CALL TO ACTION - MY HERO LEARNING CIRCLE - May 2011

My Hero Learning Circles is an online global exchange that has My Hero partnered with iEARN.org. Teachers and students from around the world learn about each others cultures, communities, countries and of course, their heroes. The world is brought into each of their classrooms and their classrooms into the world. This first MY HERO CALL TO ACTION learning circle featured 5 brave adventurous teachers and their students from Canada, USA and Morocco. Their goal was to choose a hero or hero organization to support in whatever way they saw fit and to document their actions with skype sessions, blogs, diaries, art and or short films. Below are their very impressive results! Thank you Laura, Mali, Jim, Chris and Aziz for diving in and creating such powerful work with your students to make the world a better place. Have a great summer! Cheers, Wendy Jewell, Facilitator, My Hero Learning Circles.

Each fourth grade student wrote an essay about their hero this fall that was published on the My Hero website. Our class decided to honor Jeremy Glick, who was a passenger on flight 93 on September 11th, in our Call to Action project this spring. Jeremy was the father of one of our students, Emmy, and an alum of Saddle River Day School. His sister Jennifer started Jeremy's Heroes after September 11th to honor her brother. Our class and a Harlem after school program run by Jeremy's Heroes worked together in a parallel project to raise money for the Red Cross disaster relief in Japan.

Our class of 39 students in Grade 4 and 5 took part in the My Hero Call to action learning circle in the Spring of 2011. We completed an earlier study of heroes in the fall session and students wrote essays about their own heroes. At the end of the project, students were asked to make a resolution, and then asked how there actions will have a positive effect on the world.

We decided to support Free the Children's Brick by Brick program. Our friend, Sidibay, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, came to talk to us about the importance of education to children from all over the world. Our school helped him get an education while he was alone in Sierra Leone, so it was easy to decided where we would help. We held fundraisers and created awareness videos and campaigns to make others aware of the importance of education for all children. This year, our class raised almost 1300.00 for our partner community in Sierra Leone. Here are some of the photos of events and fundraisers. Next year, the "Me to We" club hopes to raise the remainder of the funds we need for the school.

My Hero Call to Action inspired children to find a project that they could help others. McConnell Elementary gifted students have helped to support a non-profit called Nickels For Nepal. This foundation works with a NGO in Nepal, Project Education Nepal to help the untouchable children in the remote Mijar Village 100 KM outside Kathmandu, Nepal. In collaboration between their teachers,Christine Hockert of Nickels For Nepal, and Nawaraj Baskota Kavya School, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal and Project Education Nepal supplies have been provided to the Mijar Village Children. In addition, regrettably, this Jan.11th Nawaraj's wife, Bishnu Baskota who was the librarian at Kavya School passed away suddenly with a heart attack. To honor her life a special scholarship fund was established to help the Mijar Village Children. A full scholarship has been awarded to Binod Gaire 3rd grade from the Mijar Village School. We are all so proud of Binod and excited that he will have an opportunity to improve his educational opportunities and his life. Information is available on this blog: www.chockert.edublogs.org and on Kavya School's Facebook link:http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150199911414209.317827.756689208 We will continue to raise funds for the Mijar Village Children through www.nickelsfornepal.com Chris Hockert