Nominated by Sharon Peters
Educational Consultant at The Study
Westmount, , Canada

Nellie Deutsch of Rabin High School in Tel Mond, Israel deserves consideration of the GSN Online Shared Learning Award. After working closely with her in the last few months on an international collaborative literature project (Sept. 2005-present), I have appreciated her keen skills in online curriculum design and her dedication to creating effective learning environments for her students. She has explored different means of media for online teaching and learning and is willing to take risks with new online tools. Her expertise of online learning tools includes forums with appropriate moderation, webquests, online quizzes and evaluation rubrics. Nellie generously offers her own online tools available at

http://www.nelliemuller.com/Nellies_English_Projects.htm

For own our project, we have used email, videoconference software, and online PowerPoint presentations to communicate between ourselves and our students to support our collaborative literature project with the Israeli Pedagogical Network for Collaborative Learning. We have been using literature as a springboard for our students to make deeper richer connections and meaning with the themes and concepts in the literature as we have been exploring the similarities and differences between our cultures.

Creating successful collaborative projects between two groups separated by distance and culture is no easy matter and requires careful design and planning. Clear communication and cooperation between the teachers is a must and Nellie and I have spent much time using Internet telephony, email, and the teacher forum to keep in touch. It is important to create an environment where students can become socially engaged, particularly when they are separated by distance and culture, and Nellie has had many creative ideas to accomplish this goal. Teachers involved in online collaborative projects must be well attuned to the needs of their students and be ready to do active problem-solving when issues arise. Nellie has been quick to sense difficulties and propose solutions.

Most of all, Nellie possesses an incredible vision for the power and potential of collaborative online learning and has been an inspiration for me as we work together to create engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for our students.

The section below lists the testimonials that have been reviewed and approved by the candidate.

1. Testimonial from Gila Kolber-Offir (1)
Teacher High School/Secondary (ages 14-18) at BG. Regional High school in Emeq-Heffer,
Israel

A Testimonial for Nellie Deutsch By Gila Kolber-Offir, a teacher at Ben Gurion Regional comprehensive High School, (ages 13-18) at Emeq Heffer, Israel.

It gives me great pleasure to write this testimonial for Nellie Deutsch of Rabin High School in Tel Mond, Israel, where she currently works as an ESL/EFL teacher. I am proud of my colleague and friend for having been nominated for the GSN Online Shared Learning Award. I truly believe that Nellie deserves this shared learning award for contributing a lot to the advancement of such learning in both her new as well as her previous school (Ben Gurion Regional School in Emek Hefer).

Nellie is the true modern teacher collaborating on-line learning as well as on-hand techniques in the English as a second language classroom. She bestows upon her students the proper language skills and prepares them for life in the 21st century. She develops their language and communication abilities, on the net and off it. In short, she has provided students with the proper life skills through collaborative projects with which she has been working. I worked very closely with Nellie Deutsch for ten years in the regional high school. I had the pleasure of seeing her evolve, become proficient in computer skills and collaborative work which she loves. This love she has instilled on her students.

For the last three years Nellie has invested her energies working on international on-line collaborative projects and has engraved on her banner the idealism of teaching language using technological advancement and teaching language proficiency through the net. She has encouraged her students to interact and share ideas with students from all over the world so that they can communicate, improve their English, and learn life long skills. She has incorporated Internet project work in her lessons. Nellie has been an inspiration to other teachers as well. She has initiated a site on the web, Nellie's English Projects, http://www.nelliemuller.com which has served teachers and students from all over the world. It's an amazing site where teachers share ideas on teaching materials and lesson plans and give advice to others through the different forums for teachers and students. Different language skills are learnt through the site online. There are many more excellent activities on it for learning English. Nellie has also created the English Academy on the web, teaching conversational skills using Skype. Nellie was a pioneer, at Ben Gurion Regional High School,in using the web with students in the computer labs at the school where we both taught, (her previous school). She had the courage to initiate learning through collaboration as she matched her students with students from other schools throughout the world. She worked with very good students as well as weaker ones. She succeeded in reaching kids who were considered "un-teachable" by other teachers, kids with special needs, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. These kids' curiosity was aroused as they used technology to collaborate with others. Learning became meaningful to them. Nellie is a true colleague willing to share fresh new ideas with others in the profession. She communicates with her students over the net which helps them improve their comprehension and writing skills. She has definitely inspired me and others to use the Internet with my regular and Special Education students. I sincerely think Nellie deserves the prize. I wish her luck and many more productive years.

2. Testimonial from Sahar Ram (2)
Student at 'Rabin'
Israel

As a student of Mrs. Nellie Deutsch it would be an honor for me to recommend my teacher.

Nellie is very special women that dedicated every single step especially in the lessons- to teach in interesting, fascinating and unusual way. She devotes herself to all of the students (as I see it) and with the restrictedness and difficulty of being a teacher, she does it at the best way.

Nellie wants us not to study English, but to learn it. She does it by actual discussion who anyone takes part of it, and helps the students to express themselves without being ashamed. She encourages each one of us to be himself, to be more creative, and to be open to other ways and minds. Other special way is 'Nice – net'. Nellie was almost all the time online to help to those who don't like the internet environment. I am one of those students. I found nice net as a friendly site, and very effective. It's taught me different skills as orientation, typing, reading (it's more useful to read when your dictionary is in a click distance) and most off all: it's helping me to manage my schedule and do my tasks better.

To sum up- I see Nellie not only as a teacher, but an awakener. She's like one of us but know not to bend the rules and authority. She talks to us as a human, she show her feelings and share us with her thoughts. With all those wonderful things, I feel more comfortable and belong. Her simplicity, humor, understanding, love, believe, and humaneness makes her the perfect model of a truly teacher and not in the class, but in our lives.

