Letter to myself......

We're all over the place it seems these days. All of the girls were present at last nights tech meeting, and I'm taking this moment to thank them for they are not recognized enough for what they do for me and this district. This connection keeps us challenged in many ways and as we collaborate and dialog and rant, it is because it is not so much people that disempower us but the bigger cloud we know as politics which come in many forms. Disguised at times because we don't even recognize it. The rest of my post started out as an email and then turned blog. Many works go unpublished and that is probably a good thing. I struggle as a writer. But...maybe it will spark some good .... if not just for me.

p.s. The project site has not been cleaned up yet or had the personal touches done to it from the team yet so don't be too critical. [smile]

I would like to request some time for the teachers that "come out of the woodwork" on this project and get up in front of their colleagues to share their "design" of how this Web2.0 application connects / ties to their curriculum. I would like to request a half-day professional day for this team, who we could call the GoogleEarth project team for now, so they can spend 3.5 hours of their professional day to work on the framework for next years student projects.

Wish I could change the terminology on all of this. Back in the Kal-Tech days we talked about how we could affect change not just within the boundaries of today's schools, but also by pushing and stretching those boundaries to fall outside the classroom walls.

If each teacher we have touched through laptop focus group has not experienced moments when they were inspired to create something new and unique for each learner they facilitated, I would be gravely disappointed. But....have they sustained that inspiration as a "life long" learner?

This is the question behind the question. QBQ. This is what each individual has to ask of ourselves. My goodness, isn't it the "credence" of School 1.0? to be a life-long learner? hmmmm, makes me wonder what mental models some people see. What picture can we draw of this?

This program is about drawing different pictures. It's about creating new mental models for what you love to do. Make a difference in the life of a child. oops..... That came out so easy. Why didn't I just write Make a difference in the life of children? Maybe it hasn't ever been addressed in the plural form of the word. Maybe that's why it is so hard to collaborate and share at higher levels than what is being maintained in our schools.

How clean are our pipes? Are they clogged? Are we suffering from corroded arteries? Think about it.