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Welcome Students from Colombia, Canada, and the Untied Sates. Greetings from our side! We have finally completed the first of our two introduction videos, and the kids and I are very excited and proud to share them with you. But, oh there is always a but, I am a bit long winded. Ask any of the students in my class, and they will tell you that I like to talk and explain everything thoroughly. It can be very annoying, this always looking for the teachable moment, but alas, what can I say- this is my calling. (Note: If you want, I recommend you skip ahead and watch the videos, but please come back and read this intro; it will help put what you see in perceptive. If you are a fellow teacher, parent, or new to this project please read here for clarification.)

Last week, as the sun stood guard over the sky and dropped her light through the many tropical trees on our campus, I was strolling the grounds of our school taking photographs of drinking fountains, lockers, pianos and the varying shades of light that was laid upon them. I had just handed out five digital cameras and two video cameras to a group of thirteen middle school students and had dared them to go out and see our school, the world, in a fresh, new, and poetic way. “Stay away from anything literal.” I told them. “Look for colors, shapes, and things that are interesting to look at. Try to see things from new perspectives. You are not taking pictures of anything. You are simply trying to show others how you see the world.”

“But what does this have to do with poetry,” they asked. “Photography is the best poetry teacher there is.” I told them. “It is our ability to pay attention to the world and see it in different ways that allows the poet in us to flourish. Words are just one we can experience poetry. Everything that surrounds us is poetic; we must simply learn how to give life to it. Today we will use images, later maybe sounds, eventually…once we can see, smell, taste, and touch the poetry of the world, we will learn to use words to describe it. In the meantime, see if you can find it first.” “How will we know?” They asked. “You will know trust me! It isn’t hard to find, you just have to be open to it finding you.”

There they were. Standing on top of soda machines, lying on the ground looking up at trees, getting up close and then walking away from objects they see everyday. They snapped shot after shot. Each class had well over one hundred images that they had collected from their time spent exploring our campus

Later in the week, we spent time learning about cropping, composition, contrast, and the importance of the editing stage in photography. The students, as class groups, voted and reduced their 150+ photos down to twenty per class. They collaboratively edited each photo, placed it in an iMovie file, and added music.

Here is their work. Please allow each movie to fully load before viewing:

Block D (Music- Looking Through The Glass by Stone Sour)

Block C (Music- Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses)

Block H (Music- Youth Of The Nation by P.O.D)

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In addition to our poetry unit this quarter, we are going to begin an exciting project about being a teenager in the 21st century. We will actually meld poerty into this project and share our view of the world and our place in it using poetry as our tool.

The Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to have teenagers from different locations around the globe exchange their thoughts and perceptions of what their lives are like. By viewing, reading, and listening to the perspectives of others from around the globe, they will gain a greater perception of the similarities and differences of people’s lives around the world. This is not an international project where kids learn about the holidays, foods, etc, of another nation. We want to dig deeper, to have you dig, read, write, etc. We want you to explore issues, and work intensely to gain a clearer understanding of concerns that people have in a global world.

In this project you will choose an issue that you feel is important to your life and future, develop your understanding of it, and your understanding of international opinion about it, produce a poetic digital representation of your understanding, and finally share and discuss your experiences with others.
We’ll be working with grade seven and eight students from three other schools who are doing versions of this same project. One school is in Canada, another in the United States, and the third is another international school in Colombia!

The central questions, the ones your project answers, are:

• What are the central issues and concerns that people my age, in international communities, have about their lives, about their futures, or about the issues that are facing the world?
• How do I relate to these issues?
• How are these issues similar and different from other people my age in different places around the world?
• What is it like to be ____ (your age) in ____________ (an international community)

Your assignment is to produce a poetic digital representation of your understanding of these issues. (This concept will be explained in detail in the coming weeks.) By digital, I mean that it has to be able to be put up on the internet. You could make a video that we would post to your blog for other students to watch. You might make a podcast – an mp3 file. You could create a photo essay – a collection of photographs and poems. Your creativity is the limit.

Along the way, you will create a network of people whose ideas will support the development of your understanding of your issue. These will be students from our school, the schools we are working with, and the general public.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Like the saying, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s time to take that first step, which is to introduce yourself on your blog. Other students will use your introduction to connect with people who share similar interests.

Here are some ideas to help get your introduction going:

Who are you? How old are you? What’s your life like living in where you live? What issues are you interested in? You are introducing yourself to the group of students in other countries who will be working on this project with you. You can also try and think about and answer some of the questions raised on our planning wiki. I will give you the password in class, so you can add questions as well. Please remember our school rules about releasing personal information. I understand the difficulty of introducing yourself and sharing personal information, but not being able to give out certain details. I trust that you will be able to do this. Good luck!

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Click here for prompt.

Dear Anne,

I know it must be difficult for you to discuss your thoughts and ideas with people who do not understand you, or worse people who berate and belittle you, but I do not think it is a good idea to bottle up your opinions. I don’t think your views are stupid, and even if they were you have a right to share and express them with the world.

