Dream (Tweet) Team

A few days ago, I sent out a Tweet asking:

I thought of the idea after I saw the “dream team” that is being assembled at various international schools world wide. I noticed that several people I follow and trust as great members of my team have ended up at Korean International School @stevekatz @krea_frobro747 @kurisuteen and @tsbray I was quickly told that @b_roadside is at KIS as well. Last year there was the All-Star team in Bangkok. Are there others?

For those of you familiar with this sports analogy, you will appreciate that teams who want to create a unified team will scour the free agent market and find players who will help deliver them a championship. Is your team looking for a connected team?

I thought about the teachers I know world wide who Tweet and are connected through various modes of networking tools. I thought about where they are placed and whether or not they feel isolated or connected. I was jealous of the people at KIS, because they seem to have a great team who shared similar values regarding pedagogy and technology.

I thought about how I was excited to now be at a school with at least one other person on Twitter @janeinjava, but this constant connection and interaction is not the culture of my school. (Not yet) I am hoping that I too can create an environment where we have a team on Twitter soon, and I am hoping that doesn’t only mean that they randomly tweet now and then, but rather the team reflects a culture of connectivity.

But one can look at KIS now, and see that they value technology and it’s implications in education, based on their recruiting practice. I have a feeling that this team was created partly through luck and happenstance, or is it because they are purposefully recruiting teachers who are connected? You tell me. How many schools during interviewing ask potential teachers whether they are on Twitter, or how they use social networks to stay tuned to the latest professional development?

Most people responded that they did not feel that the number of Tweeting teachers had any correlation to a schools commitment to technology, because many people simply use Twitter to waste time. I thought it was implied in my message that I meant teachers who are part of this burgeoning edtech community.

I am not claiming that a school should be judged solely on the number of tweeting teachers, but I do think that if you are in a school where there is a value placed on your involvement in social networks you should feel lucky.

Where do you teach? Are you looked at like some kind of geek because you Tweet or blog, or is there a culture of these activities at your school? What are some dream teams that you know of?

Dazed, Amazed, and Determined

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Every teacher probably has their own unique reason for getting into education. Somewhere our motives our probably interconnected in some sort of inspirational lattice, but I am not here to conjecture on why you teach. I want to share a story that elucidates why I got into the business.

Every once in a while, a student does something, or says something that shows the teacher that the hours spent wondering if anything he/she said made any difference in the student’s life. We speak so much about learning and where to find it, and what it looks like, and how to assess it that we have lost touch with any sense of what it means to the life of the children we are dealing with everyday. So consumed are we with skills and content and curriculum that we have forgotten that learning is a long slow process with results we may never see. We plant seeds and tend them the best we can a few hours a day, a few years and then hope that sometime in the future they will bear fruit.

I am here to say that one of my young seedlings from last year just blossomed. James was always mature beyond his age. I always had a hard time understanding how his brain works the way it does, seeing he just finished the seventh grade. Understanding, kind, and deliberate with his learning, he was a pleasure to work with.

In class this past year we struggled with certain themes regardless what we were official meant to be studying.

We looked at the environment and the relationship humans have with it.
We looked at class and how it dictates our relationships.
We looked at how we can work to make the world a better place.

You tell me; how can you assess to see if a 7th grader has learned anything about these insurmountable ideas? Is there a standardized test that can show growth in the field of developing an environmentalist consciousness? Is there a I can give to see if my students are learning that their lives are tightly interconnected with the lives of people spread across the planet? Can we assess the understanding that the way we view the most mundane aspects of our lives is what poetry was meant to do?

Well, today I got a clue. James wrote his first blog post upon returning to his homeland, Nigeria. The fact that he has chosen to carry on with his school blog makes me so proud. It demonstrates that he understands that writing is more than an exercise made monotonous in school. He understands that when faced with emotions that may appear difficult or euphoric it is natural and important to write.

But what did he write, you may ask? The post was not simply a teenager writing about the minutia of his day. You can read the entire post here, and I encourage you to leave him comments. I was also very pleased that he used a CC image and cited it correctly. Without further ado I will share my favorite lines:

I am sitting at the table with the soft music of nature- the wind, blowing in through the windows. I wish I can share in detail how much nature is showing her wonders. From the rustling of the trees up above to the cry of the insects down below. From the whistling of the wandering wind up above, to the hypnotic voice of the woman as she chants while she works, down below. These things cannot just be told, to be understood. They need to be felt to appreciate the remarkable wonders nature as got.

