Time is so flying!  I guess that means we're having fun (!?).  I asked the students the other day what they would suggest as topics for next year and I was surprised at some of their answers.  One was A REPORT about countries...a REPORT???  My big toe!  This is Enrichment, where you stick your neck out and do things NOT usually done in the regular classroom!  I suggested, and I did it nicely, that no, we wouldn't even consider doing a "report" unless it was as a travel agent who had researched a complete itinerary with flights,  costs, sights to see, time-tables and postcards.  There were a number of "Adopt a/an ________(space, country, animal)" ideas.  Which was cool this year but let's come up with something new!  I tried to point them into the present by reminding them of the earthquakes and oil spills going on. Everyone seems to agree that the challenges proposed by the PBS Design Squad are a lot of fun (& they don't realize how much they are learning - about problem solving, about risk-taking, about their own abilities).  So that's a good possibility!
Personally, I'm leaning toward having each class  have a 6to9 week tour of duty in the Broadcast room.  Whether or not they want to be On Air there is SO MUCH to learn there!  Technology, graphic arts, communication/journalism, presentation and advertising, even typing are a few topics that come to mind.  Lights, sound, teleprompter, cameras, action!  Plus, because it would be occurring during the day in a less harried manner, it can be recorded, re-recorded, critiqued and improved.  I would love to see interviews, book talks, photo-essays written, performed and produced by students and aired on our daily broadcasts. We may even get into some clay-mation....
This is an incomplete blog, I'll be back.  Meet me here!  XXOO!!