Международный детский проект Travelling Teddy

 

In today’s fast-changing world of communications and digital systems Russia is not isolated from other countries. The global network gives a good opportunity to meet new people and to make new friends. Cross-cultural contacts give us the better understanding of events that happen all round the world and enlarge outlook. Anyway, most of these contacts and communications are provided for adults or teenagers. Young children could hardly be involved in cross-cultural programs because of a little choice of them. When I was seven or eight years old, I wanted to make friends from overseas. Now, I can help the children from primary school to join an International project “Travelling Teddy” [1].

The integration of the Russian young generation into the global community is one of the most important objectives as children and teenagers are the future of any nation. Nowadays, upbringing and personal development cannot be success in the isolation from the world and should be started from the early age. All over the world there are not many projects like this created for children of the young age. In Russia there are no similar projects. In this case International project “Travelling Teddy” offers young children a good opportunity to get basic communication skills [2]. The project would be interesting not only for children but for their parents, teachers and older friends. The idea of Pana Asavavatana was chosen for the given project to tell Russian children about the opportunity to make friends overseas, to learn more about foreign cultures and traditions, to exchange experience and emotions.

The results got and conclusions made can be successfully used by teachers, parents, specialists working with young children (e.g. children psychologist) and children themselves while getting cross-cultural communication skills.

Moreover, different bears are involved into the project. Each bear is supporting one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals [3]. For example, Stieve Beario. In fact, Stevie Beario is named after a famous Paralympic wheelchair basketball player, Steve Serio who believes that everyone should have equal opportunities no matter who you are or what you do [4].

In the context of the project I have learnt all the information about Travelling Teddy which I could find in the Internet [5]. I created a presentation and showed it to the children of my school. For my project I have chosen the children of the fifth-form classes, aged from 10 to 12 years old. There were four classes at all. I had two days to meet children and I spent 30 minutes with each group of children in their English classroom where they feel comfortable and relaxed. At first, the children were shown the presentation and told about the project, after that they were given out pictures of Teddy Bear and asked to color it. In such away, the children created their own Travelling Bear. The schoolchildren were very creative. Most of them drew very colorful and individual bears decorated with different accessories and details. Some bears had trainers and sunglasses, the others had baseball caps or straw hats. The girls drew bears with glamour pink handbags and sweet hearts. Some children presented their bears as sportsmen. Two boys drew trees and bushes around their Teddy Bear. All the children were very enthusiastic about the idea to create their own Travelling Toy.

As the next step, the children were asked to answer ten questions. They are the following:

1.                I like The Travelling Teddy project;
2.                I would like to communicate with children from foreign countries;
3.                I have already had some experience in communicating with teenagers from other countries;
4.                I am good in modern technologies: blogging, email, chatting, Skype;
5.                I want to speak English fluently;
6.                I have some interesting ideas to share with teenagers from other countries;
7.                I can do very interesting things and I want to teach others;
8.                I have an interesting hobby and I want to tell about it;
9.                I have a Teddy bear and I want it to travel round the world;
10.            I would like to join The Travelling Teddy bear project.

The children had to answer “yes” or “now” to every question. The English teacher helped the children to translate the given sentences. Some children answered quickly, the others took some time to make a decision. The results of the interview were the following: 39 children were interviewed in the context of the project. All the children (100 %) liked the project “Travelling Teddy”. 37 (94 %) children from 39 would like to speak English fluently and thought the project is a good way to learn the language. 35 (89 %) children from 39 would like to communicate with children from foreign countries and to join The “Travelling Teddy” bear project. Only four children had no interest to the project. 34 (87 %) interviewers had interesting things, 32 (82 %) kids have interesting hobbies and skills, 31 (79 %) respondents have interesting ideas, so all of them would like to tell others about them trough blogging, email, chatting and Skype. 21 (53 %) interviewers claim that they have a Teddy Bear and they want it to travel round the world. Less than half respondents, 13 kids (33 %) have had some experience in communicating with teenagers from other countries.

 

Question	YES(+)	NO(-)
I like The Travelling Teddy project	39	0
I would like to communicate with children from foreign countries	35	4
I have already had some experience in communicating with teenagers from other countries	13	26
I am good in modern technologies: blogging, email, chatting, Skype	34	5
I want to speak English fluently	37	2
I have some interesting ideas to share with teenagers from other countries	31	8
I can do very interesting things and I want to teach others	34	5
I have an interesting hobby and I want to tell about it	32	7
I have a Teddy bear and I want it to travel round the world	21	18
I would like to join The Travelling Teddy bear project	35	4

 

Thus, the answers of the interviewers have shown a huge interest of the Russian children to the International project the “Travelling Teddy”. The children are keen on the idea to make friends among foreign teenagers. They are ready to share their experience with children of other countries as well as to learn more about interests, studies and hobbies of their foreign friends.

In the situation, when there are few International projects which are designed especially for children of young ages, the project “Travelling Teddy” is a very good way to integrate teenagers into the global community. It gives a lot of opportunities to communicate with teenagers overseas using modern technologies and means of communication. The project lays the foundation for a large cooperation of primary school children and their teachers all over the world.

More and more countries have been involved in to the “Travelling Teddy” project for the last few years and the number of the participants has been rising quickly. Russia cannot stay aside. The results of the present research have shown a huge interest of Russian schoolchildren to the “Travelling Teddy” project and the readiness to join these amazing adventures.

The specialists and professionals dealing with upbringing and education of young generation can be interested in the materials and the results of the present project. Moreover, “Travelling Teddy” can be treated as a model for other projects which teachers and enthusiasts will surely create in the future as modern world is borders-free and open to global communication and cooperation.

 

References:

 

1.                http://travelingteddybear.com/
2.                http://travelingteddybear.com/?page_id=5393/
3.                https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
4.                http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/global-goals/reduced-inequalities/
5.                http://travelingteddybear.com/?page_id=50/