What is a Travel Buddy?

A travel buddy can be a soft toy or a puppet that travels the world as a representative of your class. You give the toy a name and find a partner school.  We use oz-Teacher Net. Then the travel buddy is posted along with other items that can include profiles of the children, a travel buddy passport, information about your locality, local goodies and, of course, a blank travel buddy diary.  A daily diary is kept by the children abroad on behalf of the buddy.  Other projects can also be undertaken by the buddy e.g. collecting folktales, collecting information about the weather, collaborative stories etc.  When an agreed period of time has elapsed the partner class will return the travel buddy, his diary, photos and any other souvenirs of his adventures.  While the buddy is away, you stay in touch using email, video conferencing and snail mail.