You’re Invited to Blog for IDEC 2012 Week, 10/31 – 11/4

Hey Coop-ers, I haven’t posted much to this blog yet but wanted to reintroduce myself. I’m the Communications Director of IDEA, an organization that has much in common with the Coop. Kirsten Olson is our Board President, David Loitz is a Community Organizer, Adam Burk is a Digital Organizer, and some of the folks who blog at IDEA have started blogging at the Coop. We’re working on developing more crossover between IDEA and the Coop. For starters, we’d love for you to participate in a blogging event we’re hosting next week. Read on! – Melia

I’m on the outreach team for IDEC 2012, the international education gathering happening in Puerto Rico next March 24-31, and I’d like to invite you to participate in a blogging effort we’re organizing the first week of November to raise awareness about IDEC and democratic education. Note that you don’t need to be an IDEC attendee to participate. (But we hope you’ll come!)

We’re calling the event “Blog for IDEC 2012 Week.” As there are four distinguishing qualities of the conference — human, powerful, relevant, and transformative — we are highlighting one per day and are inviting bloggers to write a short post sharing how each value is essential to real education. This is a great way for you to expand your national audience at www.democraticeducation.org/blog.

Here’s more detail:

• Monday, Oct 31: IDEC 2012 Week kickoff: introduction to the four-day blogging series. (We’ll post this to the IDEA blog; optional but encouraged for you.)
• Tuesday, Nov 1: Real education is … Human.
• Wednesday, Nov 2: Real education is … Powerful.
• Thursday, Nov 3: Real education is … Relevant.
• Friday, Nov 4: Real education is … Transformative.

The prompt is, What does this (“human education,” “powerful education,” etc.) look like to you, and why does it matter? 

You’re encouraged to tell real-life stories. For example, I could write on “Real education is … Relevant” by talking about Dave Neubacher, a fifth-grade teacher at my own public elementary school who starts each day by chatting with his students about current events that have caught their attention. The class has a special focus on environmental preservation, and they’ve done projects like adopting a polar bear and releasing butterflies in the school garden. The students develop a deep understanding of environmental stewardship and personal responsibility that they carry throughout their lives.

Here’s how Blog for IDEC 2012 Week will work:

1. I’ll post to the IDEA blog each morning on the chosen topic, from Monday, Oct. 31, to Friday, Nov. 4.

2. You make a post on your blog (or create a Note on Facebook), on the appropriate day and topic, and add a link to the post in the comments section of my post on the IDEA blog. I’ll add the link into the body text of my post, as well. You can link to the Coop or to your personal blog.

If you’re not able to post on all of the four days, that’s fine; you can write on only one or two of the topics if you wish. You don’t have to mention IDEC in your post but are quite welcome to. Feel free to write your posts in advance and publish them as scheduled above.

3. You share the link to the main IDEA blog post on your Facebook/Twitter, and we’ll do the same on ours. We’ll use the hashtag #blog4IDEC.

IDEA’s Facebook page is www.facebook.com/DemocraticEducation, and our Twitter is @goodideafolks.

I look forward to blogging for IDEC 2012 with you!