New Partners

2009-2010 NAIS CHALLENGE 20/20 NEW PARTNERSHIPS
Dear Challenge 20/20 Team,

The NAIS Global Initiatives team would like to thank you for your interest in participating in the 2009-2010 Challenge 20/20 program. This is a program that is being received with great interest and commitment by schools from many countries. We have received approximately 400 applications from schools from 56 countries and many states in the US, and we have been able to partner many schools. Our hope is that the Challenge 20/20 partnerships among schools across the globe will provide an excellent foundation for meaningful problem-solving and cross continent relationships that lead to a more promising global future for our students and our schools.

Here is some information about your team.

Number of schools in team: 3
Global problem assigned: Global warming
Grade level of team: 9-12 (upper school)
Term: 2009-2010: Term One - Sep-Feb - Report due Feb 1Your team's primary contact is:
Carmen Clay
Casady School
clayc@casady.org
(NAIS selects the team's primary contact when the partnerships are first created.)

Below, please find the contact information for all of the schools on your team:

School
Casady School
9500 North Pennsylvania
Oklahoma, OK, USA
www.casady.org
School type: Independent/Private
School size: large (701+)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)
Teacher Leader
Carmen Clay, Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair
clayc@casady.org
Phone: 405-749-3103
Fax: 405-749-3223
School Contact
Carmen Clay, Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair
clayc@casady.org
Phone: 405-749-3103
Fax: 405-749-3223

School
Millbrook School
131 Millbrook School Road
Millbrook, NY, USA
www.millbrook.org
School type: Independent/Private
School size: medium (201-700)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)
Teacher Leader
Pascale Musto, History Teacher
pmusto@millbrook.org
Phone: 845-677-8261
School Contact
Pascale Musto, History Teacher
pmusto@millbrook.org
Phone: 845-677-8261

School
Concordia International School Shanghai
999 Mingyue Rd
Shanghai, Jiangsu, China
www.ciss.com.cn
School type: Parochial
School size: medium (201-700)
Participating students' grade level: 9-12 (upper school)
Teacher Leader
Chris Carter, Teacher
chris.carter@ciss.com.cn
Phone: 15001936994
School Contact
Chris Carter, Teacher
chris.carter@ciss.com.cn
Phone: 15001936994

Please proceed by contacting your partner school/s and making all the necessary arrangements to begin your collaborative work on Challenge 20/20. The program is very flexible and we allow you as a team to create your own curriculum, design the program and schedule time for students and teachers to communicate.

Many schools selected up to five global problems of interest and we worked hard to identify partners for schools with similar interests and grade levels of students. Our preference is that you work on your assigned global problem. However, if your team wishes to work on a global problem that is different than the one you have been assigned, please communicate with your assigned partner school/s and decide on the final global problem within the partnership. If all schools agree, please send me a message at suciu@nais.org and I will change the topic in our database. Your final global problem must be highlighted in each school's Agreement Form that is due back to NAIS on September 30, 2009. However, if your team needs more time to decide on the final global problem, you may have an extension of a week or so to complete the Agreement Forms.

Challenge 20/20 is an annual NAIS initiative, and schools are encouraged to participate every year to continue their work on solving global problems. More information on next year's program will be available online. Also, we will provide you with updates throughout the year at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

NEXT STEPS
1. Proceed by contacting your partner school/s and if you wish to work on a different global problem than the one assigned by NAIS, work that out within your partnership. You may communicate with each other by: email, phone, regular mail, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, listserves, and blogging. You will find more information on listserves and blogging below.

2. You have been assigned the Term for your partnership's participation based on your selection in the application form. Check with your partner school/s to make sure you're all still interested in working during that Term.

3. Fill out the Agreement Form signed by the Head of School (to be mailed or faxed back to NAIS by September 30, 2009). You may download a copy of the form at: http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

The signed Agreement Form from the Head of School should be forwarded to Ioana Suciu no later than September 30, 2009. If you're a school working on Challenge 20/20 during Term Two, you may choose to submit your Agreement for Participation after September 30th as you will not begin to work on your projects until January 2010.

