As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I am duty-bound to the third goal of Peace Corps: bringing the experience home. I've been doing that on a local basis, but I want to make all of you aware of a way that you can connect with your own Peace Corps Volunteer.

The organization has really focused its site on cross cultural education through a project it calls World Wise Schools. I thought I'd pass that site on to you so you can check out the resources they have to offer as you plan your year. You can connect your class to a volunteer via snail- or e-mail, or you can just access the videos and stories they have posted. It's a great way to bring the world home.

Hello, everybody.

By now, almost everybody has started school; meanwhile I sit home contemplating the past as I watch my sick baby rather than looking toward the future with my new classes.

Last week, all Vermont educators in Chittenden County, along with a few others who were tapped in via computer networks, listened to Daniel Pink and Alan November. This was all in an effort to convince teachers that we need to teach 21st Century Skills. Our principals were given all sorts of homework over the summer, as well as blackberries they had to learn to use.

I think that for the most part, these gentlemen were preaching to the choir. Our biggest obstacle seems to be time to fit it in or to retrofit all our lessons. Or getting our hands on resources. That's my goal this year: to get some of my teachers to use video to help build background knowledge for our ELLs. We'll see if it works.

There were a few of interesting things that Alan introduced us to. He showed how to build a better Google search; he demonstrated Skype, a program that lets members make free online calls to members, and suggested we use it to give our students an outside perspective, talking with another class; and he also showed how we can use Jing to be able to have our students record demos from the computer (this is really cool!).

Our speakers discussed podcasts and access. 

So what will you do this year?

Woah! It's probably not a good idea for me to send you off to somebody else's blog, but the Colorin Colorado blog led me to Mary Ann Zehr's Learning the Language blog. Check out this latest post:

Higher Ed Bill and Teacher Prep for ELLs

For the first time, a federal education law requires colleges and universities to do SOMETHING in regard to preparing teachers to work with English-language learners.

The bill, signed into law on Aug. 14 by President Bush, requires colleges and universities to set annual goals for increasing the number of teachers for instruction of ELLs and other areas where there are teacher shortages. ...

About time, I'd say. I am not impressed that President Bush didn't put any teeth in the law--there are no penalties if you colleges and universities decide not to--but I applaud the attempt!

What do you think?

I feel as though I've been a bit heavy on Education Week's coverage of issues... Maybe it's just because they are the best at getting their information into my mailbox. 

Anyway, they are planning convention coverage through the lens of education. And in light of what I was writing about last week, it might do us all some good to check in on some level.

Interested? Check here.

One of the best courses I have taken in the past few years has been the invitational course from the National Writing Project. You write "old school," that is, you sit down with a pen and paper and write with and about your colleagues, who learn to build with you a supportive environment for and about writing. 

It was the best summer ever! I started my novel, not that it's finished, but it's started! Grandma came to haunt me through the first half. It was pretty scary.

But anyway, NWP has a very interesting project going on right now for writers 13-18. If you are getting ready to jump into civics lessons, you might want to check out Writing our Future.

From the site: "Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future is an online writing and publishing project that invites young people to write about the issues and concerns they would want the next president to address and, with the support of their teachers, to publish their writing for a national audience."

Ready to give some poignancy to your writers' work?

This time of year, we all start moving back into thinking about lessons and children and how we might best reach them...

Going in a little early to set up my room, I ran into my principal. We discussed our summer reading--how we took time out for one dalliance in fiction, then spent the rest of our time trying to become better professionals by boning up on non-fiction. 

Her list included Web 2.0 and some book about blogs and podcasting. Apparently the district just bought all the principals touch ipods with pre-downloaded mp3s, telling them how to do their jobs. "I've not bought one ipod myself. But now I own them all."

It's funny how much our techno-phobic leaders are being pushed into technology. When I met up with colleagues earlier in the year, they informed me how all NYC administrators had to become blackberry-savvy.

I wonder when all this administrative technology will actually trickle down to my classroom, where the students actually could get something out of these expensive toys... Ah, but I digress.

So, I'm looking back at how I spent this summer, and a lot of it was putting up this site and starting my blog. And I've run into some amazing resources on the web. One of my favorite edublogs is from Larry Ferlazzo, and he's listed his top 14 Web 2.0 applications for education. Another great site I've found is Shambles. 

I've found that the best way to get over my technical ineptitude is simply to jump in and hang on tight. It works about half the time. But if we don't try, I firmly believe our students will leave us in the dust. Won't you help to share the sites you enjoy? We'd love to pass on your favorites!

