Fine in 2009

Educational Block F I RustN e McElman_071026_2450_I N wood house with number 2 box 0 zero 0 Plain Educational Block 9

A friend said yesterday, “In 2009, things will be fine.” Hope seems to be springing up even in our snowy landscape. For myself and my class, things will be fine, too. I’m committed to creating online collaboration and student leadership.

I look to the experts and have listened to podcasts and read blogs:

GenYes

WebTools

EdTechTalk

Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Cool Cat Teacher

What do I need to do? Get started! So my eighth graders and I will dive in together, even more than we had before. They will be the editors — the criteria creators and encouragers for the projects to place on our Coyote Talks site.

Discovery Education will help us. To write, we need content.

How about Riding a Snowflake for writing content according to the criteria for science and creative writing that the eighth grade students determine.

After viewing Martin Luther King information and honoring considerations, the editors could choose several types of projects: service, poems, stories, etc..

What will the editors decide? How will they decide? I stumbled upon The World Cafe site which describes a grass-roots format for solving problems. I’m adapting parts of that to help my students become student leaders of writing.

Why? Remember the adage, “success breeds success”? I’m thinking “leadership breeds leadership.” We have some struggling students, and part of the reason they struggle is because they already take care of themselves, and schools generally control them (or try). Perhaps if allowed to be the leaders, they will lead and be successful. I know their families believe they can do it.

And because I want for them that “Things will be fine in 2009.” We’re going for it….