Adventures in Web2.0 Summer 09

7/31/2019 Adventures in Web2.0 Summer 09

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Small School, Big InfuenceAmy Biehl High School Tells Its Story

Horace Talks with Steve JubbHow BayCES Has Built Alliances

and Challenged the Status Quo

Strategic Communicationor Essential Schools

Advice rom Christine Heenan

25.1 SUMMER 2009

CES 2.0: Technology andthe Essential School

The Journal ofthe Coalition of

Essential Schools

IN THIS ISSUE:

Introducing Social Networking Into Teachiand Learning

Distance Learning and the CES CommPrinciples

Twittering About Learning

Digital Porfolios: DocumentingStudent Growth

Race and Identity via Danceand Technology


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The Coalition o Essential Schools: Common Principles

Demonstration

of mastery

Commitment

to the entire

school

A tone of

decency

and trust

Goals apply to

all students

Resources

dedicated to

teaching and

learning

Less is more,

depth over

coverage

Learning to

use ones

mind well

Personalization Student-as-

worker, teacher-

as-coach

Democracy

and equity

The Coalition of Essential SchoolsImagine schools where intellectual excitement animates everystudents face, teachers work together to improve their craft,and all students thrive and excel. For more than 20 years, theCoalition of Essential Schools (CES) has been at the forefrontof making this vision a reality. Guided by a set of CommonPrinciples, CES strives to create and sustain personalized,equitable, and intellectually challenging schools.

The CES network includes hundreds of schools and 26Affiliate Centers. Diverse in size, population, and program-matic emphasis, Essential schools serve students fromkindergarten through high school in urban, suburban,and rural communities.

Essential schools share the Common Principles, a set ofbeliefs about the purpose and practice of schooling.Reflecting the wisdom of thousands of educators, the tenCommon Principles inspire schools to examine their prioritiesand design effective structures and instructional practices.

CES was founded in 1984 by Theodore R. Sizer and isheadquartered in Oakland, California. Please visit ourwebsite at www.essentialschools.org for more aboutCESs programs, services, and resources.

HoraceCES publishes its journal Horace quarterly. Combiningresearch with hands-on resources, Horace showcasesEssential schools that implement the ten Common Principlesin their structures, practices, and habits. Within four focusareasschool design, classroom practice, leadership, andcommunity connectionsHorace explores specific questionsand challenges that face all schools in the CES network.

Subscriptions to Horace are a benefit of affiliating withCES National as a regional center, school, or networkfriend. We invite you to visit the CES website atwww.essentialschools.org for information on affiliationand to read Horace issues from 1988 through the present.

Jill Davidson, editor ofHorace, welcomes your comments,issue theme and story ideas, and other feedback via emailat [email protected].

Lewis Cohen Jill DavidsonExecutive Director Publications Director


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Table o Contents

25.1 SPRING 2009

CES 2.0: Technology and the

Essential School

02 Notes on this Issue: Horace 2.0

03 Adventures in Web 2.0: Introducing Social Networking Into My Teaching, Honor

Moorman, International School o the Americas

10 Through Our Eyes, by Sara Narva, The Creeld School

15 Learning Technology Skills Through Social Entrepreneurialism, Jean Pendleton

Charleston Collegiate School

20 Technology as a Fence and a Bridge, Bryan Wehrli, Amy Biehl High School

24 Distance Learning and the CES Common Principles, Jennie Hallisey, Boston Day and

Evening Academy

30 Twittering About Learning: Using Twitter in an Elementary School Classroom,

Je Kurtz

32 Digital Portolios: Documenting Student Growth, Matthew Cramer, Camino Nuevo High

School

35 Where to Go or More: Resources or Technology Use in Essential Schools

37 Go to the Source: More about the Schools and Organizations Featured in This Issue

Notes on This Issue

I hope that you experience this issue oHorace as compelling, illuminating, and a signiicant orce or change in andimprovement o your practice as an educator. CES 2.0: Technology and the Essential School presents insight intoand experience rom seven educators across the country who have immersed themselves in the world o cutting edgetechnology in order to improve student achievement; create opportunities or authentic teaching, learning, and assess-ment; and create possibilities or their students that would not otherwise exist.

All o these articles eature students as content creators, demonstrating their learning publicly. First and second grad-

ers in Washington State use Twitter, Twitpic, and Chirbit to tell the world about their learningand as they do, theybuild their literacy skills in immediately relevant, clearly meaningul ways. A high school in Los Angeles is designedrom the ground up to teach students digital literacy mastery through digital portolios. Video technology allowsdance students in Philadelphia to grapple with race and identity in their creation and production o a dance piece.And, o course, theres much more.

Undeniably, there is a genuine whiz-bang, supercool quality to the technologies described in these pages, but in eachcase, this issues writers ocus on particular technologies or their ability to deepen students understanding and createmeaningul learning experiences. They talk about their own learning curves as they immersed themselves in the digi-tal waters. I youre not already in the pool, we invite you to jump in: the waters ine. And just like swimming, youcant learning it by reading a book about it. Because o the nature o interactivity, just as the authors in these pages

Continued on next page


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2 Notes on This Issue

have done, the only way to learn about the synergy ocutting-edge computer, sotware, and interactive tech-

nology is to use the these tools and see what happens.As the world goes, so goes Horace. You have receivednotice o this electronic edition oHorace via email.Perhaps you printed it out; perhaps youre reading itonline (and i you are reading it online, click on a link;theyre live!). We worked hard to create an experi-ence that captures the lexibility o electronic com-munication with the practicality o ink on paper. CEShas a ew reasons or moving Horace to online-onlypublication. We want to be smart with our money,and chose not to spend additional dollars on print-ing and mailing costs. As well, we want Horace to

have the widest possible reach, and its a lot easier topass along by orwarding a PDF or sending a linkto a URL than it is to do so with a physical magazine.That said, i you want to print and read on paper,please do. We chose to preserve the layout oHoraceso that it would not lose its oline readability.

This issue presents the excitement, potential, and chal-lenges o networked, co-created learning, terrain withwhich Essential school educators are deeply knowl-edgeable, not only in their classrooms but also as parto their school-based proessional learning communi-ties, and the widespread proessional learning com-

munity that CES represents. For 25 years, Fall Forumhas been a networked, non-virtual group learningexperience, and more recently, the CES Small SchoolsNetwork has represented peer-to-peer learning thatis the real-time example or interactive technologies,and Horace, written or and by CES network practi-tioners, represents CESs commitment to the expertiseand wisdom o CES network educators. CESs histor-ic identiication as a network makes our transition tothe 2.0 world comortable and immediately relevant.

In addition to Horaces new electronic persona, werein the process o recreating our website, http://www.

essentialschools.org. We cant wait to welcome you toour transormed online home, which will debut in thecoming months. Were also establishing outposts onsocial networking sites in which you may already beactive. Heres where you can ind us:

CES Fall Forum NingConnect with others interested in Fall ForumsChanging Schools, Changing Lives theme. Join indiscussions about CES principles and practices, con-nect with people planning to attend Fall Forum, andtake advantage o an authentic and vibrant conversa-

tion among riends to deepen your understandingabout Fall Forum and CES.

http://cesallorum.ning.com/

TwitterWere @cesnational. Give us a tweet!

FacebookWere on Facebook! Search http://www.acebook.comor Coalition o Essential Schools or go straight toour group at http://www.acebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=22085646681&re=ts

FlickrJoin the CES Flickr group to upload photos o yourschool, and get happy and inspired with images romother Essential schools across the country and world-wide. Go straight to our photostream at http://www.lickr.com/photos/essentialschools.

You TubeFor video clips o CES teaching and learning, searchhttp://www.youtube.com or cesnational or gostraight to our channel at http://www.youtube.com/proile?user=cesnational&view=videos. Upload your

videos o teaching, learning, and interaction thatexempliy personalized, equitable, and academicallychallenging education.

Many thanks to the authors who worked diligently topresent their experiences; its been a pleasure to workwith you! We are grateul, too, to the many thousandsoHorace readers over the years, especially those oyou who are taking the journey with us as we trans-orm and, we hope, continue to improve. Let us knowhow were doingdrop an email, give us a tweet, poston our Facebook pagewere eager to hear rom you.

Best wishes or a great summer,

Jill DavidsonEditor, Horace

[email protected]

Notes on This IssueContinued from page 31


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Adventures in Web 2.0

or educators who are new to Web 2.0 and challengethose well-acquainted with it to take the Web 2.0adventure to the next level.