It's summer, and I'm a teacher, so what seems to be the most logical thing to do? That's right! Go to school!

This week I'm attending the Teachers College Writing Workshop Seminar. And I've been hearing the most powerful speakers. We've been talking about writing and how it's important to go through the process, to stand in our students' shoes and about the importance of reaching all children.

Yesterday I saw Lester Laminack speak. He is a children's author, former professor in education and now works for Equality North Carolina.  Although his topic was not anything groundbreaking, he reminded us all to pay attention to the good in our children as we get ready to launch the next school year. He started the session by reading a poem by poet Mary Oliver called "The Sun," which asks whether we see the wonder of the sun or whether we have "turned from this world." He suggests many of us in our profession have.

We always want to know about the behavior problems in our school and forget that each child deserves to have a fresh start, a reason why they should be wanted in our classrooms.We complain about No Child Left Behind and the policies that are placed upon us as new administrations come in. We have forgotten about the children, about what brings joy and why we got into this job in the first place.

So here were his messages:

Learn what to celebrate about the children on your roster as the year begins.

And educate yourself about the plans that lie ahead for us. There are many sites that compare the candidates. Here's one that's from an independent group. Here's one from National Public Radio.  Here's a site called On the Issues that covers all politicians, all issues.

Have a voice with the new administrations before they come into office. And let yourself be heard.

Lester said that one thing he learned through his work at Equality North Carolina is that every correspondence with a constituent in a politician's district is considered to have the weight of 100 people. So for every one person who cares enough to let his voice be heard, they assume there are 99 others who did not correspond. 

So educate yourself.

And let your 100 voices be heard today.

Mary Lou's problem below is one I think that all of us face, some more often than others. 

There are lots of resources for you, especially if you have a computer. I hope that we will be able to share some of these at the convention in November. Anybody up for attending a session and sharing what you've got? I'll share mine if you share yours... I hope to be moderating a show and tell session. What grade levels are you looking for? I can email you directly.

And as far as the social work part goes, our students can't learn unless they are in a happy place. If they are worrying about whether they will be cold outside or what they'll eat tonight or how they can get this one thing they need, nobody is really going to be listening to the lesson. Part of our jobs is to lower the affective filter. If we don't put on the social worker hat, or find someone who can take on that responsibility for us, our work will be ineffective. 

Now the activities coordinator thing, I'm not so sure. They should be able to form their own social outlets after a while, particularly if there is a community where you are already.

Anyone else have anything to add?

Mary Lou Leavitt writes:
Hi. As a teacher of both Spanish and ESL, I am always looking for ideas for keeping students engaged in the classroom. What are other ESL teachers using for materials? What real-life objects and approaches work? Does anyone else struggle with providing "everything" to migrants who are stuck on their job sites? I feel like an activities coordinator, as well as gofer for store items, and their social worker; being an ESL teacher sometimes has to be a lesser priority while more immediate needs are met. Comments??

You can send them to me below, or post them yourself at our wordpress blog. Click the stamp on the right!

I was cruising around on the web tonight and found this story.

It's from Education Week about how several states working independently have happened to have developed the same set of "core standards." To me, national standards would just make sense. I know states' rights and all that... but wouldn't it make sense that our ELLs in New England were learning the same thing that ELLs in California are learning?

Tell me what you think!

As I start to wonder how this year's conference will come together, I found myself looking all over the web for cool things.

I am facebooking a whole lot more and I'm using a new browser called Flock, specifically for people to network. I'm just getting started, but it's kind of intimidating, all of these resources where people can tap in to what I'm doing...

But all this brought me to Zoho--a free online office suite that will go anywhere you want to go. From an online tool to collaborate on documents to a PowerPoint-esque tool that you can work on from anywhere. It's quite amazing! Check it out. For presenting at a conference, for example, you don't have to worry about whether your equipment will interface or whether you accidentally erased your jump drive... And if you are collaborating, you can both access the same documents. It's pretty cool.

Oh, and if you do decide to present, the call for proposals can be found here.

It's officially August. And although we have a few weeks left until school starts for most of us, I bet your thoughts, like mine, are on the start of the year. For those of you teaching at my level (K-5), I'd like to share a site with you where you can try new picture books before you buy. It's called Lookybook. And it's amazing. I'll be sharing more thoughts and sites with you as we get closer to the school year, so keep checking back.

And if you have some great news to share, or if something ends up going particularly well, share it with me so I can pass it on!