Trusting the Process

When I introduced SDL to my students five weeks ago, I told them that while they were free to explore learning in the modes and means of their choice, we had three classroom responsibilities:
 

Þ   We have the responsibility to publish and promote AHSneedle.com (news site).

Þ   We have the responsibility to produce and promote the Javelin (yearbook).

Þ   We have the responsibility to adhere to legal standards of student press.

Under the huge yellow umbrella of journalism that graces my wall, I've posted these SKILLS FOR THE 21^ST CENTURY that dominate our learning:

CRITICAL THINKING

PROBLEM SOLVING

COLLABORATION

LEADERSHIP

AGILITY

ADAPTABILITY

INITIATIVE

  

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

EFFECTIVE ORAL COMMUNICATION

EFFECTIVE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

ACCESSING & ANALYZING INFORMATION

CURIOSITY

IMAGINATION

During the first weeks of class I watched my student burst out of their cages. They wanted to make video and paint ceiling tiles and design t-shirts, and figure out how the button-making machine worked. They started blogs and made some posters and stickers. A lot of this felt like Art-and-Crafts time. My rooms were strewn with poster-paint and glitter. This didn't look like a newsroom.

But I trusted the process and reminded myself that what we were sacrificing in news production, we were reaping in ownership and enthusiasm. My hungry students were telling me through their project choices that they are starving to create and play. They crave glue guns. They long to make things. THINGS.

Last week, after teaching a three-day journalism lesson to 5th-graders, two of my SDL students came to me with a problem. In preparing their lessons for their students, they turned to our news site for examples of incorporating student quotes. What they found there disappointed them. They told me that our news coverage had fallen off since the beginning of SDL--in quantity and quality. I reminded them that we had been working on other things, but agreed that our raison d'etre was, indeed, student journalism. "Everyone needs to write stories," they said.

On Friday we had no school, but the girls came in and organized their plan for holding our news site to a higher standard.  They've committed to taking on editor responsibilities (which then frees up our seniors to finish the yearbook), including story idea generation and assignment.

They wrote up the expectations for news contribution and coverage and developed the system for selecting and assigning stories. Together we sent out an email explaining the changes.

This shift of emphasis from craft center to newsroom needed to happen. But I love how organically it transpired. The ownership is huge. The commitment is personal. I'm anticipating good things.