How about finding a RENEGADE?
heather@heathershumaker.com
Your writing "got me" on the first page.
"Safety second." Oh, yes.
This email is a request for your attention and advice.
1. do you know an author who is looking for a project?
2. perhaps you are interested in creating a "renegade's guide to digital portfolios" (an enhanced resume for teenagers)
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Why I found your book.
I am helping a friend raise a 12-year-old who is oppositional. "You can't force me to do anything."
He's right. I can't force him to think about helping people. I might make his life uncomfortable and I might "create conditions that are uncomfortable" until he does work around the house, but then he says, "I chose to do that work. You didn't force me to do it."
and I suppose he is right. I expect that he will enjoy the points that you make about "going up the slide"
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1. I'm a fan of Dan Pink's books. danpink.com I am a high school teacher and I wish I could work at a high school where Dan Pink's ideas are put to work. His "To Sell Is Human" points out that we are all salespeople in some way because we aim to persuade others to part with their time. I'm a high school teacher and i find my best lessons are whispers. "A student in Saudi Arabia told me that she wants to practice English. She asked me to find someone. You can keep doing your math or you can look at her Facebook page. Let me know if you know someone who might want to help."
FLIP MANIFESTO
That sort of "whisper" gets the attention of teenagers rather than a teacher-led discussion or lecture about "It is important to build connections with people in other cultures to understand their point of view."
Have you seen the Flip Manifesto? That helped shape my teaching method.
2. I'm a fan of Neil Postman and "teaching as a subversive activity."
See chapter 12 where Postman gives a list of questions for teachers to ask in class.
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Chapter 8.
New Teachers
If what you have read so far has made sense to you, you have probably anticipated us by asking, 'Where do we put the new teachers necessary to translate the new education into action?'
Chapter 12
So What You Do Now!
You are a teacher in an ordinary school, and the ideas in this book make sense to you... what can you do about it, say tomorrow?
1. Your first act of subversion might be conducted in the following way: write on a scrap of paper these questions:
What am I going to have my students do today?
What's it good for?
How do I know?
Tape the paper to the mirror in your bathroom or some other place where you are likely to see it every morning If nothing else, the questions will begin to make you uneasy about shilling for someone else and might weaken your interest in 'following the syllabus'. You may even, after a while, become nauseous at the prospect of teaching things which have a specious value or for which there is no evidence that your anticipated outcomes do, in fact, occur. At their best, the questions will drive you to reconsider almost everything you are doing, with the result that you will challenge your principal, your textbooks, the syllabus, the grading system, your own education, and so on. In the end, it all may cost you your job, or lead you to seek another position, or drive you out of reaching altogether. Subversion is a risky business - as risky for its agent as for its target.
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3. I'm a fan of Dennis Littky. See the first page of Littky's Big Picture book from 2004 www.BIgPicture.org
When I watch kids walk into the building on their first day of school, I think about what I want them to be like when they walk out on their last day. I also think about what I want them to be like on the day I bump into them in the supermarket 10 or 20 years later. Over the course of three decades watching kids walk into my schools, I have decided that I want them to
- be lifelong learners
- be passionate
- be ready to take risks
- be able to problem-solve and think critically
- be able to look at things differently
- be able to work independently and with others
- be creative
- care and want to give back to their community
- persevere
- have integrity and self-respect
- have moral courage
- be able to use the world around them well
- speak well, write well, read well, and work well with numbers
- truly enjoy their life and their work.
4. Leaving to Learn www.LeavingToLearn.org
Elliot Washor, a colleague of Littky, created ten expectations.
I liked this list so much that I persuaded a friend to translate the list into Spanish. www.TINYURL.com/Spanish10expectations.
REQUEST
woudl you be interested in building a "renegade" version of the Free Website Project?
This is the reaction I got from an Idaho Public School system.
Dear Mr. McCrea,
Thank you for your interest in xxxxxxxxx County Public Schools and your offer to bring your program, Free Website Project, to our students. Like you, xxxxxxx County Public Schools is committed to 21st Century Teaching and Learning. Our singular goal is for all of our students to achieve academically, have a post-secondary plan, graduate and enter a higher education institution and/or the workforce. To this end, we have supported a Digital Convergence Initiative that has allowed us to integrate technology in all of our core academic subjects and in Career and Technical Education courses. Because of these efforts and the work of our College Assistance Program, our students receive assistance in applying 21st century literacy skills to prepare them for college and career readiness. At this time, we feel the service you are proposing is currently being provided by our secondary teachers and counselors.
Again, we thank you for your interest in xxxxxxx County Public Schools and the time you took to present your work to us.
Sincerely,
xxx County Public School in Idaho.
At this time, we feel the service you are proposing is currently being provided by our secondary teachers and counselors.
Oh? Do students post their work on websites?
See the websites of High Tech High.
That's why I created the Free Website Project.
"who cares who gets the credit?"
I have a feeling that this is an issue that goes beyond ego and who wrote what. As Presient Truman once said, "who cares who gets the credit?"
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry S Truman
I am looking for an established author to take this free website idea to the next level.
I don't have the track record of a published book.
I have created over 25 ebooks that are also available through Createspace.
None of them sell.
I don't want credit. I just want these ideas to "get out there" and get tested.
I'm happy to help with workshops or distribution of free ebooks.
Do you know an author who is looking for a project?
Wold you be interested in making "The Renegade Parent's Guide to Digital Portfolios"
How about the Renegade Digital Portfolio.
Thanks for your time.
Steve McCrea
954 646 8246
Maybe the next direction is School of Life.
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