Publishing with Students : A Comprehensive Guide
by Chris Weber, Atkinson School, Oregon

What motivates students to do their best writing? Getting published and having a real audience are great incentives. So, how can you help your students publish their writing? How do you get your students involved and then prepared to take charge of the publishing process? What are the secrets of successful student publications and how can you and your students achieve successful results?

Chris Weber answers these questions and more in his collection of essays by inspired and inspiring writing teachers around the world who have helped students publish. In the process of conferring with these teachers and conducting his own student writing projects, Weber has amassed an impressive collection of student samples that show you what is possible.

In Publishing with Students, you'll learn how to:
•produce traditional forms of student publications, including newspapers, magazines, and books
•create websites to display student writing and art on the Internet
•implement e-mail publication projects, both local and global
•make a difference in the world through publishing
•discover why and how other teachers publish, and how you can, too.

Filled with activities to encourage and disseminate students' writing, wise and practical advice from experienced and talented teachers, and engaging case studies, Publishing with Students is, in the words of one of our best authorities on writing, Donald Graves, "an important book to use."

More information is available at: www.heinemann.com/product/E00283.asp

Old Stone House Museum
"Voices and Faces has the gentle power of irrefutable arguments, ones so strong they don’t need to be made; they simply register. We find in these pages an argument for local culture, an argument for hands-on learning, an argument against those who are always ready to write off the younger generation, and an argument—perhaps the strongest I’ve ever seen—for bringing artists and other makers into our schools. Underneath all these, perhaps, an argument for peace." –from the preface by Garrett Keizer

More information is available at:
Old Stone House Museum
28 Old Stone House Road, Brownington, VT 05860
tel: (802) 754-2022 • e-mail: OSH@TOGETHER.NET

Valley Quest: 89 Treasure Hunts in the Upper Valley was published in May, 2001. With Quests stretching across 31 towns in Vermont and New Hampshire, the book is an excellent introduction to the natural and cultural history of the Upper Valley region.

"These are some of the finest wild goose chases I've ever seen. Enjoy them, and then enjoy your home more than ever before!"
–Bill McKibben, author of Hope, Human and Wild

Each Quest features directions to the starting point, riddle-like clues, and hand-drawn maps that lead you to installed treasure boxes. The treasure boxes contain a sign-in guest book, and ink pad and a unique handmade stamp, and additional information regarding the particular Quest site.

"A beautiful way to learn about history, nature, and our resposibility to both. It sure beats sitting in a classroom and listening to your teacher!" –Trina Schart Hyman, illustrator of A Child's Calendar

"The prize that will last, that you'll pass to your kids, Is the knowledge that you've gained of the place that you live." –Jules Older, Vermont Public Radio Commentator

Sound like fun? Learn more about Questing by ordering your copy of the Valley Quest Map book
($14.95 + postage) by calling (603) 632-7377. Or email at: Info@VitalCommunities.org

Teaching Children to Care
by Ruth Charney

Classroom Management for Ethical and Academic Growth, K-8. A definitive work about classroom management that shows teachers how to turn their vision of respectful, friendly, academically rigorous classrooms into reality.
Reviewed by Dr. Belinda Gimbert, Teacher Educator

Charting A Hero’s Journey
Reviewed by Cynthia Hughes, Community Works Resource Specialist

Here is a gem of a book for anyone embarking on a journey. The journey could be a travel adventure or a service-learning experience, or closer to home, a reflection on one’s school community or workplace. With her book, Charting A Hero’s Journey, (International Partnership for Service-Learning, 2000), Linda Chisholm has given us a reflective journaling guide for students high school age and older. Chisholm bases her work on Joseph Campbell’s timeless book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. She compares the archetype of the hero with the student who is about to explore new territory, be it study abroad or a local service-learning project. She opens the book with a quote from Campbell: Each who has dared to harken to and follow the secret call has known the perils of the dangerous, solitary transit…yet we have not to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.

Charting A Hero’s Journey is laid out in sections taken directly from Joseph Campbell’s twelve stages of the hero’s journey. Chisholm is able to live up to Campbell’s structure because she skillfully weaves together archetypal motifs and journey stories with personal questions about the reader’s own experiences. The questions are powerful. In addition to looking deeply at the human condition, they are directed at the student’s own experience of another culture, a service-learning setting or the school community itself and ultimately, the students own humanity. They invoke in the reader an inner quest related to the outer work in which she is engaged.
Her thoughtful selections from travel diaries paired with soul-firing reflection questions kept me “journeying” through her book (and through my own mind) for days.
Here’s an excerpt of a short piece by Langston Hughes followed by Chisholm’s questions: “It was ten o’clock on a June night on the SS Malone and we were going to Africa. At ten o’clock that morning I had never heard of the S.S. Malone, or George or Ramon, or anybody else in its crew… But now here were the three of us laughing very loudly, going to Africa.”

