Global Virtual Classroom has always been an exciting journey. It is like a rollercoaster ride for every participant who is a part of it. I and my students feel privileged to be a part of this tour. By this project, the fight to save the planet Earth became a part of every member involved in this project. Every student took the onus of being a responsible citizen and took the oath of combatting global warming at their level. Along with increased self-awareness and knowledge band of students, they expanded their horizon on thinking about alternatives of energy and inculcating them in real life. It offered our team to study the global warming patterns across several countries and know the critical ones that require immediate attention. It also gave our team to do a complete study on various causes and effects of global warming.

Besides all this, GVC has always been a gateway to networking with a number of people across the globe. This time we collaborated with Abraham Lincoln Elementary school, Oak Park. It was a pleasure working with them. They were so hardworking, interactive and cooperative. The best part of the journey with them was the skype session. Despite of the time gap, we were able to organize one. The session included introduction and a complete discussion on the topic global warming, and students even recited poems and expressed their stance on this topic.

All of this coupled with poster presentations, speeches, research, writing and technical work, became a perfect blend of learning experience that GVC offersto all its members.

Ritu Khurana

St. Mark's Sr. Sec. Public School,

Janakpuri, New Delhi, India

Another year and another awesome GVC project for the students at Lincoln School in Oak Park. For the past 17 school years I have participated with the fifth graders in one of the best online programs out there. Students have the opportunity to meet and work with other students from around the globe. To collaborate with one another around a common theme, to create a website of their choosing and to see it to fruition. This year we had the pleasure of working with the students and teachers from St. Marks secondary school. It was a wonderful collaboration for both students and teachers. From the onset we communicated via Edmodo and generated numerous theme possibilities narrowing it down to the theme of global warming. Students got to work right away with each section of the website. Partitioning the work amongst the students. One particular highlight was the video chat we had with our partners. The students loved it and had the opportunity to share ideas and generate new ones. In most, if not all, of the student reflections they mentioned the video chat as a highlight of the project. The collaboration on this project was outstanding on all fronts. This was a student led project that yielded awesome results as you can see by our website. I want to thank our partners as they worked extremely hard and collaborated to the fullest extent. I also appreciate my partner teachers as they kept us on schedule and were always supportive in our decisions. This is the second year without the leadership of our dear Janet. I want to thank Joanne and Lakshmi for their help in keeping us all on schedule. I always share Janet’s story with my students and all the wonderful things she did for thousands of students around the globe. May her memories live on forever in the hearts of those she inspired. Personally she has inspired me to learn about other cultures and to travel the world. Thank you to my dear Janet. Miss you everyday!!!

Matthew Kuntz

Abraham Lincoln ES

Oak Park, Illinois (USA)