iEARN Learning Circles

The first edition of CIRCLE NEWS will be posted to all participants announcing the beginning of the "Getting Ready" Phase (Sep 26th and Jan. 30th). This first phase is one week and it involves testing accounts, and reviewing the Learning Circle Timeline and reading the Learning Circle Teacher's Guide. The next Circle News message will "open the Circle."

Circle News 2 formally opens the Learning Circle session and will contain the names and addresses of the classes that have been placed in each Learning Circle. It invites the teachers and students to begin introductory activities. After teachers and students find out about each other through letters and a class survey, the activity shifts to planning the Circle projects which are drawn from the curriculum of each classroom related to the Circle theme.

To understand more about Learning Circles, read the first section of the Learning Circle Teacher's Guide and look over the "Teacher Comments" at the end of each section of the Teacher's Guide.

iEARN members can participate in one Learning Circle each session without any additional cost. You must be a member of iEARN to participate, and you need to complete the Learning Circle Placement Form 2 weeks prior to the start of a session.

Placement forms can be submitted in any time prior to two week before the Learning Circle Session. Late forms are sometimes accepted during the two weeks prior to the start of Learning Circles if there is space in a specific Circle. Applications received after October 1st will be considered for the next session.

Computer Chronicles - This theme promotes writing across the curriculum. Interaction online revolves around producing a newspaper called The Computer Chronicles. Each class has the opportunity to sponsor one or more sections of the newspaper as their Learning Circle project. They solicit articles from their partner classes and edit them to create one section of the newspaper. This section is combined with the other sections sponsored by circles partners to form the completed newspaper, the Circle publication.

Places and Perspectives - 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. For instance, a classroom might sponsor a section on local legends, interview native inhabitants or the elderly, describe the historical attractions of the area, examine local constitutions, or compare weather patterns, map studies.

MindWorks - MindWorks is an writing theme designed to enhance creative and expository writing as well as develop different forms of self-expression. The goal is to help student learn how to communication their thoughts and feelings in writing, then share and compare them with other students from distant places. The Circle publication for Mind Works is a literary magazine that might be called Creative Minds, Mind Works or a name selected by the group. The sponsored projects could be a specific form of writing such as: personal narratives, place poetry, city dialogues, school fables, local myths or personifications of local products. Or students can select a topic to sponsor and request different forms of expression on subjects like the family, jobs, schools or cities.

My Hero - My Hero Learning Circles is a joint venture between Learning Circles and the My Hero project (www.myhero.com). This Circle will bring together students and teachers who are interested in collaborating with other schools from diverse areas of the the world on the topic of My Hero through writing, photography, and digital video.

Teachers are invited to sponsor a theme for a Learning Circle. We will list it in this space to help create this special circle.

If you would like to facilitate a special theme Learning Circle, send information to bskramer48@hotmail.com

These forums are like classrooms. They are intended for use by the students and teachers who are part of the Learning Circle. They are private spaces for the work of teaching and learning. We hope to be posting excerpts of student publications soon.

These forums are listed here to make it easy for those who are members of a Learning Circle to use this web page to interact with their Circle partners. If you want to be a part of a Learning Circle, you are most welcome but first need to be a member of iEARN. If you want to know more about these Learning Circle themes, click on a theme icon.

While not all Learning Circle Teachers have access to the Web, this is increasing each session. Teachers have been working with their students to put their section of the publication, their Learning Circle Projects on the web. We are also beginning to have the complete circle publications online.

Congratulations to the students and teachers of the following Learning Circles for creating online Learning Circle Publications!

Also please visit the Learning Circle Projects which are individual school's contribution to their Learning Circle Publication.

To help schools create online publications, we have created some templates and graphics that can be used to help create your web page documents. For each type of Learning Circle there are two templates. One is the index with the list of schools and the name of the projects. The second is a project or section template to be used for projects or sections created by each school. Copy the source code and the graphics and modify use any html editor to modify for your Learning Circle.

Getting Ready

Prior to Week 1

Sept 30 - Oct 5

Teachers log on to iEARN, receive Circle News and read the Teacher's Guide. They introduce the concept of Learning Circles to their students.

Opening the Circle

(2 weeks)

Oct 6 - Oct 19

Learning Circle interaction begins. Classes log on and respond to the Electronic Roll Call. Each teacher sends an introductory message to the on-line Learning Circle forum. Teachers and students prepare and send their responses to the Classroom Survey. Welcome Packs are mailed to postal addresses.

Planning the Learning Circle Projects

(2 weeks)

Oct 20 - Nov 2

Teachers in the Learning Circle discuss the projects proposed in the Classroom Survey. Each class selects a section to sponsor. The class sends a message to the forum describing the information it would like to receive.

Exchanging Student Work

(5 weeks)

Nov 3 - Dec 7

Student work on different projects is collected and sent to the Learning Circle forum at least once or twice a week. Teachers and students continue to plan and share work related to the Learning Circle projects. (Most groups will be out of school for at least a week during this period, the circle continues with those who are in school).

Organizing the Circle Publication

(3 weeks plus one week break)

Dec 8 - Jan 4

Students evaluate, select, and edit the articles they received for their project. Teachers work with students in their classroom to layout and print their section of the Circle publication. Schools exchange project reports (electronically or via postal mail) and assemble their Circle publication.

Closing the Circle

(1 week)

Jan 5 - Jan 12

Teachers and students send their final good-bye messages to the forum and the Learning Circle closes. The Christmas Break is used as time for mailing sections to the schools with the final comments and good-byes taking place when many students return to school in Jan. The list will still be active for a week after the end of Learning Circles to make sure all final messages are received.

Schedule for 2008	Learning Circle Forums
Learning Circle Themes	Teacher Sponsored Themes
Learning Circle Timeline	Learning Circle Publications
Circle Publication Templates	Instructions for accessing the iEARN Learning Circles through Web Crossing Forums

		Computer Chronicles cce1 Computer Chronicles -- elementary school level ccm1 Computer Chronicles-- middle school level cch1 Computer Chronicles -- high school level

		Places and Perspectives ppe1 Places and Perspectives -- elementary school level ppm1 Places and Perspectives -- middle school level pph1 Places and Perspectives -- high school level ppr1 Places and Perspectives Research Group -- middle school level

		MindWorks mwe1 MindWorks -- elementary school level mwm1 MindWorks -- middle school level mwh1 MindWorks -- high school level

		My Hero mhe1 LC My Hero -- elementary school level mhm1 LC My Hero -- middle school level mhh1 LC My Hero -- high school level mhi1 LC My Hero Interactive -- middle school level

Mind Works Index Template	Mind Works Project Template
Places and Perspectives Index Template	Places and Perspective Project Template
Computer Chronicles Index Template	Computer Chronicles Section Template

Schedule for 2007 - 2008 Learning Circles

Learning Circles Themes

Learning Circle Timeline - 2008: Session 1

Learning Circle Timeline - 2008: Session 2