Hello, New Dream Flag Teachers!
Now that we’ve passed the 106th birthday of Langston Hughes (on Feb. 1), we’re officially up and running with the 2008 Dream Flag Project! In the sixth grade classes here in our school, we just celebrated the birthday of Langton Hughes this week--a little late since we had to work around other things in the schedule—but we had a great time with many presentations of words to Mr. Hughes—and birthday snacks of course!
Please remember that among all the activities we gladly do to help the project work for all of us, the thing we like most is hearing from you and answering questions, so please do write if something great is happening, if you’re stuck, or if you’d like some resources or ideas. The connection with 245 amazing colleagues (that’s the number right now) is a real dream come true for us, and we thank you for being part of the project this year.
We’ve started looking at some Hughes poetry in our classes in the past few weeks. If you’re getting to that stage, you might want to take a look at the Hughes Poetry Ideas List, linked in from our web site. It has many activities connected to specific poems, and, while it’s geared for upper elementary and middle school grades, it may be adapted for others ages as well.
Another resource group you might want to check out is the materials from our January 26th Dream Flags teachers’ workshop here in the Philadelphia area. We’ve posted all the handouts from the workshop along with pictures and some video. It’s a great place to see a lot of Dream Flag materials all at once and to get an overview of how this project works. We’re so grateful that so many teachers and administrators contributed to make this event happen!
As a teacher new to the project, you might want to take a look at some of the other teacher’s in this project and their comments about it. Here’s the direct link to a six-minute video of teachers at the workshop. (Its’s a PC format but there’s a Mac reader for it.)
We told our sixth graders about the project with an introduction when we started our Hughes study, and one of the things that got them most interested was the idea that we’re doing this with so many other students in so many places! With that in mind, we created a 2008 Dream Flag Sites Map. It has a marker on every U.S. city where Dream Flags are being made this year. Right now that’s in 19 states with 68 schools and 5,000 students. We’re planning to assign each of our students to research one of the schools and tell the class about it—geography and Dream Flags all in one!
We just wanted to check in and make sure everyone is progressing well. We’ve found from past experience that the most important thing related to timing is to complete the flags sometime before your spring break, whenever that is. That way, we’re all ready when April comes and it’s time to connect.
Please let us know how things are going for you when you have a chance. We’d love to hear even a very quick note from you!
Yours dreaming,
Jeff & Sandy
_____________________________
Jeff Harlan & Sandy Crow
The Dream Flag Project
dreamflags@agnesirwin.org
610-525-8400 x1703
The Agnes Irwin School
Ithan Ave. and Conestoga Rd.
Rosemont, PA 19010