What I read here follows what I have been reading about acquisition of literacy from Calkins, Atwell, Fountas and Pinnell, and other prominent literacy teachers/authors.

 Intuitively, I am drawn to constructivism. I certainly find I learn best through hands-on exploration into a topic that interests me and with support from an expert who can help me along (much like my current self-immersion into edtech!)

But, I am NOT providing my middle school kids with much of this kind of learning, and I feel that it’s still not well-accepted in my school with a mostly low-SES ethnic population.

My main problem: Finding topics that inspire my students to practice the language arts in meaningful ways. Everything seems to bore them beyond social interactions and the people of popular media culture.

I would love to have a mentor on whose expertise I could rely to help me create the constructivist classroom I envision.

I believe those mentors are what I’m searching for in this foray into web 2.0.