Deflated

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I should be writing report card comments. I should be correcting, marking, assessing, evaluating, judging (I don’t even know the verb anymore) summative assessments, but to be honest, those teacherly duties kicked my butt today, and I need a break to re-charge, re-evaluate what it is I do and why I do it.

Report Card Comments- Feel a bit outdated? No? Here we are talking about student empowerment, 21st century learning, constructivist pedagogy, student centered inquiry based learning, enhanced with the power of collaborative technologies, but we still spend countless hours and energy at the end of every term dictating our profound wisdom and expertise about who students are, what and how they learn in 500 words or less. Seems to me that end-of-term report card comments are a carry-over from a dying era. Relics of a time when the teacher was the all-knowing power tripping ego holding all the cards.

I am bitter. Maybe I don’t know how to write comments. Maybe I don’t know who they are for or what purpose they are meant to serve. Maybe I am writing this post so you can help me. Just seems to me that very little can be accomplished by a few lines at the end of a term that could possibly give anyone any indication of the magic that happens in a classroom on a daily basis. Even as a parent, I am seldom enlightened to anything new through report card comments. I can read the angst and pain through every line. What is it I want? I want to know what Kaia does every day. I want to know what makes her happy. What excites her? What kinds of questions does she ask? How I can expand her learning at home? Can I write reports like that for grade 10 MYP students? Do I know them well enough? Do I know what excites them? All I do is say that they are strong writers who may need some help with basic grammatical structures. Perhaps they should speak up more in class! What parents doesn’t know this about their kid? Are these comments useful to anyone? Why do we write them then?

Okay, enough whining! What is my solution? I would rather give snippets of comments throughout the year, share rubrics with parents as units are completed, give non-critical feedback on blog posts, and critical feedback on shared rubrics through google-docs. I would rather have students assess themselves and write their own reports. (Something I have actually done this year. I have had all my students write their own reports in the third person, and I am simply looking them over and checking for agreement of what they say. They are more often too hard on themselves.) I want to share videos about what we do in class and produce content that is public and shareable for parents to see for themselves. I want to Tweet out updates of inquiry in class and have parents interact with their kids and our content while we are learning, not after it is done. Is this too idealistic? Do parents want to be this involved? Can they be? Do I have the time to do all of this? I am lost.

Honestly, I don’t have a solution. That is why I am writing tonight. What do you do? How do you make reports meaningful for parents, students, for yourself? How can we bring reporting to the 21st century? Does it still play a role in education? I suppose this is a larger question having to do with assessment. All I know is that I feel very deflated today. I know my kids have done some amazing things this term, and also I know we have stumbled and come up short. I am certain we have learned a lot, but somewhere in the maze of assessment criteria, grades, reporting, comments, feedback it has all become a murky mess. If I cannot point to a rubric, leave a comment on a report card to prove what kids have learned, have they learned anything?

Back to marking some assessments and report card comments…

Be Sparks

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“You can’t go into work like that. It is not professional. That is not a teacher’s haircut.”

Those were the first three sentences out of my wife’s mouth as soon as soon as I got home from my haircut this last week. I shrugged off her professional prudery as paranoia, thinking to myself, I can do whatever the hell I want, but deep down I was a bit worried. Was the mohawk a bit much? Was I pushing too hard?

After a week, I am convinced that not only is the mohawk good for me, but I am here to say that it is good for our school. Hear me out:

Everywhere I go, all week, people smile, pump their fists, and light up when they see me.

“Man, I love that haircut.”

“Really suits you”

“That is just awesome!”

Teachers, principals, students- it doesn’t matter. It is as if everyone is tapping into the sense of freedom one can only feel when one shuns the shroud of conformity and tip-toes along the edge of the preverbal box. You know, the one everyone tells you to think outside of, but choose to sit in comfortably themselves. Schools like all institutions can become stuffy dens of routine. How can they not? With so many procedures, programs, time-tables, curricula, it is almost as if they are designed to bore people to death. Is it any wonder that students and teachers sleepwalk their way through lessons and grumble because they have to write essays, lab reports or report card comments. I can only imagine hospitals, banks, and prisons as places that are more dreary.

But not this week at our school, not for me. Walking through campus with a mohawk seems to have awaken people. It has reminded them that schools were never met to be factories of the status quo. The hair-do is screaming to us all that schools are meant to challenge and excite. There have been times this week that I have been talking seriously about character development with my grade tens and they start cracking up. I mean how absurd right? A 37 year old man with a mohawk spouting off intensely about some ancient novel.

I love the lightness that comes from not taking oneself too seriously. I thrive on the silliness of authenticity and vulnerability. So often we ask students to take risks and express themselves, while we teachers sit behind our walls of adulthood professionalism. If I wanted to be a suit I would have been a banker. I am in the teaching business to be myself, in hopes that kids will see that being yourself, in the face of societal pressure is not that hard to do. We can all be sparks when we are not afraid to get burned. Tell a kid to take a risk…well try it yourself first.

