| Welcome to the home page for www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com This web site is related to www.DemocracyBonds.com because bond money could help pay to put computers equipped with microphones and videocameras in schools, village recreational centers and private homes around the world, making it easier for students in the USA and other countries to connect with students in the Middle East and other countries where there is antipathy toward Western values. I'm a school teacher and I like to challenge my students to use "difficult" words in their lives. Visit www.FreeVocabulary.com for more words. See www.newFCAT.com and math-success.com for other ideas. -- Mr. Mac, founder of BIBBI This web site is dedicated to Jessica and Maysam, the first two students from different cultures to connect using this BIBBI system. Click HERE to see other students who have connected using BIBBI Building International Bridges. page 1 2 3 4 GAI Global Trees PenPal List SAMPLE Go to a real Bridge Builder: BuildingBridgesMEUS <<Suggested Link TAKE THE FLAT CHALLENGE Students on BIBBI Examples of BIBBI letters Discussion about IRAN with Maysam |
| February 21, 2004 I attended a conference and heard Joseph Nye speak. His new book is called Soft Power. Soft power = the power to attract with positive messages about our civilization. Nye’s point was, “After the US and its coalition went into Afghanistan, why didn’t US businesses send in computers and materials for 1000 schools? Many students in Afghanistan have only one source of information, the radical schools that preach hatred of USA. "If this is a full-scale war, where is the call for sacrifice? Why are we using only the hard power of our country? You wouldn’t know that we are at war… The current administration offers us a tax cut. Instead of making things easy at home so we can forget the war in Iraq, the Bush administration should be asking for sacrifices the way our country did in World War 2. We should be asking: What can a citizen do to make contact with people in Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia and other countries where USA is despised?” Most people are not going to leave their jobs for 2 weeks to volunteer in Iraq or Afghanistan to help build classrooms or teach in schools. How else can the good will of people in the USA be called on? How can people make a difference? >>> NEXT People to People << an organization based in Missouri.... A Technological Link between People Building International Bridges By Internet… If you want to learn about another culture, If you want to use your skills as a speaker of English, then follow these steps: 1. Get a device to help you call via the Internet at a lower cost. A list appears here 2. Connect with a school in the Middle East and ask to speak with a director of the school.. 3. Call at least twice a week. Some people make it part of their volunteer work 4. IF YOU PREFER TO JUST SEND EMAIL MESSAGES, then find a penpal. a. Contact www.ptpi.org People to People b. Contact mistermath@comcast.net and you'll be matched to a person. Are you curious WHY individuals in the USA, Western and Eastern Europe as well as non-Muslims in East Asia, need to call schools in the Middle East? Why is this dialogue needed? Read these editorials: Soft Power by Joseph S. Nye Jr. January 10, 2003 The International Herald Tribune -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soft power is the ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals. It differs from hard power, the ability to use the carrots and sticks of economic and military might to make others follow your will. Both hard and soft power are important in the war on terrorism, but attraction is much cheaper than coercion, and an asset that needs to be nourished. Attraction depends on credibility.. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is reported to be deeply frustrated that the U.S. government has no coherent plan for molding public opinion worldwide. He is right to be concerned. Recent polls by the Pew Charitable Trust show that the attractiveness of the United States declined significantly in the past two years in 19 of 27 countries sampled. What can the government do? Soft power grows out of both U.S. culture and U.S. policies. From Hollywood to higher education, civil society does far more to present the United States to other peoples than the government does. Hollywood often portrays consumerism, sex and violence, but it also promotes values of individualism, upward mobility and freedom (including for women). These values make America attractive to many people overseas, but some fundamentalists see them as a threat. Contrasting views often exist side by side in the same country. For example, Iranian officials excoriate America as a "great satan" while teenagers secretly watch smuggled Hollywood videos. The U.S. government should not try to control exports of popular culture, but State Department cultural and exchange programs help to remind people of the noncommercial aspects of American values and culture. Similarly, government broadcasting to other countries that is evenhanded, open and informative helps to enhance American credibility and soft power in a way that propaganda never can. Yet the billion dollars spent on public diplomacy is only one- quarter of 1 percent of what is spent on defense. Congress should support measures like Representative Henry Hyde's proposal to bolster the State Department's public diplomacy and international broadcasting efforts. The other way the government can make a differenceis in the substance and style of foreign policy. With a military budget larger than those of the next dozen countries combined, the United States looms so