iEARN in Action, October 21, 2005

Many people in iEARN have asked what they can to do to help people affected by the earthquake in northern Pakistan/India, by the hurricane in the gulf coast of the USA and by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated communities in a number of south and southeast Asia countries. There are many international relief agencies working daily to provide food, clothing, shelter, water and health care to people in need. Please participate in these efforts. In addition, iEARN teachers and students have established several Natural Disaster Projects. See http://www.iearn.org/relief.html and
the "iEARN Projects" section below for more details.

NEW ISSUE OF iEARN's INTERNATIONAL "INTERACTION" NEWSLETTER. Download a copy of the new 2005 iEARN Interaction Newsletter! Read about the iEARN Conference in Senegal in July, the experience of students in Suriname who participated in the Guinness Record Breaking Art Miles Project, iEARN in Palestine, and much more! Thanks to Otgo Okhidoi and Alexey Andreev for serving as Editors for this issue.
http://www.iearn.org/interaction2005.pdf (868 kb, pdf).

iEARN FESTIVAL IN CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEKS. Halina Bednarz of iEARN in Poland writes, "iEARN schools are welcomed to the first iEARN Festival! DATE: November 14-30. Aim of this project is to celebrate international cooperation at iEARN network schools." For more information, see here or join the iEARN Teachers Forum discussion thread.

Join Us! iEARN Projects, Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

**Download the 2005-2006 iEARN Project Book:
http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html, or for a full listing of iEARN
projects, see: http://www.iearn.org/projects/

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PAKISTAN EARTH QUAKE GLOBAL RELIEF EFFORTS. iEARN Pakistan invites iEARNers from all over the world to share their stories and pictures of Earth Quake Relief Efforts in the Students Unlimited Forum. Please login to the iEARN Interactive forum here, look for the 'Pakistan Earth Quake Global Relief Efforts' discussion, and post pictures with caption and reports. The Students Unlimited forum can be accessed directly at: http://foro.iearn.org/.ff0da87/.

SUPPORT FOR VICTIMS OF EARTHQUAKE.  Kalsoom, of iEARN in Pakistan, writes, "Dear iEARN Community, The terrible earthquake that struck northern Pakistan and Many parts in Afghanistan and India brought horror, tragedy, death and homelessness many of the victim were school children...the international community is extending their help generously. It will be of great assistance if the ever generous iEARN Community comforts the victims through the healing touch of art. Alif Laila Book Bus Society Lahore has a great idea! "A Comfort Doll." It can be made of Paper doll, Stuffed doll, Artwork (beads and Sequence) doll, or a Design of your own style. Since Alif Laila believes in the healing power of art, the following materials will be a source of comfort: Coloring Makers, Pencils, Crayons, Poster colors. Toys and other gifts for the children affected by the earthquake can be sent to Syeda Basarat Kazim, Alif Laila Book Bus Society, 3,B Gulberg II, Lahore, Pakistan. For more information, contact Kalsoom.

NATURAL DISASTER YOUTH SUMMIT (NDYS) --

NEW NDYS WEBSITE. See the website created by The Earthquake Club in Iran http://eq.schoolnet.ir. For more about the Natural Disaster Youth Summit, see here

NDYS LITTLE AMBASSADORS TRAVEL THE WORLD. As part of the NDYS Project, many schools have exchanged NDYS Little Ambassadors. Each school that receives an ambassador keeps a diary of its stay, materials which can be useful to understand the culture, or information on disaster preparedness. The school which sent the bear is taught about the culture in other countries by their Little Ambassador. The NYDS Sakura Bear is currently packing his bags to leave Salta, Argentina
for Hyogo, Japan. See more about the Little Ambassadors Program here.

LOVE VOICE (A project by: iPEACE Project facilitating team). "We still
remember the earthquake tragedy of Bam, Iran where thousands of
innocent people were killed; the disastrous hurricane in USA where
many people lost their housing and properties. And now! Another
tragedy in Pakistan. iPEACE Project facilitating team in cooperation
with iEARN-Iran, and MAMEA Group, invites all of you to let your Love
Voice be heard by the innocent victims of these tragedies through this
gate! Share your sympathies with the victims, ideas on how to tackle
such problems, comments and/or love voices with us. Your Love voices will be shared through iPEACE Project Forum linked from http://www.iearn.org/projects/ipeace.html.

