October 7...Continuing to Develop Project List (Note: This is a new prompt)

Through last week's blog, small group and whole class discussion, we have arrived at a list of the four following projects:

1  Project Adventure -- movement-based, community building curriculum that will be modified for elementary level.     Brings phys. ed. into the content areas and builds community along the way. 

2. Garden Project -- if memory serves, two main ideas still floating here: designing curriculum to help the                 YMCA use their garden to teach kids or working with a school that has or wants a garden to build one or to         connect it to their curriculum

3. Student’s Takes on Testing -- Interviewing students to hear what they think about and how they experience high stakes standardized tests. 

4. Literacy Program: Book Distribution --working with Ryan D.'s honor society to plan, publicize and carry out a       children's book redistribution project which involves collecting books, figuring out what kind of event to have for     a giveaway, getting the books there and holding the event. 

Please participate in an online discussion helping us to further develop these ideas by posting a comment. You should feel free to post about any of the projects ideas regardless of whether it's the one you plan to sign on to. You can pose questions, work on existing ideas or even post thoughts on new ideas. I will use your comments to get us started next week. Our goal is to have the projects pretty well set and the students signed on to each group by the middle of class next week. 

Sept. 11…Teaching Toward Freedom, pt. 1 (note: this blog is not due until two days after our next class meeting)

Ayers: "Teaching, at its best, is an enterprise that helps human beings reach the full measure of their humanity" (p. I). Have you thought of teaching in this manner? React to this claim. How does this way of thinking challenge the ways in which people tend to think about teaching/teachers?

September 16…Teaching as a Profession

Do you think of teaching as a profession? If so, what does this mean to you? Does your idea of teaching as a profession relate at all to the first blog prompt (on Ayers)?

September 23...Teaching toward Freedom and Today's Schools

Student from last semester: "I do wonder, though, what teaching toward freedom might look like when the rest of the school is so opposite in their view of students.  How does this work?" What do y'all think about the prospects for acting on some of Ayers' ideas given the current state of public schooling?

September 30...Brainstorming Potential Projects

Here's the place for sharing ideas about topics for our Inquiry-to-Action Projects. Please feel free to share any and all ideas and know that, at this point, nothing is too outlandish for consideration. 

October 14…Rubrics

How do you feel about rubrics. Kohn is clearly in the minority, as rubrics have become a mainstay in schools of education. Will this article change how you use rubrics in your professional practice?

October 28... Inquiry-to-Action Groups (requires posting twice)

Post #1: Share something interesting/disturbing/etc. that your inquiry to this point has uncovered. What are some new questions that have arisen as a result of this discovery?

Post #2: Respond/react to a classmate's first post.

November 4...TBD

November 25...TBD

December 2…Education and Social Change

Do you think that it is the educator’s role to overtly work to make the world a better place?  What are some things that you could/will try to do as an educator to work toward social improvement/justice? Be as specific as possible. (Yes, I know you have a lot to do at the end of the semester, but I think it’s worth taking a few minutes to think about it!)