Giving It Away: The Earth Day Groceries Project

“The principal goal of education is to create men

who are capable of doing new things, not simply

of repeating what other generations have done

- men who are creative,inventive and discoverers.”
Jean Piaget

“What we want is the child in pursuit of knowledge,

not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”
George Bernard Shaw

“The world, thanks to the Internet, has had its doors opened . . . [and] the fabric of the world has changed forever.” (p 42)

Mark Ahlness certainly discovered the potential of the Internet and brought it to the forefront of his classroom with some worthwhile endeavors, including his inspirational Earth Day Groceries Project. His idea, which began in 1994, involves students decorating paper grocery bags with environmental artwork and creative slogans to celebrate Earth Day. The bags are then returned to the supermarket for all of the customers to enjoy. What a motivating project! Not only is it “a great science activity, a great environmental education unit, and a great community-service opportunity,” (p 28) it ensures that the students will do their best work because they know that their bags will actually be used and appreciated by members of the community.

While the Earth Day Groceries Project did not involve technology at its inception, it does so today and its inclusion has catapulted the idea across the globe. How so? Mark Ahlness described his idea on two listservs and requested interested parties to share their results with him. The world heard him and the reactions have been remarkable. Many schools responded with positive feedback. Mark Ahlness shares the e-mails with his students, which, of course, not only fires their enthusiasm, it furthers their literacy skills as they read about others’ participation.

Much like the proverbial stone tossed in the water, the breadth of technology’s reach is profound as the endless ripples unfold and expand. . . What I love about this story is how technology once again reveals its massive potential. It creates infinite, engaging opportunities to teach new literacies. As we dive into the digital world, opportunities naturally evolve and unexpected paths of learning present themselves. These, I feel, provide some of the best teachable moments. And I love the role I'm in: I'm not a dispenser of knowledge, but rather a partner with my students on a learning path, exploring the world from our classroom.

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”

John Cotton Dana

One of the things my students get really excited about is connecting to the live webcam at the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. They enjoy seeing what the people are doing and figuring out what time it is there. The time is presented using the 24-hour clock, which provides me with an opportunity to launch into a mini-lesson/review on Spanish time. Because there's an authentic purpose,my students are inspired to learn. And that's my goal - to awaken in them a joy for learning.

I loved this reflection from the chapter and wanted to include it in the blog. Its message rings so true and clear, yet is one that is often forgotten in the day-to-day classroom:

To Be A Teacher

by Louis Schmier

“If you want to be a teacher, you first have to learn how to play hopscotch, learn other children’s games, learn how to watch a snail crawl, read “Yertle the Turtle,” and watch “Bullwinkle.” If you want to be a teacher you have to blow “she loves me, she loves me nots” with a dandelion or pull the individual petals of a daisy, wiggle your toes in the mud and let it ooze through them, stomp in rain puddles, and be humbled by the majesty of a mountain. . . If you want to be a teacher, you have to put aside your formal theories and intellectual constructs and axioms and statistics and charts when you reach out to touch that miracle called the individual human being. (Schmier, 995, p. 240)

As an aside, I found this interesting article I thought you'd enjoy regarding current work Mr. Ahlness is pursuing with blogs and fostering multiliteracies: Teachers are Reaching Out to Students with a New Class of Blogs

Books on Tapes

Books on Tape for Kids:

A Language Arts-Based

Service-Learning Project

by Gino Sangiuliano

I truly must begin this blog by extending my highest praise to the author, the students, teachers and supporters of the Barrington elementary schools of Rhode Island for their ingenuity and hard work. Their unique literacy venture not only fosters students' reading development and fluency, it creates true and lasting positive changes in countless lives through the social impact of their endeavor. Their commitment is truly inspiring and the impact far-reaching as it touches the lives of children across the country.

"Books on Tape for Kids" is a brilliant, ongoing community service project whereby elementary students choose children's books and practice reading them. The students then record their well-rehearsed verse onto a cassette tape with the intent to share it with children in hospitals, in other schools across the country and for their school library. To accompany the tape, students create book-inspired artwork, include a photograph of themselves and compose a pen-pal letter explaining each participant's role. The package is then mailed with a return-addressed postcard for feedback. Moreover, the students' projects are showcased online for families, for the community, and for the world to enjoy. Sangiuliano offers, "students ought to be motivated to investigate the world around them, need to be able to communicate with that world and have an opportunity to contribute to it, and want to share their efforts with that world." (p 16) This worthwhile project reaps a multitude of benefits: it fosters multi-literacy, supports technology skills, embraces humanitarianism and nurtures empathy.

