iEARN in Action, September 5, 2005

**DOWNLOAD THE NEW iEARN 2004-2005 PROJECT BOOK! 
http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html (available in Arabic, English, French, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Uzbek), or for a full listing of iEARN projects, see: http://www.iearn.org/projects/

LEARNING CIRCLES 2005 - 2006: Exciting New Improvements!! It is time to register for the Learning Circles 2005: September to January Session. In addition to our established themes, this year the Learning Circles Project is sponsoring a new writing theme (A Learning World) exclusively for 2005-2006 sessions designed to explore the theme of the 2006 international iEARN World Conference and Youth Summit in Enschede, The Netherlands. Also, we are instituting a new procedures that we believe will help to encourage and maintain participation. If you want to be a part of the September session please go to: http//www.iearn.org/circles to register. If you have any questions or need more information please contact Barry Kramer.

YOUNG SCIENTISTS TSUNAMI COLLABORATION. We are currently recruiting any interested High School Science teachers for the Young Scientists Tsunami Collaboration, an online collaboration among US, Indonesian, Thai, and Malaysian classrooms to strengthen the scientific and technological capabilities of youth in these countries while promoting cooperation in areas of mutual benefit for peaceful purposes. iEARN is seeking high school teachers interested in focusing on the science of tsunamis, including the role of science and technology in disaster relief and preparedness efforts and the effects on the environment. This project may be factored into the class curriculum or an after school or community program, or otherwise developed in alignment with the students' academic activities. If interested, please contact Christine Habib, Director of Government Programs.

TALKING KITES ALL OVER THE WORLD. A tradition of flying kites with personal and group images of our dreams for a better world, a world of co-existence, tolerance, acceptance of the "other" and peace. We plan to erect a huge pyramid made of a million small pyramids prepared by children worldwide. Each participant will receive one kite and two small pyramids and a kit containing a Teacher's Manual and instructions for assembling the kites and the pyramids. Contact Ruty Hotzen and Adi Yekutieli in Israel.

REGISTER FOR iEARN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ONLINE COURSES NOW! The second sessions of the 2005 iEARN online courses will start in October 3, 2005. By taking any of the eight online courses at iEARN, you will learn how to integrate collaborative project-based learning into your curriculum and fulfill your curriculum standards using technology. You will learn how to connect your classrooms with their peers around the world. This is a great chance to become an active member of the global learning community and receive a certificate as a “Master Global Educator.” At least 10 countries are represented among the teachers in each 9-week course. Facilitators live in 15 countries, speaking 33 languages! Earn your professional development credits in a most effective, extremely exciting learning experience! Register for a course before it is filled up! Go to http://www.iearn.org/professional Questions?? Ask us: onlinepd@us.iearn.org

INTERNATIONAL SIGN LANGUAGE (ISL). We want to start this project and speak about sign language in different countries and collect the words and make a website for international sign language in different languages. See http://hip.saf.ir and http://www.schoolnet.ir/~nezammafi. We are seeking a solution for hearing impaired students from all over the globe to be able to communicate face to face with an international sign language. Contact Mandana Noroozi in Iran.

SCHOOL THEATRE INTERNATIONAL PROJECT. iEARN-Poland welcomes participants to a project focused on international cooperation between school theatre teams and establishing cross-cultural performances. Theatre Teams are welcomed to submit descriptions of themselves and/or projects. Visiting-cards and articles will be published on http://theatre.m-szkola.net to establish a platform for exchanging experiences.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW (From the Imperial Force of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to Free Democracies within the EU). iEARN Austria suggests a new project to all the countries that 100 years ago were part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, asking pupils of participating classes for submissions of drawings, essays, photos/videos accompanied by explanations, recipes, etc. Works will be collected and exhibited in St.Pölten, Austria, in July of 2006, and perhaps the exhibition could move to other participating countries. A cookbook, as well as booklets with the photos and the essays may also be produced. Contact Maria Bader in Austria.

