It's Been a Month??? What?

It's SO hard for me to believe that I haven't blogged in almost a month! Wow! Where did the time go?

A lot has happened this past month...

• The students I blogged about in my last post were featured on our high school "Tiger TV" channel


• My Junior Achievement Company Program students successfully created, delivered, and set up 70 incredible centerpieces for the Crystal Apple Awards Gala


• My BEIS class participated in a JA Titan competition while still working on the NetGenEd Project


• I had new systems installed in my computer lab (yeah!!!!...the old ones SO did not work anymore!!)


• My younger son 'champed up' in Tennis (woo hoo!)


• We moved my parents in with us during spring break

Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy. My only regret in all of this is that it has prevented me from being as involved as I wanted to be in the NetGenEd Project. It's is such an amazing opportunity for the students who are involved. I've been reduced to lurking about...trying to keep up as best I can with all of the happenings. I haven't had the time to participate in the webinars, the book club...not much of anything..and, well, frankly it's depressing... :-(

I am excited that my students will finish their videos on time, though. They have some incredible ideas for their videos; I'm looking forward to seeing those ideas come to life. These are the same students that participated in the 2008 Flat Classroom Project and the Flat Classroom Conference. They are amazing students! Most of them are seniors, so it's a little hard to get them to focus right now...they've all been accepted to various colleges and universities, so now they are waiting to hear about all of the scholarships for which they've applied. Plus, they are getting ready for the prom, various banquets, etc...

Well...off to help my students post-produce their NetGenEd multi-media artifacts!! Promise it won't be another month before I post again!!

Photo credit: http://eladthegreat.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/the-ultimate-clock/

Proud as a Peacock

I received an email last week from Ms. Branom. She is the Library Information Specialist for our District. Much to my delight, she asked if my "Qatar" students (that is, my students who participated in the Flat Classroom Conference) would make a presentation about their involvement in the Flat Classroom Project and Conference to the District Curriculum and Instruction Team.

Wow! What an opportunity! The students (Karla, Steve, and Erika) began brainstorming on how they would create a presentation...then...it hit them...POW!!! (or something like that)...why not utilize what they had learned from Frank Guttler at the conference?? Make a video that would chronicle their walk through the project, the conference, and their reflections!!!

So...they began...they first drew a storyboard. Then they did some video tape, chose some pictures, made some stills...awesome!

Since my computer is the only one with any post-production software on it :-(, I helped them post-produce the video. I must say they did pretty well...and...the C & I Team loved it. The best part though was how well the students fielded questions from the Team Members. They were asked for their input on project-based learning, the changing role of the teacher, and the implementation of different technologies in the classroom.

The students let the Team members know that they are (by default) multi-taskers and they would like to see more classrooms utilize that strength. They advocate laptops for all students and they conveyed how much they like using the back-channel in my class.

Take a look at their video and let me know what you think...I'm proud!!

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.

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...