iEARN-USA - The International Education and Resource Network

II. Essential Ingredients

A. Local and Global Mentoring by Experienced Classroom Experienced Teaching Colleagues

The C3 World Project teachers consistently identified that a major factor of successful professional development for integrating international education into their classroom curricula was the opportunity to be mentored by experienced iEARN teacher colleagues both locally and globally. They identified the critical component as a combination of having: 1) a project director/mentor teaching alongside them who was a classroom teacher experienced in iEARN and integration of technology for educational gain; and 2) the opportunity to build relationships online and face-to-face with iEARN teachers worldwide whose experiences provided real classroom examples and who enthusiastically informed and invited their participation in the journey of teaching and learning in a global community. This collaborative mentoring [identified by teachers, as essential and valued by them as learners] is supported by the Vygotskian social context theory of teaching and learning - what the learner can do with a more knowledgeable peer today, he/she can do alone tomorrow. (Vygotsky, Mind in Society, 1978)

B. Opportunities to Learn Through Ongoing Real Classroom Examples of International Education

The C3 World Project teachers consistently identified that being able to learn from real classroom examples ñ both archived examples work of teachers and students doing international education curricular projects and current work of classrooms locally and globally ñ provided a grounded and real context for inspiring and guiding both their professional development in learning about possibilities and implementation of meaningful global projects into their classroom curricula. These examples from classrooms were credible in helping them realize what they and their students could do.

C. Integration of International Education Within Current Classroom Curricula

C3 teachers identified that an important strength of this professional development was learning how they could build international education collaborations from their already existing classroom curricular content and student work. Knowing they could start with what they were dong now in their classrooms rather than needing to create whole new curricular units or needing to generate whole new realms of student work, was significant in shortening the timeframe for becoming involved in global iEARN online curricular project-based education.

D. Powerful Combination of Face-to-Face Collaborations with Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Collaborative Communities

In one year, the C3 World project has generated a collaborative community of classroom teachers in King County who have international education experiences that they can and are already using to mentor colleagues. What started with one project director and 20 teachers, now has exponential reach to bring international education to more classroom teachers, students in schools and districts. It is, indeed, the building of collaborative community locally and globally that brings about teaching and learning where all teachers integrate international education across the curricula and all students have opportunities to learn with global peers across continents and cultures. The following technology tools supported experiences of collaborative community for teachers and their students international education: email, interactive websites (i.e. iEARN online forums), video documents, and videoconferencing.

E. Classroom, School and District Infrastructure for Technology

As C3 World teachers realized how technology could be used to build global education collaborations, they began to realize the full potential for the existing technology infrastructure in their schools and classrooms. They began to make greater use of the hardware, software and connectivity with new purpose and understanding of how the technology tools could make a difference in teaching and learning. They built stronger collaborations with the building and district technology support staff, including becoming advocates for additional equipment, connectivity and software programs needed to enhance their global collaborations. The school and district technology staff responded positively to further request for support and were appreciative that the teachers were enthusiastic about taking their technology tools in the classroom to greater educational use and benefit. Within the C3 teacher group, several teachers took initiative to plan workshops and share their growing technology expertise to improve student learning with building and district colleagues.