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Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this episode of TTT, meet teachers +Denise VanBriggle, +Kym Sheehan, and filmmaker +Daniel Glick who tell us more about a film project called “A Place to Stand,” which Daniel is making. The three of them are using Kickstarter: http://kck.st/NsBX8g to raise money to finish a feature-length documentary about the life and poetry of Jimmy Santiago Baca http://www.jimmysantiagobaca.com   On a recent post on the National Writing Project’s Connect http://connect.nwp.org/national/blog/16429/join-us-support-place-stand-documentary Denise and Kym write: A Place to Stand is a documentary film (http://kck.st/NsBX8g) about New Mexico poet Jimmy Santiago Baca and his transformation in the 1970s from an illiterate convict to a celebrated poet. Since his release, Jimmy has become one of the foremost Mexican American poets in America. We’re not viewing this as just a film. For us, this is about service. Jimmy’s memoir and poetry have inspired prisoners to leave gangs, drug addicts to stay clean, and countless others to dramatically shift the course of their lives. A Place to Stand will make his inspiring story and poetry available to many who would never find it otherwise. Free copies will be given to detention centers, prisons and schools for at-risk youth, coupled with programming designed to help people find in themselves what Jimmy found through his poetry: a place to stand in life, a sense of self-worth, and a reason to live. Learn more about Jimmy Santiago Baca’s life and poetry and consider contributing to the Kickstarter Project,A Place to Stand – Finishing Production. “This project will only be funded if at least $50,000 is pledged by Wednesday Aug 1, 12:00am EDT.” Join us in supporting this effort if you can. See this episode on EdTechTalk.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we talk with Charles Kouns and David Loitz and a wonderful panel of students about the listening sessions Charlie and David create for teens to raise their voices on school change. The student voices you hear on this podcast are Sierra Goldstein, Jay Smith Chisley, Mackenzie Amara, Nikhil Goyal, Kelsey Shelhart We invite you to be reminded of the importance of starting with youth voices when we consider what to do next as educators. https://www.facebook.com/imagininglearning(Quickest way to get in touch with David and Charlie) Our conversation on this podcast is about how important it is to listen to students, and we learn more about David and Charlie's methods of doing that. David Loitz writes: Charlie's focus is in helping to bring the voices and visions of youth people to a national stage. He is both a teacher and an visionary. He is a dear friend and mentor. He created Imagining Leaning four years ago, and has traveled up and down the west coast and as far as New Zealand to host listening session with groups of young people. http://www.imagininglearning.us/(Many amazing images here, and a place to donate.) David Loitz [ http://about.me/dloitz ], a passionate lover of education, film, basketball, food and life. He is currently working towards his Masters in Holistic Elementary Education at Goddard College. He writes and organizes at Adventures In Learning [ http://adventuresinlearning.tumblr.com ] and on the Cooperative Catalyst [ http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/author/dloitz ], @dloitz. Charles Kouns [ http://www.imagininglearning.us/#%21our-stewards], @Penthias, the Founding Steward of Imagining Learning, an educator and the father of three. Imagining Learning [ http://www.imagininglearning.us ] is creating a national portrait of young people’s wisdom on the reinvention of education. Learn more about Charlie's vision on the Cooperative Catalyst. Enjoy! Go to EdTechTalk to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast. Jay Smith Chisley | Sierra Goldstein | Mackenzie Amara | Nikhil Goyal | Kelsey Shelhart | David Loitz | Paul Allison | Charles Kouns | Imagining Learning | listening | students | change

