Aram Kabodian's Page

I teach 7th grade Language Arts classes and a Journalism class at MacDonald Middle School in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. This will be my 18th year teaching and I've spent about half of it teaching Language Arts at the middle school and high school levels and half of it teaching Special Education classes --- smaller classes of students with needs in reading, writing, and math. I love sharing my enjoyment of reading, writing, and using technology with students.

Here are a couple other places you can find me online:
* My blog
* My school website

I read about Laura in an article by Will Richardson, then read her blog, and found my way here. Laura has a gift for bringing people together, it seems, and this ning is a wonderful extension of what she started. My involvement in community service has mostly been connected to my church in the past (walking in Crop Walks, traveling to South Dakota to work with the Lakota at Re-Member...), but I've offered students the option of doing community service in my classes; it's been one of the only ways students can get extra credit in my classes.

I call it the Giving Option. They do some volunteer work in the community, write it up, get their parent to sign it, and turn it in. The volunteer work can be anything they don't get paid for: from raking the neighbor's leaves to walking or running in a 5K for a good cause to cleaning a park with their Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop... My hope is that volunteering gets them in the habit of being generous and feeling a part of their community (as opposed to apart from their community).

I'm looking for more ways to get my students helping out in the community --- locally, nationally, and internationally --- and learning about (and working with) people outside of our area. This ning seems like a great way for me to facilitate that work.