Blog Post Basic Support

Use this sheet to guide your planning process and as a reminder for what the requirements are. I have hard copies in my classroom. 

This can help you collect ideas. I also have hard copies in my room: 

Social Action Issue Research: Support for figuring out the message you are most passionate about sharing!

These resources can help you in the "message collecting" part of creating our picture books:

Click HERE for a link to a blog post that shares all kinds of websites and  resources for finding issues you are passionate about! Topics include: Animal Rights, Environmental Issues, Human Rights and more!

Sarah McLachlan's video for "World on Fire" that all classes studied

Here are the resources that 812 looked at with Ms. Feit: 

• Guerilla Subway Art http://subwayartblog.com/tag/fake-signs/
• HONY http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
• Dream Activists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhbdvMKzjY8
• Brave New Voices Poetry Slam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4A6e8Rk8Oo
• Trash Orchestra http://www.wimp.com/orchestratrash/

Feel free to add more resources and links in the comments section if you come across them! 

Second Quarter Writing Challenge

This quarter's writing challenge is very different from ones in the past.  I am going to challenge that 4 times this quarter you attach a picture that you've taken (or found and have given credit to the photographer) to your blog and write a piece that is inspired by it. Feel free to write more than 4. 

This idea came to me mainly by coming across a website that stated "stories are how we make sense of our lives."  A picture could capture or symbolize a moment and then the words further craft, explain, and allow the creator to analyze, make, and share meaning.  If stories are a witness to life, this is your opportunity to share what life means to you through pictures and words.

Think of it as a deeply annotated or "storified" instagram post. You can choose the genre: memoir, poetry, fiction, anything. To get credit, it must show effort and be labeled "writing challenge." 

If you want to get fancy, post a link to your posts in the comment section of this post. I would love to publish them on the class blog as a collection at the end of the quarter. 

Here's an example from me: 

Writing Challenge: Long cast October shadows

Sometimes there are days I need to get out of this city. And yet I only have my two feet and a pair of shoes, so I walk to Prospect Park. Sometimes I pretend it's like the Shire or just outside Hogsmeade. Sometimes I breathe in the air and think about home and the woods across the street from my old house or running at Sugarcreek. Sometimes I accept I am in Brooklyn and I'm grateful for these patches of forest. 

On this particular day I don't know what to do with the light. It seems to call to something deep within me and enable me to let go of all that has been hanging on my shoulders.  The gold nestling under the leaves and in the leaves is almost too much beauty for my heart to bear. It's fleeting nature only adds to to the magic. 

It reminds me of all that is good. And sometimes that is enough.