Advertising / Sharing Policy 1.0 (11.29.10)

Many people have been wondering if we have an advertising policy here at MC POP. I want to briefly clarify our SHARING POLICY and the SITE SPONSORSHIP POLICY. In time, I want to add a FAIR USE POLICY but that is on deck at the moment.

RESOURCE SHARING POLICY
Here is the simple policy:
If it will help teachers "Make Curriculum Pop" and you can share the resource tactfully, share often and frequently.

Obviously, if you're just sharing a cool lesson or project you did in your class, or a great resource you've found on the web - there is no conflict. That is what this site is all about!

That said, lots of people here list themselves as writers and publishers and they are generally very mindful about sharing. I receive many e-mails asking if I can share someone's resource. I try to rarely post things for people that are MC POP members because I don't want to be seen as THE GATEKEEPER and it defeats the spirit of the site. MC POP is here for YOU to share YOUR awesome. Remember, if it will help teachers "Make Curriculum Pop" and you can share the resource tactfully, share often and frequently.

Creating art, video, music, software, lesson plans or ed texts is hard work and MC POP is a great space for people to celebrate their work. The reality of the situation is that most people don't make large profits off ed work and many of the things shared here are labors of love. So share the love keeping the following in mind...
Please DON'T:
• DON'T do a discussion forum post like this "NOW ONLY $19.95 COOLEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN BY ME!"
• DON'T pretend that you don't work for a publisher if you do. Full disclosure = the way to go.
• DON'T share things that are 100% promotional like contests that are not clearly tied to student projects or educational resources for school. This is a fuzzy area and might merit e-mailing me if you're not sure.

Please DO follow these great model posts:
• The post LIfe and Death in a Civil War Prison by author Catherine Gourley. That, plus an image for the book are totally cool and tastefully done.
• The posts of Peter Gutierrez who works for many publishing outfits. See:
Some Free Resources re Graphic Novels & Literacy
LESSON PLAN: "Little Mouse Gets Ready" K-1 Lesson Plan
and
The Benefits of Reading Comics Aloud to Kids
• Lastly, the incredible post of software creator, Hardy Leung, on how to use his software. See 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo. It is awesome.

All these people disclose their role in the resource and tastefully share stuff that can help teachers make curriculum pop!

SITE SPONSORSHIP POLICY
As far as the formal advertising policy on the site when Ning entered the pay era I had to decide how to pay our MC POP hosting fees ($200 a year for this version). For that reason, you'll see on the right sidebar we are now "sponsored by Mindblue consulting." That is me. and yes, I'd love to come do PD at your school - lol.

This is not yet a "real" sponsorship because Mindblue has been largely dormant for the last 5 years (sans Teach, Think, Play). That said, we don't have a massive cash flow but there is some and that is a way to support MC POP alive and free for educators. We lost the annoying Google ads on the right and a MB sponsorship link is in their place. No biggie.

COMING SOON?
As you may have read in earlier e-mails, I'm hoping to launch an online MC POP seminar series in 2011 called the MC POP GALLERY. I have had a conversation with a small publisher about hosting virtual conferences via WebEx in exchange for mentioning them as a sponsor on the webinars - they publish some poppy books that I think everyone could dig. I may also approach a university to host them as podcasts. More on this as it develops.

I hope articulating this policy makes folks who are WRITING, DRAWING & GENERALLY CREATING COOL STUFF less shy about sharing their hard work with the larger MC POP community!

On a related note, it goes without saying the random spammers that come to the site and start commenting on people's pages are impossible to stop BUT usually I or someone else quickly notices and we ban the user. These do not fall under the rubric of making curriculum pop and are taken care of asap.

I hope this helps. Now please share your awesome with the MC POP PEOPLE!

Ryan

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Comment by William Zimmerman on April 7, 2011 at 1:36pm: MakeBeliefsComix Offers Poetry Month Printables

For Students to Write and Sing The Songs of Themselves

Dear colleagues,

If you’re looking for a creative way to help students think, write and draw about poetry during National Poetry Month, you’ll find free, useful graphic printables at MakeBeliefsComix.com that asks these questions:

‘’Imagine that, like the poet Walt Whitman, you are writing a poem, a rhyme, a song of your self. What would you write? What song would you sing?’’

And

''Imagine that you were the nation's poet laureate penning a poem about something or someone very meaningful to you. What would your opening lines be?

For a copy of these National Poetry Month printables and more go tohttp://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ and click on the PRINTABLES button at the bottom. The feature also offers comix templates featuring characters from the web site along with blank talk and thought balloons that students can fill with text to create their own comic strips.   

Best wishes,

Bill Zimmerman

Advertising / Sharing Policy 1.0 (11.29.10)

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