iEARN in Action, August 29, 2007

Special Update!

REGISTER NOW FOR THE NEXT SESSION OF iEARN ONLINE COURSES (Starting October 15th, 2007) An iEARN 9-week online course will help you integrate international collaborative project-based learning into your classroom and fulfill your curriculum standards. 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 learn new skills for online collaboration. http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html. Global Connections Exchange
Program (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs) Scholarship opportunity available for Secondary School Teachers from: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Arab Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, UAE, United States and Uzbekistan. For more information on online courses write to: onlinepd@us.iearn.org.

Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects!
1. Learning Circle Registration.
2. Trauma in Africa Project.
3. Conversations in Colour - book illustration project.
4. Teachers for mentally challenged students seek partners.
5. PEARL World Youth News Project Welcomes Editorial School.
6. Green Ribbon (Eco-Friendly) Schools Pilot Project.
7. From Revolution to Civil War - a global research project.
8. Sport - Is It Fair?
9. Heart to Heart Project.
10. Friends Book.
11. My Island Home.
12. My Homework - student attitudes and advice regarding homework.
13. CIVICS - Youth Volunteerism and Service Project.
14. Four Rivers, One World.
15. Write On Project.
16. Compass Kidz - a cultural exchange project.
17. My Most Prized Possession.
18. BEST-Building Economies Strong Together.
19. New Online Course to help parents and educators deal with bullying among youth.

Resources, Contests, Websites and Announcements!
20. Be part of a global event - Daniel Pearl World Music Days.
21. Dove of Peace Project.
22. European Union and Non-Discrimination Competition.

Upcoming Events!
23. iEARN workshops in Palestine and the USA.
24. iEARN-India members and youth volunteers observe Community Service Week.
25. Join iEARN-Uzbekistan next year in Bukhara for the 15th Annual iEARN
Conference.

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Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects
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1. LEARNING CIRCLE REGISTRATION! Learning Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small number of schools located throughout the world. There are two sessions each year, September - January and January - May. Register now for the September session. http://media.iearn.org/coursereglc. Questions? Contact Barry Kramer in the USA at learningcircles@iearn.org.

2. TRAUMA IN AFRICA PROJECT.A project to help parents, teachers, children and school administrators understand trauma better, not just from what has been taught or read in books but from a cultural point of view. Participants will exchange information about strategies for coping with trauma and compare these stories with experiences on other continents. All are welcome, including Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. Contact Daniel Olalekan Amusa in Ghana.

3. CONVERSATIONS IN COLOUR. Children are to illustrate a scene or character from their favourite book and make it come alive for themselves, as well as share it with others. Contact Syeda Basarat Kazim in Pakistan.

4. TEACHERS FOR MENTALLY CHALLENGED STUDENTS IN ISRAEL SEEK PROJECT PARTNERS.Two teachers who practice animal assisted therapy at the Beit Rachel Strauss school for mentally challenged kids in Jerusalem would like to find out if there were any other animal assisted therapists or teachers connected to animals who would be interested in a joint project. Email Robin Zelcer or Sharon Pony in Israel.

5. PEARL WORLD YOUTH NEWS PROJECT HAS NEW EDITORIAL SCHOOL.Student editors from the Newspaper Club at Florida Virtual School are joining the PEARL editorial board. Like the PEARL project, the students meet online in live conferences and write and edit the school's online newspaper. Check out this month's stories on PEARL and for more information write to Anindita Dutta Roy.

6. GREEN RIBBON SCHOOL PILOT PROJECT. A format for students to assess and change the --greenness -- of eight areas in their schools including: energy use, waste management, water conservation, transportation, environmental education, community involvement, outdoor environmental quality and chemical product usage. Contact Toni Herrin and Susan Hopper in the USA.

7. REVOLUTION TO CIVIL WAR . Even though every country has its own unique history, many countries share similarities. This project will compare the similarities and differences of countries that have experienced revolutions and/or civil wars. Contact Andrea Perrin in the USA.

8. SPORT - IS IT FAIR? If you are playing a game in your village, if you play professionally, if you go to the Olympics these is a really important question. Sport is supposed to be fair but we all know that it isn't. Athletes take drugs, matches are fixed and sponsorship means some clubs/countries can spend much more on players and facilities. Contact Mary Gowers in the UK.

9. HEART TO HEART. A thematic forum with monthly themes. Children will write poetry, draw pictures and collaborate with their global partners. We will
include world topics that affect us, sharing cooking, fun, poetry for one and
all, family trees and memoirs and peace and its importance. Facilitators:
Tamara Galiulina in Russia, and Lynn Rosen in the USA.

10. FRIENDS BOOK. Participants draw and exchange the pictures of themselves and their life, discuss their drawings, and create one Friends Book, which will help each participant to find new friends and overcome life barriers. Contact Liudmila Trebunskikh in Belarus.

11. MY ISLAND HOME. A project aimed at uniting Asia/Pacific Island Nations to promote shared understanding. This project will enable participants to compare and communicate differences, similarities and opinions through contributions to forums, information sharing, and the web page. Contact Seam Boulton in Australia.

12. MY HOMEWORK. Students from different countries will share ideas with each others about homework. They will discuss topics such as: How often do they ask for help? What makes some homework look exciting while others look boring? What was the most exciting homework they've ever had? Do they think that giving and doing homework is a must? Can the students assign their own homework for each class? Students from different countries may have different ideas about homework relating to their different curricula . Students will have a new conception of why they are usually given homework. Contact Hiba Aqel in Syria.

13. CIVICS. An action-based collaborative on line project in which young
people will get an opportunity to evaluate the social issues in their immediate
and extended communities and respond to them by action projects. Contact Lydia George, Sadaf Hemani, and Syed Mehdi in Pakistan.

