So I’ve started the project, hoping to get my classes to think about working together in new ways and to have new problem solving strategies. (Thank you, CMK10)! Yesterday I put on the board the three M’s that, along with Gary Stager‘s one classroom rule (Don’t be a jerk.) will be the centerpiece of how we are going to go about all the work we do this year.

Models – we will look for the patterns in other people’s writing, sentence construction, essay structure… and use them as guides in our own reading and writing.

Mentors – we will look for mentors in the room.  I am not the only mentor. We all have things that we know how to do that we can share.

Mistakes – we will mess up. We won’t get it right the first time, but learn from the mistakes we make because that’s where the good stuff happens. Why did we think it might work? How can we change it?

So that’s it. Three Ms.  Simple, really.

Times Square M&Ms image by Tony the Misfit (back soon)