large that it engenders negative as well as positive reactions. The biggest kid on the block always provokes a mixture of admiration and resentment. To the extent that America defines its national interests in ways congruent with others, and consults with them in formulating policies, it will improve the ratio of admiration to resentment. President George W. Bush articulated this well in the 2000 campaign when he said that if America is a humble nation others will respect it, but if it is arrogant they will not. ... The lessons for those in the Pentagon who want to enhance America's soft power is that it will come not from military propaganda campaigns but from greater sensitivity to the opinions of others in the formulation of policies. They should heed Teddy Roosevelt's advice. Now that we Americans have a big stick, we should learn to speak softly. Joseph Nye is dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone." Humiliation Editorial by Jessica Stern, Harvard University This article first appeared in a Beirut newspaper and it is quoted here in parts. February 5, 2004 Reprinted from the Daily Star (Lebanon) Why do religious terrorists kill? I have been asking them and their supporters this question for the last five years. My interviews suggest people join religious terrorist groups in the belief that they can make the world a better place for the population they aim to “serve.” But over time, terrorism can become a career as much as a passion. Leaders harness grievances, humiliation and anomie, turning them into weapons. Jihad becomes addictive. Violence turns activists and mystics into evil men. Grievances end up as greed for money, political power, status or attention. For the leaders, perpetuating the movement becomes a central goal. What starts as moral fervor becomes a sophisticated organization. Organizational survival demands flexibility, especially in terms of the mission. Terrorist organizations alter their missions in many ways. Some find a new mission when the old one is completed. Some broaden the mission to make it attractive to a wider variety of potential recruits. Some form alliances with other groups whose missions are different from their own; transform their missions into profit-driven enterprises whose principal goal is enrichment; or form strategic alliances with organized criminal groups. Some groups have sticky missions, but only the spry survive. ... Individually, the terrorists I interviewed cited many reasons for choosing a life of holy war, and I came to despair of identifying a single root cause. But the variable that most frequently came up was not poverty or human rights abuses as has been posited in the press but perceived humiliation. Humiliation came up at every echelon of terrorist group members leaders and followers. For example, the founder and former leader of a Kashmiri group, the Muslim Jambaz Force, told me that the primary factor that led him to start the group was a sense of cultural humiliation. “Muslims have been overpowered by the West. Our ego hurts. We are not able to live up to our own standards for ourselves. It felt to me at the time I was involved in militancy like a personal loss,” he said. But the militant despaired at what had happened to the jihad movement, saying: “The first generation of fundamentalists Qutb and Maududi was focused on daawa education. We focused on freedom. This generation is much more rigid, stricter, than my generation. They are focused on hate. Hate begets hate. You cannot create freedom out of hatred.” Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, observed that the “new world order” is a source of humiliation for Muslims. He has argued that it is better for the youth of Islam to carry arms and defend their religion with pride and dignity than to submit to humiliation. Violence, in other words, restores the dignity of humiliated youth. This is similar to Franz Fanon’s notion that violence is a “cleansing force,” which frees oppressed youths from an “inferiority complex, despair and inaction,” making them fearless and restoring their self-respect. Fanon also warned of the dangers of globalization for the underdeveloped world. The purpose of terrorist violence, according to its advocates, is to restore dignity. Its target audience is not necessarily the victims and their sympathizers but the perpetrators and their sympathizers. Violence is a way of strengthening support for the organization and the movement it represents. The terrorism we face today is a response not only to political grievances, as was common in the 1960s and 70s, and which might, in principle, be remediable. It is a response to the “God-shaped hole” in modern culture about which Sartre wrote, and to values like tolerance and equal rights for women that are supremely irritating to those who feel left behind by modernity. Extremists respond to the vacuity in human consciousness with anger and with ideas about who is to blame. In their view, arrogant one-worlders, humanists and promoters of human rights have created an engine of modernity that is stealing the identity of the oppressed. The greatest rage, and danger, comes from those who feel they can’t keep up, even as they claim superiority over those who can. The answer to the question: “Why do they hate us?” is not only envy, engendered by US military and economic might, but also American policies and, more importantly, how these are perceived by potential recruits to terrorist organizations. It is not just who they are (those who see themselves humiliated by globalization and the “new world order”), and not just who we are (an enviable hegemon) but also, in part, what we do. We station troops in restive regions, engendering popular