I want my students to realize that adulthood is not some mono-chromatic path to death and professionalism. We are not all mind-numb zombies stressed and chasing bills. We are alive and filled with creativity and passion. I want them to understand that adults come in all shapes and sizes, and our diversity is what makes us such great role models. The way we look, the way we dress, the ink on our arms, the hair on our head is not the only indication of who we are or what we believe. I want my students as well as other teachers, administrators and parents to understand there is no one way teachers should look or act.

It has been a great week. I never thought a haircut would give me such a sense of empowerment. A Swagger. A purpose. Every institution needs a mohawk to remind it not to take itself too seriously. To remind it that life is fun and exciting and that sometimes we need to stand tall and be noticed. I have a challenge for you- what can you do to help ignite a little fire at your school? What can you do to rock the boat a bit; shake things up? Share your ideas below, better yet take some pics of you doing whatever it is you think will enliven your school and add links to the comments below.

It’s About Relationships

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We tech coaches, when we get together, often bandy about unobtrusive and easy to handle jargon. A term that has been popular lately, describing our role is, “It’s about relationships.” (Actually that is not true. We get together and challenge jargon, but I thought it was a cute way to start this post) Back to relationships- in order for us to successfully integrate, implement, incorporate, infuse (whatever ‘i” word you want to use) technology into school systems, then we need to build relationships of trust with the teachers with which we work. This means not pulling out our hair or rolling our eyes when someone can’t click the keys and magically make their machine do the things we can, or when they take three weeks to understand they must cite a picture in a blog post. We have to be patient and understand that it has taken us years to gain the skills and understanding which enable us to help others understand the often complicated concepts and skills we use everyday.

Learning how to be patient and build these relationships has been both challenging and rewarding for me. I am the kind of teacher who sets high standards and expects effort from all my students. I want everyone to love “it” all, the way I do. I don’t tolerate much apathy and goofing around. Even with my own children, I pursue a sort of zealotry when it comes to maturity, politeness, and quest for understanding. Should I expect anything less from my adult learners?

After six weeks of working with some amazingly dedicated teachers, I have learned a few thing, which I am sure apply to all learners young and old:

We all learn at our own pace and faster when it is relevant and interesting.
We learn best when we have time.
We are so often busy with other things that we cannot focus on what we want. ( I have a group of grade 10 students who seem so tired. They tell me they are interested in what we are doing with Of Mice and Men. They tell me it makes them think and the like our class talks, but they can’t give me more because they are swamped with Science at the moment)
We have to remember that the things we teach are not always as important to them as they are to us.
We have to meet learners where they are, not where we want them to be.
Learning takes time. Don’t expect instant results.

I am sure I could come up with many more, but I think you get the point. Being a Tech Coach and working with teachers is teaching me a lot about learning. I love the time I am spending with our teachers. It is great to see so many great blogs sprouting. I love to see a small group of people entering the Twitter stream and thinking differently about the role of technology not only in their pedagogy, but also in their lives.

In closing, I received this email last night from a teacher from my course, and it made me realize that all the hard work has paid off at least for one learner. As a teacher, should we expect anything more?

I wanted to share with you the ENORMOUS STEEP learning curve I have just been through in the last 6 weeks through this 101 computer course.

At the beginning of October I along with a huge group of people arrived at Jabiz’s classroom all set to go on this 101 computer course for blogging, feeling excited and raring to go. Didn’t really know what blogging was and certainly didn’t know what 101 was all about. Nervous but excited I got rid of my class on time and walked over to the building to find his room, struggled with that bit!! Arrived at his clasroom, sat next to Lindsay ( a mistake in itself) and waited for the course to begin.

The first TWO instructions resulted in me and Lindsay looking at each other in horror as we didn’t even know what to do with these TWO simple instructions:

Log on to MSHS network and Open up your gmail

Already stumped we took a bit of time to even do that by which time Jabiz had raced on with terminology I had no idea about. We sat there for an hour and a half and although I admit I am not particularly well read, would prefer being in the gym to reading a book, I still went to uni, I still have a degree and a post grad and I have enough intelligence to get me through life. After just 10 minutes in the class you wouldnt have thought I had even finished school!!! He talked about..pages, blogs, Rss, categories, creative commons, tags, wordpress, flickr, hyperlinksNow don’t get me wrong I know what each of those words mean independently but what the !!!!!!! do they mean in relationship to a 101 blogging workshop. No friggin idea!!!!

