Students in our high school participated in a forestation project between Oroville, New York City and the Dominican Republic, sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US State Department and administered by iEARN-USA. We studied forestation issues in the three communities and exchange ideas online. Our teacher and students went on several several exchange visits to the Dominican Republic and New York City and we hosted students from the Dominican Republic in our school and community. We all stayed with host families, learned about each other’s cultures and gained language skills as well. Together we shared our experiences at the annual YouthCaN event in New York City , and we created several videos of our exchange. The project enabled us to strengthen our science curriculum with new tree measurement and other tools. We also planted trees in New York City as part of the Million Tree Campaign and help plant flowers and shrubs in Riverside Park in Manhattan.
Our students have a much better appreciation of the issue of deforestation and the need to re-forest both urban and rural parts of our countries. Just as importantly, they have an appreciation of Dominican culture, having spent amazing time in homes, schools and communities.
Testimonial from iEARN Teachers at Oroville Middle and High School in Oroville, WA
McConnell Elementary students wish to reach out to the world through iEARN online collaborations. Our students participate in the Learning Circles Computer Chronicles and My Hero Learning Circles in the fall and spring sessions. It is always amazing to watch them grow and succeed. Our students improve their reading, writing, technology, and social studies skills through the Learning Circles projects. This year we are trying to integrate using Skype to conference with their peers around the globe. To date they have used Skype to communicate with our Early Peoples Symbols Coordinator, Abdelaziz Rhazzali in Morocco and soon will be collaborating with students from Canada.
This fall in collaboration with our librarian, Mrs. McCready, our students in grades 3-5 approximately 300 students, did library research using encyclopedias and biographies as well as the Internet to conduct research about Tennessee Heroes. Using the criteria that the person had to have been born in Tennessee or lived in Tennessee and demonstrated values of a Hero not just a celebrity, students took notes on their graphic organizers and cited sources used during their research. Once their research was completed, they had to create a PowerPoint presentation about their Hero using a template. The information was then submitted in narrative format to the My Hero site. This project was in collaboration with the My Hero Learning Circle. Students worked for approximately 3-4 weeks and were so excited to come to the library and computer lab to complete their work and share with others. Some of the final projects can be found on this link.
The photo attached represents a collaboration with Abdelaziz Rhazzali who visited McConnell Elementary in August to share the Early Peoples Symbols Project with students. In addition, he shared his Moroccan culture. Students learned how to write and speak some Arabic too.
We would like to encourage all teachers to Go Global and use the technology to engage students in real-life projects.
The story starts with collaboration in our school: Mrs Magill’s 4th graders organized the food drive for the school: they made posters to advertise the drive and made morning announcements in November. Each day students brought cans and dry food. The 4th graders counted the boxes and weighed the food as part of their math. The food was donated to a local food bank.
Mr VandeGriend‘s 5th graders organized the toy drive: they did morning announcements and collected the toys to be given to sick children at a local hospital
We have a Character Education Program at our school and each month we illustrate a different Character Trait. November and December are short months, so we did them together with the theme of Compassion. We read stories and discuss what it means. The main captions are a summary of all the items that came up during our discussions. Then the students were asked to illustrate the ideas that they came up with. The water colors from Mr Kerani’s first graders are actually a work of buddy classrooms: Mrs Magill’s fourth grade and M. Kerani’s first grade class.
Other students in our school were invited to do the project too. The students did a great job illustrating the concepts.
Because of our participation in the learning circle, we chose to share this theme as our project because it reflected the work we were doing at school.
center
Countries we connected with:
Slonim, Belarus, and Amman, Jordan. Also schools in NY and Nebraska.
Curriculum Links:
Character education, Library, geography, reading, writing, math (the 4th graders kept track of how many pounds of food we collected for the food bank, and made posters and graphs).
What strategies, tips, or suggestions would you recommend to another educator interested in involving their students in the same project?
Start with a book to have a story to discuss and start discussion. The lesson on caring for K-3was based on this book. Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing. The librarian developped a list of books for teachers to choose from in the upper grades. Our school is already doing a lot with character education, we have a theme every month. We wanted to keep it concrete and understandable for the younger students, hence the oral discussion followed by drawings. Also we choose projects that are already part of what we are going to do. The learning circle added a great international dimension to our work.
The challenge was to work with young student, so it was a two step process: first discussion and definitions of what compassion means, then the illustrations that show that the students understand the concepts. Each teacher had the latitude to adapt the lesson and discussion to their grade level.
center
Related Materials:
The posters are the brainchild of our counselor Nancy Grant. The food drive was sponsored by Mrs Magill, a fourth grade teacher
The bulletin board was created by our 5th grade teacher Steve VandeGriend.
Mr Kerani and Mrs Kolstoe proposed the idea of a creating a book/presentation about caring and compassion for the learning circle since it was a great theme to explore this time of year. We were curious what other schools and countries were doing. The idea was extremely well received in our learning circle, and we had a good exchange of students discussions and student work from the participants in our learning circle.
