If students were in charge of determining what they learn and how they spend their school time, what would happen? North Star is an alternative school in Hadley, Massechusettes. Notice the picture in the article: kids grouped around a computer. I wonder what they're doing?

In my project, the kids working on the collaborative webpage are volunteers. I often wonder at why I'm trying to "teach" them anything, since they rarely listen, do the exercises I have designed, or accomplish what I want. Still, they do take initiative to do relevant work for the project such as researching what sites are out there and playing with tools I introduce.

It makes you think about decentralizing authority in the classroom. I'll discuss this on the wiki when I get a chance to do so. In the mean time, check out this article on North Star.

Brainstorming

This is your space to think about and give ideas for the webpage that we're making. When you visit this site for the first time, try to post a comment - use the sheet I gave you for how-to's! In this post:

*introduce yourself by first name only
*tell us what you like to do when you're at the club
*tell us how you use computers in your every day life: Do you email? IM? surf the web? What do you like to look at when you're online? Do you use iPods or other devices to take stuff with you? Do you have a MySpace page? Or do you use software to do class assignments; if so, what programs do you use?
*Have you ever used media tools with the computer, i.e., created videos, downloaded photos from a camera, uploaded music?

Blogs give you a chance to take more time to think about questions I'm asking you to consider. A lot of teachers are starting to use them in their English classes, and since I'm studying to become an English teacher, I'm interested in finding out how they work!

As time goes on, we'll also learn how to add links of other websites of interest to the blog, add pictures, and direct readers to videos on uTube. Looking forward to reading your comments!
Tamara