Yesterday, I went over to Mr.Fisher and Mrs. Fisher’s house to make a video for Edutopia’s Digital Youth Project. This is a project that the George Lucas Foundation is starting. For the video, I had to include what I’ve learned throught blogging, what I do outside of school and what my blog is about.
If you didn’t wacth the video above, I said that the things that I learned through my blog is that I can reach many people with the same intersts through blogging, and it doesn’t matter how old you are online, as long as you work hard, people will support you and take you seriously. I didn’t mention this in the video, but I realized that there are lots of other kids out there that are working hard to make a difference just like me.
Some of the kids go to Depew Middle School. Right now, my mom and her friend (who is a teacher there), Mrs.VanEtten, are helping students update thier classroom blog Grade 7 Gives Back. There they talk about a reasearch project that they are doing where every kid will be studying how to make a difference in ways that matter to them. They also tell you how their class makes a difference. Some of the kids there are doing a clothing drive for Compass House! YAY!!
I want to thank Mr. Fisher for helping with an AWESOME video and all of Mrs. VanEtten’s students for working so hard over the last few weeks! I’m excited to see all that they do!!
On Saturday night, my family and I were invited to the annual Compass House Dinner and Auction. It was held at a really nice restaurant called Harry’s. There were a ton of people there, and everyone was dressed up. It was a lot of fun and a very special night.
Compass House is an organization that I have really enjoyed learning more about and supporting all year long. Sylvia Nadler and Michelle Moore and all of the people there have been really welcoming to me. In fact, they have been THE MOST AWESOME people I’ve been able to get to know this year though my service project. They always are thinking of me and letting me help in ways that are good for kids.
Compass House is a place where kids and young adults can go if they are in trouble. Some of the people who go there are runaways. Others are homeless. There are also kids who go there because their parents have abandoned them.
Sylvia Nadler has a lot of great people working for her, and I heard some great stories about Compass House at this dinner. What I like most about it is that they don’t tell kids what to do or make decisions for them. They just care for them and help them make good choices.
If you are ever in trouble and need somewhere to go that is safe, go to Compass House. You can get on any Metro Bus or go into any Tops and tell them that you need to get to a Safe Place. They will provide you transportation to Compass House, and you will be happy. I know people there, and I promise they are really nice.
One thing that would be really nice is if teachers would invite Sylvia Nadler or her staff to talk with kids about Compass House. There are a lot of kids who are living in bad situations at home, who try to run away, and who wind up on the streets. Even kids in really good neighborhoods. It would be nice if people from Compass House could come and tell kids how to stay safe by coming to stay with them. Please let me know if you’d like to do this or contact Sylvia Nadler.
Thank you for a great night Ms. Nadler!!!! I had fun!!!!
Yesterday, I presented to five different classes of seventh graders. At first, I was really nervous but as I kept going, I got better and warmed up to the students. I learned SO MUCH. After the first class I taught, I thought about how to make my teaching better. My mom and Mrs. VanEtten said that all good teachers do this every day. I really enjoyed teaching, but at the end of the day I was exhausted! I didn’t know until now how much work teaching is!
Mrs. VanEtten’s students are starting a research project. They are going to research ways to make a difference and then blog about it on their classroom blog. I think that this would be really fun to do, especially because lots of the kids are really interested in helping out and making the world a better place. They shared a lot of great ideas with me, and many of them have already done great service work. It was really inspiring for me to listen to them share the sorts of things they are doing or want to do.
I planned an activity where we all brainstormed what it meant to be a good citizen. Then, we talked about what a good digital citizen is. When we first started that activity, I showed this movie, which is funny. It told us how to stay safe on the internet, which is good, but I wanted to talk about digital citizenship, which is different. Everyone was telling me what NOT to do online, but then I encouraged them to tell me what we CAN do to be a good digital citizen. We know we SHOULDN’T spread rumors about people online in chatrooms or post personal information about ourselves, but do we ever think about what we SHOULD do?
Yesterday, I shared my idea that when we create safe places online where kids can learn together and accomplish things, we make the internet a better place. Mrs. VanEtten’s seventh graders were great to work with because they understand this and they are going to start trying too. They will blogging as they do their research paper. I used this Common Craft video to begin talking about blogging, and I got to share what I”m doing here too. I’m making some new friends there, and this is great. Please visit their blog and leave them some comments if you haven’t already!
