I know I have taken a break from blogging during the summer and summer flew by so quickly that I don’t remember if it actually started. The new school year has brought rejuvenated projects and a couple of new ones as well. We started podcasting almost immediately upon returning to school. This week I feel the kids are producing one of the best shows yet – with second graders! They are doing a wonderful job writing and recording and the show should be posted by the weekend. Mt sixth graders will soon be blogging, producing digital stories, and wikis. The two new projects this year will be a student-run vending business with dance mats and a student-produced weekly news broadcast.

Tonight as I was reading through my bloglines account, I came across an interesting post by one of my favorite bloggers, Will Richardson. Will wrote about a high-school student from Minnesota who was able to cross the digital divide and take his message all the way to Shanghai, China.  As Will says, welcome to the read/write web. As we’ve talked about before, it’s no longer “turn it in” – instead, it’s “publish it.” You have your own publishing house in your classroom – let’s use it.  The original article came from U Tech Tips. The student, known as Buckle Boy, produced several videos for YouTube that had an important message.

We began with a problem at the middle school: how can we raise awareness of seatbelt safety? First, we looked for a resource with the “sticky factor” – something that sticks in your mind, and makes you think of that idea when the right stimulus is present (eg. a seatbelt). So, we went hunting high and low on the web, and discovered a YouTube video by a high school senior, Aaron Bingea, in Delano, Minnesota. In Aaron’s videos, he personifies the seat belt, and reminds viewers that, “You have a superhero in your car.”

Aaron took a message that needed to be heard and released it in a creative way for the world to see. Wow! Kids never cease to amaze me with how creative they become when you give them the room! Check out all of Buckle Boy’s videos at YouTube. He has even connected to students in Shanghai and plans to visit are in the works. You go Buckle Boy!