Sunday, October 17, 2010

2010-2011 CHALLENGE 20/20 PARTER- DEVELOPMENTAL HIGH SCHOOL IN TURKEY

SKYPE CONVERSATIONS: We had two skype brief conversations. We will set weekly skype teleconferencing on Thursdays from 7:30-7:45 to tend to priority business.

PRELIMINARY E-MAIL COMMUNICATION
Dear Mrs. Nazlier:
We are also very excited about working with you and exploring the Green School Pilot Program together. We will set SKYPE for 7:30a.m. on Thursday, October 7. We will only be able to talk for 15 minutes because our chapel service starts at 8:00. We will only have time for quick introductions.

The new website for Green Schools http://www.okgreenschools.org/ will be operational shortly. I am sending a copy of your e-mail to the coordinator of Green School for her to consider placing you in the listserv. We have not started with Green School yet, so it is perfect timing.

Salman came to us from Deer Creek, the only school in OKC to complete the green school first year pilot program. Teachers and students decide what their focus will be and develop a plan to make things happen. I observed what Salam and his classmates did and documented at a blog under Thursday, January 28, 2010 http://casadynaischallenge2020.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-03-07T06%3A05%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7 .

Last year, we were "an unofficial Green School" and we bought parts of the tool kit. Our work with the tool kit was limited to demonstrations of the tools to younger children. We tried to develop a partnership with our middle division, but we did not go much further than conversations.

This year, a child in the middle division wants to promote Green Schools with her classmates and she has a teacher in the middle division seeking more information to help her. We are very excited about not only starting the program in the Upper Division, but also mentoring children in the Middle Division.

The kit empowers energy audits following guidelines provided by Project Green Tree http://www.pltgreenschools.org/, http://www.pltgreenschools.org/content/plt-greenschools-investigations-0 . A team of experts then reviews students findings to provide needed credibility to the student’s research. Students then present their findings to the headmaster, board, faculty to inspire sustainable green change based on research.

Students also embark on a service-learning project of their choice. Last year, we promoted the increase usage of aluminum water bottles. We were not very successful.

Looking forward to your reply,

Carmen Clay



From: Seçil NAZLIER [mailto:snazlier@odtugvo.k12.tr]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 6:53 AM
To: Clay, Carmen
Subject: Challenge 20/20

Dear Mrs. Clay and Dear Salman,
Hi! It is finally me, Secil NAZLIER (By the way I am Mrs. Nazlier :)). First of all I apologize for my delay in responding. We are also very excited about being partners with your school. I think that the topic Global Warming is okay for us. Actually, I'm the teacher leader of a student club which deals with different global problems and we have been studying on different issues including global warming and climate change for the last two semesters.

I’m glad to hear from you so quickly because I’m planning to complete most of our work in the first term of the year although NAIS assigned our school for the second term.

I was thinking to start with relating the warming trends of the past with the present to see if the difference was normal or definitely attributed to human activity in our city. Also, we still continue to research the global warming impacts on Turkey.

Salman mentioned about a green school pilot program and I looked up at the web site but I think I need more information about that program. If you could provide me some more information, I would be very pleased to work with you in this project. It seemed to me that another project called “Ecoschools”, which was held in our primary school during previous years resembles that pilot program. But we haven’t been in such a pilot program to make our high school greener so far.

Setting a Skype conversation seems okay for us but I meet with my club once a week on Thursdays. So unfortunately, we won’t be able to make this conversation on 5 th of October. There is approximately 8 hours of difference between our cities and our student club starts on 15:30 pm (7: 30 am for Oklahoma). If you can set up this conversation on any following Thursdays, it will be more convenient.

Me and my students are looking forward to meet you and collaborate on our work through the year. I hope it would be fruitful year for both of schools.

On our school web page, there are some information about our student club and its Challenge 20/20 works done so far but unfortunately it is in Turkish. We are still working on its English version. As soon as we complete it, I will provide you the link. Maybe your students will want to collaborate in constructing the web page.
Hear from you soon.

Secil NAZLIER

Biology Teacher

METU Developmental High School



From: Clay, Carmen
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 2:32 PM
To: 'snazlier@odtugvo.k12.tr'; 'flaminghot96@hotmail.com'; 'wheeler@nais.org'; Huestis, Peter; Bright, Chris; Pena, Matt
Cc: Delgrosso, Mark; Zesiger, Julieta; 'Carmen Clay'; Clay, Carmen
Subject: 20/20 Green School Challenge



Hello Mr. Nazlier,

My name is Salman, and I am a student attending Casady, currently as a freshman. I am interested in the problem of global warming. As an 8th grader, I attended a Green School Pilot Program School, and I want to reproduce that experience at my new high school, Casady.

I am starting with energy audits inside the buildings. I am, also, planning to do a carbon footprint survey of the entire high school. I am following the Green School Pilot Program guidelines. You can find information about the Oklahoma Green School Pilot Program at http://www.okgreenschools.org/ . This site will be updated next week, but it gives you an idea of what I did last year.

I would like you to consider working with me in global warming awareness instead of deforestation. Currently I am working with a friend of mine, and I will contact the environmental club to help my efforts. I have started to read the book 20/20, and have started to make a website for the environmental club.

Casady thanks you for joining with us in Challenge 20/20. We look forward with communicating with you and your students. This challenge will help our schools become more environment-friendly.

I am writing to you though my sponsor’s email, and my personal email is XXXXXXXXX
Salman



Dear Mr. Nazlier:

It is a pleasure to welcome you as our partner, hopefully on awareness of global warming as a path to global peace instead of deforestation. We already started our work and commitment to that challenge.

Looking forward to your reply,


Carmen Clay

Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair

Casady School

9500 North Pennsylvania

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73120

405-749-3103, cell: 405-520-1325, fax: 405-749-3214

www.casady.org

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