By e-mail: suciu@nais.org

By mail: Challenge 20/20
National Association of Independent Schools
1620 L Street, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036-5695

By fax: (202) 247-9694

Each signed agreement should also include the name of the global problem your partnership will be addressing. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 973-9755 or by e-mail at suciu@nais.org.

4. Read the details and guidelines for the Challenge 20/20 program online at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

5. Read and advise your students to also read the book: High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them. This book is available at your library or for purchase for $16.95 US dollars at your local bookstore or on our website at http://www.nais.org under Our Publications and NAIS Bookstore, or directly at http://www.nais.org/transact/ProductDetail.cfm?product_code=B91.

6. Begin your work on identifying local solutions to global problems as a team.

7. Term One participants submit any photographs and supplemental materials you would like us to have from November to January and Term Two participants make their submissions from April to May. You may send them by email to suciu@nais.org or by mail at the address listed above. We will use some of these for promotional purposes, display and marketing only.

8. Term One participants submit the team's online report on your progress in January 2010 while Term Two participants submit the report in May 2010. This report will be available at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020 as we get closer to that date. Once you submit your report, you can continue your work together for the remainder of the school year and we encourage you to do so.

PROGRAM CHANGES AND UPDATES:
1. Challenge 20/20 Listserve: The Teacher Leader and Contact Person at each participating school will be automatically added to the Challenge 20/20 listserve which we will use to send out updates and you can also use to communicate with each other. You may send messages to the listserve for every participant to see at challenge_20_20@lists.nais.org. If you do not wish to be included in this listserve, simply send a message to suciu@nais.org with the Subject Line: Unsubscribe from the Challenge 20/20 Listserve.

3. Blogs: In addition to the listserve, we encourage you to use blogging as a way of communicating with your team. You may use your own school's blogging system or one that you create for the Challenge 20/20 partnership. NAIS recommends the Ning social networking system, a free, safe, secure and user-friendly system available at: http://www.ning.com for schools that have participating students over the age of 13. You can create your own private web page accessible only to members of the partnered schools. Here is how to set it up:

- Decide as a team on who will be the person from your partnership to create this webpage. Only one person per partnership can create it and assign permissions for different people/schools to have access to it.
- Go to http://www.ning.com/.
- Create account - email address and password.
- Name your social network and pick your web address (make sure to include your name: challenge 2020 and initials of your school, i.e. for Potomac School, you can name it challenge2020ps. If more than one project team from your school participates, add a unique word or letter to the site name.)
- Create your site settings. IMPORTANT: Make it private, not public and check the box "just my friends" can view the site or comment. This ensures that invitees only have access.
- Send invitations to join to your students and the faculty representatives from all schools in your partnership only.
- You can post blogs, comments, photos, videos, etc. on your page - which is the collaborative site for your work.
- NOTE: This site is free but there are ads by Google on it. Just don't click on them. If you're interested in having them removed from your page, please send me your page's URL.

The Challenge 20/20 website is a great resource that you can use throughout the program. We will post periodic updates and we encourage you to visit the website regularly at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020.

If you want to post photos and materials to the NAIS-created Ning website, we encourage you to do so. Everyone will be able to view what you post. To request an invitation to join this public Challenge 20/20 networking site, go to http://2009challenge2020.ning.com and type in your name, email and short message. These instructions will also be available on the NAIS website at http://www.nais.org/go/challenge2020 soon.

IMPORTANT: : If for any reason, a school on your team can no longer participate in Challenge 20/20 this year and wishes to withdraw from the program, please inform us as soon as possible so we can re-match your partner school/s. Contact me by sending an email to suciu@nais.org.

Once again, congratulations! We wish for you a fruitful and productive experience through Challenge 20/20 that leads to the development of informed and capable global leaders and global citizens.

Best regards,

Ioana Suciu
Associate Director of Global Initiatives
suciu@nais.org