Have to say I left that one an a half hour workshop, feeling;

Deflated

Frustrated

Humiliated

Frustrated

Thick

Frustrated

Sick

Frustrated

Headahcey

And other feelings I simply couldn’t write down like ………off!!!!!!

BUT

I went home, had my favourite drink, wrote some emails to the IT people about my concerns, went into school the next day and was listened to and I did go back the following week.

AND NOW…

6 weeks later I stand here as a different person. A happier, more confident blogging woman who still has a huge journey in front of her but much happier.

I now have 4 blogs, I do know what a page, a tag, an RSS, a category is in IT terms and I have started blogging both at home and in school. Admittedly my blogs aren’t like other peoples thought provoking arguments or off the wall statements, but they are very simple and most of them are about AJ and TJ and my latest one is about Santa visiting my boys, hardly intellectual but it is where I am, it is where I am in the blogging journey and it is something I can send to my Mum to show her what life Is like here, so it is working for me.

I have been convinced that I CAN use blogging and I am happy that I didn’t quit after that first session and persevered through the pain to begin my blogging journey.

Take it slow. One learner at a time. Teach what you know and love. If you have any teachers who are new to IT or blogging or both, share this letter with them as a sign of hope. Please go to Lou’s blog directly, if you want to leave her a comment.

#freelissgriffin campaign

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This is a simple yet strangely disturbing story, that needs your attention and commitment to helping a network member in need. Melissa Griffin is a an energetic, dynamic and vital part of my network. We first met last year in Shanghai through mutual friends and have maintained and fostered our friendship online- through our blogs, but mostly through daily interaction on Twitter.

Like most of us, Melissa uses Twitter to stay connected, as a powerful professional development tool, as well as a tool to have a good laugh We all know and understand the power of Twitter on our lives these days. Now imagine if you woke up and your account had been suspended. For no reason and you had no recourse to get it back online. No one would respond to your questions and suddenly, Twitter is gone- just like that!

I revived this email from Melissa tonight:

Thanks for the #freelissgriffin campaign. I have heard nothing, nada, not a peep, not tweep from the main dudes at twitterland. Not sure who joined in, as I can’t watch. All I can do is click on a tweep’s page and I’m limited to one hour of access a day, from first click. My next step is to go straight to the top. The only way is to tweet. How ironic.

I have chosen ye to help, one last time, because you were in the original #freelissgriffin campaigner and/or are my main tweeps. Some aren’t in this email list, because I don’t have their email – we are tweeps (and sometimes facebookers). I put on my investigative hat (wikipedia and google) and found Jack Dorsey. He cofounded the twitter universe, he left and is back again. Fascinating reading. Being one of the very first tweeps he goes by @jack

Could you would you tweet at him? Can’t think what else to do and I miss tweets and tweeps and twits and RTs and DMs. I’m a addict

@lissgriffin <– [formerly known as]
(not a bad tweep)

I can’t help but think how dissapointed and upset I would be if Twitter just shut off for me, without any recourse to get it back. So let’s band together and get Melissa back on Twitter. Please copy this post to a Tweet and send it to @twitter, @jack and any one else you think could help. Be sure to add the #freelissgriffin hash tag. Pass the word (come on power users with lots of followers, get this into your networks) and let’s see if we can get this bad boy all over Twitter and get Melissa back among us!

Sunday Night Ramblings

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Technology need not be some abstract construct. It need not be some terrifying futuristic robotic dystopia. Technology and the tools it enables: Internet, digital media, social networks can be and should be reflections. Not mere reflections of what we do, but who we are. The sooner we begin to understand that technology is a bridge that links minds-to-minds, thoughts-to-thoughts dreams-to-dreams the sooner we can stop being so afraid of it and begin to harness the power it affords us to be collectively human.

For so long humanity has demanded voices for us all, and not withstanding the digital divide, we now (at least those of us living in the first world) all have that voice. Perhaps the understanding that we can now connect our fears and insecurities as well as our passions and talents to others is what is so frightening for people. Perhaps the realization that students can now voice their disinterest in what we do, is why so many people are fearful of jumping into the digital age.

I feel like a broken record, a blogger who simply writes the same posts over and over. I don’t know what more to say than what I feel to be true. I get this sense of excitement every time I open the ole WordPress editor, or Youtube upload page, or send a photo out to Instagram. Every time I participate in this upload culture, I feel lighter and more free than I did before I shared a piece of my brain, my soul with some vague fluctuating audience that may or may not be there.

There was no point to this post other than to say- it is not the quest for perfection in some finite permanent cypespace that should guide how we act online but rather the ephemeral, fleeting, sharing of random tidbits of who we are into the impermanent flux of of the Internet. If even one person connects to, relates to and/or understanding the essence of what I have said here, something magical has happened. Something organically and authentically human. The technology has become moot and the only thing left is you and me.