TTT#378 A Case for Food Literacy w/ Joseph Franzen, Brent Peters, Lauren Goldberg, Devin Brown, Elfe Dona, Karen Fasimpaur 1.15

Calling all gardeners, foodies, and critical inquirers! On this episode of TTT meet teachers who have been developing amazing projects around food. We are joined by Joseph Franzen and Brent Peters along with one of their students, Devin Brown. In additon Lauren Goldberg, Elfe Dona, and Karen Fasimpaur add to this rich conversation about what happens when we focus on the relationships students have with food.

Here are a couple of teasers:

Before becoming an English teacher and Bread Loaf student, Brent Peters worked as a chef at the Mayan Café in Louisville, Kentucky. Joe Franzen has been an urban gardener, sustainability enthusiast, environmental educator, and kitchen magician for years. He has turned Fern Creek Traditional High School into an “edible campus.”

Read more at “The Case For Food Literacy” on the Bread Loaf Teacher Network Journal http://sites.middlebury.edu/bltnmag/2012/10/25/food-literacy/

See how Joe and Brent helped connect their students from Louisville with youths in the Navajo Nation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJoEdHe-p3s

Also take a look at Lauren Goldberg’s article in the English Journal, “Herbivores, Carnivores, and Literavores: Argument and Appetite in the Classroom”http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1026-jul2013/EJ1026Herb.pdf

We’d love to hear how your students have used food, gardening, and critical inquiry in their learning. What a rich place this is for learning — for all of us!


Click Read more to see the chat that was happening during this live webcast,
and to find links to a few of the resources shared during this episode of TTT.


Teachers Teaching Teachers #275-Walk Out Walk On & Occupy w/ Mary Ann Reilly, Liam O’Donnell, Ann Leaness, Fred Mindlin-12.7.11

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Below the video here are notes and links on some of the threads we weave together on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers (Please subscribe: http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?feed=rss2 ). Participants in this episode’s Hangout are: Monika Hardy, Mary Ann Reilly, Scott Shelhart (and his daughter) , Liam O’Donnell, Paul Allison, Ann Leaness, and Fred Mindlin

We begin a conversation about Margaret Wheatley’s and Deborah Frieze’s book, Walk Out Walk On [ http://walkoutwalkon.net ], and we explore how the Occupy movements and Educamps might reflect some of the principles in this book.

Monika Hardy wrote recently that she is “absolutely swimming in Walk Out Walk On.” She goes on to explain:

We have been working on a quiet revolution the last four years in Colorado [ http://labconnections.blogspot.com ], both outside and in the public school system, in order to create the communities the authors, Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze share and describe so poignantly, so beautifully in their book.

Mary Ann Reilly joins us this week. Mary is also be inspired by Walk Out Walk On, and has been trying to get a group of teachers together to talk about the book. Mary is a progressive educator, artist, photographer, and writer of Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms. [ http://infoagepub.com/index.php?id=9&p=p4b917a12e9f4a ] We are delighted when she is able to join our conversations at Teachers Teaching Teachers.

Ann Leaness joins us as well. Ann is a high school English teacher in Philadelphia, and she is a member of the edcamp foundation [ http://edcampfoundation.org ] board. Ann’s team began edcamp in Philadelphia [ http://edcampphilly.org ] in May of 2010. Walk Out Walk On is on Ann’s bookshelf too, and recently she wrote about “The Dissenters” [ http://lifewithl.com/2011/12/04/the-dissenters-part-1 ] in her blog:

I wanted to spark some interest and also to make this unit relevant for my students. To get started, I showed the students these two videos: “UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed” [ http://youtu.be/6AdDLhPwpp4 ] and “UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to car amidst protesters” [ http://youtu.be/nmfIuKelOt4 ] These videos sparked some interesting discussion about non-violence and the violent reaction. Some students were shocked by the violence of the direct pepper spraying on the docile students, and the lack of reaction on the students’ part. Why did they just do nothing? Why didn’t they fight back? They also remarked about the silence on the second video. We talked about the impact of that silence and the effect of the sounds of the heels hitting the pavement. Again, someone questioned why they didn’t get up and get in the Chancellor’s face.