14. FOUR RIVERS, ONE WORLD. iEARN organizations in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the United States are pleased to announce the launch of the Four Rivers, One World Project. This project will promote active and responsible citizenship through environmental science collaboration among science teachers and their students in the four countries. Results will be shared at the annual YouthCaN Environmental Conference in April, 2008. http://www.youthcanworld.org.

15. WRITE ON PROJECT. A project focused on developing students writing skills in four domains of writing: Persuasive, Expository, Narrative and Descriptive. The end product of the student writings will published providing them an opportunity to be published authors. Contact Farah Kamal in Pakistan.

16. COMPASS KIDZ. Students fill out user-friendly online questionnaires, to
create a dataset (classrooms or individual students in a city/state/country)
that can be integrated into aspects of curriculum across academic disciplines (math, social studies, writing). Contact Jennifer Apy and Nancy Daniels in the USA.

17. MY MOST PRIZED POSSESSION. An international collaborative project where students examine what is really important in their lives and create a movie about their dearest possession. After a thoughtful look at materialism and self-examination, students around the world are invited to create a two -four minute movie about their most prized possession. Contact Laurie Walshin the USA.

18. BEST-BUILDING ECONOMIES STRONG TOGETHER PROJECT. In pairs 2 countries will organize the best fund-raising event organized by pupils who promote their virtual companies that sell re-cycled goods in a fair for parents so they will be Building Economies Strong Together! Contact Mr. Nawaraj Baskota (Nepal) and Mrs. Marleen Spierings (Netherlands).

19. BULLYING PROJECT TO LAUNCH NEW ONLINE COURSE FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS. Starting September 1st, the Website http://bullyingcourse.com will provide parents with information and resources to better help their children, as well as practical strategies as to how they can work with their child's school to more effectively address the issue of bullying. A similar research-based course for educators will be launched on October 1st. For more about The Bullying Project, see here.

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Check it Out! Resources, Contests, Websites, Announcements.
(This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)
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20. BE PART OF A GLOBAL EVENT - DANIEL PEARL WORLD MUSIC DAYS, OCT 1-15, 2007. Have your music and voice heard worldwide! Inspired by the legacy of journalist/musician Daniel Pearl, the World Music Days concert network and -- Harmony for Humanity eStage -- (a streaming internet radio station and online gallery) spreads a message of hope and unity around the world. Student musicians, poets, writers, photographers and video artists from every continent are invited to participate. There is no financial obligation and all types of music are welcome! To register a live performance, contribute original music or written/visual pieces to eStage, or for more information on how you and your school can participate visit http://www.danielpearlmusicdays.org.

21. DOVE OF PEACE PROJECT. Leo Savir Foundation for a Mediterranean Vision 2020 within the Peres Center for Peace, Fundacion Picasso, and the Newspaper Al-Quds are launching a new project in which young people aged 15 to 18 years from the Mediterranean region are invited to express their personal interpretation of Pablo Picasso's famous 1949 painting, Dove of Peace. Further details about the competition can be found in the culture link at http://www.peres-center.org/Med2020.html

22. EUROPEAN UNION AND NON-DISCRIMINATION COMPETITION LAUNCHED. European children and teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 are invited to design a poster on non-discrimination in the EU. The aim of the competition is to raise awareness among young Europeans of the work being done by the EU in this field. See here.

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Upcoming Events
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23. JOINT REQUEST FOR GREETINGS:

a) iEARN JOURNALISM WORKSHOP IN RAMALLAH, PALESTINE, AUGUST 27-29. Anindita Dutta Roy (iEARN-USA) and Kahraman Arafa (iEARN-Palestine Coordinator) will be working with a group of teachers new to iEARN, and would appreciate welcome messages. The group will include 28 English teachers who will discuss language arts and project-based learning, with a focus on youth journalism and the PEARL World Youth News project.

b) iEARN WORKSHOP IN NEW YORK, USA, AUGUST 28-29 AND PENNSYLVANIA, USA ON AUGUST 29. Diane Midness will be doing two workshops for the Smithtown Central School District in New York. On Aug. 29 Amy Dwyer will be doing a workshop at the Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, PA. Please send greetings to these new teachers in our network and tell them what iEARN means to you and your students. After the participants read your greetings and locate where you are on a map we discuss what they have learned about iEARN from what you wrote.

Meet the teachers above in the Teachers Forum under the "Please send greetings" discussion thread.

24. iEARN-INDIA MEMBERS AND YOUTH VOLUNTEERS TO OBSERVE COMMUNITY SERVICE WEEK. August 27 - September 1, 2007. Under the guidance of Shobha Murthy, a regional coordinator for iEARN-India, they have planned to collect gifts for a school for differently abled students. Send greetings to Shobha and her team via the Teachers Forum.

25. JOIN iEARN-UZBEKISTAN NEXT YEAR IN BUKHARA FOR THE 15TH ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE. Watch http://iearn.uz for more information

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Recent Events
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15. THANK YOU iEARN-EGYPT FOR A SUCCESSFUL 14TH ANNUAL iEARN INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE AND 11TH YOUTH SUMMIT, JULY 21-26, 2007 IN CAIRO! 540 participants. 50 countries. 94 refugee youth from Sudan and Iraq. 250 youth in the summit. 80 volunteers, many of whom are iEARN alumni, provided ongoing support and organization for the conference throughout the week. The theme of the conference was: Connecting Cultures - Respecting Differences: A Global Dialogue for Development and Sustainability. http://www.iearn2007.net. If any attendees have posted conference photos in online galleries that they would like to share with the network, send links to newsflash@us.iearn.org.

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For Reference
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TO SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE NEWSFLASH: Send your announcement (2-3 lines) to newsflash@us.iearn.org.
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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/
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