Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and connect in Winnipeg with other technology-using educators on May 29th at 7:00 pm at the King’s Head Pub at 120 King Street. Additional information can be found on the ManACE Memos blog.

All our welcome to this free educational experience. All that is requested is that you please REGISTER ONLINE to help the planning committee better organize this event.

Please view and/or print this ManACE AGM Poster and share it with your staff and other educators so that all that may be interested can attend.

Take care & keep smiling

(Click the above image to transfer to the interactive site)

I encourage educators to share this resource with their students. Who knows, such interaction may engage students and help them appreciate how these individuals impacted society.

Take care & keep smiling

Teacher Feature #18 – Charles de Lint – April, 2012

Teachers should investigate the wealth of educational resources that are available on the Pay It Forward Day web site. Furthermore, the inspiring YouTube video entitled “Watch this…. You will definitely share this……mp4 is one that can be used to stimulate classroom discussion about the “pay it forward” process.

When I reflect on my youth as a Wolf Cub and Boy Scout, there are two important phrases that I still remember. They are both simple ideas that, if practiced by many, can have profound impact on both the environment and people in general.

The fist scouting phrase that I do my best to practice is “Always leave your campsite in better condition than you found it.” The second phrase is the final line in the Cub promise and states ” … do a good deed to somebody every day.”

It is this idea of “doing a good deed” or “paying it forward”, without expecting thanks, that has such potential and power. I hope that you as an educator share this important “pay it forward” message with your students and that they take action to become better citizens through doing a good deed.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners

The power of the PLN was reinforced again last week. Although I am retired, I still enjoy attending regular meetings of the Manitoba Association of Educational Technology Leaders (MAETL). I was attending a meeting last Thursday when I took advantage of the collective knowledge of this professional group.

Knowing that I was in the process of writing a blog post about the upcoming “Pay It Forward Day” on April 26th, I needed to find a video that demonstrated the power of the pay it forward process. Six months ago, someone had sent me a link to a YouTube video suggesting that I might enjoy its message. I recall that it started with a young boy who falls off a skateboard onto the sidewalk. A construction worker takes the time to see if the young lad is injured before continuing on his way. The boy appreciates the caring gesture and pays it forward by helping carry groceries across the street for an elderly woman. This woman passes alongside someone who is looking for change to put into a parking meter and she provides the coins, and this “good deed” process continues throughout the video. Each recipient of these small acts of kindness pays it forward in turn. Unfortunately at the time, I did not bookmark the video or save this YouTube URL for later use.

As I started writing the former blog post, I remembered that I had seen a YouTube video that would be a great resource to stimulate class discussion on the pay it forward process. However, no matter what search terms I used to try to retrieve this video, I was unsuccessful.

However, at the end of our formal MAETL meeting, we have a “Short Snappers” agenda item, where anyone can share quick tips or web site resources that might benefit others in the group.

During “Short Snappers”, I used a process call “crowd sourcing” when I described the video that I was hoping to find to members in my professional learning network.

Some of my colleagues had seen the video and thought that it might have been part of a commercial.

However, within three minutes Joan Badger, a Curriculum Coordinator with St. James-Assiniboia School Division, had searched YouTube and had located the following powerful “pay it forward” video. I urge readers to follow this link to see how they might incorporate this powerful YouTube video into their “Pay It Forward” activities:

Watch this….
You will definitely share this……mp4

Take care & keep smiling

Credits: Thanks to Justin Tarte for granting me permission to use the above Professional Learning Network image from his June 27, 2011 blog post entitled “The value of a PLN …“

As an educator, I enjoyed the inspirational 2000 movie called “Pay It Forward”, staring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. The story is about a 12 year old student who is challenged by his Social Studies teacher to “Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action.” The youngster devises a process in which he does a good deed to three people in need with the hope that each of them will “pay it forward” to three new people and that this process will continue exponentially.

Pay it Forward Day
Teachers are encouraged to introduce and celebrate the “Pay It Forward Day” with their students. Educators are encouraged to investigate the wealth of educational resources that are available on the Pay It Forward Day web site including:

• Pay It Forward Day Trailer
• Pay It Forward Day Kit
• Pay It Forward Day Cards – Primary School
• Pay It Forward Day Cards – High School

Teachers in Manitoba are implementing the nine “big ideas” that form the framework of the Literacy with Information and Communication Technology (LwICT) continuum.

True, teaching citizenship can be a challenge but the opportunity and the resources provided through the “Pay It Forward Day” make it much easier and meaningful. In closing, I have to ask you … how many acts of kindness will students in your classes initiate on the way to this year’s target goal of 3 million?

Take care & keep smiling