Teaching Unmasked- A Review

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I first met John Spencer through his blog, Spencer’s Scratch Pad and through Twitter. I can’t remember which came first. I was immediately struck by his raw, passionate and humble voice. He seldom seemed to have any definite answers, and he rarely preached the trite Ed-Tech gospel, instead he wrote…I guess I should switch this to the present tense… he writes from the heart about his love of learning. His posts and his tweets strike a chord with me as they are honest snapshots into his classroom, his pedagogy, and his heart. I have been inspired by his short post style and often find myself needing to leave a quick comment. He is a prolific writer who has the skill to always keep his topics fresh and relevant.

It was with great pleasure that I ordered his book Teaching Unmasked- Why I Am More of a Teacher When I Am Less of a Teacher. The book is available in a number of formats, you can read it for free online here, but I chose to buy a copy from Amazon. I am a sucker for books and have yet to make the shift to E-reading. If someone takes the time to write a book, I am doing it now and I know how difficult it can be, then I feel I owe it to them to hold their words in my hand and give them the respect they deserve.

The book is an easy read that leaves you thinking and questioning your practice. It is easy, not in the sense that it is simple, although it is, but that it is well written and filled with the depth of wisdom. Not the kind of wisdom arrived by knowing the answers, but from the kind of wisdom that comes from a childlike passion for questioning and of curiosity. This is not an Ed-Tech book that will revolutionize your classroom with a litany of fancy gadgets and tools. It is a candid reflection of a teacher doing his best. Filled with all the doubts and insecurities that accompany honest risk taking teaching, this is a book that reveals a teacher who is dedicated to his students, their learning, and what their shared understanding means to the greater good of humanity.

I sometimes feel like a groupie, and I hope I do not embarrass John by my constant attention and by how often I retweet his posts or for the amount of comments I leave, but I honestly see him as a kindred spirit. One rarely finds a voice who so closely resembles one’s own. My copy of his book is littered with highlighted passages, and I will take my copy and place it on my desk at school for the occasional reminder to question my practice ad how I interact with students. Some nuggets of wisdom may even make it up on the wall.

If you are teacher interested in the art and science of true reflective student centered learning this book is for you. I will stop gushing now, because I know that this is not the kind of attention John is after, but trust me read this book it will do your soul some good.

The Facebook

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I saw the Social Network last night and I was very impressed. I do not want to turn this post into a review of the film, except that I will say I found the script hilarious, sharp and witty. The acting, especially Justin Timberlake, was natural and compelling, and the music by Trent Reznor was a perfect complement. It was not just background music, but at times felt like another character helping to move the plot and add tension. (I am actually listening to it now as I type this post.)

I know some people have criticized the movie for not having any positive female characters, and while I agree this is a valid criticism, I would like to state that while we may not agree or like to admit, the mind of the college man dwells in dark places, and most of our time in those caves is spent pondering one thing and one thing only- Women. I am sure there are balanced, well-intentioned, sensitive, young men out there, who do not spend every waking minute of their college life obsessing about women, but for most of us college is a time of great insecurity and is most often consumed by trying to find ways to be as close to the opposite sex as possible. The sexualized fantasies of the film may have been exaggerated and unrealistic, but the obsession was not.

But like I said in the beginning, this was not meant to be a review of the film. As I was watching the film, I couldn’t help but thing about how the Internet is changing the way we create and understand self, and more importantly how does this newly developed public self go about creating social groups and/or communities? How do we as adults who did not spend our schooling years making friends online, learn to understand this change and work with our students to understand the new phenomena?

One of my favorite lines of the film was when Timberlake’s character is at a party and says, “First we lived on farms, then we moved to cities, and now people live online.” While this idea may terrify some, or feel like hyperbole to others, I feel it is pretty close to the truth. While it may appear quaint and nostalgic to champion face-to-face interactions, please believe me I am an advocate of the organic as well as the digital, the reality, whether we like it or not, is that we spend a great part of our lives living online. I am not talking only about those of us who have embraced the social web, those of us with blogs, youtube channels, twitter and The Facebook, I am talking about your average person who Skypes friends, checks status updates and photos, and stays connected through the web. We are all slowly migrating from the cities to online.

For most adults, this living online has been a slow shift. We knew how to make friends, some of us better than others, before the Internet, and so transferring the ability to maintain relationships in “real” life, to life on the web has been a steady continuum. But how do kids these days deal with it? They are learning how to make friendships online as they learn how to do it face-to -ace. This is a fundamental shift in how we foster and maintain relationships and build communities.

It is important that we acknowledge the fact that sites like Facebook are where young people to go to be social. Many nervous administrators want to block social networking sites, like Facebook, but they must realize that this is where kids hang out. While this idea of hanging out on the cloud or in cyberspace feels strange to those of us who did not spend our time there as kids, we owe it to the students we teach to begin to understand the dynamics of online social life. We must begin to ask students what life is like on the web, so that we can help them understand the value in face-to-face relationships. On a more selfish level, it would behoove us to learn more about socializing online as many of these kids will be in charge of the world as we age, and it is always a good idea to understand how they operate. Teachers have a tendency to think that the way they did thins was better than the way they are being done now, so they are constantly trying to force students into the model they feel the most comfortable with. Social networks are here to stay, and we can pine for the good old days when life was private and people knew how to have conversations, but the reality is that those days are gone. We can help students understand the importance of face-to-face interactions, but not until we show them that their digital social rituals have value.

