Unschooly Students on Teachers Teaching Teachers
Monday, 28 April 2008 Clay Burell 
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I promised in an earlier post to give the link when Teachers Teaching Teachers posted its podcast with students weighing in on “How to Be Unschooly” in blogs, Twitter, and more. Consider it done. It is so worth a listen.
There’s something to say, too, about the back-story on this. Soojin, the Korean student who generated the tweet that triggered the podcast, was a student of mine – but from last year. As Soojin discusses in the podcast, my efforts to push him, as a member of my classroom, to turn on to connective writing didn’t work. A year later, he’s out there doing it independently – I see him on Twitter all the time, and read his blog – and out of nowhere, from Korea, Soojin is causing educators in New York to invite him to a podcast, and invite me as almost an afterthought. I love that.
I also loved finding the other student pioneers on that Skype call and chat – especially, and for reasons similar to the Soojin story, Lindsea. A Hawaii student, I “met” Lindsea last year through my classes’ collaboration on the first 1001 Flat World Tales with her class with teacher Chris Watson. Lindsea is now, like Soojin, a part of my network, and a student pioneer.
You’ll meet other pioneering students on the podcast as well:
- Hannah, a student at principal Chris Lehmann‘s Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia (and an excellent writer and speaker I “pray” will contribute to Students 2.0 regularly, and pull Philadelphia into Project Global Cooling next year). Hannah’s been blogging intensely about environmental issues in her region, and mentioned she’s received little to no encouragement from comments. Can we remedy that?
- Ben, from the excellent New York City Students group blog – another fantastic model of real student blogging. (Ben, as I told you on the podcast, I invited you all to Students 2.0 when I was seeking recommendations from my network, and Diane Cordell pointed me to you. That offer is still open as an additional, less frequent, non-competitive megaphone for your group.)
And then, manning the chat channel with his usual good questions and helpful hands, was another Philadelphia student I’ve come to know over the past year: Tyrone Kidd. Tyrone, I’ve wanted to give a shout-out about how impressive you’ve been as another pioneer since you popped up on my radar (and in my Seoul Networked Learning class blog) a few months ago. I love your pioneering spirit.
All the students above are noteworthy for showing they can navigate these networks, and prudently and maturely learn along with us.
They’re also noteworthy for teaching us how to make blogs and social networking “unschooly” to them. But for that, you’ll need to listen to the TTT podcast. (And Paul Allison, it was nice to finally make contact, so many months after discovering your blog.)
Photo: Pioneer Aviator Bessie Coleman, First African American Pilot from PingNews on Flickr
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No. 1 — April 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Definitely a great listen… wish I had been around to listen live. (Though I am hands-down the most “schooly” of the Students 2.0 crew).
In a recent podcast which Lindsea organized (editting?), I had the chance to “meet” Hannah… definitely an interesting character who I would love to see joining Students 2.0. Have you sent her a formal invite?
Arthus Ereas last blog post..The Why and How of Change
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No. 2 — April 28th, 2008 at 10:29 am
@arthus You met me at Educon first – I was filming your session
and for my environment blog – the link is http://www.scienceleadership.org/drupaled/blog/hfeldman
Tyrone’s coming to SLA next year too!
and I’m excited about getting Philly into PGC – I know of a jazz group I can get to perform! My friend Alison is working on greening SLA and making us a more sustainable school already – her blog is at slagoesgreen.blogspot.com
There are my disjointed responses…
Hannahs last blog post..Friday.
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No. 3 — April 28th, 2008 at 10:37 am
And I would absolutely love to join Students 2.0. I have a post in mind!
Hannahs last blog post..Friday.
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No. 4 — April 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Hannah, sounds great!
If you have a post written, shoot me and/or Clay an email and we’ll be glad to chat with you about joining.
I forgot about SLA, didn’t get much of a chance to talk with you one-on-one there.
Arthus Ereas last blog post..The Why and How of Change
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No. 5 — April 28th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Hannah, I second what Arthus says, but Arthus, isn’t the “contribute” page on S2oh the agreed-upon submission policy?
(Good to see you forgetting policy out of excitement instead of me this time
)
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No. 6 — April 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Clay, err.. that’s what the contribute page says. If you want to join, write a post and shoot it to us. Then we’ll talk.
Exactly what I said. 
http://students2oh.org/contribute/
Arthus Ereas last blog post..The Why and How of Change
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No. 7 — April 28th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Hey there, your link to TTT doesn’t seem to be working, I went over to Soojin, and that is working…maybe it is me, but I thought I’d let you know.
orenetas last blog post..Busy days…..
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No. 8 — April 28th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’m so happy I was able to be a part of that podcast. The discussion was rich.
Lindseaks last blog post..I float on tag clouds and blog fog
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No. 9 — April 29th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hey Clay-
Tangentially related– did you see this article in the New York Times about Korean Schools?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?em&ex=1209614400&en=3d79a2d0b3f49af8&ei=5087
From your practice, how accurate is the article?
Barry
Barrys last blog post..Student Bloggers and the Pew Internet Paper
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No. 10 — April 30th, 2008 at 1:29 am
I did, Barry, and it is the rule, not the exception, in most schools. All in the name of the SAT, AP, and TOEFL.
These kids have no childhood. They spend it entirely – summers too – in test prep sweatshops.
It’s a status thing for the rich parents, and a desperation thing for the rest.
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