Cyberspace Synergy

Synergy is defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable. I know this because we are merging two schools and synergy has been a huge part of our lives so far this school year. Let me back up to January when I was frantically searching for some sort of spark to use as I talked about careers with my K-3rd graders, our future workforce. My search really ended up fruitless, so I started to create on my own resource. When I got stuck, I elicited the help of our daughter who had just gone through the college application process and was awaiting news from the School of Architecture at UT-Austin. I told her what I wanted and we collaborated to create the ABCs of skills that she needed to successfully navigate her school journey and headed into her college career. I liked our final product SO much that I pitched it to a publishing company in hopes that it'd one day become a book. Fast forward nine months to September and my dream has become a reality. Here's our book, thanks to Jen from Runde's Room.

She saw my Crayons To College post at the end of August and completely brought the concept to life. She enlarged the alphabet letters and posted them outside her room for everyone to see and wonder about. Then she engaged her future workforce with a challenge: Decide which skill you want to work on this year. Not all 26. Not a dozen. Not six. Just one. Baby steps. Their homework was to discuss their word and goal with their parents. What? Getting parents on board? That's SO smart! Then she asked for permission to share her mini-posters of each letter with her followers. Of course I said yes, because that meant I'd get a copy, too. And then a follower commented that she wanted to bind them all in a book - GREAT idea, I thought - so guess what I did today? Yep, I sent that Google Doc right on over to Copy Dr. here in town (who just happened to be having a sale on colored copies) and, voila, I have officially accomplished my January goal of getting our ABCs published. Visit Runde's Room at the link above to download your free copy - YAY for cyberspace synergy!

4 comments

Jo HSeptember 13, 2011 at 7:46 AM
Wanted to share an idea with you all. Our school does a Final Four (national basketball tournament) thematic unit. Our kids are so into sports we decided, if you can't beat em, join em. We do all kinds of fun things: coloring mascots in art class, predicting winners, probablity of who might win and finding averages in math class, finding all the schools on the US map in social studies, etc. As the school counselor, it was my job to tie in the college piece. I had kids do computer searches about a college, find out tuition costs etc. Then I saw Barbara's Crayons to College and I borrowed the idea to teach a unit on careers. Students picked a career and researched it and shared the report with the class. We had fun as we learned. Thanks Barbara and Jenn!
LoriSeptember 13, 2011 at 11:38 AM
I just found these yesterday. I have now incorporated them in to my morning daily calendar time. I have a sheet protector and I switch them out once a week as I teach the alphabet through the year. Thank you!
Runde's RoomSeptember 13, 2011 at 4:29 PM
LOVE it, Barbara. And thank-you so much for sharing your fabulous ABCs. I'm going to turn them into a book tomorrow - it will be the first time I use my new binding machine - two reasons to be excited. YAY!

Jen
Runde's Room
DeannaSeptember 14, 2011 at 5:11 AM
I love it and I love the teamwork involved. I am adding it my project list for the week. Another resource to consider is Counseling on the Wall by Marco Publishing. The author has great ideas for bulletin boards. Very easy to print off CD too. They are a hit at my school.