The edu180atl project is up and running over at http://edu180atl.org/.

To follow the project on Twitter: follow us at @edu180atl.

To "like" us on Facebook: go to http://www.facebook.com/edu180atl.

And, if you would like to apply to write for edu180atl during the 2011-12 school year, fill out the form on http://edu180atl.org/apply/. We only have 33 slots remaining for 2011!

You can subscribe to the project via RSS or email. Check out the right-hand sidebar on our new and improved site!

#180voices180stories

 180 voices. 180 stories.

In April, the edu180atl team launched this site, edu180atlbeta, in order to test the feasibility of such a project. The April version of edu180atl was a huge success and we are looking forward to our August 1, 2011 launch of edu180atl. Our new website will be up and running soon which will allow you to submit an application to write for one day during the 2011-12 school year.

In the meantime, check out the posts from the month of April:

April 1, 2011: Whit Weinmann (@runningwitty) on The Power of Connections

April 4, 2011: Amanda Stavropoulos (@stavrofamily) on The Village is Waiting

April 5, 2011:Sharmaine Mitchell (@sharmitchell) on Tension

April 6, 2011:Sarita Yardi (@yardi) on Familiar Strangers

April 7, 2011: Tara Subramanian (@TaraWestminster) on Beauty in Broken Pieces

April 8, 2011: Bo Adams (@boadams1) on Through What Lens Do We Gaze

April 11, 2011: Jill Gough (@jgough) on Learning, Time, Risk, Trust, Choice

April 12, 2011: Jeffrey Small (@jeffreysmalljr) on The Breath of God

April 13, 2011: Peter Diaz on Learning

April 14, 2011: Brett Jacobsen (@jbrettjacobsen) on Listening by Design

April 15, 2011: Elizabeth Weaver on Through the Eyes of a Child

April 18, 2011: Kara Koetter (@kkoetter) on Failure

April 19, 2011: Jonathan Newman on Lightning

April 20, 2011: Buffy Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton) on Listening to Your Heart

April 21, 2011: Clark Meyer (@clarkbeast) on Consider Me a Convert

April 22, 2011: Usha Nair-Reichert on Precious Moments

April 25, 2011: Anna Harrison on The Perils of Perfectionism

April 26, 2011: Kimbrell Teegarden on Big Kid, Little Kid, Big Kid, Little Kid

April 27, 2011: John Burk (@occam98) on Physics

April 28, 2011:Lauren Formica on The Sound of Learning Physics

April 29, 2011: Josie Calamari on Witnessing the Becoming of a Student

Witnessing the becoming of a student

I have met many beloved and interesting characters working with special needs students. There was the child who insisted I call him by his initials because they spelled out a famous internet provider. And there was the 7th grade boy who named my stress-induced acne after himself. As his homeroom teacher, I was responsible for dealing with his actions and their consequences. He would come to class looking for new signs of his bad decisions making, and promised to make better choices to help clear up my zits or “Ross’s.” But today, I had a student truly warm my heart. I have been working with this child for two years in different capacities, but always knowing he could achieve more than he thought he was capable of doing. Today, he came to school in the midst of royal wedding fever and stated, “Mrs. Calamari, I think I am here both physically and mentally today!” He had finally learned what I already knew. Even though he is ADHD and dyslexic, he has a brain that might work in mysterious ways, but it does work and works well. Yes, this comes towards the close of the year, but it is the pinnacle moment of his months of hard work, determination and motivation. He came to school feeling like the student he had worked to become. Along the way, he has learned how to read, write, and self advocate. 

About the author: Josie Calamari teaches 6th grade dyslexics at The Schenck School.

The sound of learning physics

Illustration by Guila Forsythe

As a wide card-board tube was placed over a steaming Chick-fil-A cup of water, a confused fifth period physics class looked at their instructor as if he was crazy. While the physics class was initially a bit puzzled, it turns out that one can learn the wonders of sound through a simple demonstration. Today, I learned that sound travels fastest through solids, but it also travels faster through a light gas versus a heavy gas. Oxygen and Nitrogen are relatively heavy gases when compared to something like water vapor. In the tube demonstration, the water vapor of the cup of hot water displaced the oxygen and nitrogen normally present in air. By changing the gas in the tube, the sound of a clap traveled faster through the water vapor air than the normal air. In order to prove this point, a microphone and computer data collecting device were used. It turns out that sound through water vapor crosses the length of the cup in a few tiny fractions of a second sooner than sound traveling through normal air. This simple but fascinating demonstration had the entire physics class on their toes. Not only did this example further our knowledge about sound, but it also showed the concept of speed of sound in a new, exciting way. These sorts of demonstrations keep the class interesting and fun while still managing to be challenging and still be, well, physics.

About the author: Lauren Formica- Junior at the Lovett School who enjoys anything environmental , is a proud debate nerd and has a passion for community service.

(download)

Click here to download:

orbit.mov (1.37 MB)

Physics. It's a word that makes most students (and adults cringe). Often when people find out I teach the subject, they share stories of their horrible experiences with the subject—hours spent trying to decipher complicated formulae and absorb ideas from incomprehensible lectures. But it's never been that way for me—when I look at physics, I don't see equations—I see symmetry, beauty and an endless chain of questions. My greatest challenge as a teacher has been to change the way the world sees science, one student and one question at a time.

For many of my students, visualizing physics turns out to be one of the biggest difficulties, since the motion of objects, from planets to baseballs, is governed by forces they can't see. Recently, thanks to the power of technology, I've found what might be a tremendous breakthrough in overcoming this difficulty. Students in my classes are learning to program interactive 3-d simulations of situations in a programming language, VPython. They can then interact with these simulations, and see how the velocity or net force change as the objects moves. You can see an example of this above in the movie simulating the elliptical motion of a comet around the sun.