All students at the International School o theAmericas (ISA) engage in a 120-hour career-explora-tion internship beore graduating. The ISA InternshipProgram is one o the schools hallmark real-worldlearning experiences, providing students with theopportunity to experience the ields they are contem-plating pursuing in post-secondary lie. The studentsin this years senior class are working in many diversespheresmedicine, the arts, politics, teaching, busi-ness, community organizing, and more. As the ISA

Internship Coordinator, it is my privilege and pleasureto support these students as they navigate the worldo work and learn what it takes to be a proessional.

When I irst stepped into the shoes o the InternshipCoordinator last August, I quickly realized that thevery best aspect o the Internship Program is the actthat students are going to a hundred dierent places,working with dierent mentors (community businesspartners and other proessionals who agree to super-vise our students) at dierent times. They are each

As new technologies shape literacies, theybring opportunities for teachers at all levelsto foster reading and writing in more diverse and

participatory contexts.

A Changing World or Literacy Teachers,21st-Century Literacies: A Policy Research Brie,

National Council o Teachers o English

Five months ago, I introduced Web 2.0 technology

to my students, and already, there is a story to tell.Integrating a social networking site into my teachinghas been even more challenging and will prove to beeven more beneicial than I could have imagined. Bysharing my story, I hope that I can provide a road map


Adventures in Web

2.0: IntroducingSocial Networking

into My Teachingby Honor Moorman,International School of the Americas

International School o the Americas (ISA) is a smallmagnet high school o choice located in San Antonio,Texas. The demographics o the school closely mirrorthose o the larger San Antonio area. ISAs mission is

to challenge all members o the school community toconsistently reect on and question what it means to beacting at ones ullest potential as a learner, leader, andglobal citizen. ISA students explore local and global is-sues rom multiple perspectives by engaging in authen-tic learning experiences that include travel, feld trips,internships, and service-learning. With its project-based,interdisciplinary, global studies curriculum, ISA is anAnchor School in the Asia Societys International Stud-ies Schools Network in addition to serving as a MentorSchool or the CES Small Schools Project.


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having their own completely individualized, authenticlearning experience. At the same time, I discoveredthat the most challenging aspect o the InternshipProgram is this variety o workplaces, schedules, andpartnerships, which makes it impossible or studentsto meet as a group and learn rom each other in a

structured time and place. That is, until now.This year, Ive integrated the use o the InternshipNing, a social networking site that serves as a virtualclassroom where students can discuss their intern-ships, exchange ideas, and oer eedback and supportto one another. This gives them the opportunity tobeneit rom everyones insights and experiences inaddition to their own. The site also has the potentialto become a learning network that will link our schoolcommunity with the proessional community in newand dynamic ways.

Challenge #1: Gaining District Support and Launchingthe NingNing.com (http://www.ning.com) is a ree web-basedplatorm that allows users to create their own socialnetworking sites. The word ning means peace inChinese, writes Gina Bianchini in The Story Behindthe Ning Name (http://blog.ning.com/2007/04/the_story_behind_the_ning_name.html). Sites created withNing.com oer many o the same eatures available onFacebook or MySpace. Members create proiles, joingroups, post blogs, share photos, and so on.

The irst obstacle to implementing the InternshipNing was the school districts Internet ilter. In order

to make the site accessible to students rom school,we needed the support o the districts EducationalTechnology and Computer Service departments. Sincesome sites created on Ning.com are inappropriateor students, we didnt ask the district to unblock theNing.com parent site, just the Internship Ning (http://isainternship.ning.com). Teachers o younger studentsshould note that the Ning platorm is not an optionor students younger than 14 as stated by Ning.comsTerms o Use.

In addition to the Internship Ning, we requestedaccess to blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and other

Web 2.0 tools that would acilitate our internationally-ocused, project-based curriculum and enhance ourability to engage students in meaningul communica-tion and collaboration around global issues. Threeace-to-ace meetings, our months, and many emailslater, we were granted permission to begin using someo the tools, including the Internship Ning.

Properly unblocking these sites was worth thepatience and persistence. From an equity standpoint, Ineeded to be sure that all students would have accessto the Internship Ning and related sites by makingthem available on campus. From a pedagogical stand-

point, I needed students to be able to sign on duringclass so I could give them a hands-on introductorytour o the site.

Backstory: How I Discovered This Thing Called NingAter teaching ninth and twelth grade English at TheInternational School o the Americas or eight years,I became a secondary literacy specialist or the NorthEast Independent School District. This role involvedsharing teaching strategies and resources with middleand high school reading and English teachers acrossthe district. I also began teaching pre-service teach-ers at Trinity University and Texas State Universitywhere I was using web-based learning managementsystems to share resources with them and engage themin online discussions. However, the course websites


Web 2.0 Tools and Defnitions

Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is an umbrella term that is used toreer to a new era o Web-enabled applications that arebuilt around user-generated or user-manipulated con-tent, such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and social network-ing sites. (Pew Internet and American Lie Project,Research on Web 2.0, http://www.pewinternet.org/topics/Web-20.aspx)

Blog: A blogshort or weblogis a sort o onlinejournal, a website that eatures regularly updated,chronologically ordered posts. . . Blogs vary widely inpurpose, ormat, and readership. (Rozema and Webb,Literature and the Web) For a list o blogs being used ineducation, see Links to School Bloggers, http://sup-portblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers.

Wiki: A wiki is a collaborative Webspace where

anyone can add content and anyone can edit contentthat has already been published. (Richardson, Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools forClassrooms) For a list o wikis being used by teach-ers and students, see Examples o EducationalWikis, http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+o+educational+wikis.

Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is thepractice o saving bookmarks to a public Web site andtagging them with keywords. (Educause LearningInitiative, 7 Things You Should Know About SocialBookmarking, http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pd/ELI7001.pd, requires login). Examples o social

bookmarking sites include Delicious (http://delicious.com), Furl (http://www.url.com), and Diigo (http://www.diigo.com).

For short, easy-to-understand video introductions tothese and other Web 2.0 tools, visit The Common CratShow at http://www.commoncrat.com/show.


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created using these systems were only available tocurrently enrolled students. When the students in myuniversity classes began asking i it would be possibleor them to access these websites ater the semesterwas over, I started looking or an alternative way tocontinue sharing ideas and resources with ormer

students and colleagues online.I created a blog, English Teacher Teacher, http://englishteacherteacher.blogspot.com/. I had seen KarlFischs Did You Know presentation (http://theis-chbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html),which had led me to Michael Weschs video, TheMachine is Us/ing Us, (http://mediatedcultures.net/mediatedculture.htm) and I had been particularly struckby Candace Lombaris article entitled, Theres a blogBorn Every Hal Second (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-6102935.html). In my initial blog post (http://englishteacherteacher.blogspot.com/2007/12/hello-edublogosphere.html), I wrote, I cant even imagine

how many blogs have come into existence while Ivebeen writingand rewriting, and changing, and edit-ingthis irst post, but Im about to push the buttonand join the edublogosphere! Here goes . . .

What I didnt ully coness in that irst entry wasthat I elt very nervous about initially publishing myblog. It wasnt until I got comortable with this newgenreby reading numerous educational technologyblogsthat I elt ready to begin blogging mysel. Inretrospect, this isnt too surprising. I believe stronglyin the reciprocal relationship between reading andwriting, and whenever I invite students to try writing

in a new genre, I always have them begin by readingmentor texts rom that genre.

I began reading blogs written by top educationaltechnology innovators, zeroing in on those thatwere reerenced multiple times or nominated orthe Edublog awards .Not only was I reading like a writer to learn theconventions o the genre, in terms o content, length,style, and so on, but I was also learning about thetech tools and eatures I could incorporate into mybloghyperlinks, embedded videos, cluster maps, tagclouds, blogrolls, widgets, and more.

This was my irst oray into the world o Web 2.0.It was new and exciting, and as I tentatively steppedorward, I ound mysel ollowing the electronicbreadcrumbs let by the many other educators whohad ventured into this territory ahead o me. Theirblog posts and wiki pages oered me an interac-tive map o the emerging Web 2.0 landscape, and asI explored, I became passionate about the amazingpotential these tools oer us to connect learners andmake learning collaborative. The more I read, themore I realized how important it is or us as teachersto take advantage o Web 2.0 tools not only to create

our own personal learning networks, but also to intro-duce them to our students and incorporate them intoour teaching so students can develop the knowledgeand skills needed to take advantage o these connectivetechnologies that are so essential to lie-long learningin the 21st century. Following in the web ootprintso the edubloggers I had come to admire, I embeddedmy delicious tags into my blog, and linked it to myYouTube playlists. I also joined Classroom 2.0 (http://www.classroom20.com/) the social network or thoseinterested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologiesin education. Participating in the Classroom 2.0

community showed me what was possible throughNing.com.

