{Recently, I asked my students what they learned in English class first semester and what their goals were for the upcoming semester. What follows is my attempt to ‘write with my students.’ I realize that my assignment is in late…I guess I’ll just mark myself down 10%.}

In the evening, I like to ask my son what he did at school that day. I ask my daughter what she’s learning in her college classes. And I ask my students what they are doing in their other classes. I do this partially because I’m a curious person, but mostly because I like to get all these people reflecting on their lives. Most of these people do not journal. They go from one event to another, giving each one their attention, but never really looking back at it all and seeing how it all fits together.

I’ve been journaling since I was 18. It’s not that I have tons of profound things to say. It’s not that I want to change the world through my words. I just happen to believe very strongly in the power of words. It also helps me remember what went on years ago because I am not one of those people who can tell you what they were wearing when they had lunch with you four years ago at Panera. Mostly I journal because the world goes by too fast; I can’t make sense of it at the speed it’s traveling, so I stop every once in awhile and think about what’s happened. I need the extra time to process what’s happening around me. And it helps. I feel more healthy when I’ve been writing regularly.

The past semester has been a success in so many ways. Possibly the most important reason was completely out of my hands: I had an amazing intern from MSU. On the first day of school, Annie was asking to be involved; her confidence and competence shown through right away. She had the names of all the students memorized before I did — and I’m no slouch. Countless times in the four months she was in my classes I would begin to do something (get a student on track, get an assignment for a student who had been absent, take the attendance, address those students in the back who talk too much…) and she already had begun to do it. An intern can be so much extra work, but an organized, go-getter who knows her stuff is a real blessing and Annie Bernacki was just that.

Then there are the students. I’ve been impressed by, among other things, their willingness to try new things. I’m pretty sure most of them had not created a wiki page before this year and they took to it enthusiastically. Most of them followed my directions in creating their wiki pages and I’ve noticed that some of them use hours of their free time to update their wiki pages. I’ve had very few problems with them making negative comments on each other’s pages or putting up inappropriate videos or anything like that; they seem to understand that having this page is a privilege and they treat is as such. And the same can be said for our time using Windows Movie Maker in groups — I’ve seen young people working well together, doing their best, asking intelligent questions, open to learning new tools.

My goals for this coming semester:
• We’ve worked on grammar and sentence structure somewhat, but I see many students who need to write more clearly, so we’ll work more on those skills.
• I want to put our Research Reports up on our class wiki in an organized manner; I’ve already had several students help create pages and links for what we’re calling “MacDonaldpedia” — like Wikipedia, but about the things we are interested in here at MacDonald Middle School.
• I want to continue to expose students to technology that can be used to improve their communication skills; we’ll be looking at Voice Thread soon and I hope to incorporate it on the wiki also.
• This week, I will be presenting a session at our district’s professional development day; I hope to keep informing other teachers of the technology options they have and helping my colleagues see ways they can use those options in their classrooms. I’m also the Technology Liaison at Red Cedar Writing Project and I hope to share some of those options more freely with my RCWP Teacher Consultant friends.
• One of my goals this year is to make learning more fun for my students. I hope to continue that in a variety of ways.