My plans.. gg

While I will not be teaching in a school building, I will have teaching on my mind in the coming year. Here are my hopes, plans, tasks grouped by MUST do, WILL do, and HOPE TO DO...

Must

Build a library of screen casts on key aspects of the site and digital writing -- commenting, podcasts, etc.

Complete, with help, our planned improvements to the sites...

• More intuitive management of classrooms and students to allow teachers to do it
• Direct recording of podcasts (NO audacity step necessary)
• Gradebook
• Pilot of new assessment model, in which teachers can "rate" the initial idea, commenting, revisions and final product
• Assorted other fixes to make the sites work better

Develop school sites in the following locations (any or all) and link up interested VT schools for writing partnerships between kids:

• Bogata, Columbia
• Indonesia/India (Anne)
• Seattle
• Toronto
• Austin, Tex
• Chicago
• Atlanta

Add a few more newspapers to our partnerships in Lamoille County and central part of state

Teach the yearlong Master's Practicum through St. Michael's College

Hire and train three teachers (two already on board) to provide support to teachers using our Schools Project

WILL DO:

Develop a pilot mentorship program between a school and a local business whereby interested employees could be trained to provide feedback online at the teacher's discretion. A way to link community with the school.

Hire a few more folks to help.

Develop several pilot Slam programs in schools to compliment YWP Slams series

Partner with Vermont Public Television for statewide teen news connection

Develop a way for students to AIR audio essays, stories, poems each week on Vermont Public Radio

Find time each week to poke around and see what's new in the world of digital education

Post a regular update of information, links, ideas to teachers

Develop a teen advisory group that offered YWP ideas on all sorts of things and who maintained, in a much more active way, the content on the site.

Develop our first Genre Mentor pilot in which experts in particular writing genres work with kids on youngwritersproject.org (Poet already hired for first; two journalists signed on to help with narrative nonficition)

HOPE TO DO:

Get a big grant so I can work less than 65 hours a week.

Develop several key partnerships to bring expertise to bear on this unified effort to help teachers, to enage kids and to promote the importance of writing and, of course, to improve students' writing skills