Reading Walk Out Walk On, one can’t help but wonder if the Occupy Wall Street movement might a place to find “Communities Daring to Live the Future Now,” as it’s put in the subtitle of Walk Out Walk On.

One of the authors of the book, Deborah Frieze also wonders in a blog post last month, “Is Occupy Our Opportunity?”

In Walk Out Walk On, we found ourselves often in the conversation about “building the world we want today.” The communities we wrote about were walking out of failing institutions and walking on to experiment with new ways of feeding and sheltering themselves, of creating health and safety, of learning together and rebuilding relationships. This has never been about creating utopia. It’s about confronting the reality of our situation with new eyes, being willing to abandon limiting beliefs about what’s possible and who’s qualified to make a contribution. Walking on is an invitation for a different kind of social order to emerge in community. So, too, is Occupy. Dewey Square [Boston] is in some ways a microcosm of our society—for better and for worse, it amplifies our gifts and diseases. It places our social impoverishment under a microscope and invites us to do something different. It challenges us to re-learn what it means to be citizens who take responsibility for one another. [ http://www.deborahfrieze.com/2011/11/understanding-occupy-as-a-space-to-re-learn-citizenship/#more-559 ]

Also joining us on this episode of TTT is Liam O’Donnell, an award-winning children’s author and educator [ liamodonnell.com/graphic-novels-books ]. He will help us wonder about communities and to talk about his work as an educator in the Occupy movement. He writes:

I’ve been bringing the Occupy movement into my work with Grade 5/6s studying government and protest (with videos, twinke fingers in the classroom, etc) As a member of the OccupyToronto Education work group, I can speak to the curriculum we’re developing for schools around issues of social justice, and poverty.

Also, in a recent blog post, “How Twinkle Fingers turned my classroom into a General Assembly” Liam writes:

Instead of shouting out agreement or disagreement, students showed their “Twinkle Fingers” of agreement or their down low twinkles of disagreement. Confusion or questions were shown by making a letter ‘C’ shape with their hand. This “General Assembly Guide” [ http://www.nycga.net/resources/general-assembly-guide ] from the New York City General Assembly shows what each symbol looks like. And to ensure all voices were heard, not just the loudest, a “stack” or speakers list was put on the chalkboard. [ liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2011/11/how-twinkle-fingers-turned-my-classroom-into-a-general-assembly ]

Fred Mindlin also joins us to reflect on his nine years of “living at Black Bear Ranch, one of the original 60’s “back to the land” hippie communes, and perhaps the only one which survives on the same terms on which it was founded: radical free.”

Enjoy and plan to join us for follow-up episodes on Walk Out Walk On in the coming weeks.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Nancy White on ‘Community’ for Change11 MOOC

Nancy White on ‘Community’ for Change11 MOOC

October 31, 2011

Multiplicity of groups… how do we work creatively with multimembership? What is the role of the transversal? 

Change11 Week#8: http://change.mooc.ca/week08.htm
Blackboard Collaborate Recording

DTLT Recording (separate event) 
About Nancy: http://www.fullcirc.com/about/


View more presentations from Nancy White

Teachers Teaching Teachers #261 – Monika Hardy and colleagues discuss Lab: a plan of disruption to redefine school – 8.24.11

For this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Monika Hardy @monk51295 invited a few of her colleagues:

  • Thomas Steele-Maley @steelemaley
  • Roberto Greco @rogre
  • Mary Ann Rielly @MaryAnnRielly
  • Amanda Judd @venueX
  • Amy Lewark @fat4thought

to join Chris Sloan @csloan and me @paulallison to introduce why we need lab spaces to disrupt and redefine school (Lab Connections). The goal is to facilitate self-directed learning. Here’s how Monika and others introduce their work in an in-progress book they are writing:

Students in Loveland, CO crafted a four year plan of disruption to redefine school. We are just beginning year two. Year four has community/life as school, with the city as the floor plan. Who, what, when, where, how, and with whom you learn, per choice. The premise… nothing is for everyone. We’re redefining success per individual/community. We’re respectfully questioning everything, especially what public education deems as normal. Imagine if the 7 hours a day we currently call school would/could awaken indispensable people. It’s a quiet revolution.