I haven’t really posted about this, because my Uncle Mike doesn’t like to brag about all the great things he does, but today I have to because it’s important. I hope he doesn’t mind.
My Uncle Mike is really special to me because he’s one of my favorite uncles. He is my dad’s brother, and he is also my Godfather too. He’s really funny and he’s sort of like my dad because he likes to goof around a lot with me. He gives the BEST HUGS. They are REALLY TIGHT and you can’t breathe when he gives them.
I miss him right now because he was deployed to Iraq on Labor Day.
My cousins Ethan and Nolan and my Aunt Vicki must miss him like crazy. I think they are really strong, because I don’t know what I’d do if my dad got sent over there.
Yesterday, I got an email from him. Here is a surprising part of it:
The weather in Iraq is a lot different from home that’s for sure. When I got here it was 120 or a little hotter every day. Since the end of October it has cooled off. Most days it is around 90 degrees. Now at night time it is in the 50’s or 60’s you won’t believe this, I had to have aunt Vicki send me my long johns! I need them to wear to bed! When you live in the heat for a couple of months, 60 degrees is cold.
I can’t imagine it being that hot!
Anyway, I can’t wait for my Uncle Mike to get home, and I’m thinking of him today because it’s Veteran’s Day. I hope he will see this post, and I’m also hoping that if you are reading, you will leave him some good luck wishes in my comments section.
I want to make him smile, because I know he misses being home. I also want him to know that lots of people appreciate him. I don’t like this war, but I am so proud of my Uncle Mike.
Sarah H. is one of my friends from my writing studio. We spent a week together this summer doing all sorts of creative writing (that’s a picture of us writing together on her blog)! We get to see each other during the year too, because studio goes year round. She blogs to get feedback on her writing, and she’s already written a novel! Sarah is also a reporter for NeXt, which is awesome.
Recently, she joined Working Together 2 Make a Difference. This is a ning where teachers and students can show the world all the good things that they are doing to make a difference. My mom and Mrs. Luca from Australia are moderating it so it is safe. I like it because even though it’s nice to get such great comments from everyone, I really want to be a part of what everyone else is doing to make a difference. Sarah has started blogging about that and now lots of people are starting to join this ning too. This is exciting! Mr. Will Richardson just wrote an article for Educational Leadership, and in it, he mentioned my blog and how it’s important for me to begin connecting to other people too. I’m hoping that the ning will grow over time and this will happen, and I’m very thankful for my mom and Mrs. Luca’s help with this too. I hope some day my school will do something with this too.
What is really impressive is that Sarah encouraged her school to join the ning all on her own. She is a great role model and super person. I feel lucky to know her.
Please think about joining Working Together 2 Make a Difference if you are a teacher too! Sarah and I and lots of other kids like doing things like this, and we can learn a lot together too while helping other people.
Love That Teacher
(inspired by Sharon Creech’s Jack)
Love that teacher
Like a canvas loves its artist
I said I love that teacher like a canvas love its artist!
Love the colors in the afternoon
Love the colors of knowledge.
Special thanks to Love That Dog
This is a picture of me walking to school, that I altered on Dumpr.net make your own here!
Now we’re coming to the end of 2008, and I have been thinking about the year ahead. I have decided that I want my readers to visit and want to come back. In order to make my blog more interesting for everybody (including me), I will be changing the style of my posts starting TODAY!
I love writing in all sorts of different and exciting ways. I want to use my writing to notice others who make a difference and pay attention to the small things in my life that are meaningful. I will be writing poems and sharing pictures about these things in my posts, and I want to encourage others to do the same thing on their own blogs or in the comments section of my blog! I will also be doing service work this year, and I plan to write more creatively about this too.
Sharon Creech’s books Love That Dog and Hate That Cat inspired me to do this. Love That Dog is one of my favorite books, and today, while I was off from school, my mom took me to the bookstore to buy Hate That Cat. As we were reading it together, I got the idea to change the way I write on my blog and what I want to spend the next year doing. Sharon Creech teaches us that good writing always starts with things that are meaningful to US, even if those things seem small or unimportant. Making a difference starts this way too.
This month I will be working at Working Together 2 Make a Difference, a Ning for classes to join where all of us can share what we do to make a difference and learn more about what this means from each other! Last month, Jenny Luca created this Ning, and she asked my mom and I to help. It gives all classrooms a chance to show other classes how they do charity work together and begin to get to know each other. If you are a teacher, it would be really cool if you join with your class. My friend Sarah Hanson is leading a project at Alden High School, and I know that some students from Depew Middle will be doing some work with me on this too!
