Daily Dose of Positivity!

+Planet  website launched on February 7th with anticipation (see short video documenting the event) and from that moment  the Media class at Pajaro Valley High School has turned their classroom into a place of developing instead of a place of consuming. The class launched their first website Positive Planet with the goal to "Change the world, one thought, one action at a time". The instructor, Dutch Tessier, with the help of his students cast a website together to make a space to promote positivity. Walking into fourth period you will discover the lights off and different groups of students huddled around computers, independently researching or conducting a meeting. The students are divided up into departments consisting of Local Marketing, National Marketing, Editorial, Art Department and Content Creation. Departments are acting together to market and design each aspect of the overall website and supporting social media sites. Local marketing is making a T-shirt logo and organizing a campus clean-up day. National marketing is developing a YouTube channel and fine tuning the social media sites Twitter, Instagram, Facebook . The editorial department is reviewing submissions and keeping content current. 

The buzz in the room is electric and watching students, who were behavior problems a few years ago facilitate group discussions is jaw dropping.  Watching the students work collaboratively to produce and run a website is a concrete example of 21st century skills.  The skills I am referring to are not technology based (even though those are useful) but those which engage students in critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, and communication.  The students are generating new ideas, reaching out to the community and working with each other to give the world a positive place to share.  You can't help but smile when you view +Planet.