Launching a Teachers as Writers Network

Yesterday, Bonnie and I launched our experimental network for teachers in the New England/New York areas who are connected to our National Writing Project. We’ve called it the iAnthology, in reference to the eAnthology writing network that runs all summer for teachers involved in the four week training of the National Writing Project.

To be honest, we weren’t sure if anyone would come and get involved, but as of this morning, we have 35 members. That’s more than I would have thought and that was just in the first day. The network is not open to the general public (sorry) and we have a mix of new tech users and veteran tech users.

Our goal here is to use Web 2.0 tools to keep us all connected and involved in the work of the National Writing Project, which prides itself on developing teachers as writers and then writers as teachers. We believe that writing is at the heart of most learning.

So, this is exciting and we hopeĀ  the network develops into something special and useful for our teachers.

Peace (in connections),
Kevin

I know the school year is close when …

… I am waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about the letter I want to send to all of my new students, welcoming them to sixth grade. And, also, I know we are getting close when I start cleaning out and cleaning up our classroom weblog (should I do a new theme every year? a pondering question) and create a new post for students to write about their summer experiences before they even set foot in the school.

My mind is getting ready. I can feel it.

School starts next week.

Peace (in the coming days),

Kevin

Found: A note to a teacher

This comes from Found Magazine, which is worth your time.

And my response:

Dear student,
You’ve probably had a lot of teachers who have fed you lessons and learning with little reason behind it. I know I did when I was growing up and it made me crazy. I hope I don’t do the same with you as your teacher, although there are going to be times when it may seem as if I am making you do things that are isolated and out of context. I hope to keep those activities to a minimum. Sometimes, we need to lay the groundwork for better things to come.
I want you to care about what you are doing because caring people shape this world for the better. You may be young, but you have a voice, and I want to help you find that voice and use it as best as I can. You should care because your interest and curiosity now will set the stage for an intriguing life later on. You should care because all of us have something inside us that drives — all of us are poets, all of us are scientists, all of us are musicians — and you nurture that kernel of being by caring for the world and yourself.
I can’t help you answer this question alone, though.
You need to be on the journey, too, and let me help you with your explorations. Let me show you how caring looks and then maybe, hopefully, you’ll see how one person can impact another in a positive way.
Sincerely,
Your Teacher

Peace (in answering that question),
Kevin

World Statistics

This site is intriguing and good use of congregating data collection across a wide variety of sources. How accurate is it? Not sure. The site is called Worldometers and it claims to have real-time stats on a variety of issues from across the globe. (Read about its gathering of numbers, if you want to dig a bit deeper)

There are some interesting stats about the environment there that are just plain sad to read, particularly how much forest areas are being lost and how much junk is being pumped into the air by companies.

But this area interested me. It shows media and publishing.

What do you make of a world where more cell phones are sold in a day than books that are published in a year? And just look at the number of email messages sent, number of Internet users and blogs posts. Fascinating. And are there really still that many newspapers around? You’d think there were only a handful left if you read the news about the news.

Peace (in the numbers),
Kevin

The Seven Things You Should Know Archive

Educause puts out a series of papers called Seven Things About … that are must-reads for anyone dipping their toes or minds into technology and learning. The two-sided white PDF papers explore the use of a technological tool in an educational setting in language that is easy to understand and simple to grasp. I’ve often used the Seven Things papers as supplemental handouts at workshops and find it gives just enough of an overview to spark a good opening discussions.

At the Educause site, you can find information about:

It’s worth a visit.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

A Kid’s View of Gaming

This high school freshman lays out the rationale for gaming and learning. She talks about character development, story development and interactive immersion into other worlds as learning experiences.

Peace (in the immersion),
Kevin