Intrepid Classroom

Here is the first of what I hope to be many video trailers for this class. I would love to see more videos from members or readers about what Intrepid Classroom means to you:

Please embed and share with as many people as you can. Get it out there!

I am not sure how technologically comfortable everyone is, so it is a good idea to occasionally stop and make sure that everyone is able to do some very useful and necessary things on the Internet. As you become more and more involved with this class and start reading more blogs by its members, it is a good idea to know how to start and maintain an RSS reader. If you are familiar with and already have a Reader account then don’t worry about continuing to read this post, but if you are unfamiliar with a reader account please start by watching this video:

I hope that was easy enough to understand, but in case it is not. Let me try and give you step-by-step instructions on how to create your very own Google Reader account.Step one- you must have a Google account. This does not mean that you must use gmail. You can use any email provider and still use the many Google tools by signing up for an account. All you need is valid email and a password.Start here:

Once you have created your account you will have access to many google tools like these:

For some reason Google Reader is not on this menu so type: www.google.com/reader

Once you are on the main page it follow these steps:

I am having a terrible time trying to embed this video. So please follow this link for instructions.

Step Two- You should start by subscribing to this blog and the Ning. That way you will know whenever something new has been posted. You should check y0ur Google Reader account daily to stay updated on your posts. Once you have subscribed to this blog, look around at the blogs of other members and subscribe to them as well.

If you have any questions, please leave them here. If y0u do this successfully, please leave a comment letting us know how it went. Good luck!

Life and Debt is the first entry in the film section of our blog. Film like music can be a powerful artform to help raise awareness and bring about change. Film is a wonderful medium to merge visual images, music, as well as narrated text. This stunning film by Stephanie Black is a masterpiece and a must see for anyone interested in global issues. Black uses a kaleidescope of powerful images layered with a powerful soundtrack to make simple what often appear to be complex global economic issues.

From the New York Times:

The term “globalization” is so tinged with rosy one-world optimism that it’s easy to assume the essential benignity of an economic philosophy whose name vaguely connotes unity, equality and freedom. But as Stephanie Black’s powerful documentary “Life and Debt” illustrates with an impressive (and depressing) acuity, globalization can have a devastating impact on third world countries. The movie offers the clearest analysis of globalization and its negative effects that I’ve ever seen on a movie or television screen. Read more here

Read more reviews at the official web site here or track info on IMDB. If you can rent this film, please do so. If not start building your video library here. If you do watch the film, please come back and tell us what you think! Take a look at the trailer:

Hello members of Intrepid Classroom and first time readers. We are up to twenty-six members, and while I am waiting for school to end to present a few big project ideas, many of you are already getting started by doing a variety of exciting things. I have been receiving some questions lately,  so I think this is a good time to address some concerns some of you may be having.

The first comment was referring to the Ning:

I don’t get this site =(
Well, kinda…I don’t know what i should do and what I really can do in here..,a little help will be nice =D plzzz

Here is another comment:

I can see that Intrepid Classroom is growing and more members are joining. I have one question and I thought that I should ask it now since I saw you were online. What should I do to get part of Intrepid Classroom? I know that technically I’m in it but how do I really get accepted in Intrepid Classroom´s society? I just don’t know where to start. I hope you can help me Mr. R. Cya later in Intrepid Classroom and good night!

A quick review of what a Ning is used for would be a great place to start, but in short the Ning is a place to meet people. I would suggest that if you are not sure what to do simply reach out and talk to  someone. If you click on any member’s picture it will take you to their page. Read what they have said already. Most members have a separate blog, while some people are using the blog feature on the Ning itself. Listen to their music, read their words, and introduce yourself. You can send people messages or leave them comments on their page.

We are trying to learn how to build a network of people you can learn from and teach at the same time, so first you must get to know each other. It would also be a great idea to work on your own page as well. Share some music or videos and write why you have chosen that music. Share some of your thoughts on life, school, and the world around you. Invite people to connect.

Once you have done made a few connections you can join one of the many discussions already happening. Simply click on the title of the discussion under the forum section and see what people are saying. The What Makes A Book Worth Reading already has 63 responses. If you don’t find something that interests you, then start your own discussion about anything you like.

It was also brought up that perhaps there are too many pages:

I almost already feel like we have too many different pages. Sometimes I think that a post was on Ning but it was on Edublog and then I spent 30 min searching the wrong site.

