He is a poor back kid....

If you felt a kinda way about the Forbes' article "If I Were A Poor Black Kid" by Gene Marks... then you need to read this post from Rashaun Williams (Twitter at @DJReezey)

I have taught in a school of 100% of "poor black kids" and I teach now in a school that has a lower percentage of this type of kid. This experience has taught me these "resources" that people think black kids have are a joke and even if they are there, the fact that these kids live in the lower tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs means access does not help them in any way. What this perceived access does is let people with means, that don't want to visit or help these kids, think that everything is fine; and if the kid just worked harder they too could achieve the American dream. This simply is not true! There is an unwritten, talked about or documented system that keeps this population of kids uninformed. There is a reason Regan privatized the jails in the eighties and Bush pushed so hard to privatize schools in the two-thousands, and from my perspective it is to keep that flow of people coming in the doors so corporations can make money off a head count.

This Makes Me Sad

Pirate Wolf Awesomeness

Yes, I said pirate wolf! Quinn Platzer an art student at SLA mad

e this amazing mask from scratch. (link to how she did it is coming) In the art class at SLA students are asked to make an "Internet sculpture" Quinn found this tutorial online and went for it. There is also a much longer and detailed tutorial. Here is the 3/4 of the way finished view. MORE TO COME!

UPDATE:

Web Ethics - the Meta Lesson

I was asked the other day to share my web ethics unit plan and for me that is impossible to share because web ethics is the meta lesson in each class I teach. There is a continued discussion throughout the year about doing the right thing online and how to know what the right thing is. That right thing is teased out in class discussion, news articles, movies, acceptable use policies, and teachable moments. Here is my Unit Plan that reflects the meta lesson of digital citizenship. Thank you to Chris Lehmann for inspiring this unit plan and to all my colleagues that make this type of teaching possible with constant support and input.


Stage 1 - Desired Results
Establish Goals:
introduce students to the concept of internet etiquette, familiarize students with the term digital persona, create and intelligent relationship between the student and the laptop, turn students into creators and intelligent consumers of design/information

Understandings:
Students will understand that know . . .
• A lifetime of consumption of information makes it possible for students to make deeply informed decisions about design.

•The internet is not private

•Intellectual property is real.

Essential Questions:
• Who am I?

•How do I interact with my environment?

•How does my environment affect me?

Students will know . . .
• Acceptable use policies for SLA, School District of Philadelphia, Franklin Institute and a college or university

• know the rules to break the rules

• a scholarly online persona is possible and required

• how networks are constructed

• the difference between the internet and the world wide web Students will be able to know . . .
• An online portfolio will help with college applications

• knowing the rules to break the rules will keep students safe on any network

• plagiarism is not a concern when students mesh the content of the units teachers are teaching with their own thoughts

•collaboration is not cheating

• SLA’s core values: inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, reflection

Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
• Students act out their home network

• students create a mindmap of their home network

• Students create 1 slide

• Students post two blogs about 1 slide, process blog and reflection blog with second rendition of their slide using what they learned.

• criteria of student evidencing of knowledge will be judged by the common rubric:
Design, Knowledge, Application, Presentation, Process Other Evidence:
• Students participate in class discussions achievement of the desired results?

• Student will grade themselves and classmates with the common rubric

Stage 3 - Learning Plan
Leaning Activities:
Paper hat and cuffs are used to create a group of students linked together to show a students home network

Class discussions about each point of a Acceptable Use Policy – unpacking the meaning. Examples of case histories are given and physical examples of networking are given to illustrate the meaning of the policies.

Creation of a personal Acceptable Use Policy for the students future family.

Creation of a mind map to show the make up of a students home network.

One slide created using the ideas from English class and the Me Magazine for Media Fluency

Students watch Front Line’s – “Growing Up Online”

Students journal and reflect on leaning activities

Presentations of Me slides – transparently, students are “set up for failure” taking the fear out of leaning in front of a group


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slide Design Rubric:
DESIGN -
The design of the slide exudes forethought and planning.
The slide is eye catching, legible and will be remembered.
The slide will inspire an action: to look at the speaker, or influence the viewers thinking.

KNOWLEDGE -
Speaker uses vocabulary from Presentation Zen Website.
Speaker describes visual ideas with words clearly.

APPLICATION -
The slide is clear and uses ideas from Presentation Zen.

Slide demonstrates the elements of design; line, shape, direction, size, texture, color, value, balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance, and or, unity.

PRESENTATION -
Speaker is clear and speaks to the audience.

Speaker can be understood.

Speaker is wearing a lab coat.

PROCESS -
Student uses their work time wisely.
Student uses the resources given as well as resources found on their own.

SLA's Acceptable Use Policy

Frontline - Growing Up Online

SLA Kids Scooping Up Opportunities in DC

Diana Laufenberg and Matt Kay took a group of students on a super cool trip to D.C. last week. Here is a student's write up of the event in the Notebook.

Ed.gov blog post features Sinnea Douglass

SLA's Sinnea Douglas lands on ED.gov blog via Gamal Sherif. read it here

Pugs have eyelashes

My Life w/ Keith: Sleep'n with My Bone