LAPLACE — A St. Joan of Arc Catholic School teacher recently won a grant that will help her students connect to a class in another country.

Fourth grade teacher Amanda Martin received $2,000 as part of Voya Financial 2015 Unsung Heroes award for her innovative teaching idea “Video Blogging Overseas.”

Martin’s class makes videos and sends them to students at an English-speaking school in Hong Kong, because she said it provides students a global view of the world and other cultures.

Out of 1,000 applications, Martin was one of 100 grant winners.

The video project started last year when a technical support person from St. Joan of Arc contacted the English-speaking school in Hong Kong, because both schools share the same math program.

“It kind of snowballed into this opportunity for my students to chat with other people overseas,” Martin said. “I think it’s such a good real-world experience. When these kids hit the workforce, they will be collaborating with people across the world, and they’ll already have some experience with it.”

Martin’s class has been sending videos back and forth to the children in China, like someone would do with a pen pal. The students give their assigned buddy some insight on life in the United States, specifically in Louisiana, and get the opportunity to learn about the traditions and lifestyle in Hong Kong.

The students are matched with their buddy based on similar interests.

“Last year we shared videos about Mardi Gras, and the students in Hong Kong shared Chinese New Year with our students,” Martin said.

Topics for students range from holidays to a favorite item from home. Martin said she hopes both classes can read the same book so the students can have an academic discussion.

The students seem excited to participate in this project, Martin said. At first, she said they seemed shy. Once they found out how fun it was; they were excited about the videos.

“They like having time to chat with someone their own age,” Martin said. “I want them to learn about different cultures and understand that someone across the world is not much different from them.”

The class tries at least once a month to send videos to the students in China, but Martin explains it can be a challenge doing the videos because of the equipment.

“The grant is going to give me the opportunity to buy some iPads or iPad minis for the classroom that the students will have access to on a more regular basis,” Martin said.

“We normally have to borrow iPads from another class earmarked for certain grades, so if they want to use them, I get pumped.”

Martin will soon find out if she won additional money as part of the grant. Along with other finalists, she has the chance to win the top three prizes that come with cash awards of $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 from Voya Financial.

“If we get additional money, we would be able to buy microphones to use and even more iPads and iPad minis,” Martin said.

— By Raquel Derganz Baker