I think the film exposes some important areas for exploration. The main one being, why are we social at all? On the web or off. What is that pressing need that we have as humans that makes us want to fit in and be loved. To be accepted. It is easier for mature adults to look back at our teenage years and scoff at our juvenile behavior in middle or high school. Or to be embarrassed of the days when we considered joining a fraternity or a “Final Club” so that we could be cool and find a date. All of these activities, merely, highlight the need that people in general are insecure and looking to fill the gaps in their personalities with the acceptance of others. We want to be understood, accepted, and if we are lucky loved for who we are. The problem becomes how do we articulate who we are to others.

In the past before the Internet, we relied on what I think are more superficial indicators. For me, in middle school I was judged by how I dressed, which reflected my economic class status, by how I looked, and by the way I acted in class etc…None of which were remotely accurate to the person I was. Like most adolescents and young adults, I had a rough of idea of who I was, but most days even I was confused. So to be judged and evaluated on how I presented myself to the world seemed unfair. No one got me and I had no way of setting them straight.

I think this need to present ourselves as we create and recreate ourselves and change and grow is the central theme of both the movie The Social Network and social networks. Zuckerberg’s goal was to give people a place to stake claim and announce to the world who they are. He wanted to level the playing field. You could, by publicly sharing your profile, dictate to the world how to perceive you once and for all. You no longer had to be the quiet wallflower or the dense jock, if people could see the books you were reading or the music you listened to. Suddenly, you became much more multi-dimensional. Social networks allow us to create who we are much more accurately than non-digital life.

I think I may have more material that will fit into this post, so I will wrap up for now. In closing, I just want to point out that life has changed, is changing, we are in the middle of a very exciting time. The very nature of who we are and how we connect with others is in flux, but this change need not be terrifying. Yes, our children socialize in radically different ways than we did when we were kids, yes young people tend to stare at screens instead of at each others eyes, but we must keep in mind that behind every screen is another person, or two, or three. While staring at a phone and texting may appear anti-social to us, it is actually the most social of acts for them. We cannot ban or force kids to abandon a form of socialization simply because we don’t understand it or because it makes us feel uncomfortable. Make me think of a line I just read in John Spencer’s book Teaching Unmasked: Criticize the tools you use and use the tools you criticize. I for one am going to tack that up on my classroom walls and jump in feet first to help my kids find their voice, find their passion, and their confidence to build and maintain meaningful and mature relationships, both face-to face and online. You can choose to stand on the sidelines and fear the world as it comes at you, or you can choose to go with the flow and move forward.

Week 2- Blogging Club: Time

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I am not gonna lie, I am feeling tired, a bit burnt out and lazy. It is Friday morning, I have a few preps to get some work done, but I am mostly caught up, so it is the perfect time to do a quick write up for the second meeting of our blogging club. The problem is I don’t really feel like doing it.

This is where modeling behavior you like to see comes in. One of the biggest questions I get from new teachers to blogging and interacting with the social web is, “Where do you find the time?” The answer is I don’t find the time. Time is not something that is found; it is made. It is shaped. Expanded and collapsed. It is used or misused. So while I could just relax and maybe surf the web, or perhaps work on my Areas of Interaction wall display, or finish up the work on my ESL oral assessments, I am choosing to take twenty minutes and quickly jot done a few ideas about our second session. Why? Because I believe in the value of routine and writing and reflection and blogging. Time is a choice, or better stated a series of choices.

While some may see the use of twenty minutes as a frivolous hobby, I see it as professional development. I see it as my chance to reflect on the work I do. This reflection and growth professionally and personally is one of the most important aspects of my life. I see it as time well spent, not wasted. We are all busy. Take a look at Dean Shareski’s thoughts on the subject of busyness, but we have a choice on how we use our time. So without further ado. A quick recap:

1. I came to the conclusion that perhaps many of the participants are not ready or willing, or need to commit to this level of involvement with their own reflection. They do not want to create a professional blog where they ponder the merits of online communication and community building. They simply want to learn how to use the tool to create a space that will help them connect with, and engage with their students and parent community. I also learned that this is okay. We cannot expect that everyone will find value in one model of blogging. The secret I think is to offer people exposure, show them the options and help guide them to where they want to go, not where we want to take them.

If our elementary school art teacher wants to create a platform to share student work with a wider audience, instead of writing about the process, that is totally okay. I need to find out where she is and help move her to where she wants to go. So many times technology enthusiasts want to show everyone everything at once, and are shocked that perhaps a teacher doesn’t want to follow.

2. I got a good sense of what everyone wants from their blogs and we began to discuss and explore design and platforms. Teachers are using Blogger and WordPress themes. I did some research to try and find the best tool for embedding slideshows on a Blogger account and feel I found some great choices to offer. The question for me, however, is how can I empower the teachers to find these options for themselves? How can we demonstrate to teachers that there is value in taking time to research solutions to the problems they face? How can we show them that struggling with technology is what learning looks like, and in the long run figuring out how to do something for yourself is not wasting time, but actually it is them learning?