BRAZILIAN CLASS LOOKING FOR PARTNERS FOR TOURISM. Adriana who teaches English as a Second Language in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil has two of groups of students interested in joining an iEARN project! Brazil is famous for its beaches, Carnival and soccer - what most don`t know is that we are a much more extensive country than that! Please get in touch so we can start exchanging information! http://foro.iearn.org/.ff02cde/

KINDRED PROJECT LOOKING FOR PARTICIPANTS. Judy Barr would like to extend an invitation to everyone to join the Kindred project. This is a family history project with an emphasis on oral histories. Students are asked to interview member of their immediate family (mother, father, brothers, sisters), extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts), neighbours or friends in the local community. They should ask them about experiences in their life that have been affected by the events of world or local history. Events may include war, natural disasters, migration, important discoveries, monuments, famous places and so on. Students should focus on the impact for the family. Please visit the Family Forum to see sample submissions. This project will accept entries until April 2006 and plan to publish a book before the conference in Netherlands. We have published two books in the past - stories from previous years can be found at www.iearn.org.au/kindred

LOOKING FOR FRENCH SPEAKING STUDENTS. A teacher of French in Archbishop Porter Girls' Secondary School in Ghana is currently writing a thesis on the impact of the email on the attitudes of form 2 French students towards writing French. She would be very grateful if she could be linked to French speaking students who are also in the secondary school to provide them with authentic audience. Students are between ages 16-18.

WORKSHOPS IN YEMEN. This month is really busy in Yemen with a TOT to 27 master trainers in Sanaa followed by a cascaded training and a master training to 27 new educators in Aden. Starting Sept. 27 a series of 3-day workshops will be delivered by 20 iEARN Yemeni master trainers to 200 teachers from 5 schools in Sanaa. This will run with a parallel 5-day workshop to 27 Master trainers (20 teachers, 5 principals and MoE representative) in the city of Aden. Please welcome the teachers and send them messages in the Arabic forum and in English in the Teachers' forum.

NEW YORK CITY WORKSHOP. On Wedn. Sept. 7, teachers at Information Technology High School in Queens will participate in a beginner workshop. Please send greetings to them and invite them to join your students in project work by responding to the request for greetings in the Teachers' Lounge http://foro.iearn.org/WebX?13@@.eea5487

THE JOURNAL CALL FOR ARTICLES. THE Journal is looking a long article under 2,500 or a few short articles about 750-1,000 words a piece on International Technology Collaboration for the January issue. They would need to start seeing articles by the beginning of October. The best guidelines to follow are here. If anyone has specific questions they can contact Matt Miller, Managing Editor THE Journal.

JOIN EYE TO EYE VIDEOCONFERENCE! On Saturday, September 10, 2005 the Eye To Eye Project will sponsor an open video conference at the 4th Annual Laconia New Hampshire Multicultural Marketday from 11am to 5pm EDLST. (use Boston as your reference time when figuring the time zones) You will need either iChat and a mac id or Yahoo 7 and a Yahoo id. These can be downloaded free. In addition you will need a basic web cam and/or microphone. Both of these downloads will allow you to either audio or video conference with us. If you do not have a web cam you can at least see us at our location and talk to us via web phone. If you are interested I will be testing the system and adding you to my list of participants. Just send me an email with your respective ids and we can try it out before the 10th of September. The following link will help you to figure time zone differences: http://www.timeanddate.com/ Waiting to hear from you! Larry Frates, Eye To Eye facilitator.

Check it out! Resources, Contests, Web Sites and Announcements (This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)

PARTICIPATE IN THE DANIEL PEARL MUSIC DAYS. Music Days is inspired by the life of the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered in 2002 in Pakistan. A classically trained violinist, an avid fiddler and a mandolin player, Pearl used his passion for music to form friendships across language barriers and cultural divides. For more info on Daniel Pearl Music Days and the Harmony for Humanity e-Stage please visit http://www.musicdays.org. This event is sponsored by the Daniel Pearl Foundation a partner organization on the Pearl on the Pearl World Youth News Project http://www.danielpearl.org/

PLANT A TREE FOR ENVIRONMENT, EDUCATION AND PEACE! ENO-Environment Online is a global web school for environmental awareness and sustainable development. We will open our school year 21st of September 2005. We celebrate it with planting trees during the day, at 12.00 local time, together with schools/clubs in the North, South, East and West. All the schools/clubs or individual children/young people are invited to join this activity. Register your school/group here.

WORLD EDUCATION DATABASE BEING CREATED BY KINDERSITE PROJECT. A new resource for global or regional education projects. See http://www.world-education-database.org.

IRCC CONTRIBUTION FROM JAPAN. Mr. Genta Nakano, Maiko High School in Hyogo pref., the Leader of NDYS Student Committee, after the series of National Disaster Youth Summit organized students to collect money for Tsunami victims. With other NDYS students, he stood at the streets in Kobe area and appealed to walking people. They collected 30,618 Yen (about $267) for the International Relief Coordinating Committee (IRCC) fund.

