|
September 2008
GCE Educators & School Receive Awards and Start the New Academic Year Focusing on the Environment & Literacy
5 GCE teachers received the “Best Teacher” award along with a reward of over $5000 from the government of Azerbaijan at a conference devoted to education in September of 2008.
The educational board of the legislature singled out a GCE school in the Ismailli region, Ismayilli School #3, with a financial reward for the project work they did the past year. The school will use the money to purchase equipment for the school, including an internet connection for their computer lab. This will allow Ismayilli School #3 to become even more involved in the GCE program in the coming year and improve upon their already great work.
GCE students in a small village in the Ismailli region came together under the leadership of a Peace Corps volunteer to plant 100 trees in the school yard for the ENO Tree Planting Day on September 22, 2008.
The GCE schools in Ismailli participated in activities for International Literacy Day on September 8, 2008. A GCE student organized and launched a month-long literacy campaign titled “Reading for the Future: The Future Won’t Come by Itself.” As a part of this campaign, GCE students are meeting in the public park to discuss books that they are reading as a group. These GCE students are attempting to overcome the prejudice against young women taking an active role in public projects and reclaim public spaces like the park for youth.
iEARN-Bahrain
U.S. Embassy Holds Productive Meeting With GCE Country Coordinator
GCE Country Coordinator Amani Amer met with David Edginton, Public Affaris Officer, and Fife MacDuff, Regional English Language Officer, at the U.S. Embassy in Manama in September to discuss the future of the GCE program in Bahrain and other ways to continue working together in the future. The meeting was also attended by Ms. Ahlam Al Amer, the head of the First Educational District for Academic and Development Affairs at the Bahraini Ministry of Education. Mr. Edginton and Mr. MacDuff were friendly and supportive of the program, and are looking forward to working with Ms. Amer over the coming year.
Belarus Launches GCE Program with Workshops and Celebrating World Peace
iEARN-Belarus organized GCE workshops for educators at the IATP center in Minsk on August 21 and at Minsk Polytechnical Gymnasium #6 on September 5-6 to plan for the coming year of GCE participation and to discuss the details of the GCE projects that were to start in September. The participants were introduced to the GCE program as well as the Adobe Youth Voices program, in which educators will be trained to have their classrooms create and share videos about topics in their lives with other participants in the U.S. and around the world.
The educators were introduced to the resources for professional development made available by the GCE program, and also learned new ways to develop critical thinking and research skills in their students through iEARN’s project based learning techniques. Educators were also shown the value that new technology can bring to the classroom setting, particularly in terms of how it can facilitate interaction with people and cultures all over the world.
GCE students and educators from around Belarus participated in the Peace One Day project on September 21, 2008. In 2001, the United Nations established the International Day of Peace to be a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, celebrated through activities meant to promote peace locally and globally.
GCE students at the Shuchin Gymnasium created artwork displays for peace-themed youth fair, planted 350 tree seedlings as part of the ENO Tree Planting Day, and also cleaned up the shoreline of Lake Schuchinskogo.
Zditov Secondary School held a rally to celebrate the good deeds that were done by all 128 GCE students in September to make the world a better place for the students, educators, parents, and members of the community. They also held a fair for the community with sports, displays, and other activities to raise money for the local training and rehabilitation center for disabled children.
2 GCE Educators Receive Scholarship For Online Professional Development
Two GCE educators from Jerusalem are enrolling in iEARN’s fall session
of online courses with the help of scholarships offered by the GCE
program. Ms. Hadeel Qaraqe’ just joined the GCE program and is the
first teacher from Al-Esawieh Preparatory Girls School to take an
online course. She has enrolled in the Creative Writing/Language Arts
course. In addition to improving her teaching skills, adding
professional development to her resume, and getting her students
engaged in project-based collaboration with their peers in the U.S. and
around the world, she is also eager to use what she learns to promote
the GCE program in her school and help more educators become involved.
Ms. Muna Bakri has been an active participant in the GCE program at
Al-Ukhwah school, having had her work on environmental projects
featured in this newsletter last year. She has enrolled in the
Science/Environment/Math online course, and is hoping to use the
experience gained from the course to promote international
collaboration at her school through the GCE program.
3 GCE Students Become 1st Internationally Certified High School Student Journalists in Kenya
Vitalis Ikhalachi, a GCE educator at Chavakali High School in Kakamega, took the “PEARL: Integrating Journalism Skills into the Classroom” professional development course last year and has just had 3 students become certified published reporters. PEARL World Youth News is an online international news service adhering to the highest journalistic standards and managed by secondary school students from all over the world. The project is a joint venture by iEARN & the Daniel Pearl Foundation.