But trust me, I feel each page serves a purpose. We will be using many other tools soon, so let’s make sure we all feel comfortable with the ones we are using now.  After you have mastered the Ning, you can begin working on some of the projects we are working on at the wiki The first is the design of a logo. Do you have any ideas? Can you draw some sketches? Then go to the wiki page and leave your thoughts here. (If you have not already done so, ask for a request to join. There is a link that will send me the request.) Once you have joined then simply click on the Edit This Page link at the top of the page and insert any text, video, or images you need. Hit save and  you have edited our wiki. This logo can be hand drawn or use photographs and text. We will all have to work on it together.

You can also get involved with the latest writing project tentatively called We Are One. Simply follow this link and add your part to the story. If neither one of these wiki projects is for you, then think of another project you would like to work on and present it here. See if you can get one or two people to work on it with you. Some ideas can be: creating a video about a topic you are interested, or maybe record a pod cast, or simply write a poem or blog post with another person. Perhaps we could all take pictures or video of where we live and share them with the group.

I will present more formal “assignments” soon. In the meantime, I want to see what you guys come up with yourselves.

That should keep you busy. Please feel free to contact me again if you have any questions. I know I can get wordy, so here is a list if things to do if you don’t know where to start.

1. Meet at least three new People in the Ning.
2. Work on your Ning page
3. Join a discussion.
4. Work on Logo
5. Work on We Are One
6. Create new Project

Final note for the people involved in the book discussion, my question to you is now what? You have done an amazing job creating a dynamic and rich conversation about books, but how can we synthesize the information? Can you perhaps take what has been said and write a concise, coherent blog post about adolescence reading habits? See what you can you do. Students are always complaining that they don’t like being told what to do…well here is your chance to whatever you want. But do something!

Great job everyone. Keep up the good work!

A few weeks ago Lindsea wrote a post about non-linear thinking. One line in her post grabbed my attention, “I am just one continuous story.” It immediately made me think about how we are all one continuous story. We enter and leave each other’s narratives, sometimes leaving our mark, while sometime we are forgotten. We are connected by a shared, albeit sometimes, skewed history. I often feel that there is one story that runs through mankind/womankind, and we are sometimes offered glimpses into the plot and characters, but more often than not we stumble through our lives trying to figure out the ending, unaware that we are writing and reading it in the present.

What if we were aware that we are co-authors of this story? What if we actively wrote our part and shared it with others. What if we weren’t confined to write our stories alone? The teacher in me thought PROJECT!

Let’s write an ongoing collaborative story by the members of Intrepid Classroom. I have created a page on the wiki page for this project. The rules are simple: Go to the wiki and add your part. Most of you are good enough writers to know that the story should maintain some sort of coherent thread, but if there are times when you must be non-linear then work you part into the existing plot somehow. You can add parts before or after existing text. If you want to flush out a character you did not create simply add flashback or find some other technique to add information. Feel free to experiment with voice, point of view, time…..whatever. Have fun. No rules, no grades, just write!

I think it is okay to edit other people’s work, but I suggest you do not erase entire passages. If someone edits your work, you are allowed to go back and change things back, but let’s not get into a back and forth. Rememebr once its on the wiki it is no longer yours, it is ours! You can write as little as one line or ten pages. (For those of you who have never worked with a wiki page please read this.)

There is a website called Lulu that will publish our book when it is done. So let’s get to work. Go to the wiki, ask for an invite, and write your part of the story. I hope you don’t mind but I have started us off. I couldn’t help myself. Let’s see where our story will take us….

I remember the day I first heard Ben Harper. It was sometime in the early nineties. I was young and falling in and out of love. I was on a porch in San Francisco, and the day before I had told my girlfriend at the time that I just wanted to be friends. She was due to come and talk. I wasn’t sure about what or why, but I had agreed. The sun was getting ready to set, and the fog waited in the Richmond to be unleashed.

I share this story with you, because as writers I think it is important to remember that all of our writing no matter how structured it may appear is anchored in real life experiences, and connecting to those memories is one of the most important aspects of writing. Back to the story…

She arrived. Broken. Smiling. I offered her something to drink. We sat on the porch. She had been crying. I have some songs to play for you she said. I have a new favorite artist she said. You will love him she said. I hated that she knew me so well. It made it harder to make the break. Before I knew it, I was heairng the basic three-chord progression of the song Walk Away by Ben Harper. You can hear the song on the Ning.

The words floated from the speakers and disappeared over the edge of the porch:

Oh no- here comes that sun again.
And (that) means another day without you my friend.
And it hurts me to look into the mirror at myself.
And it hurts even more to have to be with somebody else.

