http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18 This show has remained a pivotal point in my life and teaching. It may be outside of the norm for school, but my life sure is a lot more fun and interesting once we are all freed of the button mentality and live in the above described rhizome world.

In our Youth Voices work, students now maintain a flickr account and post images to be shared in a Youth Voices group on flickr. This past week, one of my students came to me with a baffling issue. Her work had been discovered through tags by a another group on flickr. Someone in that group sent her a note saying they admired her photography and invited her to post to the group to enrich the work of that group. One of my students now has a desktop background image that is a photograph taken by a student in Utah whose work my student admires and follows.

Last week, a past student came into my room during a digital photography class and was shocked at why the room was so quiet and why everyone was so engaged with their images. He saw the difference between when students are completing assignments and when they are developing their own aesthetically challenging problems and creating personal statements. I’d like to blow apart school all together so this happens inside and outside of school and different students come and go from school according to their own personal schedules. That would be scaffolding!

One of our first students to ask to participate this spring in Virtual High School is a competitive swimmer. She has been juggling her swimming practice with traditional school for years. No one needs to tell her that the traditional idea of school is outdated and probably useless compared to what she learns everyday in her own personal challenges at excellence. I’m afraid that it’s still going to be another two generations though, before real change happens but wouldn’t it be nice if we could enjoy a little part of it now…. oh and Google Wave… thank you Google! – That may help….