Working together 2 make a difference

Educators working collaboratively

Laura Stockman has shown us that one person can make a difference. Let's see what the sum total of all of us working together can achieve.

Members

  • Sarah Hanson
  • Mike Poluk
  • Jen
  • Mrs. MC - Alden High School
  • Kristin Smith
  • Grant Lewis
  • Bethany Varkevisser
  • Glenn Hagart
  • Emily Watt
  • Sarah Brooks
  • Maddison Ellis
  • Teresa McNamara
  • Taylor
  • Nikki Luxford
  • Lauren Dougherty
  • Angela Harridge

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Blog Posts

loonyhiker

Last Day Reflections

I wrote a blog post on my Successful Teaching blog (http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2009/07/last-day-reflections.html) about the class that I just finished teaching. It was a grad class called Nature of Learning Disabilities. I tried to incorporate technology into my lessons. I hope I haven't overwhelmed them though. I am supervising the Practicum in LD starting Monday. I have five teachers and 20 students so keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well this month!

Posted by loonyhiker on July 5, 2009 at 2:06am

Angela

Grateful to Be Here!

Summer has just begun in Buffalo, New York, and all of us are taking some much-needed vacation time away from new jobs and busy school years. Our family is traveling this week, and this is giving us time to chat about what we've done to be of service to others during the last school year and what we can do in the months ahead, while we are off. Laura was very excited to see this space begin to grow this year, and I have been as well.

One of the greatest outcomes of keeping her service blog was… Continue

Posted by Angela on June 29, 2009 at 11:34pm — 2 Comments

loonyhiker

Upstate Technology Conference 2009

I attended the Upstate Technology Conference last week and learned so much. I learned a lot from attending the sessions but I also learned a lot from networking with others. People came from all around the state to attend this conference. I was really surprised how much it has grown because when it first started four years ago, there were only 200 people who attended and this year there were 1000. I wrote more about the conference in my Successful Teaching blog and will write more about it tomor… Continue

Posted by loonyhiker on June 29, 2009 at 10:59pm

Jen

Spinning Wheels....round and round...

Thought I'd share this post I recently uploaded to my Charitable Deeds project site. I wonder if any of you have felt this way....

Beyond helping my family with everyday projects, chores and providing attention as needed, I didn't do any charitable deeds today. In fact, I don't think we even left our property.

Le'me think.

Um.....

Nope!

I do have a confession to make. This seems like as good a time as any.

I feel sometimes like my efforts are pointless. They've been insignificant gestures,… Continue

Posted by Jen on June 29, 2009 at 7:00pm — 6 Comments

Anita McCurdie

Making it real

Often in schools we have a casual clothes day and bring in a gold coin donation which is given to a variety of charities. At Star of the Sea School, we recently had a can drive where every child in the school bought in a can of soup which was then donated to a local homeless shelter. To make this giving more real, we had a small ceremony where children sang “Heal The World”. Then each child respectfully brought up their can and placed it in a large heart shape while reflective music was playing.… Continue

Posted by Anita McCurdie on June 29, 2009 at 1:17pm — 2 Comments

Mike Poluk

Our Year-End Wrap-Up

Now that the school year is over and summer holidays have begun, I am reflecting on what my grade 5 students have accomplished during our Making a Difference program. I have posted previously about our efforts to raise money and awareness for the Light Up The World Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing energy efficient lighting to third world countries not connected to the power grid. The students created… Continue

Posted by Mike Poluk on June 29, 2009 at 6:30am — 3 Comments

NinaD

I guess it's holiday time! This is when I actually have a chance to get involved. I've really been e…

I guess it's holiday time! This is when I actually have a chance to get involved. I've really been enjoying reading all the blogs and I've added some photos to my page, so have a look. Cheers Nina Continue

Posted by NinaD on June 28, 2009 at 8:40pm — 2 Comments

NinaD

5 and 6 Year Olds Discuss: What is a good leader and what do they do?

Today we had a discussion in my classroom: What is a good leader and what do they do?
I teach 5 & 6 year olds, and I’m always surprised by their answers. I always record their thoughts for reflection and revisiting. The following answers are written as said by my students.

