short and scattered but positive

- fascinating article forwarded to me by my dad about improving education through writing in ginormous school in Mass.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Just emailed it to collab students who will begin researching for their education editorials tomorrow.

- loving where we are in collab education unit. Just finished a kickin' education deliberation (fishbowl/roundtable/talking heads) between historic innovators (accdg to pbs), after looking at Jefferson, Dewey, & Mann; kids are now starting their individual education editorials (we've also looked at Doing School, Savage Inequalities, "Dark Days", "The Creativity Crisis," "Drop Out Nation," "Poem Against the First Grade," "Run, Ricky, Run," & "Afterlife.")

- we're in a good place in Honors. I'm weaving a bunch more this year. Finished our introduction/education unit and started the American Revolution, but still have to finish Savage Inequalities chapters and "The Creativity Crisis." We had a really cool day when we split class between condition of colonists prior to the Stamp Act and then switched right into Kozol's chapter on Camden, NJ. They didn't miss a beat and it was invigorating. What I have to do is start weaving in the blogging as part of their reflections (which are already happening on their websites).

- Mideast is also in a good place. Their google maps are up and running. Need to make them more significant than just a place to post. Also, pretty sure I want to start "tweeting" (so to speak) and have them read and react to the articles that I simply don't have time to cover as we go in class re: current events. This group could definitely handle it.

sorry so scattered. hoping that this weekend I can look at Veenema's rubric and everyone else's recent posts. At least I blogged. The thought of labeling this is too much right now. Sry.