Challenge #2: Helping Students View the Ning as aPersonal Learning NetworkOnce we inally had the Internship Ning ullyaccessible on the school computers, I was eager tointroduce it to the students. Over the Thanksgivingholiday, I emailed all 112 seniors and invited themto join the Internship Ning. Only ive o them didso, which was disappointing at irst. But since I had


Ed Tech Innovators Blogs

Will Richardsons Weblogg-edhttp://weblogg-ed.com/

Karl Fischs The Fischbowlhttp://thefschbowl.blogspot.com/

Scott McLeods Dangerously Irrelevanthttp://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/

Ewan McIntoshs edu.blogs.comhttp://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/

Steve Hargadons K-12 Educational Technologyhttp://www.stevehargadon.com/

Je Utechts Thinking Stickhttp://www.thethinkingstick.com/

David Warlicks 2cents Worthhttp://davidwarlick.com/2cents/index.php

Wesley Fryers Moving at the Speed o Creativityhttp://www.speedocreativity.org/

Vicki Davis The Cool Cat Teacher Bloghttp://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

Lisa Neilsens The Innovative Educatorhttp://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/


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set up the Internship Ning as a members-only, pass-word-protected site, there was no way or studentsto preview it, and I realized they may not have beeninclined to join without knowing more about it. Thenext week, I went into their classes, showed themthe site, and invited them to sign up on the spot.Since its a transition year, this years seniors werent

National Educational Technology Standards orStudents (NETS-S) rom the International Societyor Technology in Education

Creativity and innovation Communication and collaboration Research and information uency

Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making Digital citizenship Technology operations and concepts

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_or_Students.htm

21st Century Student Outcomes rom thePartnership or 21st Century Skills Frameworkor 21st Century Learning

Learning and Innovation Skills

Creativity and innovation Critical thinking and problem solving Communication and collaboration

Inormation, Media, and Technology Skills

Information literacy Media literacy ICT (information, communications and technology) literacy

Lie and Career Skills

Flexibility and adaptability Initiative and self-direction Social and cross-cultural skills Leadership and responsibility

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

National Educational Technology Standards orTeachers (NETS-T)

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and CreativityDesign and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences andAssessmentModel Digital-Age Work and LearningPromote and Model Digital Citizenship and ResponsibilityEngage in Proessional Growth and Leadership

rom The International Society or Technology in Education(ISTE)http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/NETS_or_Teachers.htm

required to participate in the Internship Ning, butmost o them wanted to join the site once they saw itin action.

One o the core assignments o the InternshipProgram is the written relection. Students are askedto regularly document their internships in order to

articulate and analyze their experiences and becomemore aware o their own learning. I urged studentsto begin blogging and participating in discussiongroups rather than writing their relections the old-ashioned way. The students enjoyed customizingtheir proile pages, riending each other, and joininggroups. But as students began to use the InternshipNing or non-academic purposes, I realized that i Iwanted them to really engage in this site as a seriousspace or learning, and not just as an ISA Facebook, Ineeded to share more o my thinking about why I hadcreated this virtual classroom and the ways I hopedand expected they would use it.

Teaching Story: Letting Students in on the Big IdeaMy main purposes or implementing the InternshipNing into the ISA Internship Program were two-old. First, since students are engaged in their intern-ships outside o school hours, I was trying to createa virtual classrooman online community wherestudents could converse and collaborate, and whereI could support and enrich their learning. Second, Iwas hoping to enhance the Internship curriculum in away that would help prepare students or the literacydemands o the 21st century. On both accounts, the

Internship Ning has already surpassed my originalvision, and we have just begun to glimpse its ultimatepotential.

As a virtual classroom, the Internship Ning is in manyways a much more lexible and dynamic space thana physical classroom. Students can interact with anymember about any topic or question at any time. Andrather than being limited to a classroom where only20 to 30 students are able to collaborate with oneanother, the virtual space enables students to interactwith all 100 plus o their classmates, as well as alumniwho continue to participate on the site. Once we havementors participating too, there will be the potential

or all students to learn rom that mentor, not just thestudent who is physically interning with him or her.

In terms o 21st century skills, the Internship Ningprovides an online environment where students cangain the knowledge and skills needed to to learneectively and live productively in an increasinglydigital world (International Society or Technologyin Education, 2007) and develop the skills, knowl-edge and expertise students should master to succeedin work and lie in the 21st century (Partnership or21st Century Skills, 2009). It is a space that encouragesstudents to practice digital citizenship; the Internship



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Ning creates the conditions or students to be sel-directed and responsive to the communitys needs. Inaddition, the Internship Ning is a teaching contextin which I can be the kind o educator I believe 21stcentury students needa acilitator, collaborator, andco-learner.

Two weeks ater launching the Internship Ning, Iengaged students in a couple o lessons to help themunderstand my rationale and goals or implementingthis social networking site. I wanted them to realizehow, as Will Richardson writes, the read/write webchanges everything (http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/page/di/home/74757129), so that they wouldunderstand why we were doing this and the ways theirparticipation on the Internship Ning its into the biggerpicture o whats happening on the Web. We discussedthe Did You Know? 2.0 video and touched on someo the big conceptsexponential change, technologi-cal innovation, globalization, and mass collaboration

(see Resources or Further Reading). I had studentsread selected articles rom T.H.E. Journal(http://www.thejournal.com/) and Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/) that addressed the beneits and challenges ostudents blogging. We also engaged in a debate aroundthe question o about whether or not social network-ing technologies will bring large [positive] changesto educational methods, in and out o the classroomusing the debate at Economist.com (http://www.econo-mist.com/debate/overview/123) as a model. We exam-ined the 21st century standards, especially account-ability, social responsibility, and digital citizenship, and

discussed how the Internship Ning would be a placeto practice those skills. Finally, we co-constructed anAcceptable Use Policy or our site.

Giving students ownership in the process o deiningthe expectations or the Internship Ning was a criticalstep in helping them grow as digital citizens. Similar tothe process o creating norms or classroom behavior,I trusted that the wisdom o the group would generatea sensible policy. And, even i Id wanted to, I couldnthave presented the students with a comprehensive listo dos and donts beore allowing them to use theInternship Ning. Until everyone started using the site,I didnt exactly know what kinds o questions or issues

would arise. And since many students are more adeptwith these tools than I am, they discovered eaturesand unctions I hadnt been aware o beore. Together,we were able to address the questions o what it wouldmean or a social networking site to be academic andproessional rather than purely social.

Challenge #3: Creating Momentum While Keeping itAuthentic and Student-CenteredOver the next ten weeks, there was very little activityon the Internship Ning. Those weeks included winter


Acceptable Use Policy or the ISA Internship Ning

The purpose o this site is or students to communicate withone another, and with their teachers and mentors, aboutquestions and ideas related to their internship experiencesand/or career interests. We, the members o the ISA Intern-ship Ning community, agree to hold ourselves and each

other accountable to the ollowing terms o use: We will use the site in a safe, legal, and responsible manner. We will demonstrate digital citizenship through high stan-

dards o personal responsibility and ethical behavior. We will use this site in an academically and professionally

appropriate way.

Based on input rom the ISA class o 2009, appropriate usehas been defned as ollows:

In General: Keep it professional; save the rest for MySpace, etc. Use your own good judgment; when in doubt, dont do it.

Language:

No profanity, no sexually explicit language, no bashing. Should adhere to proper English conventions; no slang. Should be understandable to all members of the site.

Images: No sexual, violent, or otherwise offensive images. Should be used in accordance with copyright laws.

Profle Pages: Include your full name and/or photo of yourself only with

parental/guardian permission. Customize the appearance of your prole page using the

Ning menu only; no uploaded backgrounds. If youre not using a personal photo, other options include:

an avatar or animated version o your own image, a Wordle

(http://www.wordle.com) creation (using appropriatelanguage, o course), a symbol or image related to yourinternship or career interests, or an image that representsyou in a positive manner.

Groups: If you create a group, keep it open to all, not restricted. Dont ban anyone from your group. Groups should be internship related or deal with other

topics relevant to the purpose o this space.

Blogs and Discussions: Blogs should be posted to everyone. Blogs should be related to internship or career interests. Posts can include school-related questions, but keep it

constructive.Important Notes: All hyperlinked sites, images, and uploaded les should

adhere to the guidelines listed above. No third-party widgets or rss feeds per district guidelines. Guidelines will be updated as needed; members input is

welcome.

Accountability: Help remind one another to use the site in a positive and

productive way so we can continue to have this privilege. Report any misuse of the site to Ms. Moorman immediately.



