#KFkinders Visit London on Digital Learning Day

This year our #KFkinders have tried to break down the classroom walls and travel around the world by connecting with Benton alumni who live/travel around the world.  This trip took us back across the pond to London!  Our tour guide was 2001 Benton Community graduate, Tiffany Hartkemeyer.  Although Tiffany's current zip code is outside of the Benton county boundaries, she has remained a Bobcat and took time out of her busy day to share her new town with us.

Lauren and Jack with Aunt Tiffany

Tiffany is the daughter of Keith Hartkemeyer and Michelle Schoening.  She grew up just outside of Keystone with her brother, Brandon, and her sister, Emily.  Brandon and his wife, Beth, have two children (Jack and Lauren).  Lauren in a current #KFkinder and got to introduce our class to her Aunt Tiffany!  Tiffany's sister, Emily, is an English teacher at Benton's High School.  As you can see, this family bleeds blue and gold.

Tiffany's home near Keystone

Tiffany attended Keystone Elementary just like our #KFkinders and actually went to 5th grade in our classroom with Mrs. Fisher!  Upon graduating from Benton Community in 2001, Tiffany chose to go to Iowa State University to pursue a degree in journalism.  While at ISU, Tiffany was an intern in Media Relations for ISU Athletics.  She was a liaison between ISU sports and the media.  This gave her the opportunity to sit in the press-box for ISU football games, court-side for basketball games, and travel with the gymnastics team.

After graduating from ISU with a journalism degree, Tiffany continued her studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska for law school.  This required Tiffany to attend school for 3 more years.
After law school she moved to New York City as a contracts lawyer for MetLife.  As a contracts lawyer she negotiated contracts of insurance for corporate insurance plans.  She held a couple different titles as a contract lawyer/insurance compliance lawyer while at MetLife prior to taking a job with Marsh and McLennan Companies in New York City.

At Marsh and McLennan Companies, Tiffany was a data privacy lawyer.  Last year they asked her to move to London to be the European Data Privacy Leader.  So after 9 years in New York City, she moved to London.  Now she is responsible for making sure the company complies with privacy laws all over Europe.  She also oversees that her company is safely and securely transferring data all over the world.  She has been living and working in London since August.  Tiffany's career aspirations really widened our scope of the commonly asked question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?.  Thank you for introducing a whole new lifestyle and career path to our #KFkinders.

Although it was cool learning about Tiffany's academic and career paths, the tour around her office was definitely #KFkinders highlight.  Tiffany's office is right across the street from Tower of London and right down the street from Tower Bridge.  Tiffany took 30 minutes out of her busy day to walk around while FaceTiming us.  London is six hours ahead of Keystone.  It was 9:00 A.M. here and our school day was just getting started.  In London it was 3:00 P.M. and Tiffany was nearing the end of her work day.  She showed us, up close and personal, some of the attractions we had been studying while telling us details about each.  She pointed out the Gherkin and the Shard buildings from across the Thames River.  Then she proceeded to walk around the block to show us the Walkie Talkie building, a classic red London phone booth (that actually had a working pay phone in it), a bus stop, and she even found a double decker bus for us!  It was amazing to see all of these places that were right outside her office while other people travel thousands of miles to visit them.

After FaceTiming Tiffany, we dove deeper into our learning of these London attractions.  We used YouTube Kids to watch videos about Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Parliament, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Eye, and double decker buses.  Then we even listened to picture books that had these famous London attractions right there in their story settings.

Each year educators from around the world celebrate what is known on Digital Learning Day.  This year it fell on February 22nd.  To celebrate we checked out the virtual reality goggles from Grant Wood AEA to take virtual tours to these attractions.  We imagined what it would feel like to walk across the glass-floor walkway on Tower Bridge.  We saw the stairs you can climb to reach Big Ben.  And we felt like royalty when we visited Buckingham Place's grand entry.

The following day we started using YouTube again to follow step-by-step directions on how to draw four of our favorite attractions; Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the London Eye, and a double decker bus.  Each #KFkinders picked their favorite attraction of these four to use in Writer's Workshop.  They wrote facts about that attraction that they had learned in their studies.

Finally we used the green screen and our favorite green screen app, Do Ink, to present our writings.  Enjoy our video that recaps our learning HERE.
We owe a few thank yous to some individuals that made this whole project possible.  Thank you to the Hartkemeyer family!  Thank you Tiffany for taking time out of your busy day to give us a personal tour.  Thank you Lauren for sharing Aunt Tiffany with us.  Also thank you to Grant Wood AEA's Digital Learning Team and Anna Upah for allowing us to use the virtual reality goggles.  We had a blast visiting London...families beware, the travel bug may have bit all of the #KFkinders and London may be high on our "must travel" list!

Tiffany standing in front of her office saying goodbye to #KFkinders and Lauren