“WE were in charge, we were the bosses” – Hannah, 2005.
Throughout the year, my student assignments get progressively more complex in terms of individual workload and group interaction. Still, I was looking for something more. This gave birth to the eZine, an online, truly professional, student-controlled literary magazine, which the kids now publish annually.
Fortunately, I didn’t know anything about web design. So, I strove ahead, inventing a company, AboveandBeyond.com, ignorantly assuring my students that it would work. Needing help, I contacted Jane, our technology administrator. We discussed; seventh graders and web design, no template, little teacher input, sounds …interesting. Okay, now what? This would be going on the school’s website, after all.
"…It was our project, the class’s project, and we didn’t have someone tell us what to do so it was entirely our brains working and figuring out what we wanted to do from scratch. It wasn’t following someone else’s recipe, you know" – Julie, 2003.
We didn’t have any recipe, and still, five years on, the kids decide and format all issue content and design. The kids choose their jobs: manager, editor, designer, Webmaster, or artist. The class decides on different pages (departments), such as Tearjerker, Stuck, and Horror, who works where, and what to write! Everything! The managers, then, choose a head manager. That’s when we need a lot of help.
"This was different because there were no limits” – Mary Abbe, 2003.
No school component remains untouched. Students are in the hall designing, in the lab web mastering, in the stairway composing digital music, and in the room writing, revising, and drawing. Laurie, our new tech administrator, is helping someone, somewhere with sophisticated web techniques. With any company, there’s always a crisis to solve now. The managers are keeping it all from falling apart, barely. The whole school cooperates with this organized chaos: tech aides, teacher aides, resource room teachers, central administrators, etc. Anyone to offer something. Somehow they do.
“Your mind gets boggled up and I guess I took too many jobs. I should have managed my time better and things wouldn't have been so rushed” – Liz, 2004.
About halfway through, we reach a stage of ‘critical mass’. We have a formal, no holds barred meeting where each department presents their pages ‘live’ for the first time. Collaboration is most critical here. In addition to the Board (the principal, Laurie and me), stockholders (former students, managers) share insights and critique to ensure the legacy. All elements are reviewed – content, design, technical. Which means it gets rowdy. Each employee is responsible for the work they have/have not done. This is where most school projects end. Not ours. It’s serious; it’s worldwide.
“Even though we had a rough start, everybody stayed focused and stuck together in order to make the eZine the best we could" – Ram, 2004.
So, the kids turn professional. ‘Voices’ ring with questions asked, solutions discussed, plans formulated, and deadlines set. No students, teachers, or principles – just people engaging a complex world successfully. We’re individually accountable and group dependent. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work. But, is it worth the stress, time and work?
"Definitely, it was so…the end was so exhilarating, this whole sense of pride came through you, you had to look at it. This is my work, the class's work…to be able to show it off I think is awesome. Come see our website. Trust me, it’s awesome. That was cool” – Julie, 2003.
ENGLISH CLASS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS “LIFE AND HOW TO LIVE IT.”
1) Annual Learning Goals:
a. INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE - not by busy work but through a mental, emotional, and spiritual endeavor to foster improvement in our quality of thinking and ability (skills) to express yourself, and help us understand our mind, body, and spirit, and discover that we’re vital members of this world.
b. THIS MENTAL CHALLENGE STRETCHING THE LIMITS OF YOUR POTENTIAL CAN BE FUN AND REWARDING - maybe not in the rah-rah type of fun but exhilarating all the same when goals are achieved through original, inventive and creative work.
c. ENGLISH IS NOT JUST READING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING BUT IS A MICROCOSM OF LIFE - using all that humanity has to offer (the ‘Arts’) to enhance communication between ourselves and others to reach common goals and develop tolerance for ambiguity. Whatever it takes to improve thinking, skills and attitudes, we will do.
d. OUR CLASS SPEAKS TO THE REAL WORLD - we do what “real” people do. It is more about learning than schooling.
e. PROVIDE A SAFE, CARING, NURTURING ENVIRONMENT FOR YOU TO EVALUATE TAKE CHANCES, TO FIND YOURSELF - you are a contributor just as I am, you have a stake in what happens here. We are a community of inspired life-long learners.
