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By Lorraine Kasyan, January 30, 2013 8:53 pm

Blogging once a year is not acceptable if what you want is community. This blog has served as sounding board, reflection journal, celebration, and witness since 2006. Moves, new teaching assignments, elections, and of course the Common Core have kept me busy, yes. I have penned many entries in my head. (I am sure I have written that before.) There are stories of students, parents, supervisors, and teaching strategies stewing together. The new semester has me once again embarking on the adventure of individual study for my graduation project charges. It has been an exciting three weeks and I am filled with hope, expectation and pride as I guide this group towards their project choices and research topics.  It is going to be a powerful collection of topics.

Today was a great day. I decided to show the Drive trailer from 2010. Daniel Pink’s Vimeo preview has served me well in multiple settings. I am always surprised when I find adults who have not seen it. Most students do not have the occasion or opportunity to view it, however, and I have found it to be powerful every time I share it. Today I wanted to allow the students to view the trailer and then participate in a digital synchronous free write. I call them wordspills but we usually complete them on paper. Today I posted the prompt in a discussion board on Moodle. I played the trailer, started a timer, and had them begin writing.  The serious tip tapping of the keys was delightful. They did not have to come up with their sentence, but many tried.  Once the timer buzzed at three minutes they stopped writing and hit submit. Refreshing their browsers uncovered a chorus of responses that were all time stamped at the same minute. They enjoyed the display and immediately started smiling and laughing as they read the words on the screen. I decided to assign the method for commenting so that every student would get at least one comment. Find the student to your left’s response – read – and respond. Everyone was engaged, every student was acknowledged.

I am going to share a few examples with you. Enjoy!

One wordspill read, “My response to this video is honestly kind of muddled, seeing as I have to keep typing and not really filtering, but in all honesty it’s a nice thought, “how can I improve myself,” or “what’s my question,” but in actuality these are things I ask myself everyday already, well, not the sentence, that’s new, but as for improving myself, I already work hard at trying to be a better person, and I feel limiting myself to one sentence isn’t really fair. Granted, it makes the task at hand simple, but then what. I accomplished my sentence. Do I write a new one? Then I have two sentences and will end up with a paragraph like Kennedy’s. Do I stop trying? Do I make the sentence vague? Strange how a subject and a verb can bring so many questions to the front of my thoughts.

His student comment was: “Maybe I should try and consider what the video has to say.” That from a student who started their response with, “I personally don’t like videos like that because I think you should be motivated enough to make your life worth something.” The shift in acceptance was powerful.

Another response was more of a list: “values, reflection, motivation, moving forward, personal growth, overcoming challenges, taking one step at a time, creating, building. I want to become the person who created a successful organization that helps orphans in third world countries. Realizing big dreams, visualizing.”

Her student comment was. “I have to admit, I quite like the word spill and thought combination you have here is nice. You have lovely thought connections, big ideas, and I greatly enjoy reading about your want to help in the Third World.” Again, peer feedback that is serious and specific, flowing quickly in response.

Can you see why I am inspired? Can I help it if today my enthusiasm soared amidst the usual shenanigans and flooding at the end of the day. This activity gleaned precious gems. Irreverent, off-topic discussions, and genuine introspective stretches. They were all valued by the group, and all considered equally.

Maybe I should invite Daniel H. Pink to join the discussion?