resentment. We demand that other countries adhere to international law, but willfully weaken instruments we perceive as not advancing our needs. Despite our belated recognition that weak states may threaten us more than strong ones, we allow failed states to fester. There is, for example, a danger that we may have today created the preconditions for a failed state in Iraq. ... The religious terrorists the US faces are fighting on every level militarily, economically, psychologically and spiritually. Their arms are powerful, but spiritual dread is the most dangerous weapon in their arsenal. Perhaps the most evil aspect of religious terrorism is that it aims to destroy moral distinctions themselves. Its goal is to confuse not only its sympathizers, but also those who seek to fight it. By the same token, the adversaries of terrorist groups need to respond not just with guns, but also by sowing confusion, conflict and competition among terrorists and between terrorists and their sponsors and sympathizers. They should encourage condemnation of extremist interpretations of religion by peace-loving practitioners. They should change policies that no longer serve their interests or are inconsistent with their values, even if these are policies the terrorists demand. In the end, what counts is what we fight for, not what we oppose. We need to avoid giving into spiritual dread, and hold fast to the best of our principles and values by emphasizing tolerance, empathy and courage. Jessica Stern is a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. So... are you interested in helping to "spread the word" overseas through phone calls? Go HERE CULTURAL LINKS 1. Go to Google.com, click on IMAGES and type in KAABA or KABAA 2. www.muslimtents.com/muslimguide/ 16-Gallery.html beautiful singing… 3. Writings of Karen Armstrong... She writes for Westerners who want to know about Buddhism, Islam and other cultures. http://www.oocities.org/teachers2teachers/armstrong.html 4. See the discussion on FORSUBS (right side yellow column) http://www.oocities.org/teachers2teachers/forsubs.html FOR DISCUSSION (see also "Discussion about Islam") Britain May 13, 2004 The Times of London Carey fears world peril over Islam By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent LORD CAREY OF CLIFTON, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, launched an unprecedented attack on Islamic states last night, saying that the world was in great peril. In a lecture that will anger Britain’s allies in the Middle East, he said that countries in the Islamic world do not reflect “the true values of Islam”. In his second attack on Islamic countries in two months, he was careful to differentiate between the religion, which he praised, and its contemporary political expression, which he once again criticised. “I am talking rather about a sharp ideological tension that separates the West from another world, that we call Islamic,” he said. This Islamic world, he went on to argue, “does not reflect the true values of Islam”. Calling for more elasticity between doctrine and science, he said: “The challenge to Muslim countries, it seems to me, is to create environments where learning — religious and theological, scientific, artistic and literary — can flower unrestricted and be open to women as well as to men.” Lord Carey, in the seventh annual Sternberg lecture to an audience of academics and students at Leicester University, said that there was a failure of understanding between the West and Islam. The lecture, the fourth in a series on Islam by Lord Carey, was endowed by Sir Sigmund Sternberg, the philanthropist who helped to found the International Council of Christians and Jews. In the third lecture in the series, at the Gregorian University in Rome in March, Lord Carey provoked anger in the Muslim community for his accusation that Islamic societies had become authoritarian and committed to power and privilege. The former Archbishop declined to apologise and raised similar concerns as he did in March. He said that his fears arose “from deep appreciation of Islam and indeed of all mainstream religions and, yet, from an increasing frustration that we have not yet managed to achieve a real and fruitful dialogue based upon understanding and truth.” He challenged the association of the West with decadence in the Muslim mind and of Islam with terrorism in the Western mind. He had become aware of deep-rooted Islamaphobia in Britain. He said that it was not effective to dismiss such worries as nonsense. Lord Carey also voiced disquiet about America’s policy in Iraq and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. He described the decapitation in Iraq of Nick Berg as barbaric but added: “In our disgust the West must resist the temptation to take the moral high ground.” REPLY Iqbal Sacranie, secretary- general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The real problem is that he fails to recognise the sovereignty of Muslim countries and their right to govern their affairs according to their own genius, their own culture and their own faith.” Dr Zaki Badawi, principal of the Muslim College, said: “I feel his diagnosis is not totally correct. George is a great friend of mine. I am going to send him a library on Islam dealing with the areas where he thinks there is a conflict.” The BIBBI Pen Pal List More interesting articles are below I SENT THIS ARTICLE TO A fellow from Syria..... Karen Armstrong: The curse of the infidel A century ago Muslim intellectuals admired the west. Why did we lose their goodwill? On July 15 1099, the crusaders from western Europe conquered Jerusalem, falling upon its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants like the avenging angels from