Hey, Hey, Hey this is Ryan Goble coming at you with teaching resources and fun; and if you're not careful we’ll share some cool web links before we’re done!

Echoing one of my educational heroes, Bill Cosby, Making Curriculum Pop was created in the spirit of groundbreaking shows like Fat Albert, Sesame Street and School House Rock. Each of these programs embraced common cultures to engage kids in learning. That type of education – the fun, cool, meaningful and engaging kind - is what Making Curriculum Pop is here to facilitate through Ning’s Web 2.0 technology.

In the summer of 2009 my wife and I moved back home to Chicago where I teach teachers as an adjunct professor at Aurora, Roosevelt and Benedictine Universities. From 2005-2009 I worked as a curriculum coordinator and new teacher coach at a high school in the South Bronx, NYC. During that time I spent a lot of time sharing teaching resources that utilize common cultures. Building on the work I was doing in my day job I thought it would be powerful and political to bring together a collective of teachers dedicated to making curriculum pop. The site officially launched on January 20 ,2009.

It is hard for individual teachers to catch every cool website, video clip, song, study guide or comic but collectively MC POP is a forum where we can all share resources to reinvent our core curriculum and the larger dialogue on public education. So if you use popular and common cultures to reflect, refract, refocus and reinvent your core curriculum MC POP is the place for you.

The site is a spin off of the work that Paul, Nicole and I do at Mindblue but it is not designed to be an advertising hub. I’m sure we’ll broadcast a message when we release a new study guide but that is not the focus of the web site. NONE of the links I e-mail are paid solicitations. The ads on the right sidebar are placed by Ning and will be there until I decide we can pay for the network (that lets you know how - cough - impressive the present Mindblue revenue stream is). I dig teachers and companies that do cool work and want to share those resources with teachers however, this network is designed for educators who work with students.

As the network evolves over time, I’ll articulate guidelines for folks with commercial interests and individuals around spam. In the meantime I hope you’ll get started by doing something cool on the network.

Good Vibes,

Ryan R. Goble