Thursday, December 04, 2008

Students Blog about Arbor Heights

Just posted at savearborheights.com:
The third graders in Room Twelve at Arbor Heights have been writing about the proposed closure of our school.

Their articles are grouped together for easy reading, at "Save Arbor Heights". The list of posts is sure to grow, so please bookmark the site and check back later. These young writers would welcome comments from one and all, so feel free to respond to them individually (the blog is totally moderated).

Many thanks,
Mark Ahlness,
teacher, grade 3

If you have a story or comment about the influence of Arbor Heights, or what Arbor Heights Elementary School has meant to you, please leave a comment here or there. Thanks! - Mark

1 comment:

Bob Cotter said...

Wow... I read the story about Arbor Heights the other day and was flabbergasted.

I hope you don't mind a bit of a trip down memory lane... Many years ago, I was spending some time out teaching and being a principal, yet was still involved in education. I had done some early work on the importance of computers for education and had done some post graduate work on a project called, "Telecommunications and the Online Educator" - a paper long since gone from my archives.

When the web started to weave its way into my life, I was immediately struck by how 'websites' might be engaging for the members of a school community. That was when I discovered the Arbor Heights site. It was downright fascinating and I visited it often over the years.

In 1999 I returned to education as a teacher/principal in a small school in Langdale, British Columbia. One of the first things I did was to create a web page for the school. I modeled it a bit after the Arbor Heights school pages, including little square icons and image maps. My how things have changed.

I recall that our school site was one of the ones listed on About.com ... one of some 700 or so school sites in the world that they recognized! There were four elementary school sites in British Columbia on that list.

Over the years I have followed the progress of Arbor Heights ... always wanting to get a chance to visit, but never doing so.

Some years ago I started to follow Mr. Ahlness more closely as he was delving into areas that excited me as a teacher and administrator. Room 12 has been an inspiration to me and to some of the teachers I have worked with as the students and Mr. Ahlness have modeled some amazing work. My Google Reader subscriptions are highlighted by his contributions.

I am so sorry to hear of the upset in your community. We, too, are not immune to changes and our school district is seeking public input into changes that may be made in the future, the top two right now being to change two of our elementary schools into middle schools and moving the grade K-6 students to other schools. I've heard the message from those parents as well as I am currently responsible for our school district website and the feedback on many issues that comes my way as webmaster to be forwarded on to the board office.

So, I wish you and the students well in your journey ahead. What ever comes of this, I am sure that Mr. Ahlness and his students will continue to write and publish.

Cheers from BC.