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break, irst semester inal exams, and a class trip toWashington, D.C. Nevertheless, I was worried thatstudents somehow werent buying in to the idea thatblogging was a worthwhile, much less a cool thingto do. In response, I presented a mini-lesson on therole o blogging in our global society and in our indi-

vidual lives.We started with Blogs in Plain English, (http://www.commoncrat.com/blogs) a video introductionto blogs, how they work and why they matter.Then we talked about the role o blogging in our livesand in the lives o people we know. We also discussedthe phenomenon o citizen journalism and the roleit played in the recent presidential election process.Trying to emphasize how ubiquitous blogging hasbecome, I pointed out how it is integrated into manyo the tools students use every day, such as MicrosotWord and Google. I even reminded them that Timemagazine had declared You as Person o the Year

in 2006. Whether or not it was a result o my lesson,students generated 25 blog posts or February, 13 orMarch, and 38 or April. One o the most proliicbloggers since the beginning has been Marioheswritten 19 blog posts, started ive discussions, andcontributed to six others. When I asked Mario whyhe liked writing on the Internship Ning so much, hesaid, Writing an essay just eels like something youredoing or a grade, but writing a blog post eels like anormal conversation . . . its almost like Facebook orMySpace, but its school-oriented.

Marios comment highlights a key strength o the

using social networking or educationthe connec-tion between in-school and out-o-school literacies.One o my reasons or implementing the InternshipNing was based on the act that so many students areusing Facebook. According to the National SchoolBoards Associations Creating and Connecting:Research and Guidelines on Online SocialandEducationalNetworking, 71 percent o studentswith online access use social networking tools on aweekly basis, and inormal polling o the ISA seniorclass indicated about the same proportion. I wantedto build on this out-o-school literacy and create anopportunity or students to engage in proessional

web-based writing using a site that would seem amil-iar to them and one which they could learn to usemore or less intuitively.

According to the National Council o Teachers oEnglishs Writing in the 21st Century, teachers needto recognize that out-o-school literacy practices areas critical to students development as what occursin the classroom and take advantage o this to betterconnect classroom work to real-world situations thatstudents will encounter across a lietime. I whole-heartedly agree, and my vision or the InternshipNing was that it would be one such space that would

help bridge the gul between students out-o-schooland in-school literacies.

However, the similarities between the eatures andunctions o Facebook and the Internship Ning haveproven to be both an advantage and an added compli-cation. One tension between the two sites came as a

surprise to me. When I asked Mario why he thoughtsome o the other students werent participatingon the Internship Ning as much as he was, he said,It takes dedication to get on the Internship Ningrather than Facebook or MySpace. He pointed outthat when students sit down at the computer, theyare tempted to just spend their time on the Internetsocializing, and he said that it was his passion anddedication to his internship that made him want toblog about it so requently. I had been thinking somuch about taking advantage o students amiliaritywith Facebook, that I hadnt even considered the ideathat my Internship site would somehow be competing

with Facebook or their attention. But o course thismakes sense given the attention economy we nowlive in.

Another layer o complexity was the act that manystudents needed help making a distinction between thekinds o writing typically done on Facebook and thekind o writing that was appropriate on the InternshipNing. Nick, a student who participates in a numbero online communities committed to serious intel-lectual discussions, commented A lot o peoplesonline experiences have been Facebook, so they seethe Internet as a social tool to mess around on and not

much else . . . they dont see the actual potential othe Internet . . . [but] the whole point o the Internetis interconnectivity. Nick also said, So many peoplecondemn social networking sites as not being produc-tive that they dont see that they can be a steppingstone into something more productive . . . that [socialnetworking sites] have become part o the proessionalsphere . . . [and that] these tool sets and skill sets areimportant.

Future Story: Where Do We Go From Here?Were 20 weeks into the Internship Ning experiment,and its already time to introduce the site to the juniors

who will begin their career-explorations this summer.From now on, all students will be expected to blog andmake additional contributions to the site regularly. Andmy hope is that with ull participation, the student-to-student interactions will become even richer andmore meaningul. The Internship Ning is a platormthat not only creates a student-centered environmentwhere students are engaged in meaning-making andwriting about sel-selected topics that are relevant andinteresting to them. It also provides an authentic audi-ence or students, and Faith said as a result, bloggingon the Internship Ning has improved her writing. She



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explained, it helped me practice better writingwrit-ing that I would want a lot o people to read, becauseIm prooreading more careully and using languagethat I dont use every day.

Next year, students mentors will be invited tobecome members o the Internship Ning. This will

enable the site to truly become a virtual representa-tion o the proessional network we participate inthrough the Internship Program. The students seem tothink having mentors participate on the site is a prettygood idea as well. Jordan said she thought having thementors on the Ning with us would orce people toreally look at their internships and think about whattheyre learning rom them . . . and getting commentsrom other people would make it more constructive.

Ill be very interested to see what happens when wehave mentors participating on the Internship Ning.My hunch is that it will help students become more

keenly aware o the site as a public, proessional spacerather than a private, personal one. Faith seems toagree, saying, the act that proessionals can readour work [will help dierentiate it rom a Facebook-type environment] . . . thats deinitely not how it isin my world o Facebook, I mean, teachers are onFacebook, but they dont comment proessionallyon our writing. Although we cant open the site tothe World Wide Web at large or saety and securityreasons, having more invited members on the siteboth peers and adult proessionalswill increase thelearning opportunities students gain by participatingon the Internship Ning. Students will have a broader

audience reading and responding to their posts, whichwill maximize the dynamic, generative potential othe network. As Nick articulated in our conversationabout online communities, when it gets really inter-esting is when you talk with people who[m] youvenever met and who have ideas youve never thoughtabout beore.

In Writing in the 21st Century, Kathleen BlakeYancey argues that With digital technology and,especially Web 2.0, it seems, writers are *every-where* and that In much o this new composing,we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue,

perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate. She goeson to explain that our impulse to write is now digi-tized and expandedor put dierently, newly tech-nologized, socialized, and networked. The InternshipNing is already a thriving example o writing in the21st century where students are writing or an audi-ence that is networked and participatory and where,as Will Richardson describes, publication is not theend o the process any longer . . . its the conversa-tion that occurs ater we publish those things wherethe real networking and continued learning occurs.And our site is quickly becoming more than juststudent-centered, it is becoming learner-centered, with

all o usstudents, teachers, and mentors alikeasco-learners in a virtual community.

As Nick so eloquently said, the only way you canreally teach someone something is to get them toexperience it, and through the Internship Ning, allstudents at The International School o the Americas

are experiencing the power o writing in the 21stcentury, the power o networking, the power oparticipating.

Honor Moorman graduated rom the R. L. Paschal EssentialSchool in Fort Worth, Texas, one o the irst twelve CESschools in the country. She is a National Board CertiiedTeacher, a teacher consultant with the San Antonio WritingProject, a reviewer or ReadWriteThink.org, and the associ-ate editor or the National Council o Teachers o EnglishsVoices from the Middle. Her previous publications havebeen eatured in English Journal, English in Texas, and The

ALAN Review. Moorman wishes to thank her students

Mario, Faith, Jordan, and Nick or their thoughtul contri-butions to this article as well as her colleagues Julia dela Torre or her illuminating eedback on the irst dratand Pamela Valentine or her skillul use o the camera.Moorman can be reached at [email protected].

Reerences

Bianchini, G. (2007, April 11). The story behind the Ningname. Message posted to http://blog.ning.com/2007/04/the_story_behind_the_ning_name.html

Economist.com. (2008, January 15-27). Social networking.Retrieved rom http://www.economist.com/debate/over-

view/123Hargadon. S. (2007-2009). Classroom 2.0. Retrieved romhttp://www.classroom20.com/

International Society or Technology in Education. (2007).NETS or Students. Retrieved rom http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_or_Students.htm

International Society or Technology in Education. (2008).NETS or Teachers. Retrieved rom http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/NETS_or_Teachers.htm

LeLeever, L. (2007, November 30). Blogs in plain English.

Video posted to http://www.commoncrat.com/blogsLombardi, C. (2006, August 7). Theres a blog born everyhal second. CNET. Retrieved rom http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-6102935.html

Moorman, H. (2007, December 6). Hello edublogosphere!Message posted to http://englishteacherteacher.blogspot.com/2007/12/hello-edublogosphere.html

National Council o Teachers o English. (2007). A chang-ing world or literacy teachers. 21st-Century Literacies: APolicy Research Brief. Retrieved rom http://www.ncte.org/positions/21stcenturyliteracy


Continued on page 19


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10 Through Our Eyes

I am a dancer. A teacher.An improviser. My peda-gogy is centered on theconcept o embodied educa-tion, a model that invitesstudents to bring their wholebodies to the learning experience.

