Connect 2 Learn was born from the National Writing Project and Connected Learning collaborative course, the #clmooc Connected Learning MOOC. This experience of June/July, 2013 and June/July 2014 blossomed under the direction of an amazing group of facilitators ( 2014 )who encouraged and modeled the principles of Connected Learning, an approach to learning that connects academics, interests, peer support in a production-oriented, socially connected, and open network of learners gathered for a shared purpose. Under their guidance, and with amazing peer support by the participants, we made, remixed, created, remixed, reflected, collaborated, and bonded in writing projects forged from virtual, online, and physical “makes.”
In the spirit of that experience, to continue the inspiration, this site hopes to bring together middle school teachers and students who want to learn the power of writing that spawns from the writer or writers for the reader, writing that produces a clear message through text, images, video, audio, and more. Writing that is hard fun.
On my wall at school is this quote:
“Writing is hard fun. ~ Donald Murray.”
This sets the tone for learning about writing — for the work of pulling out the personal imaginings and transforming them into thoughts on paper, on media, in digital to discover the joy, the fun, of creating something that others also appreciate. Because writing is hard fun. William Zinsser explains:
“Writing is thinking on paper.”
“Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.”
Our brains solve puzzles. Transferring ideas onto paper is a puzzle; it’s a process that requires careful thought, and the puzzling, although hard, is fun — we feel accomplished when we’ve done it right. And doing it right means, according to Zinsser,
“Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.”
So lets keep our messages clear, brief, and simple: engage your brain, enjoy the puzzle, and join in a collaborative effort to learn writing by writing — be it in text, image, video, etc. One way to begin is through these Thinking Frames:
I hope you join the journey, the conversation, and the creation as we “connect 2 learn.”
Sheri Edwards
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