Still Trying to Convince Jim to Go Online
August 23, 2010
Jim, you need to fill out the parts of this page. Nothing anyone else can write will do it justice. For now, while nothing else is written, I am glad to be part of creating this memory of your classroom. Having had a great number of teachers, you where the teacher in whose class I experienced the most vivid moments. From visiting the school board, to learning about cognac, painting, public speaking and sex, you broadened our minds to new horizons. It was in your class that a class period could vanish in daze but be remembered longer than a day. Thank you for believing in us, as people, and instilling in as a desire to feel, absorb life and live an adventure. You shared your life and insights with us and left in us an array of unforgettable moments.
Hopefully through the passing of time, many of us will live out your suggestions. Many of us will travel, pick passionate teachers rather than subjects, stay in shape, enjoy our lives, and threat others with the dignity and respect that you showed to us.
Thank you Owens! Best wishes to you and Park.
You are one of a kind.
Enrolling in or visiting Mr. Owens classroom at Gainesville High School is a trip worth making. For those that enroll in his class, these students learn not just academic material, but various lifelong lessons through a nonconventional curriculum.
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September 8, 2010
O, I hope you are doing well. Things in Minneapolis are starting to turn a bit chili. At least last week was a bit colder than usual. I hope the first two weeks went well. Here the school semester is about to start. Hopefully it is worthwhile going back to school. In some ways I which I had obtained a different experience before returning to the institution.
Jim, I have been thinking of the idea of recording your class and I am planning on emailing the tv production teacher this week as you suggested. However, I wanted to hear from you what appears most feasible. More than anything aside from the pedagogy aspects and implications of information and communication technologies, it would be nice to simply create an area where student can remember and revisit the sanctuary. With that in mind I wanted to hear your opinion. I was thinking that perhaps we could start by digitalizing previous class materials. Would that be possible?
Among changes that are taking place, I recently started working with a professor who specializes in service-learning. ZI truly enjoyed becoming more familiar with this literature. The integration between teaching and serving provides an avenue for students to make a direct impact in the community. It reminds me a lot of SURE and later STOMP, and how at times students can develop a project and bring about change.
The goal of the class I am working with him in developing for next semester focuses on Global Change and Youth Leadership. In Argentina they have a very successful project called Solidaridad. The government since 1997 and more recently in 2006 started to promote the integration of service within the school curriculum. Since 1997 the president has given an award to the most accomplished examples. My goal as an RA is to help him set up this class and help teach it in the spring. We will also be travelling to Argentina so that the undergraduate students can themselves work hand in hand with some of these groups in Argentina and learn