I invite students to learn with theirminds, bodies, spirits, and emotionsall present, intertwined, and interrelating.I pay attention to the energy in the room,the relationships between people, the bodylanguage in response to inormation, the inter-and intrapersonal, the kinesthetic. Needless to say,computers have not had a big place in my classroom.

Another important thing to know about me as ateacher is that my toolbox is well honed. I have a seto core activities that I use to teach dierent units odance and theater and I can adjust them, expand them,

scaold them, and implement them lexibly on thespot depending on how students are responding. I amoten skeptical about other peoples methodologies;many o the lesson plans I ind online or read aboutdo not meet my standards o interesting, engaging,complex, embodied learning. I like to be good at whatI do, and I am good at teaching with the tools in mytoolbox. I am (embarrassed to say) sometimes hesi-tant to try new things. It overwhelms me, throws meo my course, and causes change in my comortable,eective teaching practice. But, in the all o 2008, Idid just that. I overwhelmed mysel by learning newthings. Two new computer programs, in act. This did

throw me o my course, make me uncomortable,and challenge me more than I had been challenged in along time. However, taking on the technology openeddoors, oered me a chance to igure out new waysto interact with my students, and provided entirelynew modes or my creative process. Working withtechnology also raised a new set o questions abouttime, power, collaboration, and ownership. The tech-nology provided many opportunities or me to eeloverwhelmed, rustrated, and inept and then withhelp and practice, I was able to eel successul, accom-plished, and proud.

Through Our Eyes was a multimedia perormancecreated in collaboration with my ive modern dancestudents. Through video, sound, and dance, the piece

shows some ways race has aected their lives. I didnot set out at the beginning o the semester to makethis project in my dance class. It was born out o ahard conversation, good listening, and a lot o aith.A big part o my role as an educator, whether I amteaching dance, theater, social justice, or sex educa-tion (all o which I teach at Creeld), is to help youngpeople ind their voices, their opinions, and theirideas. It is also vital to me that I igure out ways tosupport my students not only to know what theythink, but also to help them ind ways to expressthemselves. When I have choreographed dances ormy modern dance class in the past, I used a theme to

inspire movement. The pieces contained images andenergetic qualities related to that theme. The ocuswas on perormance skills, ensemble building, andmovement execution. This time, however, we decidedto make a dance that was really about something.

One particular day, instead o asking my students tochange their clothes and get out to the loor to warmup, I joined the conversation they were having as theyentered the theater. They were engaged in an animateddialogue about the issue o whether or not our schoolshould have a Christmas tree in the lobby. There wasa lot o debate going around school at that time, and

Through Our Eyesby Sara Narva, The Crefeld School


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1Through Our Eyes

they were trying to igure out where they stood onthe matter. I had taught all these students beore inone capacity or another, and we have good relation-ships. In the spirit o teacher as generalist, I turnedthe moment into a learning opportunity. I asked ques-tions, gave perspectives that were not being heard,

and shared my personal opinion on the matter. As wewrapped up the debate, I appreciated them or theirwillingness to have hard conversations. I told themhow much I liked having such interactions with them.

Suddenly, I had an idea: What do you think aboutmaking a dance about something this semester, ratherthan my just teaching you some choreography?They all loved the idea, but asked, What would itbe about? I didnt know. I had not thought about itbeore that moment. I suggested, We are all women,maybe it could be about being emale. No response.What about racism? I proposed. This wasntentirely out o let ield. We had had conversations

in this class beore about race. In the past, studentswould oten unintentionally (but subconsciously?)line up or exercises according to their races. I wouldoccasionally point it out, and they would laughand comment on how strange it was that they haddone that. The girls response to my suggestion o adance about race was an excited yes, ollowed by anoutpouring o ideas about ways they could show howracism is stupid and hurtul. I checked and double-checked that they really wanted to do it. They allagreed, and we were o.

We started with the personal and the embodied. That

is where I am most comortable, and that is where Iknew to start the creative process. I asked the studentsto write a list o things rom the prompt, I am white/black/mixed and that means... (those were all theracial identities represented in our class). Each madea list and shared it with the group. Then I had themcreate movement that connected with one o thesentences they wrote. That became one o our move-ment sections. I also had them write about their earli-est memory o knowing they were their skin color. Iguided them through another dance-making structurebased on the images, eelings, and characters o thosestories. Sections o those dances became the bulk o

the main movement part o the piece. [video]

It was clear to me that our dance project was goingto need more concrete inormation in addition to themetaphor o movement and physical expression. Iwas curious to hear more about how race aects thestudents lives now, and what their opinions were aboutracism. So I set up some class time or interviews,which needed to be recorded. Enter the video camera. Ihad to watch and edit this video. Enter iMovie.

The project inspired the use o technology, not theother way around. I had a creative vision about my

students sharing their experiences. The technol-ogy passively presented itsel as a creative tooli ithadnt been in my possession to use, I would not havethought to ind it. The technology became central tothe project, but it was not the inspiration in any way.I needed a replacement computer two years earlierand had requested a laptop so that I could projectmovies and other presentations in my theater space.While I am not here to advertise or Apple, iMovieand Garageband really welcomed me into the do-it-yoursel world o creative projects. I requested aMac, knowing that my choreographer and otherperormance-related riends were all using technol-

ogy in their work. Even though I didnt expect tobe doing so mysel, it seemed wise to have the capa-bilities, in case any student wanted to make a coolmovie or mixed media project. In act, the truth isthat just having the capability allowed me to conceiveo a project that might use such technology. Havingit so easy and accessible was the key to my bother-ing to try. That, and a great human being keeping mecompany as I learned the ropes. I needed her guidanceand encouragement to get me past my judging, impa-tient voice o I dont know how.

As I was watching the interviews, I had the vision thatour dance project should have a video interlude or

overlay. I wanted to edit what we had recorded intoa short documentary. Sara Blattner, Creelds incred-ibly supportive tech person, sat with me and taughtme how to use the program. It was remarkably easy,especially because Sarah modeled asking or help. Anytime she couldnt remember or igure something out,she would ask the help menu in the program. Togetherwe taught me all the basics o editing, and I gotgoing. I stayed or hours ater school. I used my reetime to watch and edit our ootage. I was engrossed,enthralled, and really impressed with mysel. Pardon

The Creeld School

The Creeld School, a longtime CES afliate, is anindependent school in Philadelphia serving grades seven

through twelve. Creeld is a school o new beginnings,welcoming students seeking an alternative educationalprogramone that is progressive and college prepara-tory. Creeld supports students to pursue high academicstandards in a relaxed and collaborative atmosphere,while simultaneously promoting appreciation or artis-tic creation and civic responsibility in a sae, nurturing,and supportive environment that provides learning andemotional support, combined with a holistic, systemicapproach to each student.

Conti nued on next page


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12 Through Our Eyes

the crassness, but it elt really bad-ass to be making amovie.

It was during this editing process that I had my irstmoment o relection about media consumption, andmy irst glimpse at the challenges o being a direc-tor o a complex creative process intended to portray

multiple perspectives. I was spending hours editingthe video ater school and during my ree periods,while in class, we collectively spent our time workingon the dance section o the piece. I was sculptingthe video into what I thought our piece should say.I was choosing which lines and stories to take andwhich to cut. The most striking aspect o the editingprocess was how much power I had to representormisrepresentsomeones ideas. In one clip, one o thewhite young women was talking honestly about privi-lege and her whiteness. I I clipped her segment in onespot, she could easily be misinterpreted as a rude, evenracist, white person. I I clipped her section just a ew

words or a sentence later, her words had context andshe appeared thoughtul and insightul. I was shockedand disturbed by the power I realized I held in thatmoment. And yet, I still wasnt able to see how mucho the power I was holding on to.

I shared my insight about editing with the class.They listened, and we had a short conversation aboutediting in the media that they consumereality TVshows, news shows, advertisements. It was a ruit-ul conversation that never would have come upin my class without this project. Or i it had comeup, it would have been abstract and theoretical, not

personal. In this case, however, it was not theoreti-cal. They were exposing their personal ideas and theyhad a stake in these concepts because it wasnt just acritical analysis discussion; they were expressing theirvoices, and their real, vulnerable stories and ideas.

We were about halway into the creation o the piece.I was so excited about my project. I was talkingto riends, amily, and colleagues about it. I was soimpressed with the interesting stories and insights omy students. I was equally impressed with my ownability to make a new kind o creative expression,and to use this piece o technology that I had previ-

ously assumed was out o my reach. My story in myhead was that making movies was either too cool,too complicated, or just not what I did. But here Iwas, successully iguring out how to make a movie.I discovered tricks and tools that Sarah hadnt shownme, having a deep and authentic learning experience oexploration, trial and error, and remaining completelyinterested in both the content and orm o my learning.