The work presented to iEARN is the work done in the library and with 1st graders and 4th graders. Most of the artwork of the book was watercolors done by Mr Kerani’s first graders with help from their 4th grade buddy class and a few entries from 5th grade. The pictures were done on 8×11 paper, scanned and slightly reduced to fit on a page with the words. Some classes had the words and page ready before they asked the students to draw.
Some students drew and some used the computer. Mrs Fosco’s students did the project using computer since Mrs Fosco is their computer teacher. She was also very enthusiastic about the project and had all her 5th graders do it. She featured their work on her school website.
Knowledge: What content areas did your students understand better by participating in the project? The students learned that they could do something concrete to show compassion personally and for their community. The students were really proud of their work, they are eager to show they understand the concepts of caring and compassion. It was interesting to find out how other countries and other school show care and compassion.
Many students participated from the school and we created a second book for our school.
Skills: What skills did your students gain by participating in the project? For example, computer skills, audio/video skills, communication skills, collaboration skills, etc. Students talked in groups about what compassion looked like, and we listed all the things they thought about. This occurred all throughout the school at all levels, and also across levels in buddy classrooms. There was collaboration, discussions, organizing the ideas about what compassion means, some writing and some art skills although our school does not have an art teacher. We feel that drawing is particularly important in the younger grades as a mean of expression. This was also linked to concrete actions like the food drive and the toy drive. The learning circle provided a platform to see how schools respond to needs in their communities and as a way to learn about life in different countries. This really makes geography come alive, as we identify and show on a globe where the other schools are from. It is also very powerful to show that we have many of the same concerns and that we can do something concrete to make it a better world.
Action:
What actions did your students take to make a meaningful difference in the world as part of their involvement in the project?
We participated in the food drive one week in November
We participated in a toy drive one week in December.
In addition 5th graders and 1st graders made a quilt and donated a bear to a hospital as a classroom buddy project.
Due to the young age of the participants, their reflections were made orally: they are really proud of their artwork and their contributions. They are showing a much better understanding of what it means to have compassion and can give concrete examples.
The Lynnwood Elementary community donated 246 gifts for children in hospitals through the Starlight Foundation.
Since 1997, I’ve been coordinating Internet-projects for Lyceum # 130. Laws of Life is one of the ongoing projects which we do every year as part of our collaborative work with IEARN. I made it an integral part of the standard school curriculum, created a demonstration site with the help of students and our technical support group, and I also publish an annual booklet of students works.
2004-2005 academic year presented us with good opportunities for extension and innovation while working on the same topics. The Teachers Gazette, an educational national Russian weekly newspaper, announced a contest for the Best Lesson of Letter Writing. Students were to choose a topic, and teachers were to submit a description of the whole process, so that others could use the same steps later. I told my students about the contest and we started our work.
Step 1. Choosing the topic and identifying the problems which worry teenagers today.
Students made a list:
Teen health. The dangers of drugs, alcohol and smoking.
Mothers work too much. Lack of communication in the family.
Peer pressure and bullying at school.
Wars, terrorism, environmental problems in the world.
Any adult will see that the world at large does not occupy the first place in the list. The teacher must explain to the students that there are no restrictions as to the content of their writing, everybody can write about any problem. Those who do not wish to take part in this project can simply do their usual writing exercise. Predictably, 100% of students took part in the discussions and writing, though some of them preferred to work in groups, rather than individually. I allotted bi-weekly lessons devoted to discussions and writing through the third and fourth terms, that is the second half of the school year, January – May.
Step 2. Students brought their letters, both in English and in Russian, into class.
We had reading aloud, discussions, listing of ideas. At the same time, the students asked questions connected with the language, so we had grammar revision, too.
Our curriculum included the following oral topics: Family; Life Values; Education; Computers; Environmental Problems; My Future. There were ample opportunities for working out some answers to the main question, How to make the world a better place.
Conditional sentences, a grammar theme which is considered to be one of the most difficult for Russian students, was absorbed during the discussion as a good model for writing about things they would love to change if they could.
Step 3. Choosing the best letters:
The best letters were chosen according to the following criteria:
Answering the main question;
Literacy;
Ability to argue ones point of view.
The teacher can continue working with those students who are interested, and who wish to write more. A special lesson is dedicated to the final translation of all letters into English, and to typing them on computers at school.
Step 4. Extension
At our discussion lessons, students kept asking me if we could find an opportunity to discuss our ideas with teenagers from other countries. It is quite possible today, if one uses the Internet as an integral part of the school curriculum. Many teachers in the world do it. First I contacted my longtime friend Violeta Tsoneva, a Bulgarian teacher who was spending this academic year in Arizona. Violeta is a seasoned IEARNer, so I didn’t have to explain much to her, nor she to me. Violeta and her colleague Bill Kleinman from Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona told their students that they could take part in Laws of Life project together with students from Siberia. We exchanged some writings, compared ideas, wrote responses by e-mail.
