|
December 2007
iEARN-Azerbaijan
Teachers Use GCE Scholarships to Take the First Online Professional Development Courses Offered in Azerbaijan
Four teachers successfully completed online professional development courses this month thanks to GCE scholarships. It is the first time Azerbaijan has been awarded scholarships for online courses, and was an exciting experience for the teachers.
Though it was difficult in the beginning, there is no doubt that the courses were a success. One of the teachers wrote that “reading and responding to other peoples’ postings took all my evenings, but I enjoyed it.” All four teachers learned how to use the online forums to collaborate on projects with teachers and students around the globe.
The English teachers enriched their understanding of the language and teaching methodologies, especially in the Teaching of Foreign & Second Languages and Creative Writing & Language Arts courses. One of the teachers was in the Learning Circles course and learned how to effectively integrate online collaborative projects into the curriculum. The students prepared PowerPoint presentations, something they had never done before, about their school and then were able to share them online with other students around the world.
The online courses were a major component of implementing the GCE program in Azerbaijan. Using the GCE scholarships, four teachers have actively engaged about 60 students in different projects, including Write On, One Day in the Life, and Heart to Heart. The next step being implemented is to have the four teachers offer courses based off what they learned to groups of teachers to spread the knowledge they gained.
Teachers Use GCE Scholarships to Take Online Professional Development Courses
Three teachers from three different secondary schools have successfully completed their online professional development courses through GCE scholarships for the Kingdom of Bahrain. The teachers took the Moving Voices, Teaching Foreign & Second Languages, and Learning Circles classes. Through these courses teachers are collaborating with their fellow students from the U.S. and elsewhere, learning how to effectively involve their students in iEARN’s collaborative projects.
This experience has had a great impact on teachers and their students. One of the teachers who took a course, Khulood Al-Balushi, said “students felt that their opinions matter because they took part in choosing the topic and they built all of the elements and prepared the presentation.”
The students of the teachers who have successfully completed the courses are collaborating with their peers from the USA, as well as from Australia, Lebanon, Senegal, Ukraine, Pakistan, the Netherlands, and many more countries. There are many other students participating actively whose teachers have been through past trainings. The students and teachers are involved in a variety of online projects that help promote mutual understanding and cultural exchange:
- In the Moving Voices project, students at Al Ma’arifa Secondary School are working on a video to introduce their school and highlight the new vocational track system that is being launched at their school. Students are also discussing what is sacred to them in terms of religion, family, and ideas in the online forums of the What Is Sacred To Me? project.
- Students from Khawla, Ahmed Al-Omran, and Isa Town Secondary Schools have been participating in the My Hero project. It features an interactive educational website with resources to help students and teachers research heroes from all different walks of life and all around the world, and then create a website of their own that celebrates the hero of their choice.
- The Food for Thought: Recipe Book project shares students’ local recipes of typical dishes in their countries, as well as the origin of the ingredients and the legends and stories behind the recipes. “United Beyond Our Diversity” is another project that is aiming to help students understand the similarities/differences in our attitudes towards the challenges that we face.
iEARN-Egypt
Students From 11 GCE Schools Hold Model United Nations
Teams of students from 11 GCE schools participated in a Model UN to debate the global issue of water shortages. The teams were made up of four students and assumed the role of ambassadors to the United Nations, each team representing a different country.
The Model UN was held at the Mubarak Public Library in Mansoura on December 13, 2007. Representatives from the Ministry of Education opened the event, and Ms. Lynn Freiji, founder of the Wad Environmental Science Center presented on the water problem in Mansoura. About 150 students, teachers, and parents participated in the event, which was conducted in English.
Five of the 11 schools fielding a team were schools for girls (a majority of the participants were girls) ensuring that girls develop the necessary leadership skills for the future.
The Model UN was successful in meeting several objectives:
- Training students in research and problem solving skills;
- Promoting group work and cooperation;
- Developing self-esteem;
- Training students to accept constructive criticism and respect others opinions;
- Promoting awareness of current global issues;
- Developing communication and presentation skills;
- Promoting conflict resolution and dialogue skills;
- Creating a chance for students to use English meaningfully.
iEARN-Indonesia
GCE Training Results in Workshop on Natural Disaster Preparedness
High school students from the SMA Lab School Rawamangun in East Jakarta hosted a 5 hour Natural Disaster Preparedness Workshop in their school’s Media Resource Center on December 15, 2007.