I feel sad and dazed of how much life has changed. Looking back to where I came from and then looking right now to where life’s journey has brought me, there are definitely some differences. I have been here for just a short while and already, I can see the different social classes and their style of living.

Trying to answer that, I started changing my perspective of where I am. Then I started to see the hidden beauties it has. Every time I look outside the car’s window, there are stories all around, stories just around the corner. Stories shown by the way people live, the way people bustle about the streets with emotions that can’t be explained in a thousand words. Stories waiting to be told.

I nearly cried pasting these passages above. Here is a young man who is thinking critically, asking important questions, using a fluid and simple prose to help guide him through his emotions. He sees the poetry in his life and understands it is wrapped in politics and art.

Thank you James. Thank you for listening. Please stay in touch we have important work to do in the years to come…

We Don’t Do That Here

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Out here in the Ed-tech world, the Edu-Blogosphere, the Personal Learning Networks or whatever you want to call it we do a lot of talking. We read, we write, we share, we site, we connect, we learn. There is an unspoken decency that keeps all the conversations civil. A common understanding that sometimes leads to the creation of little communities of teachers doing great work, sharing ideas with like minded people and learning immensely.

If you can escape the repetitive echo-chambers of jargon and boot licking of some of the better known Edu-bloggers, who seem to have been saying the same things for years now, you will find a core group of teachers worldwide who are blogging and Tweeting the revolution one classroom at a time.

I personally have met a tight group of teachers whom I respect immeasurably. I have never actually been in the same room with many of these people, but through the sharing of our lives and our work, I know that we see education and many other topics in the same light.

Occasionally, though, someone ignores the rules of common decency and acts inappropriately. These transgressions can be ignored, for they never cause much harm, but if we are trying to create a new way of communication for our societies, if we are serious about the things we teach our students, things like: cite ones sources, be honest with the work and ideas you use, never steal other people’s work and pass it off as your own, then we must call to the table when one of our own acts irresponsibly.

I am not writing this post to admonish the perpetrator for his action. I am seldom in the mood for confrontation these days. I am writing this post as an act of solidarity and support for a good friend. I am writing this post as a learning opportunity. I am writing this post as a tool to share with students about plagiarism. I am writhing this post as a way to correct a wrong done to the community of which I am a part and one in which I take pride.

Here is the gist of what has happened: Keri Lee Beasley wrote a post called Ten Great Ways To Use Audacity With Your Students over at her blog The Tip of the Iceberg over a year ago. She recently sent out a Tweet dismayed that Alan Cain had simply cut and paste her post verbatim and put it on his blog. It was word-for-word down to the title. He never made any mention of her work or cited her in anyway. You can find the post here. Judging by his Tweets, it appears that Alan simply shares resources and tools. Seems harmless enough; we have all had some spam blog take our work, but this seems different Alan appears to be a flesh and blood educator. So why would he do this? Doesn’t he teach his students about plagiarism, about Creative Commons and the need to give credit where credit is due? Sure! Share the tools. Use Keri-Lee’s work, just say that you got it from The Tip Of The Iceberg. How hard is that?

Don’t get me wrong, I am no longer a fan of copy righted material. I think once you put something onto the Internet it should be used by as many people as possible. Let our ideas be shared, tweeted, and made viral. Let them be altered and changed. Let them evolve into something new, but I do believe that it is common courtesy to credit the person who put in the blood, sweat and tears.

Why not write a post about Audacity using your own ideas and then link to Keri-Lees post as further reading? It is so simple to create a hyper-link. This way not only are you being respectful you are making connections and expanding the network, giving value to the community?

I am curious if this was a case of misunderstanding or laziness. I hope in the next few days we here from Alan. I hope that he will explain why he came into our community and sole something that belonged to one of our members. I am sure if he is honest and explains himself we will take him in and help him. We are a forgiving bunch. Like I said no one is looking for confrontation or to be possessive. It just doesn’t feel right to have something like this happen in your neighborhood. You can also read Keri-Lee’s response here.

