iEARN is 25! And Teddy Bears are in the Front!

Maple in Taiwan from mali bickley on Vimeo.

Although we have participated in iEARN projects before, for the first time a Kindergarten class in our school, Mill Creek Elementary in Geneva, IL, USA, participated in the Teddy Bear Project through iEARN. It’s been great hearing about their exchange with Wen Ya Elementary in Taiwan. Although we were not part of this video or the iEARN post linked below, we loved seeing all of those happy students!

iEARN. What a great organization. There are many global collaborative education organizations out there now, but iEARN…well, they were the true cutting edge for us all. They have only become stronger in their numbers, larger in their geographic reach and curriculum scope, and more influential during their 25 years. Lucky for all of us, they have retained all of their professional generosity, humanity and incredible inclusiveness. They are true leaders in every possible way. Happy 25th iEARN! I’m proud to be among your many admirers and participant teachers.

Take a look at David Potter’s iEARN’s post about the Teddy Bear Project. It is really fun.

You’ve Found a Global Project. Now What?

There are so many great organizations and global collaborative project options, so just jump in! Once you get your feet wet and figure out the terrain, it’s time to make global projects work for you by specifically addressing your curriculum. You’ve opened up your classroom to the world to allow your students to connect and learn with kids all over, but curriculum standards are different around the world. It is easy to make the project not only collaborative, but also individual to suit your needs.

I’ll take a project my class finished recently to demonstrate how to tailor a project to fit your own needs. Using Data to Understand the World was a collaborative project between Illinois, Alaska, Taiwan, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, and Australia.  It spanned grades 3-6. On the surface, it was a project to compare geography throughout the world by tracking data (temperature, precipitation and sunlight), and then discussing topics (animals, plants, and land forms). Each participating teacher agreed to provide the data and to participate in a conversation between classes. I could have left it there, but I used the project as a backbone to integrate my 5^th grade curriculum.

In our district, the 5^th grade curriculum includes:

1. Ecosystems (Science)
2. Compare and Contrast writing (Language Arts)
3. Informational writing (Language Arts)
4. Data and graphing (math)

5. Culture (Social Studies)

So to address those things, I included these aspects:

1.  Ecosystems: I used my science text-book as we worked. Then I assigned deeper investigative research on the relationship between sunlight, location to the equator, hemispheres, and the ecosystem.
2. Compare and Contrast writing: Students chose two countries to compare and contrast animals and discussed how geographical location effected animal population.
3. Informational writing: Students chose a country’s plant posting and wrote an informational piece after researching.
4. Data and graphing: We used the data from around the world each month to graph and chart. We learned about mean, median, mode while comparing the counties and relating that to distance from the equator. I used my math book to teach these lessons while we worked.
5. Culture: throughout the project, we discussed culture as we Skyped, discussed, interacted with kids and teachers.

 

In addition, we used edmodo.com as a place for students to interact directly. I taught digital and global citizenship, collaboration, and technology while we worked online.  Schools participated on different levels and to different degrees, so I used that to frame my collaborative connections.

I chose Using Data to Understand the World in this example, but this can be done with any global project. So far this  year, we have worked with iEARN and Flat Classroom, and through kidblog.org. This individualization can be done with any project, so start small. Also, take advantage of the other teachers out there. Educators that are online in global projects are  there to mentor and help as well. There is an amazing network of teachers online that welcome questions with open arms, so don’t be shy! Professional generosity is abundant. Jump in!

Here are some great places to start:

The Global Classroom

iEARN

Flat Classroom

 

Look Out World! Here we come!

Wow! What an incredible year we’ve had with our global projects! We are heading full steam into winter with a couple new ones. The students in Scoil Iosaif Naofa Kinvara, Co Galway, Ireland are our partners in learning about an amazing man named Francis O’Neill. Coming from Ireland in the height of the Great Potato Famine to  Chicago, IL (very near to us), and ultimately becoming the Chief of the Chicago Police Department, as well a well-known and respected musician and collector of Irish Folk music, his life is full of rich history. We are learning lots about geography, world history, United States immigration and culture. We met our partners on Skype last week and we are off  to a great start. Please check our wiki out!

And then there are eagles. Two eagles in particular, Liberty and Justice. By watching them on webcam, and researching collaboratively with partners in Iowa, North Carolina, Canada, and The Netherlands, we are becoming experts in habitat, lifespan, symbolism, protected species laws, anatomy, and other birds of prey. There is so much to learn from one bird that is admired worldwide.  As we went on the webcam today, we saw that Liberty had laid an egg! You can find that project here. This is a Flat Classroom® project.

Lastly, our day takes us to fantasy. No, not daydreaming during math, but actually studying the elements of fantasy writing with Mrs. Parisi’s class in Long Island, NY. After we finish reading The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and discussing the elements, we will be writing fantasy stories collaboratively with a partner across the county. Follow along as we learn!

Hearing the kids complaining about having to leave their work as they lined up for recess today was music to my ears.

Written by Donna Roman, 5th grade teacher: http://about.me/donnaroman

Meeting our partners in Ireland.

Our Irish parteners meeting us.

Discovering an egg in Liberty and Justice’s nest!

Sounds so Difficult! I can’t do that!

Originally posted on iEARN-USA wordpress blog on Oct. 17, 2012.

The benefits of participating in global collaboration in your classroom are priceless for both you and your students. It’s much easier than you may think. 

 

As we start the school year and online projects, I’m reminded that incorporating the richness of global collaboration into my curriculum has been a gradual process. The whole process seemed more daunting when I first started, but there are so many people and organizations willing to help make it a real possibility for you and your students. There is no end to the Professional Generosity, a phrase Lucy Gray describes in her TedxTalk, available within the global education community.

In my class last week, after our mixed-class small group meetings, Lisa Parisi instructed both of our classes on fact checking and how to cite sources for their collaborative Google docs. That may not seem unusual, but it was all done on Skype, and  Lisa was in Long Island, New York and we were in Geneva, Illinois. We are working collaboratively on a geography unit called Natural Disasters and Us.  This a complex project involving research, documenting, writing, collaborating online and on Skype, and finally the creation of community prototypes that are designed to withstand specific natural disasters.

Lisa and I are able to spend time in each other’s classrooms to learn together as we co-teach. We can be mentors and advisers to one another. She has influenced my teaching greatly. All that, and I have never actually seen Lisa in person. A couple of years ago, I could never have envisioned myself doing such a complicated interdisciplinary unit outside of my own four walls. This didn’t happen overnight. I was able to do this little by little with some amazing help.

My first exposure was the pilot global project for A week in the Life, a Flat Classroom Project, and at that point, I had to ask my then principal, Dr. Barrett, what a Web 2.0 tool was. The Flat Classroom teachers in that project patiently walked me step by step to not only a successful outcome, but a toolbox filled with web 2.0 savvy.  Next came my first iEARN project, the Holiday Card Exchange, which involved another group of amazing teachers to learn from and with.  Many of us are still in contact doing projects together and sharing information.  iEARN’s motto is Learning with the world, not just about it… and that is true in every sense.

I cannot stress enough the value these interactions hold. The available growth as educators is nothing short of amazing. Opportunities to learn from teachers all around the world, with varying educational cultures and climates….and with different background knowledge… has added a dimension to my teaching that could be gained no other way.

If I can be the teacher in the first paragraph, so can you. All it takes is a gentle guiding hand to lead the way. You can find that in iEARN or the Flat Classroom, as well as many other wonderful organizations.