CLASSES IN BRAZIL SEEKING SIDE BY SIDE ART PROJECT PARTNERS. Rowena Gerber, USA, facilitator of the project, writes, "We have three schools in Brazil looking for art and cultural exchanges for the Side-By-Side project.Two of the classes are ages 10-13, and one class is 14-17 in age. Interested? Email Rowena Gerber.

PEARL WORLD YOUTH NEWS PROJECT. Recently 30 more high school students from Dundalk (Ireland), Cheltenham (UK) and New York (US) have joined the PEARL World Youth News project.  They are now taking the PEARL reporter certification course to begin working for the online news service as PEARL Reporters. The PEARL project also welcomes graduate students from New York University's Department of Journalism as evaluators. They will join students from Columbia University's School of Journalism to review and certify high school students upon completion of the PEARL reporter certification course. The PEARL reporter certification course is available online and free of cost to all high school students interested in joining the project at any time as news reporters. For more information, see
http://wwww.iearn.org/pearlproject/.

TO TALK WITH SANTA CLAUS. Open to all students to imagine, write, and
paint works about Santa Claus, and to relate their experiences and stories about when Santa Claus comes to their country. Contact Ecaterina Rupesac in Romania.

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, AND HOW. This project will allow students from around the world the opportunity to ask question about who, what, when, where, why and how, from any subject area, which will be posted on the project website for others to see. Contact Brian Phillips in the USA.

iEARN-NETHERLANDS INVITES ALL TO JOIN A WEB BASED GAME ON 17TH CENTURY TRADE. With this game we try to teach geography, economics, languages and cultures of other countries to everyone who is interested! In the game it is the objective to buy products and sell them in another harbour where you get the most profit! We are using harbours in various countries, each with its own product and environment. For this we need help from the inhabitants of important ports in the 17th century. We need information about your culture, language, nature and trade goods that were important in the 17th century, if you want to help us we will give you the exact specifications. For your help, you get a chance to win a scholarship of 1.000 euro for the iEARN 2006 conference in the Netherlands (http://www.iearn2006.org). If you want to participate and try to help us, mail us. You can see our game here.

DOWNLOAD A BULLYING AWARENESS WEEK TOOLKIT, CREATED BY iEARN-CANADA. Bill Belsey, iEARN-Canada Coordinator, writes, "We want to let you know that you can now download a Bullying Awareness Week Toolkit and many other free helpful materials and information in Adobe Acrobat PDF format from the "I Want to Help - Bullying Awareness Week" section of http://www.bullying.org. Bullying Awareness Week will take place from November 14th to the 20th, 2005.".

Related Note --

Dear Bill [Belsey, Coordinator of iEARN-Canada], A heartfelt thank you for your continued national and international efforts and dedication to preventing and dealing with peer abuse through iEARN, http://www.bullying.org and http://www.cyberbullying.ca. Your National Bullying Awareness Toolkit is another excellent resource. Peer abuse awareness and prevention continues to be an on-going project in the Limestone Board, and thanks to your skills and knowledge, our teachers, schools and students are acquiring a wealth of information to help them on this journey of constant new learning. May the National Bullying Awareness Week inspire a chain reaction of
acceptance, celebration and respect for human diversity across the
nation in our schools, communities, institutions, work places, homes,
and beyond.

With much appreciation...Meri Marja-terttu MacLeod, Human Rights
Education Advisor, Limestone District School Board.