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download Welcome to our first video festival. On this episode of TTT, we screen two-and-a-half student documentaries by middle school students in George Mayo's classes and two by high school students in Joel Malley's classes. Monika Hardy and Paul Allison were joined by Troy Hicks, Rebecca Warner, and Eric Taddei. George Mayo says: Check out our films on our class weblog, http://lclprod.wordpress.com. You can also see the research and raw interview footage for our documentaries we created this year by visiting our Documentary Project Wiki: http://studentdocs.wikispaces.com. And Here are some photos from our recent 4th annual Film Festival at The American Film Institute: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmayo/sets/72157630012875844 Joel Malley invites you to visit: Central Films where you'll find videos from Cheektowaga Central's Mass Media and Film Production classes, which can best be described as a creative nonfiction writing workshop where we develop our writing into film projects. Visit our Vimeo group http://vimeo.com/groups/centralfilms to watch our films. If you have any questions, contact Joel at jmalley@ccsd-k12.org Films George shows during this Video Festival The Old Blair Auditorium (Student Documentary) from mrmayo on Vimeo. Is It Time To Rethink the Drug War? from mrmayo on Vimeo. Films Joel shows during this Video Festival skate final project from matt gress on Vimeo. Technology. How it has changed us. from Nicki Webb on Vimeo. Go to EdTechTalk to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download THANK YOU for all of the support and good wishes upon TTT#300. Here's Paul Oh's description of our work: Teachers Teaching Teachers Achieves 300th Broadcast Milestone http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3838 Kevin Hodgson's thoughtful report: http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/ttt-300-and-going-strong/3849 Chris Sloan's kind words: http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/ttt-turns-300/3851 Gail Desler's insights: http://digitalis.nwp.org/site-blog/teachers-teaching-teachers-connected-lea/3848 One-minute teaser (entire video below): We started our celebration with a look at a couple of the philosophical touchstones for TTT, mainly World Bridges and the National Writing Project. Jeff Lebow (WB) and Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (NWP) helped us with these starting points. Here is Paul skyping in to EdTechTalk#40 (pre-Webcast Academy Launch) asking "Why do it live? http://edtechtalk.com/files/ETT40-why-live.mp3 Here's more about World Bridges from Curt Bonk in 2007 http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html: More on Worldbridges: The goals of Worldbridges are relatively simple and straightforward, as follows, “Our primary goal is to foster understanding and cooperation amongst the citizens of the world. We value civility and respect, open source collaboration, fair distribution of income, and a sense of world identity.” As part of these efforts, Worldbridges seeks to foster positive systemic changes in areas such as education, the environment, and politics. It also supports reliable and fair commerce. And it promotes a “people’s forum” for more civilized discussion of problems, issues, and conflicts that pose significant challenges in united the people of this planet. Values supported by the Worldbridges organization include respect and civility, fair distribution of income, world identity, and open source collaboration. Jeff Lebow began experimenting with Worldbridges ideas (initially called “World Explorer”) when starting his master’s program in Training and Learning Technologies at the University of New Mexico in 1993 after a year of teaching English in Thailand (Worldbridges, 2007). At that time, Lebow became excited at the possibilities of the convergence of intercultural interaction and collaborative and interactive online technologies. After completing his masters, he returned to Asia—this time Pusan, Korea—where he taught English as a university and began to experiment with online audio and video, which included covering the Nagano Olympics in 1998. After burning out on all his activities and attempting to envision and build a webcasting network his life took a turn, or as he puts it, “I decided to quit my job, shave my head, and go to India for a while to contemplate the next chapter, for me personally and for Worldbridges. After some quality offline time, I decided to give Worldbridges a shot.” In Lebow’s vision for Worldbridges, he sought for it to become a means for using Internet technology for a global webcasting network of people. And it has! _________________________________ And here's a paragraph about the National Writing Project's core philosophy by Art Peterson in 2004 http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1357: The National Writing Project's core philosophy, "teachers teaching teachers," is perhaps most directly expressed in the invitational summer institute's teacher demonstrations. NWP founder Jim Gray writes in Teachers at the Center, his memoir of the writing project beginnings, "The most successful demonstrations communicate not only what the teacher does but also why the teacher thinks this particular practice works. The emphasis upon the why as well as the what is important: it provides a theoretical underpinning and it accents a considered approach to writing b[...]

