turning our brains off...as a necessity

These past couple weeks since our last meeting have been, in a word, loose.

We had 2 three-day weekends in a row, the health fair (which replaced classes for an entire day), an off-campus shooting that impacted our students directly, a processing meeting to follow up after the shooting, and last, but not least, Prom. Not to mention all the drama associated with seniors (not) graduating.

The way that some of them are panting toward the finish line is taking its toll on us as a staff, thereby making it even more difficult to maintain for us all. In a nutshell, classwork & curriculum have been forced toward the lower end of the priority list in the whirlwind that is our end-of-year campus atmosphere.

The sky is falling the sky is falling!

Last minute seniors always make the remaining days of school stress-filled.

Everything is everything

I am worried about Seniors who are not graduating. I think this is one of the most pressing issues right now. I am looking forward to building with others on the goals of the school as Cherise brought up and to putting some interventions in place that will hopefully prevent this from happening next year. I am excited about having ARMED on campus and I think that their presence has brought an enthusiasm and energy that we needed especially for the last few weeks.

What's Been Going On?

It's been a couple of weeks since our last session. Won't you let us know how things have been progressing/regressing for you in this time? Any major breakthroughs or attempts? What about students? How have they been responding to the activities going on in your classroom lately?

Please post a brief comment.

Motivating Towards Achievement

It could be good for us to begin sharing the blog as a tapestry of projects for research, or as a way of documenting practices.

Going back to our last reflection topic on your ideal students, and building on the recent conversations on framing Second Life (or other online learning environments) as presentation spaces for student work, how might we build our online activities in a cohesive way that facilitates students' growth and self-discovery? What online resources will they need in the process? How will you as teacher guide them? What kind of essential questions make a good starting point for dialogue?


Please answer this as a post of your own (do not respond as a comment this time around). Feel free to add links, pictures or other media that helps explain your arguments or ideas.

My ideal student is...

MOTIVATED AND FOCUSED

My Ideal Student

My ideal student is one who is respectful: of themselves, of me and of the classroom environment. I dream of a student who is personally invested in his/her future and believes that education is a key conduit through which success can come. Along with that belief is one that everyday, success is a choice, but that the choice is theirs. My ideal student has faith in his/her ability to break stereotypes and defy all odds. He/she also takes personal responsibility seriously and refuses to shortchange him/herself on account of foolishness, no matter the shape or form. In this way, my ideal student has a degree of wisdom, and if not, is open to developing it with the help of those who already possess it.