The workshop brought together students from several schools and an orphanage to learn about how to be prepared in the event of an earthquake.
Participants were shown how to devise safety strategies, locate safe places to take cover, identify evacuation sites beforehand, and prepare a safety kit with food and first-aid supplies.
Students attending the GCE National Workshop in Jakarta on November 23-24, 2007 developed the proposal for this Natural Disaster Preparedness Workshop. The students received a $200 alumni mini-grant from GCE to implement the community service project as part of the iEARN Community Youth Service Club.
The alumni mini-grants are a new feature of the GCE program this year intended to help those students who have benefited from GCE in the past to continue to carry out events that promote the values of program.
iEARN-Iraq
GCE Classroom in Iraq Joins Project Discussing War & Ways to Prevent It With Students Around the World
An eighth grade class at the Hawler Typical Secondary School in Kurdistan has begun working on the Machinto–Do You Hear the Little Bird Crying? project. They have been active in the online forum in December discussing the book with and getting to know their peers around the world.
Based on the picture book Machinto and the exhibit catalogue They Still Draw Pictures, Children’s Art in Wartime, all participants read these works and discuss their reactions with their peers around the world.
An Iraqi student writing in the forums said: “I read the story of Machinto and it made a kind of feeling in my heart—I became so sad and there are many stories in Kurdistan just as Machinto... I wish to all of you to be successful in this project and I wish to be your friend!”
Students also research the wars have taken place in modern times, and where armed conflict continues to destroy the lives of children. They learn about these areas where war threatens civilian lives creating innocent victims. They learn about the consequences of war, and discuss what we can do together to prevent them. The project results in students making their own picture books.
The Machinto project brings students from around the world together online and in video conferences to share their response to the stories they read and the research that they conduct. Students also learn about and discuss efforts around the world to solve conflict non-violently.
iEARN-Israel
First National GCE Workshop Held in Ramleh
iEARN-Israel hosted their first National Global Connections & Exchange Workshop on December 9, 2007 in Ramleh. The workshop brought together 35 people including school principals, teachers, and counselors, as well as representatives from the U.S. Embassy, State Department, and nonprofit organizations including Just Vision and Relief International–Schools Online (West Bank). Participants came from Arab communities in East Jerusalem, Galilee, the center of the country, and the South-Bedouin area.
Attendees received a detailed introduction to the GCE Program that covered iEARN projects that connect classrooms with their peers in the United States and around the globe. Afterwards, they moved to a computer lab where they registered to participate in iEARN through GCE, browsed the website, and began interacting in the Teacher’s Forum. Participants learned how to search for projects and began choosing appropriate ones to begin working on in their school.
iEARN-Lebanon
Teachers Use GCE Scholarship to Take 3 Online Professional Development Courses and Involve Over 200 Students in International Collaboration
iEARN-Lebanon teachers Dr. Colette Aoun, Nisrine Makouk, and Toyal Al-Otayek were enrolled in online professional development courses through scholarships provided by the GCE program. The teachers successfully completed the Creative Arts, Moving Voices (Making Digital Documentaries), and Math classes this past December. They involved more than 200 Lebanese students in the Christmas Card Exchange, Moving Voices (movie production), and Connecting Math to Our Lives projects.
The courses enabled the teachers to plan and discuss projects with other teachers internationally, and to engage their students online with their peers from over 30 countries including the USA!
In the iEARN project Connecting Math to Our Lives students discussed their perceptions of math and how it is used in their everyday lives, sharing their culture and exchanging ideas about how math can be interesting and useful in their countries. One middle school math teacher from Delaware organized a project where students shared information about the local price of gas and ways to conserve it in order to compare lifestyles.
In the iEARN Christmas Card Exchange Project students in Lebanon exchanged holiday greeting cards with classes in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. The teacher of a first grade class in New York involved parents as well as students in making the Christmas cards that were sent to Lebanon.
iEARN-Morocco
Students Receive $80 GCE Mini-Grant to Beautify School
Students in Mr. Nouredine Laouni’s class at the Reference High School in Meknes, Morocco will work with their art teacher to beautify their school as part of iEARN’s Students Unlimited project. The students received an $80 mini-grant through the GCE program to fund their community service project. Students Unlimited is a community service project in which students across the globe discuss their participation and help each other to take action to make a difference in their community and the world.
