iEARN in Action, November 9, 2005

iEARN FESTIVAL IN CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEKS, NOVEMBER 14-30, 2005. Halina Bednarz of iEARN in Poland writes -- The aim of this festival is to celebrate international cooperation among iEARN network schools. We suggest the following activities:

- Folk costumes and related traditions - an activity for students to organize in their school a folk costumes parade or role-play: simulating a tradition from their country, with pictures uploaded on the web. Coordinator Cornelia Platon. "Alexandru Papiu Ilarian" Highschool Dej, iEARN Coordinator for Romania.
- Video-conferences, chats. Coordinator Larry Frates, Eye to Eye Project facilitator, USA.
- Cross-cultural performances. Coordinator Halina Bednarz, MKI Poland http://theatre.m-szkola.net.
- Website for iEARN Festival & competition for logo. Coordinators Halina Bednarz, Marek Grzegorz Sawicki Poland,
- Exhibitions at schools, meetings, painting exhibition dedicated to these events, and all the participating schools are welcomed to send photos from their exhibitions for the large virtual gallery with paintings on the iEARN Festival's website, and many more activities!

Please send reports, photos and articles to mki@m-szkola.net. For more information, see http://www.glogow.pl/iearn/ or join the iEARN Teachers Forum discussion thread here.

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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RELIEF WORK CONTINUES. 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. Some recent examples of activities in iEARN:

Students and teachers from Uzbekistan started working on Comfort Quilt Project and we are preparing 50 quilts to send to Pakistan. http://quilts.iearn.uz/. For more about the project and to connect to the online forum, see here.

iEARN Pakistan invites iEARNers worldwide to share stories and pictures of earthquake efforts in the Students Unlimited Project Forum. They write, "Please log in the iEARN Interactive forum titled 'Students Unlimited and look for the folder titled 'Pakistan Earth Quake Global Relief Efforts' and post picture with caption and reports. Students Unlimited forum can be accessed here. Our teachers from Pakistan have initiated with campaigns that seek to provide relief and comfort to the victims of this horrendous earth quake that has killed thousands of people and have brought millions of people on the streets. We will appreciate if you come forward to help these teachers in their initiative to make a difference and be the cause of bringing a smile on their faces. If you have stories of how you have helped in the relief work do not forget to log on to the Students Unlimited and let us know of your stories. Click here to learn more about the project.

For more, see http://www.iearn.org/relief.html

BULLYING AWARENESS WEEK, NOVEMBER 14-20, 2005. Bill Belsey, iEARN-Canada Coordinator, writes, "Dear friends of the Bullying.org Project, http://www.bullying.org. Thank you for expressing your interest in participating in Bullying Awareness Week from November 14h to the 20th, 2005. 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 the http://www.bullying.org Web site. Please feel free to share this message and this information with as many of your contacts as you may think is appropriate. Thank you for helping to make a difference for others!" To join in the project's online forum, see here.

TAKE PART IN CHRISTMAS CARDS EXCHANGE. Prepare with your students' envelopes with Christmas postcards of your country (prepare as many envelopes with postcards as the number of participants the project will have finally). Send them by snail mail. Receiving the envelopes with the postcards and all the Christmas staff from all over the world just before Christmas, you will be able to organise a wonderful exhibition in your school. To participate, contact Barbara Lialiagina, Brasil.

TEACHERS IN GERMANY SEEKING ENGLISH LANGUAGE PARTNERS. Interested in partnering with classes in Germany? Contact Julia Mosthaf in the USA. Please write in subject line: English-German language partners".

GOOD DEEDS PROJECT PLANS ONLINE PRESENTATION ON NOVEMBER 19TH. Facilitator Ismail Fayed in Egypt writes, "I'm pleased to inform you that I will be presenting a session about online facilitation and collaborative learning in our project. The presentation is part of an online conference that will explore "the latest synchronous and non-synchronous communications technologies, including video and voice, to adapt and demonstrate new innovative ideas for e learning and classroom curriculum." This event is free and you are all welcome to participate if you want. If you are interested in attending this session, email Ismail. Learn more here.

NEW 'STUDENT LIFE' PROJECT. Students will have to define success. Is it money? Is it family or love? Following ones dreams? Is it having a good life? What is a good life? When students compare their living conditions? to others they will learn more about themselves. They will get to know other cultures? understanding of success and the path to it. http://www.iearn.org/projects/studentlife.html. Facilitated by Paul Metni (from Lebanon) teaching in China and Eddie Kigozi (from Uganda) teaching in India as part of the World Education Corps.

NEW 'CITY BUILDING' PROJECT. Cities group a lot of people in the same place. They are bound to grow and people are bound to gather in them, as Jim Martin states in his book, The Meaning of the 21st Century: Transformation and Survival. Big cities have big advantages as well as big challenges, ranging from pollution to social divide. Cities can be a factor of prosperity or, on the contrary, of poverty. This place that gathers life is a constant threat to it. Every human being wants a future and this project is for students to say how they want their future to be by describing their dream city. http://www.iearn.org/projects/studentlife.html. Facilitated by Paul Metni (from Lebanon) currently teaching in China.

