In our class discussion yesterday, we talked about choices that we make daily.  Why is it that every day there are bottles in the trash can right next to article the recyling bin?  What motivates (or doesn’t motivate them) to take action.  I find it hard to believe that it is because of lack of awareness, particularly for this generation; they already think climate change is an old issue.

This morning I ran across Leslie Kaufman’s article , “Mr. Whipple Left it Out–Soft is Rough” in the NYT about soft toilet paper and how harmful it is for the environment.  This issue, near and dear to my, uh, heart, helped me understand why we have a hard time changing our habits.  I know that it would be better to use recycled toilet paper (or use leaves?), but I also know that I don’t even buy one-ply toilet paper and I only buy one particular brand.  How can I justify my choice?  I guess I can’t.  And this seems to point to the larger problem.

Apathy was not evident at 8:00am in this sophomore class today.  Students pitched their ideas to their classmates which sparked a lively debate.  Jacob convinced at least a few people that the importance of arts in education would make a good topic for our class film.  Franni spoke eloquently about the need for universal health care and got her classmates thinking about how it may affect them directly one day.  Janelle urged her classmates to make a film that would speak to teens about the consequences of drinking.  Amanda, Daniel, and Julia mounted a last ditch appeal for the environment, trying to quell the fears of their classmates that there was nothing new to say about the environment.

The class debated for a solid hour about the merits of each topic.  They brought up related issues, especially the economy, again and again to support their ideas:

• the arts could help the economy by helping to mold creative thinkers who might become the problem solvers or entrepeneurs of tomorrow
• health care is affected by the economy (loss of job and coverage) and the economy is affected by health care costs
• teenage drinkers might turn into alcoholics and would not become productive members of our society
• environmental issues’ links to energy is a drain on our economy

The students also used appeals

• to pathos:  poor children getting a chance to play an instrument, a boy in Illinois dying because a toothache turned into a fatal infection, teenagers dying from alcohol poisoning, fears of the world coming to an end if we don’t stem environmental deterioration.
• to logos:  “citing” or at least sounding like they were citing statistics to convince their classmates of the direness of their pet cause
• to ethos:  proposing who might make good interview subjects (teenagers who have friends who drink, health care advocates, art teachers, environmental activists)

The energy was palpable.  But I had to cut off debate at 9:00 for a final vote.  Top two:  teenage drinking and environmental issues.  And the final vote:  environmental issues.

impassioned-pitches

The librarians came in again to help us think of ways to narrow down our search.  They showed us more databases:  EbscoHost, NetLibrary Electronic Books.  They also reminded us how to search for books and how using these sources might give us extra ideas about narrowing our topic.

The students’ next blog posts will be reflecting about the vote today and ideas for narrowing down environmental issues into a more manageable topic for the film.

The day started with technical difficulties.  There seems to be some problem with IE and edublogs–as soon as the kids try to access their blogs, they are told IE needs to quit.  Unfortunately, the image on the computers that I have does not have Firefox as an option.  I’ll have to see if I can get the computers re-imaged.

Our awesome librarians came in and gave a great overview of some of the subscriptions that we have available at school:

• SIRS
• DE Streaming
• Global Issues in Context (on trial right now)

They had lots of information about all of our topics, so the kids could see what kind of information they would be reading/viewing.  We talked about the advantage of using vetted sources and they all seemed pretty aware that Google searches don’t always turn up reliable information.

For homework tonight, students are going to choose one article/source from the three databases the librarians showed us and are going to take notes on their blogs.  We also talked about tags:  notes1 (so that I can find their homework).

One disappointment:  I can’t figure out how to get an e-mail subscription widget on their blogs.  I think it is now only an option for supporters of edublogs.  I guess I’m now in search of a e-mail subscribe code to just add in on our own.  Not sure how that is going to work.   I’ll need to consult Bill, our TIS on that one.