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we talk with three young people–Peter, Sierra, and Cristian–who have been working alongside Monika Hardy in the Innovation Lab in Loveland, Colorado. http://labconnections.blogspot.com/p/about.html They have been experimenting with what happens when you set an individual free, in spaces of permission, with nothing to prove. They are are hoping/planning to experiment this next year with what happens when you set a city free, in spaces of trust, creating gatherings that matter. See more versions of this video a the tumblr a quiet revolution unfolds We invited Peter, Sierra, and Cristian to join us on Teachers Teaching Teachers to come tell us about their talks at a recent TEDx FrontRange event. Here are their short bios from http://tedxfrontrange.com: Peter Harold My name is Peter Harold, I’m a 17 year old and I live lovely Loveland, Colorado. I love to sing, sign, laugh and eat. I enjoy the outdoors and love people. My dream is help create a world where everybody’s happy. One of my aspirations is to become fluent enough in many languages to interpret God’s word for those who can’t understand it. I would also love to create music to heal others. Through these things I feel the world could achieve soul peace. Sierra Goldstein My name is Sierra Goldstein, I’m a 14 year old girl, and I live in Loveland Colorado. I love to read, run, kickbox, ride horses, practice/ teach yoga, travel, blog, and eat healthy food. I believe that to achieve your goals, you need a network of mentors and friends to support you on your journey. One of my accomplishments is becoming the youngest yoga instructor in the US. Teaching yoga allows me to share the divinity I have within myself, to others who seek it. My goal for when I am older is to go to Stanford University for my bachelor degree, and then move on to the National College of Natural Medicine to become a doctor in preventative medicine. From the education I receive I want to help people by teaching and giving them the tools and foods to fill their body, mind, and spirit with what they need to survive and flourish. Cristian Buendia Cristian a young member of society trying to change the world and his city… Has a passion for soccer and video… loves people and food…. Enjoy! Go to EdTechTalk to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, +Gail Desler/@GailDesler and +Natalie Bernasconi/@nbernasconi take us on a tour of their Digital ID wiki http://digital-id.wikispaces.com that they've been building to help each of us and our students to answer three questions: What does it mean to be a (digital) citizen? What are my rights as a citizen? What are my responsibilities as a citizen? +Jim Bentley, a teacher in the Elk Grove, California school district joins us as well. Our students (and we ourselves) spend increasing amount of time online, communicating and collaborating virtually. How can we teach our students about their rights and responsibilities as digital citizens as they navigate their online communities? Gail and Natalie, both members of their local National Writing Project sites, created the Digital ID wiki http://digital-id.wikispaces.com to supply students, teachers, and administrators with a toolkit of reliable information, resources, and guidelines to help us all learn how to be upstanding Digital Citizens who maintain a healthy Digital Identity (ID) in the 21st Century. Learn about the Digital ID project on this episode of TTT. Project curators Natalie Bernasconi and Gail Desler share how this collaborative project has grown into an "international conversation" that they would love for you and your students to be a part of. What ideas do you have for weaving digital citizenship into the core curriculum?

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this special Meet the Authors episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we have a conversation with two teachers and recently published authors from New Iberia, Louisiana,+Margaret Simon and +Stephanie Judice/@sagaofthesetti. Margaret has been a frequent guest on Teachers Teaching Teachers since the BP Oil Spill. Her elementary school school students published memorable poems and multimedia commentary on Voices on the Gulf, and Ms. Simons' students continue to publish on Youth Voices http://youthvoices.net/posts/user/3587 On this episode of TTT, we celebrate and explore the recent publication of Margaret Simon's Young Adult novel, Blessen. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0984891528/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link In this highlight from TTT#297, Margaret Simon explains that Blessen was born in a Writing Marathon led by Richard Louth, a director of the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project [http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/315 and http://goo.gl/ONqs7 ]. The character, Blessen grew real in a workshop with Sharon Arms Doucet [https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Sharon+Arms+Doucet%22 and after meeting a lot of Blessens as a teacher in New Iberia. It may be a YA novel or a first-chapter book, but I agree with one Amazon reviewer who writes that Blessen is "a book for young readers, but an old reader like me can enjoy it just as well." In this highlight from the videocast,, Margaret reads “Piggly Wiggly,” a chapter from her book, Blessen. Go to EdTechTalk to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast. Margaret Simon is a teacher-consultant with the National Writing Project of Acadiana, Louisiana. In