed for schools to take part in an exciting, engaging activity that promotes collaboration, learning and cross-curricular connections. Longfellow Middle School is recognized as a “Champion School” as the first USA school to be involved in the program.
Congratulations to the Longfellow students and Scott Parker! This is a well-deserved award indeed.
Sylvia
I just spent nearly three weeks in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Both these West African nations have been through some recent bad times. While in Liberia, President Ellen Sirleaf presided over the groundbreaking for the Liberia Renaissance Education Complex. Check out her 
