Supporting an avenue of independence in educational choices for homeschooling families in Alabama. Rosewood Academy & High School A Church School Cover.
Supporting an avenue of independence in educational choices for homeschooling families in Alabama.Rosewood Academy & High SchoolA Church School Cover.

Our Pen Pal Partner in Obuasi, Ghana-West Africa 

SUNSHINE SUCCESS SCHOOL

SUNSHINE SUCCESS SCHOOL
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For Rosewood & Sunshine students only. Please fill out this form if you are interested in participating in the Pen Pal program. We will use your information to verify your enrollment with Rosewood Academy or Sunshine Success.

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Director Baluri Abdulai Moro

 

Sunshine School was founded in 1997 in Obuasi,Ghana West Africa.

Sunshine School currently has 260 students 
with a Nursery and Kindergarten ages 2 to 5yrs 
Primary ages 6 to 10yrs
Junior High 11 to 15yrs
they have a staff of 14

Under the Direction of Baluri Abdulai Moro
 

 

Obuasi

The gold mine has just recently laid off 95% of its work force
Obuasi is a gold bar mining mining community and town in the southern part of Obuasi Municipal of Ashanti, Ghana. Gold mining began at Obuasi more than 112 years ago, in 1897 when it was originally known as the Ashanti Mine

Ghana (i/ˈɡɑːnə/), officially called the Republic of Ghana, is a sovereign unitary presidential constitutional democracy, located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km2

Ghana's current borders were established by the 1900s as the British Gold Coast. In 1957, it became the first sub-saharan African nation to declare independence from European colonisation. 

Ghana has a population of approximately 27 million, spanning a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups.  Its economy is the ninth-largest on the Africa continent by purchasing power parity and nominal GDP.   Ghana is one of the countries on the continent that produces petroleum and natural gas, with the continent's fifth largest oil reserves and sixth largest natural gas reserves.   It is one of the world's largest gold and diamond producers, and is projected to be the largest producer of cocoa in the world as of 2015.   Ghana's growing economic prosperity and democratic political system has made it a regional power in West Africa.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Enjoy a Successful International Penpal

Exchange

  
Understanding, connection, and communication. What better way to create this than to have students across the world write to one another?

5-Ways an International Penpal Exchange Can Go Wrong, and How to Avoid Them:

1. Problem: Technology WILL break down.

Solution:  It IS possible to have an International Penpal Exchange with limited technology, but arranging for transcribing time, snail mail time, or people-carrying-letters-on-their-plane plans is essential.  What this means,  if you want the letters sent fast (use email) be patient if there are few computers around.

2. Problem: Let’s put in this way:  students in Ghana may have no clue who “Lady Gaga” is, and the state side kids are utterly mystified at their penpals’ constant mention of fufu.”

Solution: Tell students, when in doubt, OVERexplain EVERYTHING! Repeatedly underline that students must describe many terms and ideas in detail, because an American child does not know the game “Ampe,” and a Ghanaian child likely isn’t familiar with Sushi,” “Skiing,” or “Justin Bieber.” (Yes, each of these terms came up at least twice per round of letters!) By extension, explain that even little details of their lives that they think are normal or boring may be fascinating to a child in another country with such a different culture.

3. Problem: Kids being kids, students often read their partner’s letter, really enjoy it… and then write back a page that makes absolutely no mention of the beautiful, profound, and fascinating things their partner just told them!

Solution: Explicitly show students how to use “active listening” strategies in their letter writing (ex: summarizing what was said) so their partner knows they read their letter and care about what they wrote!

4. Problem: You glance at an incoming letter and gasp at the inappropriate thing you see!  The concept of “What is appropriate” varies so greatly by culture.  In Ghana, for example, it is common to open a greeting with, “I hope you are fine by the grace of God,” which can seem inappropriate to U.S. teachers who are so entrenched in church-school separation.  Further, race and class relations within a country (not to mention the slang to describe them) vary widely.  This led to numerous times Ghanaian students would ask things like, “What does it mean when my partner wrote: ‘The Spanish girls are mad rude to the Asians in my school’?”

Solution: First, look over all student letters before they are sent and before the incoming letters are passed out.  Second, be poised to clearly explain any inadvertent confusions or offense that appears! And pray that the “teachable moment” leads to international understanding and not a student ripping up his or her letter in fury.

5. Problem: By round 2 of letters, students are just repeating the same thing over and over, not really knowing what to write about.

Solution: Parents should discuss and establish what the goal of the penpal exchange is so that students can know which topics to cover.  Ideally, the exchange could lead to a culminating project and presentation within each school to the classmates not involved in the exchange.

Cha-ching!  Now you’re poised for a fabulous International Penpal Exchange!  Despite the surprising amount of effort and confusion involved, the rewards for students and teachers alike in Penpal Exchanges are truly remarkable.

Our Terms Of Use


Our Terms of Use

 

Rosewood Academy is compiling a list of students interested in communicating via email from Sunshine Success School in Obuasi, Ghana.  Although Rosewood Academy is trying to authenticate each student with careful collaboration between Baluri Abdulai Moro of Sunshine Success School, you understand under no circumstances does ROSEWOOD ACADEMY have any obligations to check the accuracy or truthfulness of the registration data of any Pen-Pal and that the parent/guardian is creating the relationship with their Pen-Pal.   By connecting to a Pen-Pal from Sunshine Success School you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless ROSEWOOD ACADEMY, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers and employees from any claim, demand, or damage, and furthermore Rosewood Academy, its related partnerships or corporations, or the partners, agents or employees thereof  shall not be responsible or liable for: any material or data sent or received or not sent or received, or any transactions entered into through the connection of your Pen-Pal.  Any content at all, whether threatening, defamatory, obscene, offensive or illegal content, conduct of any other person or any infringement of  another's rights, including intellectual property rights.  Any indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages or an damages whatsoever including damages for loss of use; data goodwill; profits, or other intangible losses.  You understand under no circumstances does Sunshine Success School have any obligations to check the accuracy or truthfulness of the registration data of any Pen-Pal and that the parent/guardian is creating the relationship with the Pen-Pal.  You agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your communications made by you including the content of your transmissions through your provider. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree NOT to:
Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
Publish, distribute and/ or disseminate any harmful, obscene, indecent, unlawful, libelous, profane, defamatory, infringing, inappropriate, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material or information.
Create a false or misleading identity of, including, but not limited to, a Rosewood Academy employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, for the purpose of misleading others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or to harvest or otherwise collect information about others.
Transmit, e-mail or post any material that contains in any form software viruses purposely or such programs as including but not limited to, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel-bots, computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.
Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service, through password mining or any other means.
Disseminate content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, rights of privacy or publicity, or other proprietary right ('Rights') of any party or infringes any intellectual property law or any other applicable law.
Disseminate any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters', 'pyramid schemes', or any other form of such solicitation.
Interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of the Service.
Without prejudice to the Rosewood Academy, Rosewood Academy has no obligation to monitor the correspondence of any member's use thereof.

 “What does compulsory education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”  -Henry David Thoreau

Contact Info

Rosewood Academy and High School
1301 Rosewood Drive
Maytown, AL 35118

Ralph: 205 586-4842

call or text

Email: rosewood.bidwell@gmail.com

Hours

Please call Monday - Friday 8:00-5:00
On weekends leave a message or text and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

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