The World is Changed

The opening line from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy seems an appropriate title for the first Cultures Revolutions blog post.  Our class at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, OR is setting sail on a unit called Revolutions.  We are studying the period from the Reformation to World War I.  Along the way we will study revolutions in science, industry, politics, society, information, and agriculture among other topics.  Students will be blogging about topics they wish to study more deeply or just pique their interests. They will be including relevant links and images in their posts.  Additionally, they will be commenting on one another's posts in thoughtful, deep ways.

I have asked kids to blog before, but never in this manner.  After exchanging posts, tweets, and emails, and viewpoints with Thor Prichard, Doug Bundy, Jim Wysocki, Mike Gwaltney, Jay Hurvitz, and Richard Kassissieh,  not only is my class ready to take this step, but I am too.  My goal is to 2-4 kids post per day.  Our class has a calendar so students will know when their post is due.  Of course they may write their post in advance and set it to go live on the day they are this blog's guest author.

It is my hope that readers of this blog from around the world will engage the students in thought provoking conversations.  Their posts represent the skin of the onion in their thinking.  It is up to those who comment to peel the skin back one layer at a time.  Hmmm....I guess blogs are a bit like ogres.

The world has changed.  I feel it in the water.  I feel it in the earth.  I smell it in the air.  There is no turning back now.  From desktops, laptops, ipads, and smartphones, let the process begin.




Photos courtesy of http://0.tqn.com/d/history1900s/1/0/Q/3/wwi17.gif and http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2734/5728920160_af94aa3d77_z.jpg

This blog will be where our class reflects on cultures and cultural issues of all kinds....from geographic issues to boundaries to revolutions.  It is modeled after the Google 20% project, the Lake Oswego Band project and Mike Gwaltney's Age of Ex blog.

The posts on this blog are part of an ongoing assignment in our 7th grade Cultures units of world history. Students post reflection pieces on a rotating basis, with two authors posting each school day. Students also occasionally post to the blog for project assignments.

You can read the specifics of our class blog assignment here.

Our class blogging guidelines.

Our class commenting guidelines.