An Idea: have students present projects to the internet in a controlled, safe way with my school’s brand on it.  I’m unsure the success or necessity of this particular brand of teacher-activism because it’s mainly driven by my need to go

HOW COOL IS THAT!

If I could spend half my day yelling “how cool is that” out loud, I would.  The picture, by the way,  is an edited version of the toolbox project which I showed off on this post.  My students have been learning CAD (and practicing spatial math skills) and the model is what one came up with (the toolbox builder, actually).  I just slapped some fancy coloring and styling to it last Fri.

At the end of this week, I plan on walking the group through these steps and uploading the finished toolbox to Google’s 3D Warehouse as a final “presentation”.  No names will be used and other precautions will be taken to protect the students, but at some point I have to ask why?  Why do it at all?

I answer with same thing my fiction teacher said the first day of his class:  if you write and do not wish to share, you are not a writer – you are a diarist. 

As a woodworker, teacher, writer, father and any of those things, I still believe he had it right:  In order to be an artist, you must share it with the community.  In my workshop, my students do not create only for themselves and their own (my own, who cares which) gratification, but for the consideration of the community as a whole.