Hello,

Every Friday, my students are heavily engaged in low stakes impromtu writing during the beginning of our classes. This warm-up is called "Something to Talk About". Here, students pick one Friday during the semester where they must deliver a 5 minute "talk" followed by 2 questions. These questions become the journal for the rest of the class. I can attest to the students' interest in this through my experience with this activity during the '09/'10 school year.

I am now looking for an educator I can team up with for the '10/'11 school year. You must teach a High School class that falls somewhere between 1:00-1:15 Atlantic Time. Our 2 groups would link up via Skype for 2 days out of each week; on one day my student will deliver their talk to both of our classes while on the other yours will do the same.

Opportunities exist here to sharpen our students' speaking skills as they encounter a more authentic audience. I see potential in this culminating in an end of the year celebration where the best "Something to Talk About" deliveries from each class (as voted on by our students)could be presented to both of our school communities.

For more information, please contact me at joseph.ross@nbed.nb.ca

Thanks,

Joe Ross