I don’t want to take anymore of your time, but I am curious of what you think. If you are one of the teachers here at SWA, please leave a comment, and let’s see if we can carve out a conversation as we help build the tools you need. Take ten minutes and try to hash out your thoughts. They don’t have to be complete or perfect. This point cannot be better made than by reading over this post and highlighting the many typos and mistakes. A blog is a place to reflect and talk, not to write your opus.

I want to close by saying how great it is that you do make the time every week to join us and learn about something new. Thank you. Your time is valued and appreciated, because I know you could be doing a million other things.

Mother Nature in the Digital Age

We Have No Choice

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I’ve been digging through some old files and journals, and I came across this old piece I wrote back in 2002 while living in New York City and working in The Bronx:

We are all sitting in the classroom. Above the door it says 169 and it is crossed out and written in pen it says 171. It used to be the math teacher’s lounge but space is tight, so now it is our classroom. The room is at Stevenson High School on Lafayette Ave. in the bronx. We would capitalize it but it doesn’t feel like a place that should be capitalized. It is usually gray and usually brings you down a few notches no matter how good your mood. But here in room 171 things seem to be okay today. The sun has been absent a few days, but being that we are on the ground floor we don’t see much of him anyway. The desks are in a circle and we are looking at each other and are trying to break the code and find out how we can all communicate. Some of us are from Bangladesh, some from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ghana, Iran, Venezuela, China and New York City. We don’t all know each other’s names and most of us don’t know what fills the heads of our neighbors. They sit there they have a look of fatigue we can relate to, so we think that they must also being living this life. Usually the desks are set up in fours, we sit next to strangers and we write and read the things they put in front of us. Some of it interests us, some of it bores us. We have been reading Lord Of The Flies. Today there are two pieces of paper in front of us. They say that we have to put ourselves into groups and discuss a list of problems we face everyday, in shitty schools and hard lives. He wants us to talk to each other. He wants me to talk to the Bengali girl who is always sleeping. He has a lot of nerve. But we do sometimes wonder what their lives are like? Because we sometimes feel this way, we read the papers.

He is sitting on his next Indian style writing furiously, which is curious because nothing is happening. We want to say something. But the people who are always talking are talking. They seem a bit sad. The teacher says that we all lead difficult lives and that our surrounding influence our behavior. He says that people, all of us, crave attention, maybe its called love, maybe something else, but we all want to be notice. He says sometimes when we don’t get this love we act out so that someone may notice us. He says every criminal has been mistreated. He doesn’t need to tell us this, we know. We are brighter than we act. We want to speak. We don’t, not yet. The spotlight is never big enough to include all of us.

image by David Reeves

He tells us that we have to realize where we are and what we have to do, to go to other places. He tells us the world is huge and that there are many songs we have never heard, and foods we have never eaten and lives we have never lived. He says that in order to get there we have to learn the rules of the game we are playing. He says that by learning to talk in turn and get things done, we can ignore all the rules and be free. He says that if don’t we will always watch people beating the shit out of each other in all the hallways of our lives. Up in the bronx the trains are never quiet. Up here we have been abandon. He says we should see everybody’s point of view so we can find our place in the universe. Sometimes he says things that we don’t understand but they don’t seem that difficult to learn.

Our minds are drifting. We are talking about the book. He says that people who can’t deal with authority need to be talked to, not disciplined. He says that they just need some one to listen. He knows because he says that when he was younger he had a hard time dealing with authority. We don’t like being talked to like we are animals. It feels nice when people hear us, even when the world is so loud. It feels nice to be spotted in the gray. We want to solve our own problems but it has been hard. We come form everywhere. We are fighting against forces beyond our control. He tells us this, but we know that life can’t be this hard unless, people are actively pushing us down. We see the TV, others are happier. Others have more. He tells us that we need to fight but we can’t fight the way we are. He says that we must be the next wave. We must educate our children. He says books will help. Forming our ideas will help. He says language is power and we have to understand sentences like, “he mired in his own irrelevance.” That’s a line from the book he brought. A fat boy who is smart but ignored says it. He says that we all have an id and sometimes it gets out of control. He tells us to look outside and see it in action. The other day we saw a boy hit another across the jaw with a lock and kick him when he fell. We didn’t know what that was called, but we knew what it was. Now we know that when the id gets out of control people break jaws.

He says we should trust him. “ I won’t let you done. If you need someone please come talk to me.” Others have said that and they have let us done every time. Some of us are 18 and we can’t write. We don’t want to be mechanics, we want to be Marines. He tells us that there is nothing wrong with that but we should make sure that we have choices. Not all of us want this. Some of us want to travel and see the world. Some of us want to experience things we have never seen. He says that we have to make sure we all work together. He says that until we teach the criminals none of us will be safe. He says that we need to listen. He talks a lot. We listen. We have no choice us they say we have to be here. But it beats what the other ones are saying. He seems to really be into being with us. It feels good.