Please enjoy our journal, which describes our team efforts and collaboration throughout the contest time period.

September, 2017: After receiving the email from Janet, all three of our classes signed up for the 2017-18 Global Virtual Classroom contest. While we waited for our team placements, students in each class wondered which countries and cultures they would learn about and get to know this year.

October - November, 2017: Not too long after, the official placements arrived in our email inboxes - it was official; we were bonded together as the GVC 2017-18 team 1707: Turkey, Russia, and USA! Woohoo!

Immediately, students in each classroom did some research to learn about the other two countries. We looked into the clothing, foods, and schooling system, as well as languages, religions, and, of course, locations.

Next, students introduced themselves via Edmodo. It was so enjoyable to login each day and ‘meet’ and learn about more of our teammates. Students told each other their names, grade or level in school, favorite subject, along with a few personal facts or likes. For many students, this was a favorite part of the contest - getting to know kids of their own age who live across the world!

Our teams continued to communicate through Edmodo, but also relied on emails to share thoughts and ideas. In fact, there are nearly 150 emails between our three classrooms (and the contest isn’t even over yet)!

December 2017 - January 2018: Students first began to discuss possible topics for the GVC website within individual classrooms. Individually, we came up with a variety of topic ideas, such as traveling, friendship, social networks, world peace, food, education, and the environment. Students went through multiple rounds of narrowing topics until one was agreed upon: United Nations SDG Goals. We liked this topic because it covered so many of the ideas we had individually and collectively shared. We also enjoyed the thought of learning about real-world topics that will be important to our future as humans together on Earth. We had a United Goal to learn about United Nations Goals!

Students continued to get to know each other while beginning to learn about the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We created a padlet filled with digital cards that highlighted one SDG, while wishing all team members and the world a Happy New Year. In addition, students from all cultures wished each other a “Happy Halloween,” and students from all religions learned that many people of the world celebrate Christmas on different dates.

January - March, 2018: All schools worked to learn about the 17 SDGs. We started by exploring the United Nations webpages that describe each SDG. Next, we divided the SGDs between students in our classrooms so each could learn about one of the goals in even more detail. Then the SDG ‘expert’ students presented what they had learned about their assigned goal to the class, so all students were more familiar with the 17 SDGs. Finally, students picked topics that were of special interest to them and began to learn even more, and these students started to create content to add to the website.

Meanwhile, as a collaborative effort, our team shared a planning document to divide up the actual website work and discuss the website design and features. We were really making wonderful progress, and students were beginning to feel pride and camaraderie.

And then something strange happened. Without knowing it, our team was actually creating TWO separate websites! It actually took awhile to figure this out:

One class in one part of the world in one time zone was thinking they were doing their part and wondering why the others were unable to see their progress, while another class in another part of the world and in a different time zone was thinking they were also doing their part and wondering why others were not uploading content.

Sound confusing? It sure was! We actually didn’t realize what was happening for so long that our frustrations grew and we almost didn’t get our official website put together. However, neither of our three classrooms was going to let that happen.Students and teachers bonded together even more to work hard and join the content of the two websites in time for the deadline.

As a result of our overall experience, we learned:

• about the 17 United Nations Goals that are and will continue to impact our own lives;
• about how to many people’s lives around the world are negatively impacted by inequalities;
• about how hard it is to communicate around the world with time zone and language challenges;
• that we can still effectively engage in global collaboration despite these challenges; and, most importantly,
• that persistence pays off - there was a time when we felt we might not be able to put together the website, but now our website is complete and all schools are proud!

March, 2018 and Beyond: We have already begun to discuss possible ways to interact and learn together in the future. Perhaps we will collaborate on another GVC website in a future contest. Or maybe we will develop a collaborative assignment of our own. Who knows what the future for our team will bring? Regardless, we are thankful for our time together!