JOIN IN THE KINDRED ORAL HISTORY PROJECT!  Represent your country! The Kindred project has been running since May and still has only three countries represented. The Oral History project requires students to interview a family member about the effect of an event in world history on his or her life. Many stories involve wars and the effect on the people who lived through tragic circumstances. It would be lovely to hear stories that explain the reason families leave their homeland to settle in a new country. With many celebrations in different countries between now and the end of the year, perhaps your students could interview grandparents and tell us about the changes in celebrations during their lifetime.  Please join us in the Oral History - Kindred project. Contact Judy Barr in Australia if you need further help.

SEEKING PARTNERS IN AFRICA. Taunya Van Pevenage of the USA writes, "I'm new to iEARN, but am excited about the partnership opportunities for my classes. My 7th grade social studies class in Davenport, Washington State, USA is researching regions around the world to learn about how landforms, climate, resources, people, economy, government and arts/recreation. We are comparing these 7 categories as we travel around the globe. We are currently learning about sub-Saraha Africa." Any teachers and students in that region who are interested in partnering, email Taunya.

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

STOCKHOLM CHALLENGE AWARDS OPEN FOR ENTRIES! To submit a project, see here. For more information, see http://www.stockholmchallenge.se or contact Earl Mardle. Deadline for submitting projects is December 31!

"DOORS TO DIPLOMACY" WEB PROJECT COMPETITION. Projects must be completed by March 17, 2006. Winners will be announced in May 2006. See http://globalschoolhouse.org/doors/

WORLDWIDE SURVEY TO UNDERSTAND STUDENTS' UNDERSTANDING OF MOBILE PHONES AND RADIO WAVES. The survey form is located at http://radiology.um.edu.my/emfsurvey. Projector coordinator: Prof. KH Ng.

LOCAL COVERAGE OF LEBANON-US BRIDGE PROGRAM EXCHANGE. See the Verona, Wisconsin, "Capital Times" article here.

CONGRATULATIONS TO LARRY FRATES, iEARN TEACHER IN THE USA. Larry, a BRIDGE Master Trainer Alum, and coordinator of the Eye to Eye Project, has been selected as a Semifinalist in Technology & Learning's 2005 Leader of the Year Program, which will be noted in their December 2005 Awards Issue.
http://www.techlearning.com/

RESOURCES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN- Global Studies Education Website. Free Web Conference: "Globalization and Education: A Webconference on What It Means to Teach from a Global Perspective" will take place on January 14, 2006. See here. Online Masters of Education in Global Studies: The Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applicants for Global Studies in Education Online, a web-based Master of Education degree aimed at educators of all types interested in incorporating global perspectives into their pedagogy and practice. For program information, see http://gse.ed.uiuc.edu.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

CONNECTING VOICES: A CONVERSATION WITH MIDDLE EASTERN AND PAKISTANI EXCHANGE STUDENTS, NOVEMBER 16, 2005. What's it like to be an exchange student from the Middle East, living in the United States with an American host family and attending high school? On November 16th at 12 (noon) EST, high school students from around the U.S. will be able to ask questions and share ideas with exchange students from the Middle East and Pakistan through a videoconference being produced by Global Nomads, in partnership with AYUSA and iEARN-USA as part of their work coordinating the YES Exchange Program, funded by U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Duration: 90 minutes. Cost: FREE for view-only schools. More information:
http://www.gng.org/ayusa.

WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY. Look for iEARN-Iran and iEARN-Tunisia at the summit Tunisia, November 16-18, 2005. http://www.smsitunis2005.org/

3-DAY NATIONAL iEARN-INDIA CONFERENCE, PUNE, NOVEMBER 24-26, 2005. Technology Learning Initiatives in Schools? will be the conference theme. We welcome all iEARN-India nationwide schools to the conference at Pune. The conference will feature teacher's workshops, presentations,  student's PowerPoint competitions, and student's iEARN project presentations. For more information, contact <bsmsch@vsnl.net>. Send greetings in the Teachers Forum

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/.

eLearning AFRICA CONFERENCE, MAY 24-26, 2006. Join in the first international conference on ICT for development, education and training to be held in Addis Ababa from May 24 - 26, 2006 (more information available here). Girma Mitiku, iEARN-Ethiopia Coordinator and Conference Advisory Committee member (http://www.elearning-africa.com/partner_advisory.php) writes, "All iEARNers are supposed to participate, especially the African iEARNers!"

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

Recent Events!

THE FIRST iTHINKEEZ ONLINE PARTY, OCTOBER 21, 2005. In an innovative action, more than 10 members of iTHINK project/forum of iEARN took part in an online party on Oct. 21, 2005 to celebrate one of the members's birthdays and spread the message of peace, friendship and love. The members wished a dream at the end of the party. "I wish a beautiful world with happiness", wishes Hadis a 16 year old girl from Iran. To find mote about the online party and the iTHINK Project see here, and the forum: http://foro.iearn.org/.1dec7696/

SCHOOLNET IRAN CONFERENCE FEATURED IN PAYVAND NEWSPAPER.  Read the online newspaper, Payvand's "8th Annual Schoolnet Conference a Great Success," article, featuring SchoolNet Iran's September 13-16 conference. http://www.payvand.com/news/05/nov/1010.html