Saturday morning accomplishments:

• checked on all student blogs
• responded to ones that had posted
• found 9 blogging partners via mass e-mail to school and twitter plea–only 12 more to go
• took ads off of all student blogs–realized that the adding the nhs11 at the end of each blog URL was a really good idea because I could search the blogs that way to choose them more than one at a time to block ads

The students had a poster talk today after individually brainstorming pros and cons of each subject. I also got their blogs set up through edublogs.  Some kids already had accounts and couldn’t remember their passwords, but I think that most got in by the end of class.

We also had technical difficulties with the laptops–batteries not charged, batteries not holding a charge, batteries not working even when plugged in.  It was a little stressful, but I think we identified which computers aren’t working and which are.

We didn’t have time for a final vote, so we are still down to our top four choices.  Seems like it is going to be between Teenage Drinking and Environmental Issues.

I had the kids do their first post today.  Not all of them had time to get it posted, but I hope they’ll do it over the weekend.

Things to remember for next class:

• have them link to my blog
• have them title their blog in a meaningful way
• discuss tags and categories
• talk about widgets and what to add
• REMIND THEM TO PUBLISH AND NOT JUST SAVE (I just discovered half of the kids did have posts even though nothing was showing up because they had not clicked publish)
• discuss managing comments

I also need to start recruiting blogging partners.  Guess I should get on that.

After a four-day weekend (five days since last class), my students were supposed to come raring to go with their persuasive essays, ready to pitch their topics to the class.  Alas, only half of the kids had anything written.  So, we tore off the names (I now have scraps of paper on my desk representing who had their work today) and broke into groups and ranked the ideas.

After we put the initial list on the board, I started to hear, “What about technology?” and “What about religious intolerance?”  Soon we had filled the board with ideas that no one had originally pitched, but at least the energy was up.  In groups, the students prioritized the topics and put their top four on the board.  There was a lot of overlap.  We wrote the top ten on the board, briefly discussed their merits, and then each student got to vote for 2 topics.

And the final four topics are. . .

• Environmental Issues
• Technology
• Arts in Education
• Teenage Drinking

For homework, the students are reading articles and summarizing them to get a feel for what kind of material they will be reading.

I will start setting up Google reader Set up Google reader feeds for all of these topics.  I also talked to our librarians and told them the possible topics.  Next week, they are coming in to talk about possible resources that our library has access to.

I also need to start getting the blogs set up.

Off we go. . .

I’m excited to start this project again.  Last year’s project on global warming was the best thing I’ve done with a class in 17 years of teaching.  I just presented the project at METC in St. Charles, MO to a small crowd in a very large room.  Most stayed to listen, so I suppose that is a good sign.  There have been several follow-up e-mails, all positive.

This year, since I knew the project was going to happen (last year was a bit iffy), I focused on film study at the beginning of the semester as a way of looking at persuasion.  Two sites that were amazing were Media that Matters and Pangea Day.  Both sites have films that you can stream that take on social and political issues with a global perspective.  My kids loved watching the 4 films from Pangea Day:

• Combatants for Peace (Israeli soldier and Palestinian resistance fighter try to understand each other)
• A Thousand Words (a man goes to great lengths to return a camera left on a subway)
• Elevator Music (people in a crowded elevator learn to avoid sound pollution)
• Pale Blue Dot (amazing images from the Hubble telescope of our planet; Carl Sagan)

Today the students checked out Taking IT Global which I learned about at NECC in San Antonio this past summer.  TIG has great resources for learning about global issues.  Once we get our topic decided, it will be a great place to begin research.  There is also an online journal for students to publish poems, stories and essays about these topics.  I’m not sure if we’ll have time to take advantage of the online community available, but I hope we do.  What a great opportunity for the kids to learn from other teens from all over the world interested in the same topic.  This is where the technology really adds to the research.  I think it will help the kids see that they can make a difference in the world through these connections and their collective actions.

I’m excited and a little nervous to see what they pick.  It’s a little unnerving to be this out of control