The Circle Song Project began on December 12, 2006. Students in the fourth grade sang The Circle Song for their Christmas concert. The lyrics to the song are ‘Come and join the circle, come and take my hand. Come and join the circle, come and be my friend. Gather round and see, what the world can be. Come and join the circle. Come and share God’s world with me.’ We asked Mr. Michael Macnamara, our epal teacher in St Gabriel’s School in Enfield, South Australia if he would invite his students to sing the song ‘back’ to us. Fortunately his students knew the song and sent us the quicktime movie in a few short weeks. We invited Mr. Rox Cosico and his students in Claret School in Quezon City to sing The Circle Song. He asked the student glee club and preschoolers to sing and sent the video to us. We were so excited to hear and see the song sung by students in these two countries. The fourth graders encouraged me to invite more teachers from around the world. Why not have students in Poland sing it to us? How about England? Can we ask kids in France to sing? The requests kept coming and with a great deal of effort, we started to get responses from some wonderful teachers around the globe. The result was a website of songs and slides from different countries across the planet. Many of those teachers and students who participated continue to be in contact even two years later! (In fact, some of them are following The Vendee Globe race together. )

The Circle Song Project website was dedicated to the colleagues who I work with as well as to some special friends who introduced me to the global community. One of those special friends was the educational director of sitesALIVE!, the late Mrs. Cindy Collins. She introduced me to sitesALIVE! in 1999 and always encouraged teachers using the program, including myself, to think outside the walls of the classroom, into the world around us. She mentored with enthusiasm and dedication and always found a way to weave an unforgettable story into the learning adventures with children. Whether she was sharing the way Skipper Rich Wilson might have walked in Melbourne after having been at sea for 3 months or describing the pens that Rich’s mom tested before finding the perfect waterproof pen to label the bags of food that Rich took with him out to sea, the students were completely engaged in great discussions. Although Cindy did not live to see The Circle Song Project or see Skipper Rich Wilson as he sails the Vendee Globe, her influence in my teaching and her enthusiasm and encouragement in thinking outside the classroom walls are very much a part of each and every day of my career. She would have been very happy to see that children are joining ‘the circle’ and sharing the world and all of its excitement with each other. In honor of her birthday, December 12th, let’s keep the circle spinning!