And it’s so hard to do and so easy to say.
But sometimes - sometimes,
you just have to walk away - walk away.

The connection I made to that song on that late afternoon was so strong that even as I type these words years later, I can feel the same tears welling up in my eyes. We sat listening to the entire album- Welcome To The Cruel World. The girl and I remained friends. I was just invited to her wedding this August. But it was the music that helped solidify that day in my memory.

My admiration and love of Ben Harper was born that day years ago, but his music has been a constant source of inspiration and comfort to me throughout the years. We chose his song Forever as our wedding song, and whenever I am in need of honest, truthful, soulful, spiritual music it is to Harper I turn. He is a true artist in the sense that he is more than a musician. He is an activist, a father, and a beautiful human being. These characteristics shine through the words of his song and can be seen in his amazing live performances. I have been lucky enough to see Harper live on several occasions and each show is a carnival of soul, blues, rock and roll, and folk. He blends his political anthems with a tender grace reserved for vespers and lullabies.

I am sharing Ben Harper with this class because I want to show that musicians and artists need not be labeled as merely political. Harper is not a political artist; he is simply a human being aware of the state of the world; he is a man in touch with his spiritual need to bring peace to those he touches with his art. Whether through love or protest songs, he is a man of action and style.

He may not be on top forty lists, but Harper is a spokesman for members of a generation looking for something more than blind consumerism and greed. He stands for peace, love, and the assembling of the human family. I encourage readers of this blog to explore his website and more importantly listen to his music. Watch him on Youtube or at his site see how his work connects with you.

Where to start? His website allows you to stream many of his songs. His album Fight For Your Mind is a great place to start. As always there is his wikipedia page. Here are some song titles to explore:

Better Way
With My Own Two Hands
Oppression
Excuse Me Mr.
Black Rain

Let me know what you think! Please upload your favorites on your Ning pages! Write a post about how his music affects you.

Take your face out of your hands
And clear your eyes
You have a right to your dreams
And don’t be denied

I believe in a better way

Have you ever seen or created a Powerpoint presentation that you really liked? Well there is a simple way to share presentations with larger audience than your “real” classroom. It is a site called SlideShare. You need to create an account, but once you do Slideshare allows you to upload presentations and then share them on your blog, Ning, Facebook, and many other sites. It allows for people to comment on your presentations and maneuver through the slides themselves.

I got an email from an Intrepid Classroom student the other day, saying that she had a Powerpoint she saw in class that she wanted to share. She had some trouble uploading it, so here are some instructions for next time.

1. You must have an account with Slideshare, but you can do this with an email and a password.
2. Then you simply click on the upload button.
3. Once your .pps file is uploaded you will be given an embedding code.
4. This is where it gets tricky. Edublogs is acting strange so make sure that you follow the next instructions carefully. In your rich text editor you will find two tabs one is called visual and the other is code:

Paste the code you got from Slideshare where ever you want it in your post and immediately hot publish. DO NOT code back to visual. This will cause problems. Edublogs is working on it!

That’s it. You can paste the code into the Ning or any other site as well. Here is the presentation, I hope to see it on Leila’s site soon.

| View | Upload your own

As we begin to use more and more web tools to share our work, collaborate with each other, raise awareness, it is a good idea to stop every once in a while to recap which tool is best for each job. Some people may be experts with these tools, while others may still be very new.

We hope to be able to guide and coach you as you become comfortable with the various tools. Please feel free to leave a comment either here or send me a message from the Ning if you need further clarification. We also have a running tab at the top of this page called Web Tools with explanations of the tools we will be using.

Here is a basic run-down of why you would use each tool:

Blogs- a good place to reflect on your own learning, seek feedback on longer written pieces, express yourself with writing, multimedia, photographs, drawings and more. Blogs are a great home base to anchor your online activity. I will be using this blog as a way to share resources, give “lessons,” and keep all of our activity in order.

Ning- a good place to have conversations and discussions, make announcements, share music, and socialize. If you do not have a blog of your own, the Ning offers you a blog option to write longer pieces.

Wiki- this is the place for more than one person to work collaboratively on a shared project, like the logo. The wiki creates pages that can be edited by a group of people.

Youtube- this is a place where we can share the videos we will create, as well as a place where we can start to add favorites. I hope this will become a great collection for videos to help raise awareness and promote activism and peace.