For some heroes the call comes very early in life. Many people have memories of early experiences, ambitions or … suggestive dreams that they later understand to have been strivings toward meaning purpose and vocations. For some, the call is many years in forming and when the move to begin the hero’s journey is made it is from clear motivation, high purpose and ideals. But not always. While few would embark as casually as Langston Hughes, Ramon and George did, many answer a call on a short notice and without great clarity about inner or even outward destination.

Where on the continuum do you fit? Was your call more like that of Langston Hughes or that of previously quoted Jane Addams [who heard the call to her vocation early in life]? Hughes’s friend George left his rent unpaid. What are you leaving unfinished?
And this question following a passage from Jane Addams’ insightful observations of the poverty around her: Are you able to identify any milestones in your passage that marks a breakthrough in your ability to communicate or relate on a new and deeper level with those whose circumstances are different from yours?

Reflection, as Chisholm sees it, provides the student with three powerful approaches to learning: bringing coherence to the inner journey that occurs when students reflect upon a significant passage of their lives and the external journey they make into new situations; an aid for students as they search for meaning and direction in their lives; a means of making into a whole the fragments experienced in the current structures of higher education.

Chisholm speaks eloquently of the need for the reflection journal in education: “it is not an exposition on the process of learning, nor a sermon on the meaning of life. Rather, it is a call to the student to examine, direct, and document the transformation of self.” The very heart of …education…lies in opening ourselves to see beyond our individual experience”

If I could recommend this book to anyone I would offer it to anyone interested in looking deeply at the nature of relationship – relationship with others, relationship with ourselves.
Reviewed by Cynthia Hughes,
Community Works Resource Specialist

Parker Palmer’s Books and Lectures are inspiring many educators to take a different look at their practice. A former college professor and high school teacher, Palmer is now a traveling teacher who works independently on issues in education, community, spirituality and social change. He is a senior associate of the American Association for Higher Education and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute. His work has inspired dialogue groups and seminars in this country and abroad.

Here we review two of his books: To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey Harper, San Francisco, 1993. In this inspiring book Parker Palmer takes us on a journey into the heart of teaching. Weaving into his practical theory wisdom from spiritual teachings and ancient parables, he invites us to take a hard look at how we encourage learning and community in our classrooms –or not. When we read Parker Palmer we are taken to a deeper place of questioning and understanding our work. He asks that we examine our fears, as well as pedagogy. Using stories from the desert monks, and teachings from the Quakers, he encourages us to open our hearts in the classroom and to risk being vulnerable (to not know all the answers), in order to allow honest dialogue and authentic learning to take place. This is a spiritual work and will inspire anyone interested in looking more deeply at relationships both inside and outside the classroom. Most of all, Parker Palmer encourages us to look closely at our relationship with ourselves and how we bring that to everything we do in our work with students.

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life Jossy-Bass Publisher, San Francisco, 1998 In his most recent book, Palmer shares honestly his own and other teachers’ experiences as a means for offering insight into the difficulties every teacher faces in the classroom –from the disengaged student, to the disruptive student, to our own fears about teaching. His premise is that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.” While his experiences often come from higher education, his insights offer wisdom for teachers of any age level. Palmer writes: “This book is for teachers who have good days and bad, and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life.”

“Though technique-talk promises the practical solutions that we think we want and need, the conversation is stunted when technique is the only topic: the human issues in teaching get ignored, so the human beings who teach feel ignored as well. When teaching is reduced to technique, we shrink teachers as well as their craft –and people do not willingly return to a conversation that diminishes them.” Other reviewers have suggested that this book raises a question about teaching that goes unasked in our national dialogue. Who is the self that teaches? How does the quality of my selfhood form–or deform–the way I relate to my students, my subject, my colleagues, my world? How can educational institutions sustain and deepen the selfhood from which good teaching comes?

In addition to Parker Palmer, we suggest two other teacher/authors who have influenced the work of many teachers with their stimulating views on education.

Reviewed by Cynthia Hughes
Community Works Resource Specialist

The Case Against Standardized Testing:
Raising the Scores, Running the Schools
by Alfie Kohn Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH, 2000.