BRIDGE REGIONAL CONFERENCE WEBCAST! On July 7-12, 2005 over 150 educators and students from iEARN programs in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States gathered in Beirut for the Third Annual BRIDGE Regional Conference. The BRIDGE Program began three years ago with an aim of enabling students and teachers in the US and countries with sizeable Muslim populations to build cultural understanding in an educational context. Some of the themes discussed were explored are: culture, civil society, globalization, and language learning. If you missed this great event, don't worry! You can find many of the sessions at: http://kidzonline.org/iearn/.

SHARE YOUR STORY ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL iEARN PROJECT! Alexey at iEARN-USA writes, "Proud about your iEARN experience? Feel that the project you accomplished with you students has made a real difference in the world? We suggest you share your Story of Success with other iEARNers and prospective participants. You can find some stories we have collected so far on our curriculum integration webpage. You can also find there a Case Study Template that you can use as guidelines to write your story." You can submit your stories to Alexey Andreev. New stories that have been sent recently: Do We Have a Spare Planet? by Bosede Oyeteju Amoo, Nigeria. Laws of Life by Nina Koptyug, Russia. Art Miles by Nila Pershad, Suriname.

iEARN ANNUAL REPORT. The iEARN Annual Reports are now available at: www.iearn.org.au/international They are in PDF format. As well as Annual Reports from countries, the document contains many other things, including the iEARN Constitution, a record of decisions made in the preceding 12 months, Operational Decisions of iEARN, application forms for Centre and Representatives membership and lists of Assembly members and accredited Representatives.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

BEGINNERS WORKSHOP IN CAMEROUN. On September 10 a 10 hour workshop will be held at Lycee Joss: Multimedia Center. It will cover: What is the Professional Development Course, What is Project Base Learning and Learning Circle, How to navigate in iearn, How to navigate in Global teenager Website and Pedagogical use of E-mail. The facilitators will be Francois Donfack and Balbine Tagne.

PLANT A TREE FOR ENVIRONMENT, EDUCATION AND PEACE! ENO-Environment Online is a global web school for environmental awareness and sustainable development. We will open our school year 21st of September 2005. We celebrate it with planting trees during the day, at 12.00 local time, together with schools/clubs in the North, South, East and West. All the schools/clubs or individual children/young people are invited to join this activity. Register your school/group here.

WORLD EDUCATION DATABASE BEING CREATED BY KINDERSITE PROJECT. A new resource for global or regional education projects. See
http://www.world-education-database.org

THE ROLE OF ICT IN BRIDGE-BUILDING AND SOCIAL INCLUSION, SEPTEMBER 13-15, 2006, NORTHERN IRELAND. This international conference will bring together academics, practitioners and policy makers to examine the theory, practice and policy implications of using Information Communications Technology to bring students together for joint work. Contact Dr. Roger Austin, Head of School of Education, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.

Recent Events!

REGIONAL MEETING IN CENTRAL EUROPE. iEARN Coordinators and teachers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria met recently to discuss the programs in their three countries. In addition, they took the opportunity to paint a mural to be part of the Art Miles Project. Maria Bader, iEARN-Austria Representative, writes: "We enjoyed a very active and successful weekend, and hope all the spirit and energy of it will carry us
along the coming school year!"

WORKSHOP IN MALAYSIA. Thirty five Chinese language teachers from Perak State, participated in a pbl/iEARN workshop on Sept. 2.

WORKSHOP IN INDONESIA. Forty teachers from all over Indonesia joining iEARN participated in a workshop from 18-22 August in Cisarua Bogor.

WORKSHOP IN INDIA. Fifty eight students from Garware College of Commerce, Pune participated in a workshop Aug. 30-Sept. 1.

WORKSHOPS IN PAKISTAN. Nalia Khan facilitated a beginners workshop with a Teddy Bear session on Aug. 27 in Islamabad. Tabassum Fatima facilitated a workshop at Fatimiyah Girls school in Karachi on the Teddy Bear Project on Sept. 1.

PBL AND iEARN COURSE FOR LECTURERS IN MALAYSIA. On 27 August iEARN Malaysia conducted a workshop for 26 lecturers from Teacher's Colleges in Penang, Malaysia.

WORKSHOP IN EGYPT. Ghada Fathi, and Elgohary Helal held a beginners workshop for teachers at experiental schools in Nasr City Sept. 4-6.

THIRD ANNUAL BRIDGE REGIONAL CONFERENCE, BEIRUT, LEBANON, JULY 8-13, 2005.