iEARN in Action, October 15, 2004

iEARN's ONLINE COURSES ARE UNDERWAY! Congratulations to the teachers from 29 countries who have just embarked on a 9 week (October-December) online professional development program to integrate global partnerships into their curricula. Participants include educators from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Senegal, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan. To learn more about iEARN's Online Course Program, see http://www.iearn.org/professional/.  The next session of courses will start in February.  Contact onlinepd@us.iearn.org for more information.

Join Us! Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

** DOWNLOAD THE NEW iEARN 2004-2005 PROJECT BOOK!  See http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html **

NATURAL DISASTER YOUTH SUMMIT PROJECT PHASE IS STARTING. During October, each school is invited to share its own project plan in the Natural Disasters Forum. For more information, see http://ndys.jearn.jp/ or contact Yoshie Naya in Japan.

LOOKING FOR TEACHERS WHO WORK WITH SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS. Teachers who work with special needs students have expressed a desire to share project ideas. Join in discussions in the Teachers Forum.

PROJECTS TO COMMEMORATE THE 2004 UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY SHARE TRADITIONS AND CULTURE FORUM. Facilitators from Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States extend an invitation to all to join this unique forum where two projects are presented: 1) The Appreciation of Our Culture and Traditions- "Understanding our connected past, to build on a united future" Project (http://www.iearn.org/projects/cultureandtraditions.html) and The Breaking the Silence: The Trans-Atlantic Slave: Project (http://www.iearn.org/projects/transatlanticslavetrade.html). To join, login to the Traditions and Culture Forum.

CLASSROOMS COLLECTING CANS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR THOSE IN NEED. A school in New York City, USA is collecting cans for the needy and actively participating in counting, graphing, writing about and visiting their local Soup Kitchen. Interested? Contact L. Rosen in the USA.

LAND USAGE AND DISTRIBUTION PROJECT. Paul Mpofu from Zimbabwe writes, "It our hope and wish that the project runs up to September 2005. I am currently assisted by two geography teachers from my school. The two teachers are Mr Chatsiwa and Mr Adams. We have a class of 20 students who are eager to do the project. The students will help do the research and compile the results. We therefore invite all those that are interested to contact us through email."  Join in discussions directly on the Land Usage and Distribution Forum.  For more information, see here.

MOROCCAN STUDENTS SEEKING PENPALS.  Omar Habbaz writes, "I am running a club where English is learned as a foreign language in Morocco. Our students are aged 18. They are willing to establish a kind of snail mail exchange so that they could practise the language naturally. Please if interested email me.  [ note: Those interested in requesting penpals can also post to the E-friend Forum.

PEARL WORLD YOUTH NEWS. We would like to thank all schools that have applied to participate in this project as PEARL Editors. We have heard from many countries, including Pakistan, Morocco, Iran,  Uzbekistan, China and the US. If you would like your school to join the project as a PEARL Editor, please contact Anindita Roy in the US. We are accepting applications until Oct 31, and will be announcing our five Editor schools by Nov 8. For more information about the PEARL project, please visit http://www.iearn.org/pearlproject/.

Check it out! Resources, Web Sites and Postings (including resources that are not part of iEARN)

CHECK OUT THESE NEWLY RE-DESIGNED iEARN COUNTRY WEBSITES! iEARN-Belarus: http://iearn-belarus.iatp.by/ and iEARN-Taiwan: http://taiwaniearn.org/.

SHARE YOUR VIEWS ABOUT USING TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET. http://www.netday.org/speakup_forstudents.htm

SUBMIT EVENTS TO THE 2004 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK (NOVEMBER 15-19) EVENTS DATABASE. To view and submit events, go to http://exchanges.state.gov/iew/events.htm.

SUBMIT ARTICLES ABOUT YOUR WORK WITH iEARN.  Innovate is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed online periodical focusing on the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes in academic, commercial, and government settings. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=submit

ENTER YOUR iEARN PROJECT WORK IN CHILDNET ACADEMY PROGRAMME! Children's charity Childnet International will soon launch its global Childnet Academy programme for 2005 which it runs in partnership with Cable & Wireless. The Academy competition is for young people 18 years and under who have developed online projects or have a new idea which will benefit other young people around the world. Children and young people can enter individually or as a school project. Winners of the 2005 Academy will win a trip for two to Jamaica to participate in the Academy week programme and prize money from a £30K fund. For further information please visit http://www.childnetacademy.org.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

SEND GREETINGS TO WASHINGTON STATE, USA INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SUMMIT ("BUILDING GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS") TO BE HELD OCTOBER 27, 2004. See http://internationaledwa.org/summit.htm and send greetings to Summit Participants by email to Kristi Rennebohm Franz.

12TH ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN JULY, 2005 IN DAKAR, SENEGAL.  Watch http://www.iearn.org for more information, or login to the 2005 Senegal Conference Discussion Forum.