Students are certainly very motivated when given a voice in their learning. Mr. Sangiuliano obviously recognizes this when he allows his students to choose their favorite book for the project. An astute educator knows that students are apt to be more invested in their efforts when they have some say, some input into the learning process. So whenever possible, and as often as possible, students should be involved in the educational planning process. Their voices must be heard and valued. I'm sure you can imagine, "as part of [this] project's authenticity, the students [were] very motivated to take part and develop expertise in the process." (p 14) That's what it's about. Give the students something to do that has meaning, something with a purpose and they'll run with it. No one likes to learn without relevance. How many of us were motivated by these infamous words: "Just learn it. You'll need to know this when you get older. . ."

Not my students. That's why I strive to invent ways to address my curricular demands through technology-saturated, purposeful lessons. Kidspiration, Inspiration, PowerPoint, MovieMaker, Photo Story, WebQuests and the like, all provide the tools not only to motivate students, but to enhance the learning experience, while still addressing curricular demands and the standards. ". . . computers and related technolgies can be tools of inquiry, communication, creation, and sharing. They can be tools of change." (p 16) Should this not be the hallmark of every school across the nation?

"If students did not use the technologies meaningfully in concert with the existing curriculum, and if students viewed computers simply as auxiliary equipment, educators would not realize the full potential of their effectiveness. Technology instruction should be presented in a manner that allows students to apply what they learn to real-world situations. The students need to be aware of that fact and buy into it as well. The best way to accomplish this is to provide students with genuine experiences that both meet existing curriculum guidelines and motivate students to realize their full potential." (p 19) Hallelujah! I couldn't have said that better myself! This is how we can, no, must inspire our students to become life-long learners. Now, if we could only get more educators to embrace this philosophy. . .

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

New Literacies

"Contextualizing the New Literacies

of Information and Communication Technologies

in Theory, Research, and Practice"

by Donald J. Leu, Jr., Maria H. Mallette,

Rachel A. Karchmer and Julia Kara-Soteriou

Today's world is far different than the one in which I grew up. Once upon a time, in a world not too long ago, we had toot-a-loop radios and listened to records. Today's children are far more advanced with their music capabilities and, fortunately, don’t ever have to deal with vinyl skips!

The technology revolution has changed life as we know it. Today’s youth are reared on a multitude of various digital media and probably couldn't imagine life without many of their basic necessities: the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, text messaging, Xbox, MySpace, etcetera. We live in a digitally-saturated world. Do you know any family that doesn’t own an iPod? Probably not, but if you do, I bet at least one child in the family knows how to work it. Most of my students own one; moreover, they are well-versed in acquiring songs, videos, and photos from friends and from the Internet to add to their collections. Why are they so motivated to learn how to use this technoogy? Quite frankly, because it’s amazing, fun and very easily personalized. You can program your iPod to show a slideshow of your summer vacation; upload videos of your favorite bands; watch episodes of your favorite shows; and program it with enough songs that you’ll never repeat a tune all week! The potential and customization features are as alluring as Lorelei herself. Yes, today’s youth are drawn to technology like mice to the Pied Piper.

Technology is everywhere and its power and potential are truly beyond our comprehension at this point in time; even as I write, new forms of technology and information are emerging and expanding. "New technologies for information and communication will repeatedly appear and new envisionments for exploiting these technologies will be crafted continuously by users. Thus, it is not just that new modalities of communication forms have generated multiple literacies; even more important is the fact that new technologies for information and communication will appear repeatedly in our future, generating even newer literacies on a regular basis." (p 2)

The digital age is clearly changing the way we use language and communicate. It is transforming how we do things and how we find meaning. Literacy is no longer just about understanding language on paper, it is far more. Ubiquitous technology and “Jetsonian”* multimedia pathways are profoundly impacting how we represent knowledge and how we create it. Living in today's world clearly requires a new look and a new approach to this rapidly-changing landscape: it requires learning new literacies.

"How do we best prepare students for the new literacies that will define their future?" (p 1) This thought is certainly foremost in many educators' minds these days, including my own. We all seek to enhance our students' learning opportunities and experiences and recognize the potential of information and communication technologies, ICTs, to do just that. So, faced with the obvious, we must embrace the obvious. We must transform our classrooms to incorporate these new literacies so that they are commonplace via Internet Workshops, WebQuests, Internet Projects and other evolving pathways. (p 7) We must immerse our students in media- and technology-rich environments that foster literacy skills and strengthen students' critical thinking. We must prepare them to face the challenges of the 21st century and prepare them to be civilly-minded participants of a globally-diverse community. To not do so is to be remiss in our duty to serve our students' highest and most essential needs.

* “Jetsonian”- referring to the futuristic cartoon, “The Jetsons.”