Having learnt about the iEARN Community made me join this educational resource network without hesitation because of the variety of online educational projects it offers on the international level. I was glad to involve my students from American Language Center to take part in a couple of iEARN Projects which encourage them to become global citizens since iEARN tackle important global issues and seek for definite solutions from the youth part across the globe. Furthermore, it may be a strong basis for students in communication skills and in improving their English language skills as they engage in cross-cultural dialogue with their peers from different parts of the world. They can also get valuable insights into various cultures.
We have registered for the following iEARN Projects:

1. My Hero Project
2. Global Issues: Environment Learning Circles
3. Children’s Rights Learning Circle Project organized by Global Teenager Project in collaboration with iEARN International and the Dutch Organization ICT&E.

Each project involved the participation of different countries and strong collaboration between its members in order to result in meaningful students’ outcomes. We worked collaboratively with the following countries: USA, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Belarus, Canada, The Netherlands, Bangladesh, South Africa, Romania.
iEARN International offered to us a great platform for digital learning. By participating in these Projects students enriched their potential and acquired important 21st Century skills such as:

• problem-solving and critical thinking- e.g. by the end of Children’s Rights Project students are supposed to write a letter to Unicef by requesting them to add one more important right of a child in the UN Convention. They have to reflect on this issue and plan to write it very carefully and sensibly together with some of their global peers;
• cross-cultural collaboration resulting in effective partnerships;
• profound research skills based not only on the information provided online but also on the active search for social partners and actors to help us carry out some of the tasks and hold interviews with the heroes of our story within Children’s Rights Project (i.e in one of the Challenges proposed, we had to organize interviews with three refugees from our country in order to raise awareness relating to the rights and support they all should have in each country).

As concerns Global Issues: Environment Learning Circles, in this project the students are supposed to collect important national data on a definite topic connected with environment, for example, they had to find out information on water and its safety in our country and to compare with the results obtained by the member countries. Thus, such projects empower them to take action and to make a difference in their communities.

• digital skills- the project-based learning is facilitated by the technologies which are integrated into the online education, i.e students proved excellent digital skills by accomplishing their media projects using a range of 2.0 web tools.

The Participation in iEARN Projects gave to both teachers and students the opportunity to take part in the iEARN Moldova National Student Media Conference which allowed them to show their best media projects within the international projects they are involved in. The participants got Certificates for their valuable contributions to the development of iEARN Moldovan Community. My students liked the Conference and the initiative of students from different regions of Moldova. Some of my students who have just started working on their project said that actually it wasn’t as difficult to perform such a media project as they thought before, after they have looked over the media projects presented at the Conference. They believe that this kind of projects may help them in their future careers and motivate them to become active global citizens and future leaders. They promised to do their best in the global Projects they are involved in.  
 

Olesea Jechiu is sharing her impressions on participating in the ”Holiday Card Exchange” Project: 

”First of all it was a challenge for me, as a teacher, to present the idea of the project and to impress and motivate the students. They turned out to be very impressed thanks to the opportunity to get in touch with their peers from abroad, that means we have one more motivating tool in the teaching-learning process . At the same time, my colleague teacher got interested as well. As a whole, I think this could be a start line for a different approach to English Language Teaching and Practicing. I hope this could be a useful experience for other students and teachers as well.

About 14 willing students from the 5th and the 6th grades were involved in the project. We have schools from 6 countries as partners: the USA, Romania, Bielarus, Russia, Packistan and Taiwan (two schools). Through our group ( nr.24) from the Project Forum I could get in touch with some of our partners, namely from Romania and Bielarus. Aliaksandra from Bielarus helped me with her previous experience in the project. She gave me some tips and explained how it works, by what time we should send the cards. Again I was glad people were eager to help.
 
In their cards pupils wrote about  the way we celebrate Christmas, Mothers' Day, Martisor.  As concerning the money aspect I am very grateful to their parents, who were eager to support them. We also got a lending hand from a NGO, that supported the mail cost of the cards for the students that were willing to participate, but couldn't afford it. 
 
So far, I noticed curiosity in my students' eyes. It was the first time they could make use of English in a real life situation. They were enthusiastic about the idea we collaborate with an English speaking country- I mean the USA and did their best to write coherent messages and decorate the cards. Of course I helped. 

The most precious outcome of the Project Based Learning is that together, my students and I, could see one more reason, may be the most outstanding, why English is to be loved, learned and spoken - that is interaction with people like us. In  the same time, we have learned that diversity means personality and our traditions are worth promoting! We are looking forward to receiving cards from our partners as well, and intend to enjoy reading them during the round table we're planning.”

Mariana Boldișor  - My first international project: “Holiday Card Exchange”

At the beginning I was afraid but I was encouraged and everything was ok. I planned to involved 15 pupils from the 7-th and 5-th forms till the end I had 17 pupils from the 5-th form. I remember the day when I announced the 5-th form that we’II take part into an international project, they were confused, surprised and happy. We had 7 partners : Taiwan (2 schools), Belarus, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, United States  and Russia. We were classified in group N 20 and the teacher from Russia created Google-map for our group, it was pleasant to admire the joy and happiness in pupils’ eyes when they found our school on the Google- map. We received cards from 4 partners and I want to organize an exhibition”Cards from different parts of the World”.

SWOT-analysis of the project “Holiday Card Exchange”

S W
*Pupils are motivated to study English
*they have the possibility to see the result of their work(when we received the cards from our partners)
*they use dictionaries to write the messages
*they want to know more about other cultures 
*they become more responsible
*they wrote about the way we celebrate Christmas and New Year
*they wrote letters about their school, family(at the stage extension)
*pupils understand the meaning why it is important to know English
*can be involved a great number of pupils -we need money to send the cards(To be sure that our partners will receive the cards it is necessary a special letter and it is expensive.)
Parents helped us.
O T
+a good collaboration between school and parents
+after the end of the project, pupils continue to write through e-mail -some pupils have gaps in their knowledge and they are afraid to make  mistakes. We as teachers should always encourage them. 

The conclusion is “Everything is possible if you want”!