I came to discover this tool through another technological wonder—the Global Physics Department—a weekly collaboration of over 20 physics teachers from around the world that get together on Wednesday nights to chat via elluminate and share ideas about physics teaching. The power of technology to allow us to visualize and build global collaborations might just be the key to taking the fear out of physics.

About the author: John Burk is a physics teacher and new father with more questions than answers.

Big kid, little kid, big kid, little kid…

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. --Ralph Waldo Emerson 

They are lined up along the field, more than 600 children in total. It is Buddy Day at Trinity School, an event that began indoors with the “big kids” (2nd through 6th grade) helping the “little kids” (three year olds through 1st grade) write letters to troops serving overseas. Now they have physical challenges to overcome together, and the field is radiating energy far beyond the light of the bright morning sun.

The big kids own their responsibility with notable pride and aplomb; they are clearly aware and empowered by the knowledge that the little kids are looking up with eyes of wonder and adoration. The little kids respond with unreserved joy knowing a big kid has taken their hand and is showing them the way as if nothing else matters but their success in that moment.

This morning, each child is simultaneously teacher and student; empathy, role-modeling, patience, and team-work are just a few of the skills covered in this lesson. The reciprocity of the learning creates a palpable life-force before my eyes, a natural resource produced by human capital alone. It is an energy that we must work to harness more intentionally, knowing that our students benefit so greatly from its light.

Today I learned that when we provide the opportunity for our young teacher/students to engage each other, all that is left is to step back and bask in the glow.

About the author: Kimbrell Teegarden is a mom, a wife, a school counselor, a Presbyterian minister, and a teacher or a student, depending on the moment.

The Perils of Perfectionism

As I was perusing the pictures of Don Stewart’s morning clinic at Chastain Horse Park, I came across a picture of me, jumping on my pony, Beau. The first thing  I thought of was how far I was leaning forward—I was hovering over the pommel of the saddle, not anywhere near the middle. My leg was fine, if a little too far back. My eyes were looking ahead. My back was flat. While my elbows looked like chicken wings, it wasn’t a major problem. It was my upper body that ruined the whole image.  I had known I had a tendency to lean forward over jumps from looking at pictures, but I thought I had cured that habit. Apparently not.

Seven years of sore legs, sweat, painful injuries, and hard work, I still had faults when jumping over a small, 2’3” jump. It made me wonder—would I ever look as good as George Morris? Would I ever be perfect?

It all made me think—if you strive for perfection, you’re going to have to shoulder the burden of failure. There’s always going to be some little flaw—your heel isn’t down, you can’t hit the right note, you can’t figure out a math problem. If you want perfection, you need to be prepared to fight a losing battle. Seven years can make you great; but no amount of time can make you perfect.

About the author: Anna Harrison is an enthusiastic horse rider, pianist, and soccer and basketball player. She is a Harry Potter nerd extraordinaire.

Precious Moments

It's exit interview time ... an opportunity to review with proud soon-to-be graduates their college experiences. Yet, this year these exit interviews are different because a wise 7th grader taught me a valuable lesson: to take time to appreciate life without worrying about a long to-do list.

Last week's tornadic Friday evening found mom, dad, boy and dog together in the basement with nothing else to do but talk to each other in the flickering candlelight.  No X-box live, no TV, no grading exams, no preparing for class and no writing the next article.  Just the whole family together, being together.  Many are the days when we are all together without really being together, each one doing his or her own thing.  However, that Friday there were no pressing deadlines...just the four of us talking.  Our 7th grader reflected upon his transition to a new school, his successes and challenges, and the lessons he had learned. "I need to re-calibrate myself," he sighed, pondering over his situation.

Yes, I thought. I too need to re-calibrate, taking time for what matters most and appreciating what each moment brings. That evening was an especially graced time as we all shared our ideas, passions, fears and hopes about life.

Yes, the exit interviews are very different this time around.  The lessons I learned that stormy Friday night have helped me appreciate the present a lot more, without worrying about my to-do list. That will always be there.  As I hear the joys and challenges of each student's journey towards this proud moment of graduation, I feel truly blessed and privileged to have had the opportunity to share a part of this amazing journey. 

About the Author: Usha Nair-Reichert is an associate professor and director of undergraduate programs in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech.

Consider Me A Convert

For thirteen years now, I’ve ended the year in my 8^th grade English classes with a sprawling group project in which students work in groups of four or five to adapt a scene from Romeo and Juliet into film.

The project has steadily evolved as the available technology has evolved.  It has definitely gotten a lot easier; I have bittersweet memories of the early days when editing involved wiring two VCR’s together and pressing “play” on one machine and “record” on the other to get the desired clips into a crude sequence.  But today it feels like something fundamentally changed when one kid brought his iPhone 4 to class so his group could do a dry run of filming a scene.

 I’ve never before been able to offer the kind of formative feedback on student filming that I can with student writing—filming and editing being such a monumental task there was only time to do it once—but today we had a rough draft to work with. We were able to look at shot composition and blocking and make revisions by shooting again, all in a matter of minutes. In short order, they had worked through one key sequence and were ready to apply these lessons to the rest of their film. And by the end of the day I, had several groups using smart phones to quickly test and revise their ideas.

Count me as a convert to the idea that cell phones should be allowed in school.

About the Author: Clark Meyer (@clarkbeast) teaches English at Westminster. Good with ideas, not good at follow-through, works best in teams for that reason