My Journalism Practicum (JP) students will be--yet unbeknownst to them--blazing a trail through AHS learning this coming semester, and I am in charge of loading our wagon:

1) We need a map. Wait--the whole idea of trailblazing is map-less. Maybe I mean we need a destination. We'll make the map as we go.

2) We need supplies, but we'll pack light. My room has laptops and cameras. We have a website (AHSneedle.com) and plenty of Legos and lemondrops. We have hoola-hoops and newspaper subscriptions. We have press passes and journalism notebooks. I think that's enough to get us started.

3) We need the trailblazer's mindset: spunky, tenacious, innovative, determined, cautious (as needed) but overwhelmingly brave. When I lay out this student-directed adventure to my students, I'll offer them the chance to opt out. JP is an elective; no one is forced to take the class. But if they sign on, they'll be expected to develop an adventurer's optimism and problem-solving personality. I say "develop" because in truth, optimistic problem-solvers are not beating my door down. If schools want more of this type of student, we need to grow our own.

4) We need some organization. This is probably my biggest fear. My strengths as an educator are my creativity and ability to make unexpected connections. This helps me keep learning vigorous and meaningful--but my "point A connects to point F" way of seeing the world makes it challenging for me to remember to take attendance or put the stapler back in the same place. As my students transform our room into a student-led project-based bastion of high school journalism, I must provide organizational undergirding. TBC...

5) We need space. In reading about others' student-directed and project-based learning environments, "tables" and "space" are the most frequently bemoaned shortcomings. I have a good-sized classroom connected to a small editors' room--plus a big closet and a camera room/office. But my administrators have given me "permission" to go where no man has gone before...which calls for SPACE--the final frontier. While this aspect of trailblazing is still fuzzy in my mind, I'm hoping my students will see the world as their classroom. Where will that take us?

6) Five is enough! As a mother of six, I feel compelled to stop at five (sorry, Stuart). But five items is usually enough: five chores on my to-do list, five papers to read, five points to make in a single blog entry.

"Be not afraid of greatness" --William Shakespeare

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