And my students were getting apathetic.

I could not or the lie o me understand why the girlswere so lazy and uninspired. It was like pulling teethto get them to work on the dance in class. How were

they not inspired by their own work? How did theynot realize how revolutionary our piece was?! Andthen it occurred to me: I had taken their project awayrom them and made it mine, all mine!

I realized quickly that my own excitement aboutusing iMovie and my role as the director to move the

piece orward had gotten out o balance with the ulti-mate goal: or the students to share their experiencesand thoughts on racism. While the students voiceswere the heart o the project, they were not in chargeo the project. Though I was acilitating a progres-sive perhaps radical project, I had lost track o theequally progressive and radical value o keeping thestudents in charge o their own learning. Their artisticvoices had to be part o the design o the project, notonly their stories as the content. The students hadto be workers, guides. I prompted them by asking ,What do you want this project to say? When theywere in charge, the students were actually rather resis-

tant and shy about creating a piece that would chal-lenge their audience. I wanted the piece to rile peopleup, make them think, make them uncomortable. Thegirls wanted to raise awareness, but they were notinterested in making big waves. Despite their poweruland sometimes painul stories, when asked what theywanted to say they would reply, Race isnt that bigo a deal. I had to step aside a bit and let them decidewhat the piece should say.

Garageband was the tool that allowed the students tohave more agency in the design o the project. We allagreed that we needed more voice in the soundtrack

and that was easy to record on the spot with thisaudio recording program instead o all the steps andediting necessary with the video recording. Ater werecorded more o their thoughts, I did the grunt worko going through all the material and edited out thecontent that was clearly unnecessary (the repetitivetalking, the umms, and the giggles). Then, we tookclass time to sit with the computer and listen to theuseable clips. The students chose which parts to useand what order to put them in. Also, we realized weneeded to create sections that didnt exist that wouldeature voices that we wanted to be present in thepiece but had not come up naturally. At this point, the

girls encouraged each other to say the harder stu, tospeak up with loud, strong voices, to say what theymeant. When the students were more in charge andwhen they were leading each other, the project wasat its most vibrant. They gave me permission to dothe inal editing and use my judgment. In act theydesperately wanted me to stay in charge o the bigpicture, perhaps because I had accidentally set it upthat way and they were scared to have more controland agency. I ran the inal product by them severaltimes or comments, eedback, and tweaking. Finally,we settled on the soundtrack and set out to rehearse


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1Through Our Eyes

sound and movement together.

In the perormance oThrough Our Eyes, technol-ogy allowed the students voices to be heard in a waythat they would not have otherwise been comortablesharing. They were able to speak openly, honestly,and deeply in the context o our group. They showed

and shared parts o themselves that they had notbeen comortable sharing in public. They delved intodiscussions and critical thinking that were not other-wise part o their social lives. Being able to recordthese intimate conversations allowed them (or me,really, with their permission) to have their voicesheard on a larger scale. The students gave me permis-sion to acilitate a question and answer section aterthe show. In the moment, however, the students werevery shy and reluctant to discuss their experiences orace and racism. They were proud o the dance piece,and o their ideas, but in some real way, they neededthe technology to do the talking or them.

This experience challenged me on so many levels.Learning to use the new technology eels like a hugesuccess. I eel proud and impressed with mysel, andthrilled to have mastered these new tools. I contin-ued to use iMovie to edit the recording o our wintershow, allowing students to have copies o the peror-mance, something weve never done beore. I am usingGarageband again in my current dance class, as thestudents work on a project that answers the question,What is it like to be your age? This time I simplyoered it as an option in their creative processes andI only recorded when and what they suggested and

organized. I only edited with them by my side. Icontinued to struggle with how much o my opin-ions and direction made sense to put into the process,but I think that is a lielong learning process or anyeducator-director.

The questions and challenges posed by the technol-ogy within my perormance classes were interesting,provocative, and helpul or my growth as an educa-tor. I dont think, however that those challenges wereunique to the use o technology. I think they werea product o being awake to the experiences o mystudents while co-creating a perormance piece. This

attentiveness was heightened because I was trying newthings, using new tools, causing my teaching to beresher and perhaps messier. In addition to providingthe stumbling blocks that woke me up, the technologyalso oered my students a medium to express them-selves in a way that they were not otherwise comort-able doing. Whether because o their amiliarity withmedia, or the distance and saety it gave them to sharetheir ideas, the technology allowed my students to pushthemselves and to challenge our community aboutracism, an issue we all need to be more awake to.

Sara Narva has been teaching at The Creeld School orour years. Using the model o embodied education, Narvainvites participants to bring their physical, emotional,personal and intellectual selves into the learning space.She has worked as an artist and educator with elementary,middle, and high school students, as well as undergraduatesin the United States and Israel. Narva earned her Masters o

Education in Dance rom Temple University in 2004.


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14 Fall Forum 2009

This kind o innovative schoolis an example o how all our schools should be.

President Barack Obama, visiting Essential school Capital City Public Charter School inWashington, D.C. on February 3, 2009.

Fall Forum 2009 celebrates CESs 25th anniversary with powerul exchanges o innovative practices and demo-cratic policies that increase equitable student achievement.

What: Fall Forum is CESs most important networking and proessional development event, bringing togetherseveral thousand educators, students, amily members, and leading thinkers in education rom around the worldto exchange ideas, ask questions, and share insights about eective school and educational system practices anddesigns.

Who: You! The wisdom, experience, questions, challenges, and successes o educators, students, and theirsupporters create Fall Forum. In addition to hundreds o sessions rom practitioners, Fall Forum eatures speak-ers who will add ire and inspiration to your eorts to create the best conditions or teaching and learning,including Gloria Ladson Billings, Grant Wiggins, Deborah Meier, and more.

When: Visit CESs website or speciic schedule inormation, and dont miss our preconerence sessions andschool visits scheduled or Thursday, November 5!

Where: New Orleans, at the abulously located Sheraton New Orleans. Thursday, November 5, will oer

opportunities to join in the learning lie o the city with a service-learning collaboration with the Crescent CityArt Projects Paint the Change Program, designed to transorm school landscapes rom mundane environmentsto colorul, artistic places o learning. Or spend a day learning at a New Orleans school as part o a uniquelydesigned day-long Fall Forum school visit.

How: There are two ways to get involved now. Visit our website and create a CES Interactive account so that wecan send you bulletins with updates and inormation on this and other CES events. And join the CES Fall ForumOnline Ning, which creates opportunities or you to connect with others interested in Fall Forums ChangingSchools, Changing Lives theme. Join in discussions about CES principles and practices, connect with peopleplanning to attend Fall Forum, and take advantage o an authentic and vibrant conversation among riends todeepen your understanding about Fall Forum and CES.

For more details about conerence logistics or general Fall Forum inormation, contact Amy Rodriguez Lee [email protected] or 510-433-1925.

Fall Forum ino @ CES:http://www.essentialschools.org/allorum.html

Fall Forum Online @ Ning:http://cesallorum.ning.com

CES organizes the inspiration and know-how of an accomplished and innovative network to guide schoolsthrough the complex process of transformation. Get the tools, knowledge, contacts, and vision to create and sustain

personalized, equitable, academically challenging schools that prepare all students for successful liveshow allour schools should be.

Changing Schools,

Changing Lives for

25 YearsNew Orleans, Louisiana

November 5-7, 2009


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1Learning Technology Skills Through Social Entrepreneurialism

Learning

Technology SkillsThrough Social

Entrepreneurialismby Jean Pendleton, CharlestonCollegiate School

The only complaint I heard

at the ninth grade AppliedTechnology inal exhibitionwas, Only $3,000? But I want tomake a donation to every organiza-tion! I had to agree. It was a dilemma,and a rustrating one, at that. Do you giveyour money to HALE (Hispanic AmericansLearning English), the organization which teachesyoung Spanish-speaking children on Johns Islandto speak English or to Hoops or the Hood, thenonproit which takes kids o the streets and teachesthem teamwork, goal-setting, and a healthy liestyleby giving them a chance to play basketball? Should

you donate to Power or Lie which builds windarms and installs solar panels across the United Statesor to A Better Lie or Abused Women and Childrenwhich provides shelter, loans, and a new start tovictims o domestic abuse around the world? Andwhat about the other nine worthy causes representedat the exhibition?