2) eZine Project Interrelated Core Concepts:
a. Human Desires (Keep it real, dude): Using today’s technology, real life work situations (company model), and empowering teenagers with the vast majority of decisions (respect) to create real products (a living eZine) increases the kids’ willingness to endure hard work and stress.
b. Human Commitment (We are family): Given the above environment, the students grasp the need and accept a high level of individual responsibility, group cooperation, and teamwork. In short, a close-knit group must learn to work and communicate effectively. These elements foster a deep sense of individual, as well as a ‘we’, ownership. I respect their abilities; therefore, they trust I will accept their decisions.
c. Human Thinking (I am the Eggman, goo goo g’joob): Since the kids feel a special ownership with the eZine, they are closely-tied to its success, which compels them to use whatever means to achieve it. It is their product, not mine. The effect is the kids enrich their thinking, writing, social interaction, and critical analysis skills and their depth of self-reflection.
d. Human Entertainment (Work can be fun): Because of the three interdependent core concepts stated above, the kids are extremely proud of their tangible project and mental accomplishments. Moreover, in defiance of the traditional view that kids abhor extensive work, the eZine also provides the kids with an exceptionally exhilarating experience.
3) Process: From the beginning of the year - responsibility, time management, independence, individuality.
a. Submissions - writing workshop
b. Monthly chart (on-going)
c. Introduce Task (issue)
d. Job selection (editors, designers, webmasters, artists, managers)
e. Editors meet - what they want - review submissions (one week)
f. Designers/editors/managers meet, decide on issue topics and departments (few days), head manager chosen
g. Designers design on chart paper - decide on cover, layout/pages, solicit artwork/new submissions (one week)
h. Designers give chart paper to Webmasters for computer input
i. Webmasters/managers proceed on actual web construction (one month or more)
4) Review/Rethink/Revise:
a. Company meetings - departmental review of page construction - what’s good, needs to be fixed, needs to deleted, needs to be added - major critique and reworking of ideas
b. Webmasters/managers fix and revamp issue.
c. Issue previewed, peer review site, and managers held accountable.
d. Webmasters/managers fix problems, advertisers design scheme. Some students rise to the challenge.
e. Final issue published, and issue publicized and advertised.
f. Students reflect upon issue and process.
Current eZines:
Footprints on the Sun:
Other: My Homepage: http://haverford.k12.pa.us/hms/web_page/home.htm
My e-mail:
[email protected]Some philosophy of education: excellent article by SELMA WASSERMANN, professor emerita, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., from Phi Delta Kappan, 2001.
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0109was.htm
Some other student voices about the eZine project:
“It was different because we really got to be more independent than most teachers give us. It also gave us a chance to work with the whole class and if one person was behind, it made the whole class behind and that helped everyone stay on task. It gave us more responsibility than any other project I have ever had to do.” - D.M.
“Many days, weeks, and months later I still think about the eZine and my faults and strengths…You need a LOT of back-up plans…I also learned to always, always, always make two copies of EVERYTHING! It really taught me things that will help me for my future aspirations--one of which to be a journalist.” – H.G.
“The eZine is different from other school activities because it gives us a chance to work together as a team while each having responsibilities and deadlines. None of us had ever done a project that would be out for the public- the world- to see before. Everyone had a lot of pressure on them because they knew that anyone who had access to a computer could see the work and the quality of that work that was put on the eZine.
“The eZine makes me so proud. I know it sounds kind of corny, but being issue manager, and watching the eZine as it progressed- from the beginning when it, well, stunk, to the end when it was amazing. I also learned a ton about what I am capable of and now use that in my work. I also love the fact that people know about the eZine. My parents told a lot of people about it and they all comment on what a great job we did. Whenever I need something to do, I search stuff from the eZine on Google, just to see my name on GOOGLE. Not that that’s really important- it’s just really cool.” – S.F.
“You didn't tell us how it should look or what it had to be, it was all our own. You can't say that about most projects because they normally are to some guidelines.” – L.B.
“I think that the eZine was definitely a new and unique experience apart from other school activities and learning. As one of the managers in the eZine, it was pressuring to have so many people counting on you but at the same time enjoyable to know that you have completed an assignment. Doing the eZine gave me a little taste of what it feels like to meet a deadline and yet still have more work to do after. So much time and effort went into this project and I got to view the different sides or personalities people had in my classroom. With so many people coming to you for advice your mind gets boggled up and I guess in my position I took too many jobs on at the same time. I should have managed my time better and things wouldn't have been so rushed. I think this project let me have a point of view on what really happens in the "business world." Having to respond to a higher authority was definitely scary at first, but once I understood the steps in learning how to be more responsible and the ways of how you do things in the business world, it makes you appreciate all of the hard work that everyone puts into the product. When I look back on our class eZine I think we could've changed many things but with all of the good compliment we got back on our eZine it makes me and I bet the rest of the class feel successful and happy.” – L.T.