Matt Penn, a teacher from Bishop McLaughlin School in Silver Spring, Florida, first found our school and myself via the Internet. We helped our students arrange an e-mail exchange, then I suggested that our new friends take part in the same project. I e-mailed my students writings to Matt Penn, and he sent his students writings to me. Again, all of us got a chance to compare our ideas and wishes.
For all of us, this stage was really a huge inter-cultural experience. We discovered that young people who live oceans apart have similar ideas, likes and dislikes, worries and wishes. Our students learned that it is possible to understand each other, and to become friends with the help of technology.
Step 5. Consolidation
This kind of collaborative effort proved to be beneficial for adults and children alike. American students learned that there is civilization in Siberia, and that Russian teenagers know English and can use modern technology. Siberian students were greatly impressed by the length of the American letters, and by the depth of their ideas. I told my students, who were all a couple of years younger than our foreign friends, that they have very good chances of becoming as literate and innovative as their US partners in the two final years of school.
We teachers worked at the methodology of such lessons. One cannot introduce such a serious topic suddenly; nor should students be left to fulfill such a complicated written task by themselves, without prior discussion. While working at a lesson, students gradually realized several very important things:
Overcome the barrier inside yourself;
Begin the changes by doing something good near your home, even if it’s such a simple thing as Do Not Litter (outside), or Do Not Yell at Mom (inside).
Step 6: Next steps
We put one of the Florida letters on our site, Projects, Laws of Life. We decided it’s time to renew the site, to add some new essays. While working with my students and our US partners, I continued the work we do every school year with a German school. They expressed interest in joining our project, so we may add some German writings on site. A Japanese teacher e-mailed me recently: she is using ìPowwow. English Course 1î, a textbook published by Bun-Eido publishers in Tokyo, Japan, in 2003. There is a chapter in it about our school and me. When I e-mailed a reply, her students were very excited to get a letter from a Siberian teacher whose picture they found in their textbook. They sent us messages about their school, town, and their ideas about the world and the future.
Through the summer, I put together all the letters that students wrote and publish a booklet, which will be sent to every participating school, and to iEARN.
Conclusions:
Children should be taught how to think. They are able to learn lots of facts and rattle them off, or write a test on a subject. But sometimes, it is quite difficult to help them see the problems around them, and the ways to solve them. A teacher should encourage students to express their ideas on any topic that is part of the curriculum. They should feel that they are part of this world, and so it is up to them to change the world.
Modern technology offers unheard of means of communication, finding the necessary information, making ICT part of the school curriculum. Today’s children are always ready to push buttons and click. It is up to the teacher to help them see technology not as a toy, but as an instrument.
Student response. It is a truth universally acknowledged that students dislike writing. While working on this project within the framework of our regular curriculum, they received extra motivation, in the form of communication with students from other countries. Instead of composing ìA letter to an imaginary friendî, as the task is formulated in their textbooks, they wrote to actual people, other students. They learned to see their own surroundings in a new light, When reading and discussing messages from the USA, they discovered that other people have the same problems, the same values. I would like to give just one illustration. In one of my four classes, there’s a newcomer. I noticed when she appeared that none of my students would sit with her, nor would they agree to do pair work, in fact, they acted as if she was not there at all. I watched the situation, gradually working out the ways and means to overcome it, to help this girl. For example, when I asked a question and several hands rose, I always asked her first. She had very good ideas and offers which made others listen attentively. Then we read a letter from the US, which told us about school “cliques” and various problems in class communication. “So they have it, too!” my students said. By the end of the year, I could see that all our discussions helped my teenagers realize that this girl was part of the class, even though she seemed very different at first.
My slogan for Internet-projects: TO BE DIFFERENT DOES NOT MEAN TO BE BAD.
My usual greeting to a new class: YOU ARE MY NEW WONDERFUL STUDENTS, AND I AM YOUR NEW WONDERFUL TEACHER.
We are a class of 23 first grade students who go to school in Geneva, Illinois. We are involved in the Global Art: A sense of Caring project in the iEARN network. The purpose of this global art project to provide the opportunity for students around the world to exchange artwork accompanied by writing on the theme of ” A Sense of Caring”.
Students in participating schools and communities create artworks that portray ways that they presently care for one another within schools, families, communities and world. They also explore ways to care more. Each student writes an accompanying text that further describes the sense of caring portrayed in her/his artwork. The narrative for the artwork is written in the student’s first language so that children/youth viewing the exchanged Global artwork/writing can see how our world is multilingual and can see the many languages that communicate ideas of caring.
My students have gained awareness of different cultures and an empathy for peers around the world. They learned that students everywhere care about families, pets and others in the community. Their curiosity led them to ask questions about the artwork created by students in other countries, leading to learning beyond just the art curriculum.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OKPrivacy policy
