THE HOW: My Involvement with the SOS Classroom Project

When Dr. Mark Marino first unveiled the Save Our Summer/SOS Classroom project around Mid June 2009, our Advanced Writing 340 class became immediately involved with his groundbreaking concept. Unbeknownst to many of us studying at the University of Southern California, we learned from Dr. Marino that the Los Angeles Unified School District had fell victim to severe budget cuts and was being forced to cancel summer school. It was clear that vital educational services would cease to be delivered to struggling students. As we listened to Dr. Marino’s presentation, the scope and impact of the school district’s cutbacks gripped each one of us like witnessing a train wreck. I myself experienced an almost emotional reaction to thinking about kids who would be prevented from accessing their classrooms at key stages of their academic development, especially in grades K through 8 that would affect their future.

Listening to Dr. Marino, I found the SOS Classroom project to be deeply appealing because I could see the whole class coming together to create something that would reach out to our local community and perhaps even the larger national community to further important educational goals. The project wouldn’t be about one person; from the outset it was clear about bringing multiple talents and ideas together to shape a significant resource. In thinking about it, the SOS Project wouldn’t just be about summer. It’s a larger project with the potential to be helpful to different kinds of students in different locales at different times of the year through the creation of a website where students can access a wealth of academic resources at www.sosclassroom.org. I was immediately excited that the project would use cutting-edge Web 2.0 technology in ways that haven’t been utilized before. The project creates an educational locus with unique social bookmarking tools like Diigo and del.icio.us, giving students an opportunity to explore the capabilities of these new technological tools in academia.

Enthused, I was given the position of School Liaison and immediately went to work in preparing to interface with LAUSD schools. My assignment from Dr. Marino was to obtain a list of principals' emails in anticipation of getting the word out about the SOS site. In a very real sense, the School Liaison position seemed to complement my ongoing appointment as a Congressional intern, where I’ve assisted the Director of Homeland Security. From my Congressional office experience, I’ve witnessed how first impressions and phone contacts can affect future dealings with interested persons and institutions. I felt my position as a School Liaison would require tact as well as gaining an understanding of the sensitive parameters within which to act most effectively.

First efforts in acting effectively and efficiently were aided by Dr. Marino. A great tool that has created momentum and organization has been Dr. Marino’s SOS Project Group Diigo daily update. Coach has consistently emailed these communications around midnight so that daily updates are accessible early in the morning. Additionally, pulling everyone into a zone of involvement, our emails from Coach constantly put us on track, placing everyone’s task progress on an organized list. Thus, through planning, the professional character of the project was established early on.

I went to work creating a phone log and daily activity journal in the same manner that I conduct work for the Congressman’s offices. Keeping track of phone calls, conversations and progress, I called the Superintendent of LAUSD’s offices and found a warm initial reception to my description of the SOS project. In that conversation, I enquired about getting principals’ emails but was denied this information by the LAUSD staff who declared the list off-limits. However, another administrative assistant offered to put me through to the Superintendent to speak with him directly about the SOS Project. Instead, I offered a follow up with literature and a future contact. That particular conversation describing the SOS Classroom project went well and I gained the telephone number of a key LAUSD team member. My unstated thought that ruled my conduct was that I was not personally authorized to speak in place of the authority of Dr. Marino and that such contact would be premature as I was simply charged with putting together a list of emails. At the point I made my calls, the final materials of the SOS project and the website were still under development per the Daily Diigo updates. As of the July 15th update, we’re awaiting the announcement of the official press release.

From phone numbers and further enquiries, I discovered hubs of authority within the LAUSD that could get the word out to schools. I compiled this list after making a number of long distance phone calls that enabled me to put together this short list as well as a list of schools’ emails that could be accessed on a per school basis. Some schools offered individual message boards to principals but no direct email addresses, while others did not offer the message board feature on their sites which I observed in more than a hundred schools. I put together a list of schools and remain ready to individually paste in emails to principals where message boards are available. Working with Taylor Randall, my school liaison colleague, we’ve kept each other updated on events and have kept in contact with Liz Warden and Matt Schrader who continue to spearhead the PR effort.

In continuing a deeper search for principals' emails, I contacted educators and discovered that the Orange County School District is more open about providing access to principals and the dissemination of information. However, my assignment was within the LAUSD and in this forum, I constructed my list as thoroughly as was possible from my limited access to information. Undaunted, I continued my enquiries, but came to the conclusion on legal advice that any emails I found other than those obtained on authority from the LAUSD would be considered an invasion of privacy and a matter for legal action. Nevertheless, I’ve continued to work independently on the SOS project.

From my combined experiences interfacing with schools and making connections, I’ve written a short report that contains suggestions for conducting school liaison activities. Independent from the update I posted, this document is a draft of some creative recommendations for the SOS project that take it beyond its present purview. I would be delighted to submit this paper for consideration if asked to do so.

Above all, I’ve wanted to continue the positive excitement of the SOS vision. I combed the web in order to post a dozen quality sites for students to log onto within the SOS classroom. I found Math Forum offering tips on math that would be useful to students studying at various levels of mathematics. I also selected the teaching and English language learning portal Waylink English, that links to the United Kingdom. Through the SOS classroom, right at children’s fingertips at their computer, worldwide educational resources can become available in an expanded learning environment.

Building on excitement in getting the word out, as an artist I’ve responded to the “Dream List” posted on the Save Our Summer update that appeared on Google Docs. The SOS lunch box, t-shirt and SOSIE doll are eventually doable but prototypes at some point will need to be built in order to obtain bids from production companies. In pursing the development of these types of promotionals, a lot of budget can get eaten up in commissioning professional resources to prototype these items. I’ve gone ahead and concepted some models for this commercial end of the project that can be stored in anticipation of a developing market. Additionally, I’m involved with building an advertising kiosk in support of my up-coming presentation promoting Save Our Summer. The SOS Classroom project is an innovative milestone of tremendous excitement and consequence. We're working together as a group on the SOS, and I believe the project is creatively moving forward!