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

STOCKHOLM CHALLENGE AWARDS OPEN FOR ENTRIES! Stockholm Challenge Awards 2006 invites excellent ICT projects from all over the world to compete for the prestigious Challenge trophies. Added this year is the WSIS Challenge Award worth 10.000 Euro to the best ICT for Empowerment Project in Africa. To submit a project, see here. For more information, see http://www.stockholmchallenge.se or contact Earl Mardle <earl.mardle@stockholmchallenge.se>. The Stockholm Challenge Awards will be made in May 2006 and this time there will be cash awards added to the prestige and the excellent networking and knowledge sharing conference that surrounds our award. Deadline for submitting projects is December 31!

BLIND AND VISUALLY-IMPAIRED STUDENTS STUDY AND CREATE RADIO PLAYS.  Learn about musical styles, unique messages in voice and sound, and combining music and the spoken word. Participants will adapt study content to radio broadcasts, create content from their world and put it "on the air", create a circle of friends out of young listeners in Israel and world wide, and create worlds of conversation out of the dilemmas that concern us. Facilitated by Ms. Tova Ben-Ari, Supervisor for Implementation of the Students' Rights Law, Israel. Interested? Contact Ruty Chotzen in Israel. See here.

"DOORS TO DIPLOMACY" WEB PROJECT COMPETITION.  The U.S. Department of State and Global SchoolNet Foundation announce the 2006 "Doors to Diplomacy" award competition. This educational award program for middle and high school students will recognize the student-created projects that best teach others about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. Projects must be completed by March 17, 2006. Winners will be announced in May 2006. Every team that completes a final entry will receive a special Doors to Diplomacy certificate to recognize their achievement. Each student member of the team who wins the "Doors to Diplomacy" receives a $2,000 scholarship, and the winning coaches' schools each receive a $500 cash award. See http://globalschoolhouse.org/doors/

iEARN ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES ARE UNDERWAY! 5 courses (Creative Arts, Creative Writing/Language Arts, Social Studies, Science/Environment/Math, and Teaching of Foreign Languages) are currently in session for 127 participants from 37 countries! For more about iEARN's Online Professional Development Course Program, see http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

iEARN-TAIWAN HOSTS TWO DAY WORKSHOP, OCTOBER 21-22, 2005. iEARN-Taiwan Coordinator, Doris Wu, shares that the workshop will be held by Institute of Education of National Cheng-Kung University for pre-service teachers numbering 100-150 people. You can reach the website http://www.css.ncku.edu.tw/Ed/english.htm. With the help of Prof. Fu-Yun Yu, the main coordinator for this workshop, iEARN Taiwan Team will share their project experiences and PBL theory with these new teachers. Meanwhile, Prof. Yao-ming Chu from National Kaohsiung Normal University will give a lecture on PBL to help these new teachers understand how PBL and iEARN projects can be practiced in their classroom. Post greetings on the Teachers Forum. For more about iEARN-Taiwan, see http://taiwaniearn.org/.

iEARN-ARMENIA HOSTS THREE DAY ALL-ARMENIA iEARN WORKSHOP, OCTOBER 21-23, 2005. iEARN-Armenia Coordinator, Karine Durgaryan, shares that
it will be the first time the Youth Summit for iEARN-Armenia students will be organized at the same time as the workshop. Send greetings to the Youth Forum: or Teachers Forum: For more about iEARN-Armenia, see http://www.iearn.childlib.am/

WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY. Tunisia, 2005. http://www.smsitunis2005.org/

ANNUAL EUN EMINENT 2005 CONFERENCE, PARIS, FRANCE, DECEMBER 8-9, 2005. Hosted by the French Ministry of Education, European Schoolnet's annual Expert Meeting of International and National Educational Networks (EMINENT) conference will feature four concurrent workshop strands: New Schooling Environments Theme, ICT in schools policy, Digital Resources, and Portals. For more information, see http://eminent.eun.org.

2006 iEARN NATURAL DISASTERS YOUTH SUMMIT MEETING IN TAIWAN, JANUARY 6-8, 2006. For more about the project, see http://ndys.jearn.jp/.

2006 iEARN WORLD CONFERENCE AND YOUTH SUMMIT IN ENSCHEDE, NETHERLANDS, JULY 3-7, 2006. http://www.iearn2006.nl/