|
iEARN
in Action, September 20, 2006
iEARN MOURNS THE LOSS OF TALIS
BERCIS, iEARN-LATVIA COUNTRY COORDINATOR!
From
Cheryl Morgan (iEARN-UK), Daniel Kakinda (iEARN-Uganda), Bob Carter
(iEARN-Australia), iEARN Executive Council (EC): "It is our
sad and sombre duty to inform you that Talis Bercis, Coordinator
of iEARN Latvia, has passed away. Talis died of a malarial infection
he contracted in April. Talis is known to many of us for his long
and active service of teachers and students in iEARN. He was a
member of the iEARN Secretariat and a major motivator of iEARN
in Europe."
"It
is a tragedy for his family and friends and a big loss for Latvia.
There is nobody around able to substitute
him. This is just to explain: last year he agreed to be in charge
of eTwinning and organized a lot of events to promote the project
in Latvia. When we were together in Austria at eTwinning conference,
he as always was a leader of our team, the same as at Microsoft's
Forum for Innovative Teachers (his profile was published at http://www.innovativeteachers.org/e-europe.htm ). He also kept together all the people who started working in iEARN
years ago and this year contacted each of us in connection with the
annual report we made together listing all the activities that are
going on in the country in iEARN schools. We were planning to organize
a reunion in June to celebrate 10-year anniversary of iEARN in Latvia
and we are still stuck to the idea, sadly without him. We called
Talis our minister of foreign affairs as he had a special talent
to communicate with people, to involve them in different projects
and activities and to find the way to everybody's heart. I guess
it is impossible to over evaluate what he has done for education,
teachers and students and we, his colleagues and friends, can't stop
thinking about the terrible accident that took him away from us.
I believe that many people in iEARN community not only in Latvia
but also in other countries will remember him with love and warm
feelings."
-
Ligija Kolosovska, iEARN-Latvia
------------------------------------------------------------
Please Note: Dates of 2007 iEARN Annual
Conference in Egypt have been moved to July 21-26. See below for
details.
Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects!
1. Download new 2006-2007 iEARN Project Book.
2. Cultural Recipes Book: Food for Thought.
3. Future Citizens Project.
4. Little Explorers Science Project.
5. Machinto - a project about the impact of war.
6. Made in Europe.
7. The Many Faces of Poverty and Homelessness.
8. Millennium Development Goals - Only With Your Voice.
9. Teachers and pupils in Korolev, Russia seeking partners.
10. School in Texas, USA seeking partners.
11. ENO Environment Project sponsors global tree-planting day on
September 21.
Resources, Contests, Websites and Announcements!
12. Register by Sept 25 for iEARN Online Professional Development
Courses.
13. New PEARL Online Journalism Course for teachers starts October
9.
14. Apply now for the SEED Awards 2007.
15. Participate in math survey by iEARN teacher in Iran.
Upcoming Events!
16. iEARN-Indonesia organizes training workshop on iEARN Learning
Circles.
17. Australian Computers in Education Conference.
18. YouthCaN in New York City, April 23, 2007.
19. iEARN-Egypt to host 2007 iEARN International Conference and Youth
Summit in Cairo, July 21-26.
------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************
Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects
**********************************************************
1. DOWNLOAD THE NEW 2006-2007 iEARN
PROJECT BOOK! An 83 page collection of currently
active iEARN projects from teachers and students
around the world.
2.
CULTURAL RECIPES BOOK: FOOD FOR THOUGHT PROJECT. Students
are invited to research recipes of typical dishes in their countries
as well
as the origin of the ingredients and recipes, and the legends and
stories behind them. Possible project/classroom activities include
research, discussion, illustration, and production of a book.
Interested? Contact Bill Belsey in
Canada.
3.
FUTURE
CITIZEN PROJECT. A student-led project to support
youth to use their leadership skills in their local community and
globally.
Between September and May, students will research laws, elections,
and governmental systems in their own country as well as complete
a service learning project such as a voter registration drive,
volunteering for a candidate, volunteering at the polls, or writing
letters to government officials about important community issues.
Contact Britni Stinson in
the USA .
 4. LITTLE
EXPLORERS. In this project, children will perform
a series of activities such as research games and experiments.
Children
and teachers will analyse the results of the activities, describe,
exchange and publish them using ICT. Facilitated by: Ewa Kurzak,
Halina Bednarz, and Sylwester Strzelec in Poland.
 5.
MACHINTO - DO YOU HEAR THE LITTLE BIRD CRYING? Based
on a picture book called 'Machinto' and children's art in wartime
'They Still
Draw Pictures,' participants research what kind of wars have taken
place after Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and learn about a little bird still
crying somewhere in the world. They learn what wars bring us, and
discuss what together we can do for this little bird. They will
make creative picture books to present for those little birds in
the world. Facilitated
by: Jennifer Geist in USA, and Yoko
Takagi in Japan.
6.
MADE
IN EUROPE. Pupils start by answering one question:
What does Europe mean to me and my country? This is the first assignment
in a line of tasks based upon knowledge of Europe and the European
Union, in 6 levels. Any group or individual pupil can participate.
Then, as an option, individual teachers from countries all over
the world are invited to manage 1 digital 'national classroom'
in which they can create assignments on their own country, thus
enabling pupils from Europe to learn about all the countries in
the world, also based upon 6 levels. Facilitated by: Marleen Spierings
in the Netherlands.
7.
THE MANY FACES OF POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS. This project will include
access to an online environment to provide resources and support
for participating teachers as well as a specific environment developed
for connecting students involved in the project.
