This is one of my favorite issues of Project PLN yet. This issue was particularly near and dear to my heart because it was such a revealing activity when I did the exercise with my own students. We asked teachers to engage their students in the question: “What would your dream school look like?” Students of all ages dreamed with us and shared their ideal school. It has been a lot of fun to see what students have dreamed up!
This is an issue not to miss, if you haven’t done an exercise like this with your students all ready, I highly recommend it. I found it fascinating that EVERY student in 3rd-5th grade that I did the activity with included an animal of some sort in their dream school and included something about no bullies. (If you think about it, animals are easy. They never judge and they don’t bully.)
To education decision makers: Take note, there is something to be learned from these dreams!
An ENORMOUS thank you to @thenerdyteacher, he has totally been picking up my slack this year as I squeak in to be helpful last minute…A.K.A. it has already been taken care of. Thank you Nick! You are classy with a capital C.
Project PLN is moving to a bi-monthly posting schedule in 2012 to keep the editors (us) and the contributors (you) sane. So, what is first up in 2012?
We want to know what books/reading has had the most impact for you as an educator. These could be books about education specifically, or books that have given you a new outlook on education, learning or teaching. If you are anything like me, everything you read, see, encounter is filtered through your education lens and adds something. We want to hear about all of those things!
When I pitched the idea of this month’s issue to Nick, his first response was “awww not a book report” in a super whiny, high-pitched voice….okay I made that part up, we were actually texting and the whining was implied. Book report is not exactly what I had in mind (although if that jives your jets, by all means be our guest). One of the things I have been particularly bad about is keeping track of the books and recommended readings from those in my PLN. They fly through my Twitter stream, get favorited in my Reeder or scribbled on a nearby piece of scratch paper. The result: very few of them ever see the light of day again and I forget. I also know that books (and blogs) have had a profound impact on me as an educator. If not for Seth Godin encouraging me to “Ship it”, I might not have taken the leap to start a school. If not for Sir Ken Robinson, I might not have had such conviction to help every child realize their “Element”. For this issue, your posts can be in the form of top 10 lists of your must reads. A bucket list of things you want to do as a result of books you have read (with reference back to the original inspiration). A blog post you have written as a reflection on something you have read. A link to your bookshelf in Shelfari. For those of you who are feeling really ambitious, a book trailer. Really it can be ANYTHING, we just want to know what you are reading/have read that has impacted the way you think about or do education.
As always, feel free to email posts to ProjectPLN10@Gmail.com, check in on us at Twitter @ProjectPLN or say hello on Facebook. Please get us your posts in February so we can work on publishing them for the March issue!