Prolific and provocative, Kohn tackles every aspect of teaching and the structure of schooling. In his most recent book, he presents an indictment of standardized testing. His message is that standardized tests are “not like the weather, something to which we must resign ourselves. They are not a force of nature but a force of politics and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed." In essays, he offers teachers, parents, and students ways to reverse this nationwide trend and create classrooms that focus on learning. As always, Kohn advocates for students to take ownership of their own schooling and for teachers to turn their classrooms into supportive learning communities.

Education and the Significance of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti Harper Collins, New York, 1981. An Indian spiritual teacher, Krishnamurti had a lifelong interest in education and founded schools in India, Canada, England, and the United States. His teachings have inspired many in the quest for self-fulfillment and a balanced life. His writings on education examine the need for self-knowledge and creating an environment free from fear in order for real learning to take place. In this classic book, Krishnamurti speaks about practical matters, such as class size, leadership and the responsibility of the individual, while holding a vision of a world that lives and learns in the moment.

Letters to the Schools. Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, Ltd., Ojai, CA, 1981. Available through the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, here are letters that Krishnamurti penned from 1978-1980. The letters are directed to educators at his schools and focus on topics ranging from leisure in learning to the capacity of the intellect and responsibility. Each letter is an independent discourse or meditation and can provoke much thought and dialogue about human nature and the quest for learning. o

More information regarding these books and authors:
Alfie Kohn—Information on Kohn’s books and lecture series is available at www.AlfieKohn.org

Jiddu Krishnamurti—The Krishnamurti Foundation offers publications and audio cassettes through their website at www.kfa.org


Learning from Experience: A Collection of Service-Learning Projects Linking Academic Standards to Curriculum (Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, June, 2000). Under a Learn and Serve Grant from the Corporation for National Service, the Wisconsin Dept. of education created this guidebook for educators who are interested in connecting service projects to academic standards. The book opens with a discussion of the foundations of service learning programs. It continues with examples of successful service-learning activities, each chapter outlining a project linked to academic standards. A side bar lists the standards covered by the lesson, while the chapter outlines in a clear format the procedure along with “pointers” from the teacher and students who designed the project. Projects for high school, middle school, elementary school and cross-grade-level range from action for local sustainability to international cultural immersion activities. The book includes a bibliography as well as a solid philosophy of service-learning. This is most useful guide for schools interested in connecting their students with real work in the community, or anyone seeking new ideas for existing service programs.
FOR MORE INFORMATION


Reviewed by Cynthia Hughes,
Community Works Resource Specialist

Serving to Learn, Learning to Serve: Civics and Service from A to Z
by Cynthia Parsons, Corwin Press

Cynthia Parsons’ book , has become a staple of service-learning programs across the country. Published in 1996 by this respected advocate of the service-learning movement, the book displays a compendium of activities and ideas to initiate or enhance service in the high school or grade school curriculum. It is peppered with inspiring stories and examples that Parsons gathered while teaching and later reporting on education for the Christian Science Monitor. Parsons shares activities that are based on volunteerism and experiential learning. She speaks candidly about her observations and offers ideas that are accessible and engaging, encourage citizenship, and place the student at the center of the learning.


Cynthia Parson’s book, Seeds: Some Good Ways to Improve Our Schools, (Woodbridge Press, 1985) brings together a host of ideas and short essays from leaders in service-learning and education. Each essay introduces a chapter of Parsons’ own blend of no-nonsense wit and wisdom. Parsons makes no bones about expressing her thoughts on school reform and looks to service, citizenship and character-building as roadways to get us from here to there. Speaking strongly of the need for educational reform, Parsons places the onus on the teachers and principals, the parents and community-at-large. She stresses the need for change to begin with good teachers and administrators, sound public funding and a willingness for all of us to become learners. At times her ideas may raise the hackles of the reader. Just open to any page and there you will find a provocative thought to grapple with. You may not agree with everything Parsons has to say, but she will get you thinking. Teacher educators may find this book useful for class discussions. It’s fun, stimulating reading and will provoke conversation and debate, maybe even argument.

Because schooling is compulsory and because we’ve used schools as sorting devices – unfortunately, as much for social as academic reasons – we’ve caused a significant proportion of the population to hate schools, school buildings, teachers and administrators. We tend to want to argue that the problem is with the haters, and not ever so directly connected to the ethos or feeling we school people have deliberately created… Whey are we to blame for the discourteous and unruly behavior of a few students? Whey are we to blame for the rude actions and near criminal behavior of non-students? Because we adults, particularly those of us entrusted with running our schools – set the tone for how every child and young adult in town is treated, schooled and educated. …What ethos is projected has a lot to do with how every child in town thinks about himself/herself. The school’s mental environment either supports or ridicules those who are its users.