the Apocalypse. By Guardian Newspapers, 6/19/2002 A century ago Muslim intellectuals admired the west. Why did we lose their goodwill? On July 15 1099, the crusaders from western Europe conquered Jerusalem, falling upon its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants like the avenging angels from the Apocalypse. In a massacre that makes September 11 look puny in comparison, some 40,000 people were slaughtered in two days. A thriving, populous city had been transformed into a stinking charnel house. Yet in Europe scholar monks hailed this crime against humanity as the greatest event in world history since the crucifixion of Christ. The crusades destabilised the Near East, but made little impression on the Islamic world as a whole. In the west, however, they were crucial and formative. This was the period when western Christendom was beginning to recover from the long period of barbarism known as the Dark Ages, and the crusades were the first cooperative act of the new Europe as she struggled back on to the international scene. We continue to talk about "crusades" for justice and peace, and praise a "crusading journalist" who is bravely uncovering some salutary truth, showing that at some unexamined level, crusading is still acceptable to the western soul. One of its most enduring legacies is a profound hatred of Islam. Before the crusades, Europeans knew very little about Muslims. But after the conquest of Jerusalem, scholars began to cultivate a highly distorted portrait of Islam, and this Islamophobia, entwined with a chronic anti-semitism, would become one of the received ideas of Europe. Christians must have been aware that their crusades violated the spirit of the gospels: Jesus had told his followers to love their enemies, not to exterminate them. This may be the reason why Christian scholars projected their anxiety on to the very people they had damaged. Thus it was, at a time when Christians were fighting brutal holy wars against Muslims in the Near East, that Islam became known in Europe as an inherently violent and intolerant faith, a religion of the sword. At a time when the popes were trying to impose celibacy on the reluctant clergy, western biographies of the prophet Mohammed, written by priests and monks, depict him, with ill-concealed envy, as a sexual pervert and lecher, who encouraged Muslims to indulge their basest instincts. At a time when feudal Europe was riddled with hierarchy, Islam was presented as an anarchic religion that gave too much respect and freedom to menials, such as slaves and women. Christians could not see Islam as separate from themselves; it had become, as it were, their shadow-self, the opposite of everything that they thought they were or hoped they were not. In fact, the reality was very different. Islam, for example, is not the intolerant or violent religion of western fantasy. Mohammed was forced to fight against the city of Mecca, which had vowed to exterminate the new Muslim community, but the Koran, the inspired scripture that he brought to the Arabs, condemns aggressive warfare and permits only a war of self-defence. After five years of warfare, Mohammed turned to more peaceful methods and finally conquered Mecca by an ingenious campaign of non-violence. After the prophet's death, the Muslims established a vast empire that stretched from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas, but these wars of conquest were secular, and were only given a religious interpretation after the event. In the Islamic empire, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians enjoyed religious freedom. This reflected the teaching of the Koran, which is a pluralistic scripture, affirmative of other traditions. Muslims are commanded by God to respect the "people of the book", and reminded that they share the same beliefs and the same God. Mohammed had not intended to found a new religion; he was simply bringing the old religion of the Jews and the Christians to the Arabs, who had never had a prophet before. Constantly the Koran explains that Mohammed has not come to cancel out the revelations brought by Adam, Abraham, Moses or Jesus. Today, Muslim scholars have argued that had Mohammed known about the Buddhists and Hindus, the native Americans or the Australian Aborigines, the Koran would have endorsed their sages and shamans too, because all rightly guided religion comes from God. But so entrenched are the old medieval ideas that western people find it difficult to believe this. We continue to view Islam through the filter of our own needs and confusions. The question of women is a case in point. None of the major world faiths has been good to women but, like Christianity, Islam began with a fairly positive message, and it was only later that the religion was hijacked by old patriarchal attitudes. The Koran gives women legal rights of inheritance and divorce, which western women would not receive until the 19th century. The Koran does permit men to take four wives, but this was not intended to pander to male lust, it was a matter of social welfare: it enabled widows and orphans to find a protector, without whom it was impossible for them to survive in the harsh conditions of 7th-century Arabia. There is nothing in the Koran about obligatory veiling for all women or their seclusion in harems. This only came into Islam about three generations after the prophet's death, under the influence of the Greeks of Christian Byzantium, who had long veiled and secluded their women in this way. Veiling was neither a central nor a universal practice; it was usually only upper-class women who wore the veil. But this changed during the colonial period. Colonialists such as Lord Cromer, the consul general of