The inal exhibition was a nonproit air, althoughnone o the organizations were real; each had beencreated over the semester by a ninth grader. Visitorsto the exhibitionstudents, parents, and acultywere given three $1,000 donations to make to the

three causes o their choice. It was up to the visitorsto decide where their money would go; it was up tothe exhibitors to persuade visitors that their causewas the most worthy. The visitors and the organiza-tions ounders quickly learned that whether youreon the giving or the receiving end, you have to workwithin peoples economic realities; very ew peoplehave as much money as they would like to donate tononproit organizations. It was just one o many reallie issues the Applied Technology students learnedthis past semester.

Technology With (and Without) ContextWhen I irst arrived at Charleston Collegiate School, Iwas handed a college-level Microsot business applica-

tions textbook and told Id be teaching a one-semesterninth grade technology course. Since the course hadnever been taught beore, I was given little moredirection than: Teach them Oice and anything elseyou think they need to know about computers or theUpper School. I looked at the beast o the 944-pagetextbook and sighed; I had been teaching technologysince 1991, but always in the context o the studentscore subject classes. My previous students had learnedspreadsheets in math, word processing in English, andmultimedia presentations in historyor sometimes,spreadsheets in history, multimedia presentations inEnglish, and word processing in math. Suddenly, in

this new environment, I was context-less.The textbook was ull o exercises based on scenariosinvolving a shopping mall, a business intern, and atravel agency. The students learned the technical skills,but they didnt ind the assignments interesting (whenwas the last time you went to a travel agency?). AndI was troubled by the approach: the students sat atcomputers, and I gave them a task. They were notlearning when and how technology could solve prob-lems; they were being given problems pre-designed to



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16

My essential questions or the course were:

When is a computer the best tool for the job?

What makes a cause worth supporting?

I started the course with a unit on Wikipedia andvalidating Internet inormation. This was my way oletting the students (whom I had not taught previ-ously) know my expectations and teaching style. Iwanted to establish a oundation o trust in the class-room so that students elt secure in exchanging ideasreely and discussing issues o importance to them. Iknew this would be important when we began talkingabout the causes that our nonproit organizationswould be addressing. Since there are many opinionson how (or how not) to use Wikipedia, I thoughtdiscussing and writing about this would be a greatway to let students know I valued all viewpoints. Our

discussions were rich and the viewpoints varied; atthe end o the unit, each student proposed a policy onthe use o Wikipedia or CCS students, secure in theknowledge that, as ar as I was concerned, there wasno right answer.

When we moved into the nonproit curriculum, Istarted with the question: What is a nonproit orga-nization? Its a company that doesnt make anymoney, was the unanimous answer. I shouldnt havebeen surprised at their initial lack o understand-ing; most o the parents o my students work orlocal companies or are in business or themselves as

real estate agents, landscapers, house cleaners, andother small business owners. I realized I had a lot ogroundwork to cover.

So we started out by comparing nonproit and or-proit entities. I created a website o links to dozenso organizations and quickly learned that the onesthat were o most interest to the students were thosecreated by children as well as those in the Charlestonarea. International groups with ar-reaching missionslike Greenpeace and World Wildlie Fund proved tobe overwhelming at this point. We analyzed missionstatements and the types o services oered, and welooked at how dierent groups raised money. Wetalked about why people start or choose to work ornonproits and watched videos o nonproit ound-ers telling their own stories. At the end o this unit, Iasked the class to brainstorm a list o adjectives thatthey elt described nonproit employees. Expectingdescriptors like selless, compassionate, anddedicated, I couldnt keep mysel rom laugh-ing when the very irst contribution to the list was:tired. That was when I knew they were beginningto get it.

Ater all this exploration, the students began design-ing their nonproit organizations. For most, identi-

be solved by technology. The exercises seemed unnat-ural, random, and irrelevant.

Ater a year o this, I decided I needed to changethings signiicantly. Scheduling issues and limitedresources made teaching the technology skills in thecontext o subject areas diicult; I needed to come

up with my own context which would help studentsrecognize the many practical applications or technol-ogy, as well as those situations where a pencil sketch,a 3-D model, or a ace-to-ace encounter might be abetter approach.

My irst instinct was to have the students create smallbusinesses. I looked or curricular materials andound a ew textbooks and programs I could use. AsI browsed through these, a couple o things hit me.First, I am a nonproit person. Both o my parentsspent their entire lives working or nonproit organi-zations, and except or a short stint in the corporate

world, I have always worked or nonproits. As Ilooked at the chapters on the production/distributionchain, return on investment, and supply and demandin the small business curricula, I began to eel uncom-ortable. I couldnt relate to what I was reading, andwhile I knew I could learn it all, I thought why notteach what I already know so well? Second, and moreimportant, I realized that this could be a wonder-ul opportunity to teach a lesson much larger thanspreadsheets and marketing or even how a smallorganization runs. I, instead o creating commercialbusinesses, the students created nonproit organiza-tions, they could get some insight into why people

choose to work or a cause rather than a proit. At atime in their lives when they naturally put themselvesat the center o their worlds, maybe I could help mystudents to begin to look outside themselves.

Building a Nonproit CurriculumWhen I couldnt ind any curricula or creatingnonproit organizations, I went about building myown. I looked at several books on starting your ownnonproit and decided (much to my own dismaybecause I hate the title) that The Nonprofit Kit forDummies was the best book or my purposes. Mycourse objectives were that the students would:

Learn to utilize technologyincludingMicrosot Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet,Google Earth, RSS, blogsproductively inUpper School and beyond

Be introduced to all aspects of designing andrunning a nonproit organization

Apply critical thinking skills to all projects

Demonstrate independent learning and prob-lem-solving

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ying a cause was easy since they had been thinkingabout it or a ew weeks. Others, however, ound thisstep challenging: they didnt know a lot about theproblems in the world, they had never volunteeredanywhere, or perhaps their parents had not madesuch issues a priority. I asked these students to ocus

on what they cared about or were interested in, orto relect back on a diicult personal experience thatmight have been made easier had a supportive orga-nization been available (such an experience served asthe inspiration or the creation o the aorementionedHALE).

Creating an Identity and a BudgetWith causes identiied, each student created a missionstatement, name or the organization, logo, slogan,a title or him or hersel, and a business card. Theyused Word, Publisher, Paint, and GIMP to accomplishthese tasks. They signed up or new Gmail accounts

with appropriately chosen email addresses. Theysearched online classiied ads to identiy an actualpiece o property they could rent or buy or theirorganization, and then looked up that location onGoogle Earth. The student with the animal shelterchose a house with several acres o land while thestudent whose organization was providing basketballopportunities ound a warehouse in Chicago that heplanned to convert into courts. This step gave them areal address or their literature as well as realistic rent/mortgage payments or budgeting purposes. Finally,they ound an appropriate, available domain name ona site such as godaddy.com.

Using Microsot Words Rsum Wizard, the studentsthen created rsums, which were based on realityexcept that they included their nonproit position astheir most current employment (some did not haveany real employment yet in their young lives, so thiswas good practice). Not only would these rsumsbecome part o their inal exhibition, but this assign-ment also gave the students an opportunity to takestock o their experiences and accomplishmentsto date with an eye toward enhancing those in thecoming years or college application purposes.

Budgeting came next, and students learned about

expenses and income, particularly earned incomeand contributed income. They created Excel spread-sheets which included the rents/mortgages they hadound earlier and estimated expenses according to theservices they were oering. They decided how theywere going to sta their organizations: whom didthey need to pay and what could they use volunteersor? They learned about beneits, insurance, utilities,and all o the expenses involved in running a business.They had to decide on a salary or themselves; in asociety that relentlessly sends the message that makinga lot o money is the ultimate deinition o success,

they had to weigh their own needs and desires againstthe needs o the organization. Every day in the newsthey were hearing about the multimillion dollar sala-ries o auto industry executives and the astronomicalbonuses o bank employees, yet no one gave them-selves more than $50,000/year.

The Cause Becomes CentralBy now we were about eight weeks into our study ononproits and many things were becoming secondnature to the students. They understood the inancialconstraints that nonproits were under, and they dideverything with that in mind. When they designedpublications, or example, they kept the colors to aminimum and the designs simple. More and more,I saw their cause become their primary concern. Ineed to hire two teachers that I can rely on to be thereevery day, so thats two salaries with beneits. Do youthink I could make some money i I sold teddy bears

and t-shirts with our logo on it? Maybe I should startan adult ESL program and charge a small amount orit. What i I had the homeless people work in thekitchen and around the shelter? It would help teachthem responsibility and give them some job skills,while saving us rom having to hire someone else.I I got a big name like Michael Jordan to be on myboard, then maybe it would be easier to expand toother cities so we can help more kids.

