Learning Circles: September 2019 - January 2020

Learning Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small number of schools located throughout the world.   There is a topic of interest for everyone on all grade levels.  The project will run from September 30, 2019, through January 15, 2020.  You can sponsor your own project idea or just participate in someone else's project.  Since you will be guided by facilitators along each step of the process, Learning Circles is an excellent choice for beginners as well as experienced iEARN teachers.

To join iEARN Learning Circles, you must complete a placement form at least two weeks before the beginning of the session. Once you complete the placement form you will be placed in a Circle for the next session.

Interested?  Please review the choices below, and then click Join this Space at the bottom of this page and fill out the registration form on the following page.

New this year are 5 week-long Learning Circles for beginners at the Elementary, Middle, and High School levels.  The new Hello World: Learning Circles are for teachers and students who have never participated in a Learning Circle.  This 5-week experience will introduce teachers and students to the basics of Learning Circles including Teacher Introductions, Class Surveys, and the Exchange of Information.  If you have never participated in a Learning Circle before and you would like to know what it is like, this is the place to begin your Learning Circle experience.

Below is the list of projects that will be offered for beginning and experienced participants:

Grade Levels are indicated after each project – Elementary (E), Middle (M), and High School (H)

5-Week Project for Beginners
Hello World: (E, M, H)

10-Week Project for Elementary Students
My School (E)

16-Week Projects for All Grade Levels
Computer Chronicles (E, M, H)
Places and Perspectives (E, M, H)
My Hero (E, M, H)
Early People Symbols Project (E, M)
Global Issues: Environment (M, H)
Global Issues: Education (M, H)

More information about the project can be found at http://www.globallearningcircles.org/.

My School: Elementary: This is a 10-week Learning Circle for elementary school students (Grades K - 5) which allows students to present information about their classroom and their school.  Participants may choose to write stories, take photographs, prepare multi-media presentation, create video, or use other media formats to share and highlight information about their school.  Each participating class will complete a class survey and project.

Early People Symbols Project: Elementary and Middle School students will explore the meanings of their cultural symbols. They will start by doing research (Internet, local libraries, museums, art books, and artifacts such as rugs, wall, ceiling, floor drawings, pictographs, etc.) in their communities. Then, they will briefly tell the story related to the symbol using journals, Voice Threads, PowerPoint Presentations, videos or digital photos.  Students are also invited to create a drawing or painting using these symbols.

Places and Perspectives encourages students to explore regional history, culture, government, and geography by sharing their knowledge with people from different locations. The goal is to help students understand how historical events and geographic conditions interact to help shape their lives and gives them a deeper understanding of themselves, their families and their communities.  Each classroom sponsors a project for a section in the Places and Perspectives Review.

My Hero Learning Circles is a joint venture between Learning Circles and My Hero. This Circle will bring together students and teachers who are interested in collaborating with other schools from diverse areas of the world on the topic of My Hero through writing, photography, and digital video.  Final Projects will be created using the My Hero Web site Organizer.

Computer Chronicles promotes non-fictional forms of writing across the curriculum.  Each class has the opportunity to sponsor their own project based on the curricular needs of the sponsoring teacher and students. Each participating Learning Circles class will solicit articles from their partner classes and edit them to create a Final Publication/Project. This Final Project is combined with the other projects sponsored by circles partners to form a completed Circle publication.

Global Issues: Environment: Allows students to discuss a broad range of environmental social, political, and economic issues with concern and affect the Earth's entire population. Projects will focus on identifying and developing solutions for the countless issues that face the Earth's inhabitants.  This curriculum encompasses many subject areas including sociology, science, government, history, and economics.

Global Issues: Education: Encourages students to investigate education as a fundamental human right as well as the broad range of issues regarding education throughout the world. Students will develop global education perspectives by sharing regional and global practices.  Projects will range from identifying current issues to investigating new and unique educational practices being used around the world.

For more information, please contact Barry Kramer at [email protected].