Intrepid Classroom

There has been much talk here at Intrepid Classroom about the fact that there are not specific enough goals. People often say that they do not know what it is that they are meant to be doing, that the assignments lack structure, and that there is very little cohesion to the entire experiment.

I have repeatedly tried to explain that the main point of this classroom is to try and learn how to build a community of young people from around the world determined to work together to learn about and solve some of the global issues we deal with on a daily basis.

I didn’t want to assign projects or give too much direction, because I wanted to see if it was possible for a group of random students to take charge and give this project some cohesion. This doesn’t seem to be working, so I want to start promoting a project that is dear to my heart.

I have mentioned Daraja several times before, but now I have some specific task. I received the following email today:

I’m writing today in my position of Volunteer Program Coordinator for Daraja Academy. I am looking to see if you are interested in being a part of Daraja in some capacity, be it an hour of computer research from home or a six-month education internship in Kenya. If you have any special skills, such as in languages (especially Swahili), computers, teaching, media, fundraising, etc., feel free to include those too. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Grey

P.S. – The list below is mostly just food for thought; it includes projects already undertaken by members of the Daraja community, which I’ve provided as examples, as well as projects that we desperately need people on. If any of the items pique your interest, let me know and we’ll set you up.

• Starting a Daraja Club
• Fundraising Event (Benefits, coin drives, neighborhood meetings, etc.)
• Finding stores/restaurants who will donate a % of profits for one night
• Researching Corporate Sponsors
• Grant & Trust research
• Awareness campaigns (art festival booths, etc.)
• Coordinating vaccinations
• Coordinating Drives for goods (books, sheets, computers, etc.)
• Help putting together marketing materials
• Creating merchandise (calendars, greeting cards, shirts)
• Logo Design
• Grant writing
• Creation of admission materials—applications, forms, etc.
• Public Relations campaign—contacting newspaper, media, etc.
• Computer drive
• Textbook and reference book drive

So there you go. You want something specific to work on, then educate yourself about this amazing school and get involved. Find people here at Intrepid Classroom and see if you can work on some projects together. Raise money and raise awareness!

I also want to start using the chat feature on the Ning to try and bring us together more often. I want to set up a weekly meeting. It will be hard to coordinate it at first, so that every time zone can be involved, but let us start with a few different times and see which one sticks. Please come to the Intrepid Classrrom Ning this Friday October 31st at any of these times:

• 9:00 pm Doha
• 2:00pm East Coast Time USA
• midnight Asia (sorry guys.)
• 8:00am Hawaii