Egypt from 1883 to 1907, like the Christian missionaries who came in their wake, professed a horror of veiling. Until Muslims aban doned this barbarous practice, Cromer argued in his monumental Modern Egypt, they could never advance in the modern world and needed the supervision of the west. But Lord Cromer was a founder member in London of the Men's League for Opposing Women's Suffrage. Yet again, westerners were viewing Islam through their own muddled preconceptions, but this cynicism damaged the cause of feminism in the Muslim world and gave the veil new importance as a symbol of Islamic and cultural integrity. We can no longer afford this unbalanced view of Islam, which is damaging to ourselves as well as to Muslims. We should recall that during the 12th century, Muslim scholars and scientists of Spain restored to the west the classical learning it had lost during the Dark Ages. We should also remember that until 1492, Jews and Christians lived peaceably and productively together in Muslim Spain - a coexistence that was impossible elsewhere in Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly every single Muslim intellectual was in love with the west, admired its modern society, and campaigned for democracy and constitutional government in their own countries. Instead of seeing the west as their enemy, they recognised it as compatible with their own traditions. We should ask ourselves why we have lost this goodwill. · Karen Armstrong is the author of Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (Weidenfeld); The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (HarperCollins), and Islam: A Short History (Weidenfeld). © Guardian Newspapers Limitedaricle THEN the guy from Syria wrote to me the following REPLY: I haven't studied the date in my high school. Indeed extremism in any religion is a problem. But the reason many people in the Middle East hate the United States is not about a grudge from the crusades. It is a combination of many things. Many countries in the Middle East have underdeveloped economies and uneducated masses with poor leadership. The US acts as a scapegoat for their problems, and a lot of the arab media doesn't help. Al Jazeera jumps at the opportunity to broadcast images that portray the US as an occupier and Arab-hater. A lot of this fuel is now coming from Iraq, but more frequently, comes from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People see a direct hypocracy between the US's democracy and equal rights preaching and its failure to critisize Israel's occupation and treatment of the Palestinian people. Bin Laden and co love the Israel palestine conflict and Iraq war because the images and ideas of suffering people creates fear and hatred in people who have nothing to lose... fertile ground for brainwashing uneducated people with nothing to lose and creating... terrorists. So you see, even educated people who understand the situation in the Middle East hate that the US is in Iraq not because they see the US as an occupier, but because it is creating more instability in the region and strengthening the fundamental Islamic movement, which is one of the causes of democracy's absence in the region. We doubt that all the political experts in Washington do not know this blatant truth and in the end it causes us to question the US's true motives for going to Iraq ... because... if it were to combat terrorism, they are doing the opposite, because... if it were to create democracy, they are making the enemies of democracy more powerful, and because... if it were to keep WMD out of the hands of terrorists, they've created a chaotic anarchy that increasees the likelihood that supposed existing WMD may fall into the wrong hands. In short, the US is trying to do the right thing, but they are taking the wrong approach This letter was written by Abdul Khalid Sayid from Syria He was a student in Florida in 2004-2005. You can write to AKS by sending the note to me at mistermath@comcast.net and I will forward it to him. He invites curious Westerners to learn more about Islam. -- Steve GO TO The BIBBI Pen Pal List.... Write to a person in another country and ask questions... Learn about another city and find out what is similar... IF YOU ARE 18 or younger, please read this notice: Every person on this list is a nice person and I have personally written or met each person -- or they are recommended by one of my friends -- Your parents do not need to worry if you are writing to these people ......................................................................... Found on the Internet: VERMONT GROUP http://www.buildingbridgesmeus.org <<< Suggested Link Here is a group that is REALLY building bridges WHo has used BIBBI to connect with someone from another culture? Visit "Students in BIBBI" See Examples of BIBBI letters... A letter requesting help... How did the Berlin wall fall? In part because East Germans spoke with other Europeans and Westerners and heard Voice of America (or whatever the radio broadcasts were) and saw western movies. With the devalued dollar against the Euro and the general difficulties with “people to people” diplomacy in face to face situations, I wondered what it would be like to have virtual contact between people in the Middle East and the USA.. WHAT TECHNOLOGY? I created this web page at www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com and I’ve been experimenting with trying to connect by email between teachers in middle schools in the Middle East and in Florida. I’m just a school teacher, without resources to really push this project ahead, and I wonder if you can suggest the best or most appropriate technology. Yahoo instant messenger might be one way…. But I’m not sure how to get