By Rich Monetti
Through the generosity of a local individual, the Mt. Kisco Childcare After School Program found itself the recipient of five new PCs. As the computers appeared, excitement emerged among students and staff. But as the tech was tweaking us toward operation, anxiety replaced my excitement as a teacher at the center. How where we going to put these to good use?
Duh, you’re a writer Rich, they have something called blogs that makes everybody a journalist now. But who really wants to write unless you’re getting paid.
People who call themselves bloggers, I guess. I didn’t want to set that precedent with my kids. I decided, we’re going to generate some cash. (MKCCC a nonprofit, we’d follow suit and donate the proceeds).
Before getting into the business model, let’s begin with content. I see a soccer game breakout in the backyard or one of our Feed me Fresh cooking projects begins, I hand somebody the camera. If the lucky child happens to be an older, she must blog a story to the photo.
So if you ask 4th grader Kiduce Daniel, who drew the first assignment with his friend Stephen Mains to report on the shiney tomatoes grown in our garden, he’s perfectly honest on what he likes most about the PCs.
“Playing all the computer games,” he says.
Why not and are we any different when it comes to work and play?
“You want to play, you got to pay. Do a story and the games are yours,” I tell them.
Hmm. I need to get better at this inspiration thing, and bringing them the jar with 64 cents accumulated ain’t quite it either.
Stephen’s Mom Kris isn’t so worried about that as MKCCC’s kids can be just as mum about their days as any others. “I’m excited to get the latest because it gives me a snapshot of what my kids are doing that day,” she says. The center’s director of curriculum concurs and goes that one better. “It’s a great way for parents to see that the things that go on here go beyond this just being a place to keep their kids busy,” says Dawn Meyerski.
And maybe a little in print publicity produces enough inspiration that the bloggers ask for the camera rather than the keys to the click that begins their games. “Any encouragement is good, because it feels good to be recognized,” says Meyerski.
Why not, are they any different than us? I don’t know, maybe they will be.
By clicking the link at the end of each blog entry, a page view is recorded for that specific article on my Associated Content dashboard. This amounts to .16 cents per click. and once reaching $25 dollars, the money will be lent to a micro-financing organization called Kiva.org. (See September 18th entry of Blog C).
The kids would love to receive feedback on their work. For more info, write to: mkcccbloggers@aol.com
Blogs:
http://mkcccpresskiva.blogspot.com/