Virtually in Qatar

All weekend I have been in Qatar, only virtually instead of in person. Ms. Cuellar and three of her students, Steve, Erika, and Karla finally made it to the Flat Classroom Conference 2009 after a whirlwind of fundraising and a 21 hour plane ride. I am the substitute "left behind" with the other 6 students. On Friday, we filmed a couple of videos. The first was a video asking questions that the students, most who have not travelled outside of the US, wanted to know about being in a foreign land. See it at http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com/video/questions-from-us The second was a funny video showing Ms. Cuellar all of the "forbidden" things her students were doing while she was gone, like texting, talking on the phone, and listening to music. Today we got our answers back from Steve, Erika, and Karla, see it at http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com/video/2410443:Video:5627. I am so proud to hear them speak about their experiences and talk about breaking down cultural stereotypes. They have made friends with students from all over the world and the girls were very surprised at the cultural norms regarding women in a Muslim country! I'm very excited to hear all the stories when they return on Wednesday.

What did she do wrong?

Just reading a blog from my cooperating teacher-she has given up on fundraising to get her students to the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha Qatar this month. Out of the $20,000 needed only $4300 came in. She tried; she really did.

She was optimisitic and idealistic; nothing wrong with either but it is a bad time of year to raise money and a bad economic environment to raise money. Also, I really think, and I could not tell her this because she was so passionate about it, that attending the conference was a luxury and the same experience could be had without spending $20,000 to fly overseas. I would have given up long before she did, actually. Will she use the $4300 and get herself to the conference? I really hope she will. She deserves it; she works very hard for her students and is very passionate about the Flat Classroom project. But the students will able to attend and participate virtually; indeed this is part of global collaoration that sometimes you may never meet your co-workers face to face.

Sorry for the lost opportunity, but a lesson learned.......