Christian

Our second of three episodes of Teachers Teaching Teachers in which we discuss Howard Rheingold's New Smart: How to Thrive Online . Howard is joining us on May 2. For this conversation Paul Allison and Monika Hardy are joined by Fred Mindlin, Sarah Rolle, Mura Nava, Valerie Burton, Vinnie Vrotny, Tinashe Blanchet, and Christian.

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Monika Hardy and Paul Allison were joined by Matt Montagne, Alexander Pappas, Chad Sansing Valerie Burton, Amy Lewark, Julie Phelan and Cristian and a couple of other young people. We continued the conversation we started last week, Teachers Teaching Teachers #261 - Monika Hardy and colleagues discuss Lab: a plan of disruption to redefine school - 8.24.11, and we began to look for intersections between the Lab ;that Monika is facilitating in Loveland, Colorado and our work with Youth Voices, both of which seem to be places where students can peruse other students' passions and pursue their own.

Enjoy!

This episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers was sparked by a post by Suzie Boss on her Edutopia blog:

When the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, teachers across the country recognized an opportunity to bring real-world applications of math and science into their classrooms. Similarly, the rescue of 33 Chilean miners has triggered student discussions about everything from heroism to human biology.

In the wake of such dramatic events, some teachers are eager to do more than host current-events-style conversations. They want to use the news as a launching pad for in-depth student learning. But making that happen requires teachers and students to dive into topics for which there are no texts or guidebooks. What’s more, maintaining student interest can be challenging once the headlines start to fade and media attention shifts to tomorrow’s hot topic.

How do you plan for academically rigorous projects that are “ripped from the headlines”? Here are a few suggestions, along with some timely resources.

On this episode, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan spend the hour catching up with their friends:

• Suzie Boss
• Matt Montagne
  
• David Pulling
• Kevin Hodgson
• Margaret Simon
• Christian (12th grade student)

Seems like our colleagues at Seedlings, Bob Sprankle, Cheryl Oakes, and Alice Barr are right in declaring this the year of Student Voice, which they did in their wonderful conversation with Adora Svitak (2010-10-07 Seedlings Show # 94).

At Teachers Teaching Teachers we seem to be handing the microphones over to students more and more as well.

On this episode we are joined by students Martha (12th grade), Maci (6th), Michael (12th), Christian (12th) and Erin (college) in a rich, real discussion about out-of-school creativity!

Maci made this painting and published a poem called "Refreshing Day " on Voices on the Gulf.

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

Steve Muth and Chris Sloan and a couple of 10th Graders join Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim on this show from last month.

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