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