With appreciate, Ram Sahar 'Rabin' school Israel.

3. Testimonial from sandra stro-samuel (3)
Teacher High School/Secondary (ages 14-18) at Rabin High school
Israel

Nellie Deutsch has been a teacher for over twenty years. We teach together in Rabin high school. I have met her in different courses throughout the years; she has been involved in learning experiences all the time. One of these courses involved the preparation of projects for high school students. We all wrote a project on "Word" and got a nice grade. But not Nellie: she always goes beyond her duties when planning, originating and organizing learning experiences. She wrote a complete student-centered online-shared learning project that is an example for all of us. The students enjoyed doing and learned a lot from it. I know this because this is the second year we are using it. We, the teachers, got a lot from it too. Nellie talks to the principal, to her fellow teachers all the time, to promote the online learning projects and most of us have reacted positively and we have asked Nellie to share her knowledge and experience with us. We have some teachers that had never been involved in this type of teaching experience and have changed their way of teaching, trying to involve it in their work. Pupils say that being able to study by on line collaborative projects using the Internet for communication , asking questions, following the links, have helped them a lot and have made the learning more fruitful. Moreover, I know that Nellie works on on line shared teaching learning with ALL her classes. The pupils feel that they can be more independent; they are the ones controlling their improvement and are in charge of their learning process... with the constant help of the teacher if they feel they need it. I strongly believe that a teacher that has planned, organized and invested so much time in promoting student centered on-line shared learning projects like Nellie, should get the prize. Nellie truly believes in what she is doing and she will continue in the future, enriching us and the pupils.

4. Testimonial from Shelley Elfant (4)
Teacher High School/Secondary (ages 14-18) at Makif Ariel
Israel

Nellie and I have been working together in a summer program for 9th graders for the last 2 years. Nellie is so full of innovative ideas and shares so freely with her colleagues. She is very bright, patient, giving, energetic, and talented. As you know, she is involved in many educational projects and displays excellence in everything she does. She is always on the lookout for new challenges and projects. Her website is chock full of language exercises that teachers of English can easily use and it's most helpful. It saves time and effort on the teacher's part in having to surf the web for their own material. Nellie truly deserves this award for her great contribution to the field of education!

5. Testimonial from Marty Landry (5)
Teacher Junior High School (ages 12-15) at West Bonner County School District #83
United States

I had the pleasure of working with Nellie during the last part of my Master's degree program. We were teammates for some of our classes. There was always a culminating project at the end each class that she thoroughly enjoyed working on. The project usually included a PowerPoint presentation. She insisted on making sure that the project be based on something that could also be used either in her class with her students or for professional development in her school. She is a perfectionist. She was excited about every project and every assignment. Nellie has a passion for learning and for transferring that knowledge to her students. Although all of my experience with Nellie has been through online classes, she displays all of the characteristics of a consumate professional. Working with her has made me a better educator, and more importantly, a better person. Marty Landry

6. Testimonial from Cheryl Buck (6)
Teacher at University of Phoenix
United States

I know Nellie Deutsch when she was working on her Master's degree for the University of Phoenix and I was her instructor. I taught an introductory 4-week Action Research class beginning in May, 2005. During that time Nellie proved to be an excellent student. She was well organized and creative in her project design and implementation. She worked well with her team members and provided assistance when necessary. Her final projects met and exceeded expectations. Nellie certainly deserves the GSN Online Shared Learning Award. If you need additional information please contact me at 708-532-2144.

7. Testimonial from Ruth Vilmi (7)
Educational Consultant at Ruth Vilmi Online Education Ltd
Finland

To whom it make concern

I have known Nellie Deutsch since the beginning of 2004 as an online teacher and friend. Nellie keeps herself up-to-date with the latest teaching methods and actively finds out about the available technology. At times we have looked at interetsing Websites and downloaded new software potentially suitable for communicative teaching methods, such as various conferencing systems, with both audio and video components, as well as a chat and whiteboard, and tested it together. It's important to have a person such as Nellie to practice with; I appreciate not only her problem-solving skills, but her patience and love of sharing knowledge.

Nellie also has several websites where she shares her findings, and has taken part in some international online projects. We are currently taking part in an online podcasting course together, and will hopefully meet face-to-face soon at an international conference or workshop.

I hope that Nellie will be successful in winning a GSN award, and that she will thus have the opportunity to study more and continue to help her fellow teachers.

Ruth Vilmi Retired Lecturer in English at Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Managing Director of Ruth Vilmi Online Education Ltd ruth.vilmi@writeit.to www.writeit.to

8. Testimonial from Yaffa Ben Dror (8)
School Technology Coordinator at Netanya Academic College
Israel

I have met Nellie when I was giving a computer workshop dealing with how to integrate computer technology into curiculum. Nellie was the most prominent student.From the very first lesson she excelled.Nellie, is a very motivated, dedicated, diligent teacher and student.I, as a teacher was very impressed by her. I follow her outstanding activities in the past years and I must admit she is soooooooo good. I can not think of anybody more entitked for such an award.

9. Testimonial from Omri Tal (9)
Student at Rabin Tel-Mond
Israel

Nellie Deutsch Is a very good teacher and a nice person. She teaches me and the rest of then 10th grade English-Speakrs class. What I like about her theaching methods is the way she combines school with computers. At first I didn't like it but as time past I learned to work with it and even like it.

10. Testimonial from Maria Antonietta Sessa (10)
Teacher High School/Secondary (ages 14-18) at I.S. Galilei Benevento (Italy)
Italy

I really want to witness how hard she has been working in order to put resources for teachers and students on line. I have really appreciated what she has done for me and for other developers of ESL websites.