Life-Changing...

As you are aware by now (if you read my blog), this past week three of my Spring Woods High School students (Karla Nava, Steve Ramos, and Erika Bautista) attended the inaugural Flat Classroom Conference & Student Leadership Summit in Doha, Qatar. While the Conference achieved a number of objectives, one of the main goals was for international student teams to develop a Global Collaborative Project that addresses a pressing social need.

The students were placed in purely international teams; they worked with no one from their school—no one from their home country. These teams brainstormed and developed innovative projects to address needs such as AIDS awareness, discrimination/racism, education, and poverty. Then, the student teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges (all of us educators in attendance). The top four teams are now competing via online voting. The winning project will be launched as a global collaborative project in 2009. I am proud to announce that two of our students (Karla Nava and Steve Ramos) are members of two of the top four teams.

I would like to invite all of you to vote as well. Please visit the Flat Classroom Ning to cast your vote. On the main page (in the middle section) you will see links to watch the ‘pitches’ (or commercials) the students created to sell others on their idea. In addition, there are links to visit their Wikispace so you can review their research. Once you have viewed the pitches, please cast your vote.

Once you have cast your vote, take some time to surf around the Flat Classroom Conference Ning. There you will find blog posts, videos, photos, and presentations that will give you a glimpse into just how incredible this opportunity was for our students. If you have any questions, or would like for one of these students (or me) to speak with your class, please email me to make arrangements…and please take a moment to congratulate these students on their successes in Doha.

Dune Bashing in Qatar

Yesterday was absolutely incredible! Our group went on a desert excursion that included camel rides, dune bashing and a fabulous dinner.

We left from the hotel around 2pm Doha time for the desert. The ride was amazing. I took a lot of 'dune bashing' video. I'm working right now to upload to videos to YouTube and MyPage on the Flat Classroom Conference Ning. Here's a teaser.

I Stand Corrected...Well, Sort Of...

All through the Winter Break I believed that we were not going to be able to make the trip. My blog post about our quandry reflected my mood. We hadn’t raised nearly enough money and felt certain that the students would want an ‘all or nothing’ scenario about attending the conference.

When the students returned to school on January 6, I proposed the question to them. They asked for a couple of days to think about it. They came back to me the next day (they had their own meeting about the situation) and said they felt that if they all couldn’t go at least some of them should since they all had worked so hard on the Flat Classroom Project. I reminded them that we had money for only 3 students to attend—and those students could attend only if: 1. Mr. Stallworth (our principal) supported this change in plans, and 2. Those three students would need to contribute roughly $500 each toward airfare and other expenses.

They agreed, so I proposed the change to Mr. Stallworth and he gave his approval. Now, we had to choose which three of the 9 would attend. Steve R and Karla N both won awards for their Project Multi-media artifact, so they were selected based on those awards. All that was left was to choose the third student out of the 7 remaining.

Admirably, the three juniors took themselves out of the running. They said that they would have an opportunity to participate and attend the Conference next year. That left 4 seniors…two of which said the $500 wasn’t possible for them to raise. Now we were down to two remaining seniors. I told them that I couldn’t choose…they would have to devise a plan. They decided on an essay contest. Each student wrote an essay on why they should be selected to attend/what the conference meant to them. When I read the essays, I wept. Both essays were wonderful and very touching. How could I choose?

Since I couldn’t choose, I turned the matter over to Julie Lindsey and Vicki Davis. They too were equally impressed with the essays and had difficulty trying to select a ‘winner.’ They decided to factor in the students’ Project Multi-media artifacts to help them make a decision. It worked…they felt that Erika B’s video was the more creative and informative of the two, so Erika was selected as our third participant.

Then…the rush to pay for tickets and to secure copies of passports, etc…all the while still planning for and teaching 100+ students! Wow!

Here's an update on our finances: Our airfare is paid for…what would just be superb would be to get in a few donations that would cover expenses for the students while we are there so that their families would be relieved of the burden of any more expenses. The ChipIn on our conference blog says $3,000…if we could raise $700-$1,000 I know that would cover the additional expenses.

So...if you can, if your are willing, please ChipIn for my students!

Put a Fork in Me, I'm Done

I've been beating my head against a brick wall now for over a month...I'm done.

A group of my students qualified to attend the upcoming Flat Classroom Leadership Conference in Doha, Qatar. I've been working tirelessly to raise money so that we can attend. We were awarded a scholarship that will help, but we needed to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $20K in addition to the scholarship. To date...we've raised around $4300.

I know that the economy is tough, but I really felt like people would help. I started a ChipIn campaign and Tweeted about my students until people started unfollowing me. I contacted a number of media...we were featured on a local station here in Houston, still nothing.

I've been mostly offline the past month making calls, knocking on doors, talking with anyone who would listen about my students and the importance of attending the Conference. Absolutely EVERYONE that I have spoken with says that they believe in Thomas Friedman's work and that they see the relevance, the necessity of the students' attendance, still few are willing to help. If everyone that I have spoken with would have donated $25, we'd be on our way. When I tell people that they give me a funny look, but still do not pull out their wallet to help (although they say they support the cause).

This is it...I am spent...I've done all that I know how to do. Maybe someone will read this post and decide to help us...I sure hope so...

To my Students: I've done all that I know to do to help you get to Doha, but it wasn't enough...I am truly sorry...