This month, I’ll be working with my mom to help these classes and other local ones make their own pages on the Ning and start sharing ways that they are make a difference. My family and I will also be collecting canned food to donate to area food pantries, because their donations are low at this time of year, I think.
Many people are asking if I plan to do another contest starting December 1st (which is the one year anniversary of my blog). I am, but there are going to be some changes this year, because I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I want to do. One new thing is that this year, I’ll be using Twitter to share the small things that I’m doing to make a difference starting on December 1st! If you have an account, please follow me at @twentyfivedays and I will follow you and then maybe we can get lots of people sharing the good things that they are doing. This will be fun and inspiring to keep up with every day during December, don’t you think?
One of the greatest things about blogging and doing service work this year has been getting to know other people who care about the same things that I do. One of those people is Jenny Luca! Last year, Jenny invited me to skype into her classroom. I got to meet her students and talk with them about life in Australia. This was AMAZING.
When I started this blog, what I really hoped was that other people would want to join me in trying to make a small difference every day. When people email me or leave comments about the great stuff that they are doing, I love it. Now, Jenny and my mom and I are teaming up to invite TEACHERS AND STUDENTS to ONE place where we can all show how we are making a difference!
Working Together 2 Make a Difference is a ning. A ning is an online community. Teachers can create classroom pages, blog or post short descriptions of what they are doing to make a difference, or they can even upload video clips or pictures! I am excited to see what other students are doing from all over the world–and I’m especially excited about getting to know more people too!
Please consider joining Working Together 2 Make a Difference. All that you need to do is a small classroom service project between now and December 15th. Joining the ning is easy too! Read more about all of this here.
Thank you to the authors of the Proof Positivity blog for giving me this pretty award! Please visit this site an check out the starfish video that is there. It explains the meaning behind this award. It’s very cool! Thank you!!
Two days ago, it was the 25 day of September so this was the expiration date for helping animals. All in all, I raised about $50.00 by returning bottles this month. I’m going to give half of this money to the SPCA and the other half to the Ten Lives Club. These are organizations that help animals in need. Please read my comments to learn about other websites or places that help animals.
This week I am gearing up to help my new charity for October. Make sure you visit in October 1st to see what the new charity is! I’m really excited because it has to do with my friend and her little sister!
This month, I’ve gotten lots of comments. But the two that really stuck out are the ones about uPlej. There are two reasons, one, two people wrote about it and two, the people who wrote about it raved about it.
Today, I visited uPlej. I really liked how it looked and what the sidebars explained. I also liked how it told me what that person donated to.
The first thing that she donated to was the SPCA. I really liked how right next to it, it told me how much money that she donated to the SPCA. I also liked how uPlej is like a blog, or webpage.
The reason I like the sidebar on uPlej is because it tells you how much people and their “network” have donated. A network is a group of people you know, maybe some of your friends, and other people you learn from. My readers are a part of my network, but I also have a network of people from the charities that I try to help too now. It’s cool.
Yesterday, I wrote a post asking you to leave a comment or email me about your favorite ways to help animals. Well, I want to share some of my favorite ways to help animals with you.
One way I like to help animals is by supporting the ASPCA. I talk about it a lot because I really LOVE animals and want the best for them. I know at the SPCA is giving animals 100% of their time and effort because I get the SPCA’s newsletter that I get in the mail. The newsletter includes a membership card and a story about one new animal that they just helped. The animals are mostly dogs, but that’s okay. At the end, the newsletter asks you to support that animal. I really know what’s happening at the SPCA because of the newsletter.
Another way I like to support animals is to click my fingers on the free online donation buttons on the sites that provide them. My favorite site also supplies free mammograms and more! I also used this site during one of the other months this year.
Last, I like to support my pets, by treating them not only like pets but like part of my family.
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, BUT PLEASE BE SAFE!
If you are a child, please do not leave comments on my blog without supervision. Please ask a grown up to post a comment for you, using his or her email address. My mom "screens" all of my mail and any comments that people leave on this blog before anyone else gets to see them. We also use a Sitemeter that allows us to see every visitors's location, IP address, and the name of the person who owns your server. We like Sitemeter, and it is free too!
