Been reading and underlining chapter 3 in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds and thinking and thinking. In the taxonomy of Global Connection I am at a Level 1 with my students. Tsk tsk. I did however score quite well on the Self-Assessment survey with regards to my personal learning network, level of confidence and ability to employ connection strategies. So what better way to figure out the next steps but to spend some time looking at some of the projects that utilize the Flat Classroom Framework.
This is the current topic for Eracism Project 2013-1. Students will research, debate asynchronously (blogs, wikis) and synchronously (live virtual meeting) then reflect on this topic. It is a project designed collaboratively by Eva Brown, Bernajean Porter, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. When and where do they find the time? I am now subscribed to their blogs and follow them on twitter and hope some of their magic will rub off on me. I decided to volunteer to support the Eracism Project as it will give me a glimpse into the inner-workings of a Flat Classroom Project.
The other project I looked at struck me as something I could jump right into with my students. Life 'Round Here was started to encourage students to share about their lives and learn about others their same age. I have been dragging my feet because I was trying to find a controversial topic for my math students to join in on that would not take too much time away from their math learning but this would support my goals for them to learn about themselves and make learning targets. After reading the section of Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds on page 54 that talks about other diversities to care about I had one of those AH-HA moments. I do not need to make race, culture and religion the project focus, the differences will come out anyway. I think that it would be fantastic for my struggling 9th grade math students to realize there are others out there just like them or to gain insight from students who excel and enjoy math for math's sake. Here too the project structure is clear with deadlines, research, asynchronous, synchronous and reflecting opportunities. I have emailed them hoping that if they revive it, I can participate.
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