 |
| 62Garden - the community garden we built with our neighbors |
Now that I've taken care of that, we can get on with the business of blogging. When I think of "Edubloggers" I think first of Ms Q and her daily account of what her school was serving on a given day, how it tasted, and how it made her feel. I was following her before going back to school was on my radar (well, it was always kind of on my radar). I found her through a rabbit hole I fell into while searching for urban farming/gardening sites when we were first building the 62nd & Dorchester Community Garden (do you see how I dragged the garden back into the conversation? Clever.). Beyond hers, I hadn't paid much attention to blogs dealing with classroom education (educating me on how to eat, cook, and style my hair were more my thing).
Today I discovered a very cool site that I believe was developed by a graduate from the program I am currently in here at the U of M. It's called Making Curriculum Pop and I just spent an undisclosed amount of time goofing around joining discussion groups, reading about some new young adult lit coming out, and how to talk about Identity using pop culture (the group name is Identity: Gender, Race, Sexuality & Other Tricky Stuff). The folks contributing to this site are really interesting an seem to represent a wide range of teacher experience and content area.
Some of the posts on MCP are snippets of lesson plans, some are questions about how to incorporate ideas presented on this site. For example, there is a teacher using a graphic adaptation of the US Constitution to help teach his Civics class. He give a review of the book and links other, related, resources in his post that include a synopsis, teacher guide, and links to the authors. Also found in the Civics section, a new teacher posted a request for ideas from more experienced teachers. One response included a lot of information about using the movie version of V for Vendetta in their class and how to set up the framework for using the movie (vs the tex, which he could not afford to get for his class).
I find this site really exciting because it is not just one teacher's opinion or experience but hundreds of teachers being represented in one place, framing their thoughts, questions, and ideas in the realm of pop culture. I'm afraid to go back on to the site because I fear I will fall into another rabbit hole - it's just that interesting.
Some of the posts on MCP are snippets of lesson plans, some are questions about how to incorporate ideas presented on this site. For example, there is a teacher using a graphic adaptation of the US Constitution to help teach his Civics class. He give a review of the book and links other, related, resources in his post that include a synopsis, teacher guide, and links to the authors. Also found in the Civics section, a new teacher posted a request for ideas from more experienced teachers. One response included a lot of information about using the movie version of V for Vendetta in their class and how to set up the framework for using the movie (vs the tex, which he could not afford to get for his class).
I find this site really exciting because it is not just one teacher's opinion or experience but hundreds of teachers being represented in one place, framing their thoughts, questions, and ideas in the realm of pop culture. I'm afraid to go back on to the site because I fear I will fall into another rabbit hole - it's just that interesting.
Unrelated - this happened last week:
 |
| Ms. B and Ms. S (of Captain of My Ship blog fame) hanging out on someone's lawn. |
First, your garden is incredible.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I'm going to have to avoid opening this sight until next week is over. It sounds like I could lost on there for days. I hope it turns out to be a wonderful resource and community for us, because I /need/ a graphic adaptation of the Constitution! Please be sure to share any other amazing things you find!
Unrelated - Those two are just too cute.
I'll have to check this website out when I have some more free time since I love inserting random pop culture references into everyday life. I think we should try to stay up to date with pop culture so that we might be able to find something relatable to our students! Again this is the reason I like Edublogs--we can post things that can help other teachers out, even if that means topics related to pop culture and nothing considered very academic to some! Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about keeping up with pop culture and hope this website is as cool as I think it is because it could be a really huge resource for us, as long as people continually keep it up.
DeleteI like that you bring up the affordability of texts to teachers. I like that the teacher was resourceful and used the video instead of just not introducing the topic to their students. It brings up the topic of quality of education: do you show the film that may leave stuff out and get the actors' names stuck in the heads of the students or do you not introduce the topic at all? This is something I know my high school AP English teacher had a problem with and with budget cuts I think its happening more and more in schools. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteYeah, resourcefulness will be required...
DeleteI'm surprised I haven't yet brought this up, but I think a community garden project at a school is something I would love start. Thinking about education for sustainability, and its focus on ecology, but also the potential for enrichment in science (health science and botany), English (Grapes of Wrath?!), math (calculating the area needed for each plant, timing the harvest, etc.), and social studies (talking about the Farm Bill, the contribution of farmers to economies, etc.). What insight do you have into starting a community garden, and how do you envision starting one at a school?
ReplyDeleteI am SO interested in working with schools to create community gardens; I've been thinking a lot recently about how to develop a curriculum that is interdisciplinary like the one you mention. In addition to the math, science, and ELA connections, I would love to introduce urban planning concepts including community engagement (what do the people in your neighborhood actually want), human interaction with space and place, and more.
DeleteYou know, one of the most difficult things about starting the garden in Chicago was deciding how it would be managed and by whom. We had many late night meetings at a local coffee shop (miss this place! http://robustcoffeelounge.com/) yet we still never felt like we were getting it right. There's a lesson there (not fleshed out yet); but there is a lesson in creating structure for an organization, looking at the long-term big picture, and having to get it all out in words in an organized manner. Gardens need rules and part of a lesson could be laying out the rules - mix this in with some social studies and you can have a conversation about ordinances/laws and the rules that we all have to follow (versus rules for the garden community alone). I've gone on too long here... I think we have the beginnings of a really inspiring lesson!
Can we work at the same school? I /need/ this to happen. If you ever need someone to brainstorm or talk this idea through with, I'm absolutely available. I'd be happy to point you to the organizations I know about doing things like this around A2 and Detroit (though my knowledge is very limited) or help some up with more concrete social studies connections like the ones you mentioned.
DeleteThat would be awesome - let's plan it. Let's change the world, Ms S.
DeleteI just want to say that that photo is awesome. As we keep on all those papers and such, it's nice to remember the "good times" running on the field. Good luck this week!
ReplyDelete