I received a great email this morning. Yuri Eelma from St. Petersburg, Russia contacted me to let me know that he read my “Blogging With Elementary School Students” unit with interest. In order to help out teachers in his country, he decided to translate the unit into Russian.
My name is Yuri Eelmaa (Estonian surname), I`m 34 years old and I`m working in municipal IT-education center in St.Petersburg (Russia). My professional interests and activities: using presentations in education, school site and school`s informational politics, IT-tools in the work of literature teachers and Web 2.0 in education (it`s the main interest). I teach school`s head-masters, their assistents and, sure, teachers. I work in this sphere for 5 years.
I`m glad to write you this letter. And I want to thank you for your book “Blogging with Elementary School Studentsâ€. This material is very-very useful for our teachers! When I read it, I saw the generated methodology for elementary school and I decide to translate it in Russian for our teachers. The announcement of the translation you can read in my professional blog: http://eelmaa.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-post_9769.html And it is the link to the translation of your material: http://rcokoit.ru/dld/metodsupport/blogging_elementary.doc
For this translation I`ve got many thanks from teachers from different Russian cities and towns. Many educational sites, forums and blogs relinked this translation.
Langwitches' Blogging Unit Translation into Russion
My response to Yuri was:
Thank you for contacting me. I am honored that you read my blog and translated the “Blogging with Elementary School” into Russian. That is exactly why I love our collaborative and connected bloggersphere. It is all about sharing and working together in order to benefit our students. No matter if they are in the USA, in Russia or in another country.
If you are reading this blog, you probably understand my reaction. If you are reading this blog, you probably have already experienced the value of a networking, learning and collaborating through blogs and maybe even Twitter. I firmly believe in our responsibility of sharing among educators. I know that that is a huge shift for some, especially the ones who are isolated in their schools and classrooms without this increasingly important network (to us).
Yuri reaffirmed for me the reason WHY I blog and share under Creative Commons my work on Langwitches. It is all about collaboration. In a globally connected world, we don’t just teach students who are in the same physical building that is being called school. We go beyond that… By sharing best practices, ideas, and projects, we support teachers who we might never know and meet, but who in turn will impact the lives of their students.
Thanks! I became the world-famous blogger! :-))))
What a great collaboration story! Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience you have had with blogging. It is another affirmation of the power of technology to bring people across the globe together for the benefit of all. I firmly believe that with the great priviledge of having such tools available to us, we have the responsibility to “give back” to the global community. I hope this attitude can be instilled in students, so that the future will be a happier and more peaceful place for all. Thanks for your great work on this blog and for licensing it as creative commons to share.
I enjoyed this story, and it was timely to discover your Blogging with Elementary Students e-book because I am trying to promote greater technology use within our schools (elementary and high school). I plan to read it in the next few days. Thanks for sharing your expertise and experience.