The students have also been participating in the MDGs–Only With Your Voice project where they have been learning about the Millennium Development Goals and raising awareness of them in their community through presentations. Moroccan students have been interacting with students from all over the world, including high school classes from Vermont and New York City.
iEARN-Oman
Presentation at National Conference Promotes GCE Program in Oman
Laila Al-Rawahi presented the iEARN projects and online professional development opportunities that are part of the GCE program in Oman at a national Conference of English Teachers & Supervisors (CETS) hosted by the Ministry of Education in Qurum from December 10-12. This high profile conference attracted over 500 attendees and was co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Muscat.
Two other presentations were made at schools by iEARN-Oman on December 18 and 30, one to the English teachers and the other to teachers of various subjects and administrators. Many of the participants at all three conferences showed interest in becoming involved in the program.
In other news, an Omani school has participated in a cultural exchange project with a school in Westborough, MA. The schools exchanged packages of cultural items to get better acquainted with the life and traditions of each country. The Omani package was full of traditional items from Oman such as a cap used to cover the head, a garment similar to a robe called a “dishdasha,” and an ornamental “dagger” called a “Khanjar” only worn on special occasions like wedding ceremonies and when receiving official guests. Students also created postcards about Oman and wrote letters to their friends in the U.S. The box also was filled with written stories, recipes, and examples of clothing.
iEARN-Pakistan
New Partnerships Formed Between Pakistani and American Schools Through GCE Program
As 2007 came to a close, Pakistani teachers involved with the GCE program were busy with their students working on and entering into new collaborative projects with schools in the U.S. and around the globe.
Ms. Shahla Zubair in Lahore has begun a new Teddy Bear Project exchange between her class and a class in the United States. In addition, eight other teachers entered into new exchanges with teachers in East Jerusalem, Romania, Canada, Jerusalem, Germany, and the UK. In Teddy Bear Project the classes send each other a Teddy Bear or other soft toy and then the bear sends diary messages home by email at least once a week. The students write the diary messages as if they are the visiting bear describing its experiences in the new culture.
As a part of Learning Circles, Ms. Sarah Amjad from Qadim’s Lumiere school has been working with her students in the My Hero project and Ms. Sarwat Alam from Lisar Foundation School is busy with her students on My Country project. A Learning Circle is a team of about 6-8 teachers and their classes joined online in iEARN’s Collaboration Center over a 3-4 month period working on projects drawn from the curriculum of each of the classrooms and organized around a selected theme. Working in the projects, each class will be collaborating with several other classes from the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.
Pakistani youth have also been actively involved in the Heart to Heart project with their teacher Ms. Kishwer Jahan at the CAA school in Karachi. Students have been exchanging their writings and poetry about monthly themes in iEARN’s collaboration centre with classrooms in the U.S.
iEARN-Uzbekistan
Teachers Use GCE Scholarships to Take Online Professional Development Courses and Advance Their Credentials
This fall the GCE program was able to fund two scholarships for teachers in Uzbekistan to take iEARN online professional development courses. Both scholarships were used to enroll teachers in the Teaching of Foreign and Second Languages course, which was successfully completed this month. The online courses help teachers to use new technologies and advance their skills in addition to other practical benefits.
By taking an online professional development course, Lola Akhmedova was able to pass the state teacher qualification exams and earn her professional degree in teaching. Lola had her regular teaching degree after she graduated from university and began working with the iEARN-Uzbekistan Teachers Academy Initiative through a GCE funded scholarship in September of 2007.
Teachers in Uzbekistan must pass their state qualification exams every three years and must demonstrate the ability to teach a class making use of new educational technologies. Lola used her online professional development course as the basis for her exam presentation. She successfully demonstrated how online collaborative projects can make a difference in the classroom by creating an environment where students from different countries are able to work together.
From the first weeks of the online course, she had her students working on the Good Deeds project, under which they worked with children from local orphanages and senior citizens from a home for the elderly and shared their experiences with their peers in the online forums. In the Day in the Life project, Ms. Akhmedova’s class interacted directly with students from classes in New York City and Orlando, FL. Lola demonstrated her ability to raise her students to new standards as a participant in the online course.
Obtaining a professional degree in teaching has resulted in an increase in salary for Ms. Akhmedova. Through GCE, she was able to get a raise, but more importantly, she was able to improve her value as a teacher by improving her teaching skills and learning how online collaborative projects can be used in line with national education standards and curriculum of Uzbekistan.
| 