this podcast we explore Margaret's creative process, her use of a writing group, and her journey in publication. What questions do you have? Please add your comments below. Margaret's friend and writing partner, Stephanie Judice, joins us as well. She published Risinglast year and is working on Book 2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B004YXL72O/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link Margaret writes, "She's the one who pushed me to publish." An interesting review of Blessen:http://revmoore.blogspot.com/2012/04/blessen.html Stephanie Judice's Saga of Setti on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Saga-of-the-Setti/203566846334918 Margaret Simon's Blessen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blessenbyMargaretSimon Enjoy! Go to EdTechTalk to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, +Fred Mindlin/@fmindlin starts with string art, and pulls us into his world of anthropology, story-telling, collaborative learning, and more! Fred inspires and entertains all of us in this episode of TTT: +Lacy Manship/@now_awake, +Gail Desler/@GailDesler, +Kelsey Shelhart, +Denise Colby/@Niecsa, +Paul Allison/@paulallison, +Chad Sansing/@chadsansing, and +Diana Maliszewski/@mzmollytl. To get the full effect, take a moment to find some string before you listen to this episode of TTT. How much? Fred says, "About two meters or a little over 6 feet is usually a good length. Hold the string between your two hands stretched out as wide as they go, then add about 6 inches." Fred explains that he was "inspired by the session we had with teachers using Minecraft, where we explored an online game world via another virtual world, http://edtechtalk.com/node/5102 and I was intrigued by whether it would be feasible to explore a meatspace game in our virtual Teachers Teaching Teachers forum." He sees "string games as a gateway to keyboarding and creativity or finger calisthenics, and computer keyboarding: media magic for tradigital storytelling." Playing games with string is a human cultural universal. This ancient art form is surprisingly helpful in developing both the manual dexterity and strength needed for computer keyboarding. The approach I use for teaching string games to groups also provides a helpful practice ground for some of life's essential skills: creativity, resilience, cooperation, and storytelling. And that's not all. Here's an excerpt and a couple of photos from a post that Diana wrote shortly after this episode of TTT: There were some great quotes that Chad, a fellow participant, shared via Twitter. (I can't recall them all – they were things like "it's important to model failure" and "string games are 'digital' fun".) What I realized was how potent teaching string games would be to analyze your own teaching practice. Listening to Fred teach the group how to make a 3-pronged spear made me hyper-aware of how important detailed, clear instructions are, and the different learning styles at play. The first time I tried it, I failed. The second time, when Fred re-explained and added a few "notice this part here" tips, I did it! I cheered pretty loudly when I succeeded. My webcam wasn't working on Google +, so I convinced my daughter to take a photo of my accomplishment. I made a 3-pronged spear! Here's proof! A less complimentary shot of me, with my string jedi master Fred on-screen Fred mentioned that there are several books and YouTube videos that explain, step by step, how to make different shapes. I think I need a person near me to give feedback (though the string collapsing in unrecognizable shapes is pretty immediate feedback too). I gave myself a goal – to teach the kids in my SK and Grade 7 classes how to make the 3-pronged spear and do it to music at a June assembly. I'm repeating it here so it'll be my contract to myself to try it out and report what results. Enjoy! See this episode at EdTechTalk.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Download This episode of +Teachers Teaching Teachers was recorded in Minecraft. We were Livecasting from +Joel Levin's / @MinecraftTeachr 's server with +Liam O'Donnell / @liamodonnell , Chad Sansing / @chadsansing , +Diana Maliszewski / @MzMollyTL , and +Denise Colby / @Niecsa . Watch or listen as newbies +Paul Allison / @paulallison and a colleague of his, James Joseph learn first-hand what's so engaging about Minecraft! Consider this episode of TTT to be an "in-world" follow-up to these TTT episodes: http://edtechtalk.com/node/5001 and http://edtechtalk.com/node/4980 And also 21st Century Learning's recent interview with Joel Levin: http://edtechtalk.com/ett21_166 This was lots of fun and the perspectives shared by these Minecraft teachers about their students' lives in the game both profound in themselves, and easy to transfer to any classroom or learning situation. Some ways to follow up: Joel Levin's Minecraftedu.com Bringing Minecraft to the Classroom You can find more about the work of Liam O'Donnell, Diana Maliszewski, and Denise Colby with Minecraft at their gamingedus wiki: http://gamingeducators.pbworks.com and the students' work at the Minecraft Club Hub wiki: http://minecraftclubhub.pbworks.com. And their Bios are here: http://gamingeducators.pbworks.com/w/page/50831789/Who%20We%20Are For more about Chad Sansing's work with Minecraft and gaming, see these resources at the National Writing Project's Ditigital Is: http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/2458 and http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/2232 See this episode on EdTechTalk.