The classes began to run themselves. I would intro-duce the problem and the students would use theknowledge they had accumulatedand the technol-

ogyto help solve it. You need to communicate withthe public . . . Well create a newsletter! You needto raise some money . . . Well make a PowerPoint!But we wont make a student PowerPoint with lots obells and whistles and images zooming around. Wellmake one thats appropriate or the business world,or people or companies who might be able to supportus. I watched with pride as they became more andmore independent, tackling increasingly complexproblems with very little guidance.

CES Principles in ActionThis curriculum was intentionally built upon the

student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach principle; itwas designed, as the Common Principle states, toprovoke students to learn how to learn and thus toteach themselves. Each day, students added a build-ing block to the structure o their organization,and each student designed each block individually.Each decision they made was based on the decisionsthey had made previously; their undraising eortsrelected their budgets, or instance, and their organi-zational look was based on the color and design othe logo they had created early in the semester. Not


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only did this structure encourage creative and criticalthinking, but it took the dark shadow o cheating andplagiarism out o the picture completely. Everythingeach student created was original; it couldnt be copiedrom a classmate or cut-and-pasted rom the Internet.

The other CES principle that was central to thecurriculum was less is more. With a ew digressions,we stuck to the nonproit curriculum all semester. Bykeeping the content narrow, students were able toexplore the same issue rom a variety o angles andperspectives (i.e., depth over coverage). For instance,

we had the luxury o looking at our organizationsthrough many lenses: What is the ounder o thisorganization concerned about? What are the clientsconcerns? What do the donors care about? What dothese have in common and how do they dier? Howcan you, as the ounder, address all three? We werent

bouncing rom shopping malls to business internsto travel agencies; the students learned one cohesivesystem in depth.

A Demonstration o MasteryWith Some TechnologyBackupThe inal exhibition, ironically, didnt include anytechnology at all. It was exclusively ace-to-acesalesmanship and tri-old display boards. The boardsdisplayed the products rom the semester: businesscards, rsums, budgets, graphs, newsletters, missionstatements, etc. Some students brought in props andincentives to lure visitors to their area. Hoops or

the Hood had a small basketball hoop where visi-tors could make a basket and win a Hersheys Kiss. Itwas brilliant marketing, especially when a lot o theaudience was younger than 15 (although the adultsenjoyed showing o their basketball prowess too!). Intwo 45-minute blocks, H4Hs ounder received morethan $50,000 in donations.

The most common question I got rom visitors tothe exhibition was, Are these organizations real? Itwas the ultimate conirmation o the Coalitions sixthprinciple: demonstration o mastery. By the endo the semester, the students had constructed their

organizations so solidly and had internalized theirmessages so completely that visitors to the exhibitionound it diicult to dierentiate between our real andinvented worlds. The nonproit ounders could speakwith conidence about speciic people or animals thattheir organizations had served. They could outline thebiggest challenges that they were acing. They couldhypothesize about what the uture held and what theattendant inancial implications might be. They couldormulate an answer to any question, and they didit with great composure. They believed in what theywere doing, and they got potential donors to believein it too.

And everything they talked about was supported,resolved, or illustrated by technology. Graphs andcharts showed their current and projected inancialstatus. Newsletters told the stories o those whobeneited rom their services and announced upcom-ing events. Business cards gave contact inormationshould someone want to make a uture donation.Rsums answered questions about the backgroundso the ounders. The curriculum redesign hadsucceeded; the students learned the technology skills,all within a much larger context, one that was rootedin real lie and positive global citizenship.

Nonproft Organizations Created byCCS Ninth Graders

The nonproft organizations created by the ninth grad-ers broke down along gender lines, with the girls creatingorganizations that helped children and animals and the boyscreating organizations involved with sports or alternative

energy. Having recently heard Michael Thompson speak onhow schools can unwittingly be hostile environments orboys since they oten squelch some o their natural instinctsand interests, I was thrilled to be able to give both boysand girls a chance to pursue something that was personallymeaningul. Their organizations included:

HALE (Hispanic Americans Learning English) Provid-ing ESL services or young children

Hoops for the Hood Giving low-income youth an op-portunity to play basketball

Thoughtful Threads Improving self-condence throughgiving students nicer clothing

A Chance for Childhood Providing opportunities forhomeless children to participate in athletics

A Better Life for Abused Women and Children Aninternational organization providing shelter and loans orwomen who need a new start

Backwoods for Kids Providing hunting experiences tounderpriviliged youth

Make a Goal Foundation Bringing soccer equipment,coaches, and training to the children o Arica

Race 2 a Change Giving retired race horses a chance tolive out their natural lives peaceully

Power for Life Providing alternative energy solutions to

towns and businesses The Nuclear Environment Center Lobbying for a reduc-

tion in the use o nuclear power

Organizations sheltering abused and abandoned animals:

- Peace 4 Pets

- NEFFA (No Excuse or Animal Abuse)

- HASC (Helping Animals in South Carolina)


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New Students, New IdeasAs I begin the second semester with a new groupo ninth graders, I am excited to introduce them tononproit organizations and explore their ideas ormaking the world a better place. One boy has decidedthat his organization is going to be ailiated with

HALE and will oer ree translation services to adultswho need them when visiting doctors, legal oices,and other oices and agencies. Another student istrying to igure out a way to rescue the abandonedemale Chinese babies theyve been reading about inEnglish class.

I hope that this social conscience stays with themthrough their school years and into adulthood. Fornow, I can say that theyve already been successul inturning around one lie: mine. I was a teacher trappedin a dissatisying curriculum who now eels renewedand reinvigorated by the engagement with learning,innovation, and genuine empathy I see in the class-

room every day.

Jean Pendleton is the Director o School Renewal atCharleston Collegiate School in Johns Island, SC. She isresponsible or overseeing the schools curriculum, proes-sional development, community service program, andall things environmental in other words, as she says,anything that involves change. She has worked in schools

or nearly 20 years, eight o which were spent at Brimmerand May School in Chestnut Hill, MA, one o the earlyindependent school members o the Coalition.

Charleston Collegiate School is a preschool-grade 12 inde-pendent day school with an enrollment o 275 students.Located just outside Charleston, SC, the school is one othe most progressive in the area. CCSs mission is to havea positive impact on its students, so that they may posi-tively impact the world around them. The school preparesstudents to ace lies challenges with conidence, strongproblem-solving skills, and a solid ethical oundation.CCS is a community o cultural and economic diversitywhich osters compassion, social awareness, and respect or

community and environment.

National Council o Teachers o English. (2009). Writingin the 21st century. Retrieved rom http://www.ncte.org/press/21stcentwriting

National School Boards Association. (2007). Creating &

connecting: Research and guidelines on online socialandeducationalnetworking. Retrieved rom http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pd

Partnership or 21st Century Skills. (2009). Frameworkor 21st century learning. Retrieved rom http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

Adventures in Web 2.0Continued from page 9

Richardson, W. (2007-2009). A shiting notion o what itmeans to teach. Retrieved rom http://willrichardson.wiki-spaces.com/page/di/home/74757129

Richardson, W. (2009, April 9). Writing to build the larger

conversation. Video part 3 posted to http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/writing-to-build-the-larger-conversation/

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. (2009, February). Writing inthe 21st century. Retrieved rom http://www.ncte.org/press/21stcentwriting

Donate Now to Celebrate 25 Years of CESCES has launched an Individual Giving Campaign to raise $25,000 to honor and celebrate the 25 years that CES has

given collective voice to educators working for personalized, equitable, and academically challenging schools. Yourcontribution will allow CES to expand our charge of developing innovative teaching and learning strategies and tools

that bring the Common Principles to life, continue to publish Horace to tell your stories, and sponsor the gatherings

that help you grow as an educator, such as Fall Forum and Summer Institute.

CES needs your help, in whatever amount you can afford, to spark the next 25 years of innovative, student-centered, teacher-

powered education. Please visit the CES website to click on the Donate Now button at the top of every page, and encourage your

colleagues and others who care about creating and sustaining great schools everywhere for everyone to do the same.

Visit www.essentialschools.org to Donate Now. Thank you.


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Technology as a

Fence and a Bridgeby Bryan Wehrli,Amy Biehl High School

Technology as a Fence and a Bridge

Note from the author:Over the past few years Ivebecome increasingly curiousabout the role of technologyin the classroom. Im interestedin teacher attitudes toward newtechnologies and whether technolo-

gies can help us think differently aboutteaching and learning. This article isadapted from a paper I wrote for a doctoralcourse on technology, society, and educationat the University of New Mexico. Reading andresearch helped me understand what I experienced inmy classroom and school.

At a recent meeting o humanities teachers, my AmyBiehl High School (ABHS) colleagues shared theirrustration with our students use o laptops. They sitdown, open up the screen, and it eels like a ence. I

shared their discomort. I get tired o asking studentsto close

Adventures in Web2.0 Summer 09

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