the camera set up over in the middle east… DEAR READER: Please suggest other ways for boosting people to people contact over the Internet... I have students who can be “testers” of a system to increase international contact. Do you have suggestions for using the Internet in an effective way? Do you know of anyone or any organization that has teachers for children ages 12-14 in the Middle East who would be willing to correspond with me and my classes? Thanks for your time, Steve McCrea "Mr. Mac", Teacher Building International Bridges 954 646 8246 2314 Desota Drive Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-1567 One way is to find a classroom somewhere int he middle east and start emailing photos back and forth to help students on both sides to develop a rapport for each other. Current restrictions: my school doesn’t allow internet access in the classroom, but I can bring in photos that might be sent to me over the internet, then my students can compose letters and we can mail a reply. I just need email addresses of teachers in the Middle East who are willing to participate. Is this “penpal” work a function that some group can perform? Dear Reader, do you know of any group that can connect me with a teacher in the Middle East? Write to mistermath@comcast.net |
| In other words, let's make phone calls and show our interest in their culture, in their history and in their progress. If we buy more Iraqi pistachios and dates from Afghanistan, then the children of farmers might have a better education. |
| Joseph Nye tells this joke. The class dummy arrived at his 20th class reunion in a limo. Nice suit, great shoes, he talked about having his own company and he made a $100,000 donation to the school. His classmates gathered around and asked, “How did you do it?” The class dummy replied, “Well, I bought stuff at $1 and sold it at $3, and pretty soon that 2% profit just added up.” Now, that's soft power... spread harmony with humor. |
BIBBI Building International Bridges By Internet PENPAL LIST The evolution of an idea (What can ordinary people do?) People to People (The Eisenhower program) What if it's unsafe in the other country? Technology plus good will = BIBBI PENNYTALK DISCUSSION ABOUT IRAN with MAYSAM SAMPLE showing how to START a BIBBI conversation English Lessons page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 English Links OTHER LINKS Building Bridges MEUS Middle East and USA www.buildingbridges meus.org/ Discussion about Islam FORSUBS SEE Karen Armstrong's writings More Discussion about Islam TRY SKYPE SteveFortLauderdale |
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| Should we observe 15 July as an anniversary of mourning? What happened in 1099? In Jerusalem? See also the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" ...the movie includes the massacre in Jerusalem, where crusaders killed 70,000 Jews and Muslims in 1099 over three days... |
| Go to the BIBBI Pen Pal List ......... Click HERE |
More interesting web sites www.Looking For Patterns.com www.BigPicture.org |
| INFO From BBMEUS www.buildingbridges meus.org/ Dear Steve: The best student-to-student operations I know of is run by www.iEARN.org. That is truly international, but includes Iran. The Science & Arts Foundation specifically orients to Iran. www.science-arts.org. The USA branch is not operating right now, but some browsing on that site might bear fruit. We've tried to generate some interest in schools around our area (Hanover, NH/White River Junction, VT) with mixed success in getting student-to-student contact. The short answer to your question about contacts from those who teach in the 12-14 age range is that I don't have names. That might be a bit young on the Iranian side as by and large, the English language ability of kids that age is usually pretty limited. Also be aware that K-12 instruction is rigidly gender-separated in Iran, so you might have to have contacts in two separate schools. Hope this is a helpful start. Charlie Buell, VP & Treasurer, BBMEUS |
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The PennyTalk calling card is a convenient way to save on all of your long distance calling from any phone in the U.S. Placing Calls with PennyTalk Once you have opened a PennyTalk account, you can easily make calls at great low rates. Opening a PennyTalk Account It is very easy to start calling with PennyTalk! A PennyTalk prepaid account can be opened instantly with as little as $25. After you make the purchase, you will be provided an Account Number and PIN to start making calls right away. As you make calls, charges are deducted from your account balance. You may add funds to your account at any time, or enable the Auto-Recharge option so you never have to worry about running out of call time. Click here to sign up or call 1-888-624-9714. Other systems? Recommend your favorite telephone system (for pennies per minute) mistermath@ comcast.net |
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| BIBBI |
| page 1 2 3 4 GAI Global Trees PenPal List Global Cooling Certificates How to create an interesting English class |
| page 1 2 3 4 GAI Global Trees PenPal List Global Cooling Certificates How to create an interesting English class How to become a visual and active teacher |
| Building International Bridges between classrooms and students The students of Downtown Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are interested in exchanging letters and email messages. Please write to us. |
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| Write to: Downtown Academy 101 South East Third Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 USA jfriend@downtownacademy.org SteveEnglishTeacher@hotmail.com DowntownAcademy.org |