Everybody on earth has his or her own opinion. That is what makes life so appealing. The fact that we can debate or argue, or compromise and exchange our thoughts with others is one of the most incredible aspects of living. I think we run into trouble when we cling to our opinions and fail to see that other people may disagree with us. This ultimately leads to conflict because we refuse to let other people share their thoughts.

Opinions change as people change. As a young girl, you have an outlook on life that will be dramatically different in five years, ten years, or twenty years. It is important, however, that at every interval in your life you examine and scrutinize your thoughts. Where do they come from? How are they influenced? How are you changing? This dissection of your beliefs is in the end how you will grow. This is education.

I have gone off track a bit so let me get back to my point. If you have opinions, it is important to share them, because once they are out in the world they will be open for discussion. You can then alter and adapt them to fit you better. If on the other hand, you only keep your opinions to yourself, or worse only share them with people who agree with you, then they will never evolve. They will become stale and outdated.

It can be frustrating to view the world in a certain way and have everyone you know, tell you that you are wrong. It can seem attractive to simply not share your thoughts with anyone, because they just don’t understand you. But you are only doing yourself a disservice if you keep all your thoughts inside.

If everyone decided to keep their opinions to themselves because they were afraid of disagreements than where would we be? We wouldn’t learn anything, because knowledge comes from the exchange of ideas. Through collaboration, comprise and cooperation we reshape the world into a better place. We do not hoard our ideas or opinions but display them publicly and defend them when necessary and alter them if need be.

We must not be rigid! Your mind is fluid and in flux and works best when it is open and active. So do not barricade yourself behind a wall of your own beliefs. Allow them to be malleable, and you will see that there are others out there who share your vision. We are glad that you have opened up your heart to us with your diary, and we are learning from you everyday. If you had not shared the opinions of a beautiful young girl, where would we be today? What would we have learned? How were we to grow?

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I asked the students to write on this prompt. Here is my response:

The first thing I would try to take with me more than anything else would be my guitar. Now some people may try to argue that the act of carrying a large wooden instrument goes against the criteria set in the prompt-what you could fit in a bag, but I would argue that I would bring the guitar and the guitar only, thus making the bag superfluous. Music is my life. I cannot and will not imagine a world where I am not either listening to or creating some type of music, and if I were to be in a situation where I would have to entertain myself for hours at a time, I could not think of a better tool than my trusty black Takamine acoustic guitar.

Whenever I am overstressed or life is getting to be a bit much, I simply sit on my couch pullout the ole six-string and let the vibrations of the strings soothe my soul. Lately, I have been playing for my baby daughter and she seems to be really enjoying it as well. So bringing the guitar would have a dual role when we were in hiding. The sad part is that I have been playing for over ten years, but I am not what most people would consider “good.” Sure I know the basic chords and my fingering is getting better every year, but I am not by any means a musician. You know the type: the person who comes into the room pulls out the guitar and starts singing beautifully. I am clumsy and shy and awkward with my instrument, but it is still my most trusty companion. I couldn’t imagine my life without it.

If denied my right to carry my guitar, or in addition to it, I would bring my journals, some pens, and my paints and canvases, because in addition to playing music I like to write as you can see. I also like to spend time drawing and/or painting although I am often much too busy these days. Finally I would grab my favorite books because there is nothing like spending hours lost in a good book.

I actually spent two years away from the world, not so much in hiding but doing volunteer work in Mozambique. I lived in this house:

for two years with no running water or electricity. But that is another post. I just wanted to state that these trusty tools: guitar, paints, books, and my writing helped keep me sane, that and these amazing views:

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I cannot promise anything, but my plan is to be able to complete every writing assignment that I assign my students. Correcting papers and planning lessons may take precedent, but I hope that by doing what I ask my students to do, they will see that writing is not simply a torture device used by teachers, but rather an authentic tool for self-discovery, communication, and entertainment. If I really love writing as much as I say I do, then I might as well being doing as much of it as possible.

The first mini-journal question given to the students (to start them students thinking about Anne Frank) was to define courage. Here is my attempt.

I believe courage is the ability to reveal oneself to the world as honestly as possible. The ability to bare one’s true thoughts and feelings, and to make oneself vulnerable and open to the world is the ultimate act of bravery. We spend so much time protecting ourselves and building walls to keep the world out and ourselves safe, that we forget that being exposed to the world can be a very rewarding experience. I feel that this act of self-exposure is the true nature art.

Whether in writing, music, drama, or painting the artist is constantly asking, daring, begging, inviting the world to “come on in and take a look.” The artist sees this openness as a way of connecting to other human beings. The artist is not afraid of judgment or evaluation, because we are simply being ourselves. This take more courage than most people comprehend.

Just last night, I attended the fall drama and modern dance performance, and seeing my students up on that stage, completely opening themselves up to the world, made me feel so proud not just of them, but for every artist, for every daring person who doesn’t care what the world says or thinks about them, but will dictate to the world how they wish to be viewed. Great job everyone who was involved in last night’s performance! You truly are courageous.
Here are some of the bravest people I know. Do you know who they are ?

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