How to Participate

First of all, take a look at this page to find the list of participating schools that each travel buddy will visit. The students at PLC Sydney will pick the first three schools, but after that it’s up to each partner class to pick the next school from the list and send the Travel Buddy on to them. We will colour the rows as schools participate, so the rows in white are still yet to get a visitor!

When our travel buddy arrives at your school we ask you to show her around. She would love to have photos taken with your students, join in your lessons, and learn a bit about what happens in your classroom. As your students spend time with her we would invite them to share the experience on the Travel Buddy’s travel blog.

You’ll need a Google account to contribute to the blog (a Google Apps for Education account, or even just a plain old Gmail address). Just let us know the Google account you’d like to use and we can add you to the blog as an author so you can leave your stories there.

What could you write about?

You can write whatever you’d like, but here’s a few suggestions.

• Tell us about a typical day in your classroom. What sorts of things do you do? 
• Tell us about what it’s like where you live. Your school is probably very different to ours so we’d love to hear about it! 
• Tell us about what you’re learning at school. It’s interesting to know what you do that’s the same, and different, to us. 
• Tell us about anything you want! We would love to hear about it! 
• Don’t forget to include photos of the Travel Buddy with your students. 

What else could you do?

• Look at a map to find where the Travel Buddies have been. We’ve started one here. If new schools join in, we will add them to the map. After schools get one of the travel buddies, we will change their colour on the map so you can see who has been visited. 
• This project is a great way to get your students curious about the world, and looking at maps to learn more about other places. Make the most of it! 
• Arrange a video call. If you’d like to call us and say hello we can do that using either Google Hangouts or Skype. We’d love to meet you like this! It’s great to hear other accents and see other classrooms and meet other kids. (It doesn't have to be with PLC Sydney... it can  be with any other participating school!)
• You can use the Travel Buddies in whatever topic or theme you’re teaching. Whether it’s learning about toys, pets, places in the world, Australia or anything else, there are lots of ways you could integrate this project into your lessons.
• Tweet about the project at #plctravelbuddy

What if I know another school that would like to be part of this?

• We’d love to have more schools join the project. It would be cool to see if our Travel Buddies could get all the way around the world! 
• If you know another school that wants to be part of it, or you have a particular school you would like to pass the Travel Buddy on to, that’s great! Just add them to the list using this form, so that everyone else knows who is involved. 
• If you or one of your students is travelling, why not take the travel buddy with you? If you are visiting another country, you could personally deliver her to her next destination and continue the adventure from there! Just make sure you add the next school to the the list. 

Then what?

Once you’ve had our Travel Buddy with you for a week or two, it’s time to send her off to the next school. We’ll let you decide which school you want to send her to. Just use the participating schools list to pick the next destination, but please note that some schools have asked for a particular time of the year. Depending on when you are sending it, try to send it to a school that is ready to receive it at that time. (Many schools said they can do it anytime, but some wanted a particular month...  emailing them before you send would be a good idea!) Then bundle up the Travel Buddy, say your goodbyes and send her on her way! Bon voyage!

If you use Twitter, feel free to share your progress using the #plctravelbuddy hashtag!

After that, please follow the project on the blogs. We would love you to leave some comments as the project unfolds!

And thank you!