Hello, Returning Dream Flag Teachers!
Now that we’ve passed the 106th birthday of Langston Hughes, we’re officially up and running with the 2008 Dream Flag Project! In our sixth grade classes, 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!
We’ve started looking at some and done class activities around them 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’s geared for upper elementary and middle school grades but can be adapted for others.
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. We’re so grateful that so many teachers and administrators contributed to make this event happen.
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 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 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. We’ve also put together a list of Key Dates for the 2008 project on the News page. We’ll check in with you when key dates are coming up, but if you want to look ahead, this is the place to do it.
Please remember that in all the tasks 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 or if you’d like some resources or ideas. The connection with 245 amazing educators (that’s the number right now) is one we remain incredibly grateful for.
Yours dreaming,
Jeff & Sandy
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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