For those of you who are new to all of us technology, relax, take a deep breath and jump right in. For those of you who are old pros, please help us get everyone on board!

We now have seventeen members at the Ning, and we are starting to have some really good discussions about capital punishment. There is a hefty book list as well as some shared music, so if you haven’t already done so, please come by and join the Ning.

This is a good time, however, to start to think about what we want to do with Intrepid Classroom. It is one thing to simply get together and argue, discuss, and share our ideas, but then what? I see this experiment as way to bring students together from around the world, to not only exchange ideas, but also to try and offer solutions and create products to help create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful planet.

I have always taught that process is more important than product, but I would love to create small teams of students who can design and implement their own creations. Perhaps you can make a video for or against capital punishment, or a poem about the war in Iraq, or maybe a podcast about the affects of globalization on the developing world. We want to use art and technology to raise awareness and instigate change. You are the next generation of activist; this is your school. Tell us what you need to learn. Let us show you.

I understand that May is the worst time to even think about any of this, with end of year exams and anxieties, but please store these ideas in the back of you brain and let’s see what we can do over the summer and next year.

I have created a YouTube page for our class. I will send you the password via the Ning, so if you want to post your work, please contact me here for details. I am currently working on a video trailer for this class. I would love to get some video from you on what Intrepid Classroom, as a concept and as a reality, means to you. If you are not comfortable enough technically to create a video and post it on Youtube, contact people at the Ning for some help, and if that doesn’t work I can help you.

I have also added a tab at the top of the page for books and films. There are only a few hyper-linked items, but I hope to fill these spaces in the coming months with more in-depth explanations.

Please use Intrepid Classroom as a resource for music, films, and books that will help you in your quest for peace and justice. Thanks for stopping by. Do not be a lurker! Leave a comment. Let us know you were here. Tell your friends, let’s change the world.

A few days ago, Leila wrote the following in one of her posts:

First, I have a shikayat, a complaint against anyone reading this. Currently only two people are commenting on this blog. I put a lot of work but I guess it’s going to waste. The amazing two people I’m talking about are Mr.R and Julia. Thank you both. I would probably give up if it wasn’t for you. So those of you reading comment and you two amazing people keep on commenting and please send my blog link to anyone you know. Why? Well I don’t are if they think it’s a blog by a wired girl who has an average life. Even if they think so I don’t care just get them to mention that they came; by comment.

This is for you Leila:

Let me start by saying I feel your pain. As a much younger man or was it last week, I felt the pain of not being noticed. I poured my heart out into the world and realized the world didn’t notice, and if it did detect my presence it didn’t seem to care. I feel writing in general and blogging in particular is about communicating and connecting, and it can be very difficult to continually participate in a one-way conversation with what often feels like an abyss. Here is my advice:

We write because we have no choice. It may take some time for you to realize you are a writer; I hope you realize that most people never realize it. Be patient. You are young, observe, live, experience life. The calling will come; I already see it in you. I didn’t hear it until I was nineteen, but it comes to those of us who are passionate and constantly yearning for things we can’t explain. We write because the universe pours too much into our souls for us to handle. We write when awake and we write when we dream. We hear the words as they dance in every song we hear and see them in every face we meet. We write because the world is too perfect not to be documented. We write because we connect with the intangible and spiritual. We write because we appreciate the practical. We write because we are idealist and because we are realist. We write to reawaken magic and put to sleep apathy.

Sometimes we hope that people will read our words and perhaps pat our backs, but when we really start to write we do it because we can’t stop. Writing is bigger than ego and the writer. Writing belongs to the world; we simply catch it and give it form. We scribble on napkins and on the backs of our hands. We write by the way we dress and the way we walk. We realize that life is an on going story that we are writing even as we are living it.

Don’t concern yourself with who is reading your work and what they are or not saying. Just observe, listen, live, love, be young, and enjoy every experience in your life. Each one, good or bad is material for your story. That is the beauty of being a writer, you are constantly ready to work. Some see this vocation as a disease, and in a sense they are right, but once you are infected you have no choice but to continue. Just be glad that you know you are alive, many people in the world have no idea! Spill your guts and tears into words, paintings, music, art. They will never let you down.

I used to think that to be a writer one had to be published, or famous, or paid, but now I see that to be a writer you have to simply write. Rest assured that Julia and I are here and are reading, but don’t concern yourself with any of that. Just write!

• What advice do you have for writers?
• What does writing mean to you?

Please either comment below or write on your blog and give us a link.