A good leader is;
not bossy
and doesn’t have to be your friend
organisers the pencils
plays with everyone
is a good friend
doesn’t exclude
doesn’t give the answers
helps others to find out what they need to find out
shows… Continue

Posted by NinaD on June 17, 2009 at 11:55pm — 5 Comments

Amanda Ritter

Year 9s March and 'Sleep' Over against child slavery

Toorak College Year 9's organised a march into our local village and slept over at the school to raise awareness and funds for the fight against child slavery - Jenny and Linda have posted more details about these events. I was delighted to be a part of such a motivated, enthusiastic and incredibly well organised group of young women as they engaged in rowdy and meaningful collaborative action. I hope those just wanting a quiet lunch break in Mt Eliza felt the same...… Continue

Posted by Amanda Ritter on June 5, 2009 at 1:00pm

Amanda Ritter

Together we can...

A MASSIVE THANKYOU to our generous network of parents and businesses who are willing to put up their hand and help our students achieve their goals. Mr Robert Kusters, of Marand Precision Engineering, saw my plea for assistance in sending our old style uniforms to the Bal Ashram Indian orphanage and he sprang into action. Mr Kusters put out the request to Mark Baker of CEVA Logistics, Mr Baker extended the request to Thai Airways and, between all of us, 15 boxes went off to India and should be t… Continue

Posted by Amanda Ritter on June 5, 2009 at 12:30pm — 5 Comments

Notes

Notes Home

Help us with our bushfire appeal. Read the discussion post to find out what the situation is and how you can help.   

 

 

 

Created by Jenny Luca Feb 4, 2009 at 6:44pm. Last updated by Jenny Luca Feb 10.

We have been mentioned on Weblogg-ed

Will Richardson has very kindly promoted this site on his blog, Weblogg-ed. Take a read of his post. Will often refers to Laura's efforts with service learning in keynote addresses he delivers. He has much admiration for the work she has done and for her ability to inspire others. Hopefully some of his readers willl find their way here and  join us.

     

Created by Jenny Luca Feb 4, 2009 at 11:35pm. Last updated by Jenny Luca Feb 4.

Forum

Angela

United States and Canadian Young People Invited to Apply for Do Something Awards 1 Reply

Started by Angela. Last reply by Jenny Luca Feb 19.

Jenny Luca

Bushfire Appeal - Education community. We need your help wherever you are! 10 Replies

Started by Jenny Luca. Last reply by Jenny Luca Feb 13.

Angela

How Do You Approach Service Learning? 3 Replies

Started by Angela. Last reply by Jenny Luca Feb 4.

Welcome! Are you a new visitor? Please scroll down a bit to learn more about this space and how your students can benefit from participating here!
_____________________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT REMINDER FOR CURRENT MEMBERS:
We'd love to see you filling out your pages with what it is you and your students are intending to do. It's the only way this idea is going to work. It requires intrinsic motivation from the members to get things started.

Are you seeking ideas for how you might get started? Laura generated a list of great ways to make a difference right here.

She has also decided to begin using her writing as a way to capture what she notices about the smaller but more significant things in life. She'd love other writers--young and older--to join her in this practice. You can check out her first attempt at this here.
_____________________________________________________________________________

As educators, we try to encourage our students to see past themselves and take a wider world view. Depending on many factors, that can be relatively easy, or relatively hard. As we approach the festive season for many cultures, an opportunity presents for us to have a means of working together in a collaborative fashion to have our students realise that their efforts can be far reaching and effect others.

11 Year old Laura Stockman has been a source of inspiration for many throughout 2008 and now into 2009. Her blog, 25 days to make a difference has detailed her efforts to raise funds for various charity organisations throughout the year. She has had over 54,000 hits on her blog and has received media attention for her efforts. Now it's time to let Laura know how her efforts have inspired others to do the same.

The aim of this space is to detail the efforts of educators and their students who are doing their bit to think outside of themselves and raise funds for worthy causes. We encourage you to join this space, create a new page for your school and start detailing what you and your students are aiming to do to help others less fortunate than yourselves. Chart your progress on your page and we'll see what we can achieve by working together to make a difference.

We originally set Dec. 15th 2008 as our end point for this ning site. We have realised that educators are finding this page via a variety of mediums and we are more than happy to keep it open and extending into 2009. Let's see what we can achieve!

Laura has shown us that one person can make a difference. Let's see what the sum total of all of us working together can achieve.