There has been plenty of theory/research invested in what we are doing, and that will be ongoing. But mostly, we have had the privilege and delight to indulge in experimentation/failure/prototyping/etc. The following is our best attempt to capture the key elements learned from key failures. If you are so inclined, shuffle along with us. It’s a kick. You might just fall in love with it.

For more history of the lab, see this video set/documentation (reverse chronological order):redefineschool.tumblr.com

For current updates/info on the lab, see labconnections: http://labconnections.blogspot.com/p/about.html

This was a first, exploratory conversation, and one that we hope will inspire you to join as well. We’ll be continuing our conversations with Monika Hardy and her colleagues in the coming weeks on Teachers Teaching Teachers. Join us every Wednesday at edtechtalk.com/live where you’ll hear and see a Livestream broadcast of our conversation, and be invited to chat and ask questions as well.


Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #254 – What happens when a brewer becomes a teacher? Meet Tommy Buteau (plus Chad Sansing) 07.06.11

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, meet Tommy Buteau and learn more about Chad Sansing and the Cooperative Catalyst. Tommy recently wrote Paul Allison.

Paul,

I read about the Youth Voices project at the Digital Is site, and I think it sounds very interesting, like something I would use with my 9th and 11th grade English classes here in Windsor, CO. So, I visited the site and signed up, but it seems like I do not have access to everything. I can only see three of the guides that you use, and the directions for most of the activities seem limited. I enjoyed the free-writing article by Peter Elbow, and I also like the 10 questions activity. I am wondering if there is a description of how teachers use this site somewhere. 

Thanks, 
Tommy Buteau 

That’s not all, a couple of days later Tommy wrote:

Have you ever used your site for cross-campus peer reviews before? I found that when students from another school did a peer review, the results were great. We used google docs for it. You can see what I did with a creative writing class at https://sites.google.com/site/101wright1/creative-writing-2010-2. Then, we did a similar process with speech podcasts athttp://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/index.html. I think the key is that it was completely anonymous.

Thanks, 

We couldn’t wait to welcome Tommy into our community and to learn more about his work. We were also delighted to welcome Chad Sansing back to TTT. You can see the results of the challenge we threw to him on TTT #256 – Cooperative Catalyst.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

21st Century Learning #110: H1N1 and School Communication

H1N1

21st Century Learning #110
September 29, 2009 —
H1N1 Preparedness

H1N1After a recenty NYSAIS Professional Development seminar, NYCIST held a meeting discussing H1N1 preparedness.

Alex and arvind discuss what schools are doing to be prepared for closures and high absense rates. 

Resources to find information include Flu.gov, ISTE.

We also discussed the importance of connnectedness of the community.  The importance of creating an online space for students and faculty to continue to keep the community intact.  We asked if Facebook could be that space?

Plus some edtech news from our schools… 

Photo from CDC.Gov

Teachers Teaching Teachers #129 – Writing in the Digital Age – A special National Writing Project show – 11.12.08

On this special episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim — with Alice Barr, a technology teacher in Yarmouth, Maine — welcomed to the show a couple of teachers, a couple of Writing Project Directors, and a researcher of Writing Projects. These folks (along with James Shiroff from the Denver Writing Project) will be presenting and facilitating a 2-hour session at the National Writing Project’s 2008 Annual Meeting this week. The name of their featured presenation, "Writing in the Digital Age," identifies some of the issues discussed on this podcast.

  • Seth Mitchell, high school teacher and Tech Liaison for the Maine Writing Project (University of Maine)
  • Sarah Hunt-Barron, middle school teacher, teacher consultant of the Upstate Writing Project in South Carolina and doctoral student at Clemson University
  • Rebecca Kaminski, Director Upstate Writing Project in South Carolina and professor at Clemson University, SC
  • Felicia George, Associate Director of the New York City Writing Project at Lehman
    College, NY
  • Laura Stokes, Inverness Research in California

We think you’ll enjoy this conversation whether or not you are planning to join these folks at the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio November 20 and 21.

These Writing Project teachers and their colleagues also shared stories about how they support their fellow teachers to further their development in teaching writing in a digital environment. Many interesting ideas about the students’ enthusiasm for writing to real audiences and generating more writing were discussed along with issues that local programs face when offering professional development services to teachers in their area.

Click Read more to see a transcript of the chat that was happening at the same time as the webcast.

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