Facilitated by: Michelle Speight, Calgary
Board of Education, Canada.
8.
MDG's - ONLY WITH YOUR VOICE. The Millennium Development
Goals were adopted in 2000, during the United Nations Millennium
Summit,
when 189 head of States and Governments agreed to work together
to make a better world to all by 2015. They have signed, on behalf
of their people, the Millennium Declaration, which intends to make
the right to development a reality to everyone. Facilitated by:
Muhammad Salman, Maria Mirza, Naila Khan - Pakistan, Nuria Peguero
- USA, Mostafa Nejati - IRAN, Amanda Albuquerque - Brazil. Contact
Muhammad Salman in Pakistan.
9.
TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN RUSSIA SEEKING PARTNERS FOR SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER
PROJECT WORK. We are pupils of the 7th and 9th forms,
School 20. Our town is 6 kms from Moscow. It is called Korolev.
The history
of the town is closely connected with space industry. Korolev is
like Houston in the USA. We have been studying English for 5 years.
We have English lessons three times a week. We would like to work
on the projects on different topics. We would be very glad to become
acquainted with teenagers from different countries. We would like
to participate in existing projects and initiate a project of our
own. Contact Natalia Onik in Russia.
10.
SCHOOL IN TEXAS, USA SEEKING PARTNERS. St. John's Episcopal
School in Dallas, Texas is looking for global partners for a 7th
grade
Math Project, a 6th grade Science Project and a 2nd grade Tulip
project. Please email
me if you would like the details of the projects.
 11.
ENO ENVIRONMENT PROJECT SPONSORS GLOBAL TREE-PLANTING DAY, SEPTEMBER
21, 2006. The first trees will be planted in Australia. Then following
the Sun, trees will spread to Asia, Europe and Africa. Finally
trees will be planted in the North and South America. So far schools
from 70 countries have registered for the event. For more information,
see here.
**********************************************************
Check it Out! Resources, Contests, Websites, Announcements.
(This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)
**********************************************************
12.
REGISTER BY SEPTEMBER 25 FOR NEXT SESSION OF iEARN ONLINE COURSES! Courses
run October 9th - December 10th. Each course brings together
educators from around the world to develop strategies for integrating
online collaborative projects and international exchange into
their
curricula. To register and learn more, see here.
13.
NEW PEARL ONLINE JOURNALISM COURSE STARTS OCTOBER 9. The
course enables high school teachers to integrate journalism and
international reporting into their curricula. The course is based
on the PEARL World
Youth News project. For more information, click
here.
 14.
APPLY NOW FOR THE SEED AWARDS 2007. Do you have an innovative
idea for a partnership project that may contribute to sustainable
development? There is an October 15 deadline for civil society
and the private sector to apply for funding from SEED with project
ideas that promote economically and environmentally sustainable
development. SEED
stands for Supporting Entrepreneurs For Environment and Development.
See http://www.seedinit.org for more details.
15.
SUPPORT RESEARCH OF iEARN TEACHER IN IRAN. Maryam Behnoodi,
facilitator of the Mathematics Virtual Learning Circle is conducting
an online
survey about use of multimedia for math projects. To fill out the
survey, click
here.
**********************************************************
Upcoming Events
**********************************************************
16. iEARN
TRAINING WORKSHOP ON LEARNING CIRCLES BEING HELD IN INDONESIA,
SEPTEMBER 18-21, 2006. Hasnah Gasim, iEARN-Indonesia Representative,
announces workshop at the Hotel Pitagiri in Jakarta, covering iEARN
and Learning Circles for
20 selected schools which will be upgraded to international status.
The workshop
is being facilitated by Indonesian facilitators, and, once trained,
the participating teachers will support other teachers in their schools
to internationalise their own classrooms. Post greeting messages
to them in the iEARN
Teachers Forum.
 17.
AUSTRALIAN COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION CONFERENCE (ACEC), CAIRNS,
FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND,
OCTOBER 2-4. Organised by iEARN Australia and the Asia
Education Foundation. If any iEARN members are interested in
attending
or presenting, contact iEARN Australia iearnoz@iearn.org.au.
For details, see http://www.acec2006.info
 18.
YouthCaN 2007 EVENT TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY ON APRIL 23,
2007.
Watch http://www.youthcanworld.org for
details of this and other YouthCaN events happening around the
world. YouthCaN is a year-round
network within iEARN of students using telecommunications technologies
to undertake and/or share environmental work locally and around the
world.
 19.
iEARN-EGYPT TO HOST 14TH ANNUAL iEARN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
AND 11TH YOUTH
SUMMIT, JULY 21 - 26, 2007 IN CAIRO. Connecting Cultures...Respecting
Differences. A global dialogue for development and sustainability.
Stay tuned for details. http://www.iearnegypt.org/
**********************************************************
For
Reference
**********************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------
TO
SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE NEWSFLASH: Send your
announcement (2-3 lines) to newsflash@us.iearn.org.
------------------------------------------------------------
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a
global non-profit network that empowers teachers and students
to undertake projects designed to make a meaningful contribution
to the health and welfare of the planet and its people. Started
in 1988, iEARN is currently active in over 120 countries, with
1,000,000 students participating as part of their education.
iEARN-International: http://www.iearn.org
Download the 2005-2006 iEARN Project Book: http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html (available in Arabic, English, French, and Japanese) or for
a full listing of iEARN projects, see: http://www.iearn.org/projects/
-------------------------------------------------------------
back to top
|
New 