Jenny Luca
Head of Information Services
Toorak College
Mt. Eliza.
Melbourne, Australia.
http://jennylu.wordpress.com

Angela Stockman
Director
Western New York Education Associates
Buffalo, New York
United States of America
http://www.angelastockman.com/blog
 
 

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Latest Activity

Jenny Luca commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
I know it can get frustrating, but hopefully we can support one another here. I know that hearing what people are doing inspires me to move forward and I hope it can do the same for you Jen. : )
yesterday
NinaD commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
Hi Jen, I don't know what happened to my last comment. I just wrote that someone always puts my mum's bins out for her. She doesn't know who it is, but she's always grateful and I guess it restores her faith in humanity. It's a lovely gesture by a...
yesterday
Jenny Luca commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
I can empathise with you Jen. I, too, have seen my life spin out of control of late. It is hard to remain positive and upbeat when all around you is chaos. I suppose this space has been one of the things in my life that helps to keep things ground...
yesterday
loonyhiker added a blog post
I wrote a blog post on my Successful Teaching blog (http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2009/07/last-day-reflections.html) about the class that I just finished teaching. It was a grad class called Nature of Learning Disabilities. I tried to inc...
on Saturday
Jenny Luca left a comment for Amanda T Bush
Hi Amanda, Welcome to this community of educators and students who are trying to make a difference. So pleased you have chosen to join us. I'd love it if you could tell us a little more about yourself and what it is you might be thinking of doing ...
July 2
NinaD left a comment for Amanda T Bush
Hi Amanda, Great to see you here and I often wonder how you found this site. If you'd like to share that I'd love to know. There are some inspiring people here and I'm always picking up ideas. Cheers Nina
July 1
Amanda T Bush is now a member of Working together 2 make a difference
Welcome Them!
July 1
Jen and NinaD are now friends
June 30
Jen commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
Thanks Jenny & Nina. We're hitting the road today and hope to find some good deeds along the way. When we return, we'll venture back into the positive. ;) I think part of the issue lately is that our lives are so danged busy! EVERYONE is busy, bu...
June 30
Mike Poluk and loonyhiker are now friends
June 30
Jenny Luca commented on Angela's blog post 'Grateful to Be Here!'
I am so pleased this space is fulfilling a function for all of us who habitate this corner of the web. It has been inspiring to see the space grow and make connections with educators from many parts of the world who are interested in how service l...
June 30
NinaD commented on NinaD's blog post '5 and 6 Year Olds Discuss: What is a good leader and what do they do?'
And I forgot! You'll love teaching this age group. Lot's of fun and very smart! I've taught all primary ages and when I found out I'd be having a straight prep, frightened was the word. But I love thier honesty, sense of fun and the way they see t...
June 29
NinaD commented on Angela's blog post 'Grateful to Be Here!'
Laura is certainly special and I think that she is destined to do something 'big' with her life. I've talked about Laura as if I know her, read her blog and have found that young 'kids' relate! It's wonderful to see 'good come from bad' and I agre...
June 29
Angela added a blog post
Summer has just begun in Buffalo, New York, and all of us are taking some much-needed vacation time away from new jobs and busy school years. Our family is traveling this week, and this is giving us time to chat about what we've done to be of serv...
June 29
loonyhiker left a comment for Mike Poluk
It was amazing to read all the wonderful things you are doing! Your students have a wonderful role model to look up to. When I read all of the things you and your class have done, it was hard to believe that they were only grade 5. They are a grea...
June 29
loonyhiker added a blog post
I attended the Upstate Technology Conference last week and learned so much. I learned a lot from attending the sessions but I also learned a lot from networking with others. People came from all around the state to attend this conference. I was re...
June 29
loonyhiker updated their profile
June 29
Jenny Luca commented on Mike Poluk's blog post 'Our Year-End Wrap-Up'
Mike, I am so thrilled with everything you and your students have achieved. What an excellent year for you, your students and the people who have benefited from your efforts. Your personal contribution to this site has been motivating for me and o...
June 29
Jen commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
Jenny wrote: I wish you would allow the comments to appear on this post. (TADAH! Ask and...) I am sure others in this community would share with you how your actions do make a difference. Yes it is frustrating if people don't seem to respond, but ...
June 29
Jen commented on Jen's blog post 'Spinning Wheels....round and round...'
There we go! Now anyone can comment here! :) Sorry about that. Still haven't mastered the site. Already, I've received a couple of positive responses from some of the ning's best cheerleaders. THanks! :) I'm not completely giving up, I just get fr...
June 29
 

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