Monday, December 22, 2008

Exciting News

At the risk of sounding like a bragging parent, I had to share this news with my OWP community. My students participated in the Letters to the Next President project through the NWP this fall. We received word a few days ago that one of my student's letters has been selected for publication through the National Writing Project and the College Board’s National Commission on Writing. We're not exactly sure how or when it will be published, but Nick and I were both excited. Here's the link to his letter, if you'd like to check it out. The topic is pretty interesting.

Thanks, OWP! If not for the OWP, we wouldn't have even participated in this project.

Participating in a Weekly Webcast

I want to share with those who follow the blog about a recent experience with some new technology. I participated in an online discussion pocasted live on a weekly program called Teachers Teaching Teachers moderated by Paul Allison. Participants in the discussion include Sondra Perl, director of the Holocaust Education Network, and past summer seminar attendees. I was asked to describe how the seminar has impacted my my personal and professional life and the work being done on Breaking Down Barriers, a collaborative blog between my College English class in Miller, MO and an 11th grade honors English class in McCool Junction, NE. The students have created an extremeley rich body of text on this blog, which caught the attention of Sondra and prompted my invitation to be on the podcast.

We broadcasted live using Skype. I found the technology fairly simple and straight forward. We did have some tech glitches, primarily at the beginning and again at the conclusion. I am looking forward to playing some more with Skype, especially with video. I want to figure out how to stream live video over the internet and across mobile phones. The technology is there, I just gotta figure it out.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PODCAST

Holocaust Educators Network podcast on Teachers Teaching Teachers.