Any interested secondary school student can join the news service as a PEARL Reporter after successfully completing a free online training and certification course. Students and alumni from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and New York University’s Department of Journalism in New York City, U.S. act as mentors for the course. Secondary school students are certified as PEARL Reporters after completing the course assignments and having their first article published on the website.
The worldwide team of PEARL reporters and editors works collaboratively while researching, writing and editing articles. With an emphasis on unbiased reporting and respect for a diversity of views, PEARL World Youth News not only develops journalistic skills among students, but also broadens cross-cultural understanding and provides an important global youth perspective.
Mr. Ikhalachi’s students Ford, Daniel, and Wilson were certified in September and he has 14 more students still finishing up the course. Ford, Daniel, and Wilson are the first students in Kenya to become certified international reporters, writing and revising articles about rugby, the educational system, and child labor.
For more information about the Pearl World Youth News project, please go to pearl.iearn.org.
GCE Schools in Oman Plant More Than 145 Trees
Two GCE schools in the Environmental Co-Op Group (ECO-Group) planted more than 145 trees as part of Environment Online’s international Tree Planting Day on September 22, 2008. The ECO-Group was founded by GCE educators and students, and is the first environmental group to be formed in Oman consisting of educators and students. The group’s aims are to raise environmental awareness in Oman while sharing their ideas and experiences, as well as discussing environmental issues, with others around the world.
The ECO-Group at the Osama Bin Zaid GCE school in Adam celebrated the Tree Planting Day with a ceremony that began with a recitation of the Holy Quran. Two GCE students discussed the importance of trees and the environment in Islam, and one student read a speech n English, and another translated it into Arabic. After the ceremony, the Headmaster, the Assistant Headmaster, teachers, and students planted date palm, papaya, and rol trees around the school. GCE teachers and students also took many trees that were distributed in order to plant them at home, farms, or in other suitable places. The GCE participants at Osama Bin Zaid School planted a total of 121 trees and their activity was reported the next day in Shabiba, a local Arabic-language newspaper.
At Atika Secondary School for Girls, a GCE school in Saham, 21 GCE students and 5 English teachers joined together to take part in the Tree Planting Day. Two days before the event, the members of the ECO-Group started educating their peers about the importance of trees and the environment, and asked each class to bring trees to plant in the school garden. On the Tree Planting Day, the GCE students and educators gathered to watch a play and a speech prepared by the students about the environment. Then everybody worked together to plant 25 mango trees in the school’s garden.
GCE Schools Begin the Year With New Computers, Teddy Bears, and Scholarships
iEARN-Uzbekistan’s Online School for Disabled Children (OSDC), created as part of the GCE program last year, received a donation of 5 XO children’s laptops (developed by the One Laptop per Child project) from iEARN-Canada. These laptops will help the students stay connected with the online school no matter where they are, and take advantage of the laptop’s unique features that encourage self-empowered learning. Thanks to alumnae of the TEA, YEO, and FLEX program, the students of OSDC are being taught English as a second language now. This year OSDC GCE students are participating in the My Native History, My Hero, Kind Acts, and many other GCE projects.
Now that the new academic year has begun at Karshi School #34, all the students have had a chance to meet the Teddy Bear that arrived over the summer from Osbornville, New Jersey. The GCE students that received the Teddy Bear presented the GCE project to the 6th and 7th grade English classes on September 22, 2008. They also shared the book about New Jersey they received with the Teddy Bear as a special gift from their partner classroom. The students all drew pictures of the teddy bear to share as part of the exchange and expressed their desire to participate in the GCE project as well. Thanks to the interest generated by the Teddy Bear project in the school, GCE educator Natalya Hamidova presented the GCE program to the teachers at the school, explaining how an to become involved through iEARN’s Collaboration Center and the benefits of project-based learning. Ms. Hamidova’s presentation inspired two educators to apply for the GCE scholarships to fund professional development courses with iEARN.
GCE Educator Internationalizes U.S. Classrooms Through New Environmental Project
It’s the beginning of another school year in the U.S., and as GCE teachers and students go back to the classroom they are beginning to make new connections as they embark upon another year of project-based learning. The GCE projects in iEARN are designed and facilitated by educators and students all over the world, and offer a range of collaborative learning opportunities in all subject areas. There are currently over 300 active projects, and each year of new projects are created as educators come up with new ideas.
One such new GCE project this year is “Power of One: Protecting Our Plant,” created by Terese Tye of Ohio. The purpose of the project is for GCE students to create individual family plans for protecting the earth based off research into what others around the globe are doing. The “Power of One” GCE project will remind students that individuals can make a difference, even in a global task such as saving the planet. Aside from Ms. Tye’s classroom, there are GCE classrooms from New York, Azerbaijan, Oman, Turkey, and Kenya, former GCE classrooms in Indonesia and Morocco, and classrooms from elsewhere around the world taking part in establishing the project.
| 