The ball is in your court Alan…

Electric Wind

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I first came across William Kamkwamba’s story the same way I usually come across new interesting stories, through random Internet searches. I was teaching a unit on oral presentations and using a Tedtalk style approach. I was showing my students a variety of Tedtalks and discussing how the speakers were not giving traditional presentations, but rather sharing personal stories from their lives. I wanted to steer their talks away from traditional book report powerpoint presentations, and more towards personal narratives seeped in thematic ideas we were studying in novels. In short, I wanted then to connect big ideas to their own life experiences.

I was very excited when I found William’s talk. Not only did he tell an inspiring story, but also it was well told, short and relatable. He was only sixteen years old and his English was not great, which made it a perfect example for my non-English speakers, of which I had my fair share.

We watched the talk, discussed his story, evaluated his delivery and basically forgot about it. That is until the last day of school when my colleague gave me his book, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, as a going away present.

Fast forward a few weeks- I whipped through the book in two days and my mind has been a buzz with excitement ever since. William’s story can be summed up with one line:

If you want to make it, all you have to do is try.

However, we all know that life is never that simple. Life will often throw insurmountable obstacles our way, making our dreams difficult to achieve. What William teaches us through his story is that if we work with what we have and have a concrete goal in mind and slowly make our way toward it, nothing is impossible.

The book itself is well written with the help of Bryan Mealer. Together Bryan and William weave an awe inspiring tale about the power of love and family, over coming adversity, and hope. Through their prose we are forced to understand the pain and humiliation of starvation, redemption, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

William’s is the story of Africa and of the developing world. A world stigmatized by outsiders as a den of corruption and inefficiency, a backward place teeming with incompetence and crime. Made to play the victim by its own inhabitants, and pitied and feared by those living on the outside. For anyone who has ever lived in Africa or other parts of the “third world” the truth is that we have seen that most of our planet is stuck in a kind of limbo between what we call progress and history. There are many reasons why most of the world still lives on a dollar a day, has no running water or access to electricity. Without going into the political or theoretical reason behind global poverty, although he does touch on the influence of the IMF in developing counties, William paints a picture of not only what rural African looks like, but why it remains that way.

In short, William’s story is that of a boy from a small village in the heart of Africa. He tells us of his childhood growing up poor but happy. We follow his life through stories of magic and folklore and slowly begin to understand his world. William epitomizes the latest generation of young people growing up in the third world. Connected to a rich history and tradition, they are looking for a way forward while still staying true to the past.

I cannot recommend this book more wholeheartedly. This is a must read for everyone. Regardless of age, political beliefs, or world experience. The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind will change the way you view the world!

I hope that somehow I can get in touch with William, and hopefully arrange so that he can visit Daraja and share his story with the girls. I am excited to see that he is online and on Twitter. I am very much looking forward to hearing from you William. Your story has captured my imagination and I look forward to seeing how we can build a relationship. I hope you follow some links here and see what the girls of Daraja are doing. We can find ways to perhaps connect your stories. I am also in the process of finding a way to get a few copies of this book to Daraja. I think it would make a great unit of study. I had goose bumps and tears in my eyes as I read the final paragraph:

Reminded me of a great quote by the great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that says

If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl.” We must encourage those still struggling to keep moving forward. My fellow students and I talk about creating a new kind of Africa, a place of leaders instead of victims, a home of invention rather than charity. I hope this story finds its way to our brothers and sisters out there who are trying to elevate themselves and their communities, but who may feel discouraged by their poor situation. I want them to know they’re not alone. By working together, we can help remove this burden of bad luck fro their backs, just as I did, and use it to build a better future.

Talk Back

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I had an interesting talk with my 6th grade students yesterday. We were discussing Bloom’s Taxonomy, lower-level thinking skills, homework, busy work, work, and why teachers assign it and why they do it. I was explaining to them that in the information age, simply naming, listing, memorizing information is not enough. We need to do something more with the knowledge we acquire. I challenged them to look at the work they are being assigned by teachers and try to place it on Bloom’s pyramid.

“If you are working on an assignment or taking a test that is simply asking you to memorize “facts”, a unit that goes no further, you should speak with your teacher and ask them why they have chosen not to challenge your thinking? Ask them to explain to you the purpose of the assignment.” I told them to keep in mind that all teachers, myself included, are sometimes guilty of relying on the easy way out due to various stresses. We will all sometimes assign a worksheet here, a quiz there, but ultimately a unit of study should extend their thinking and encourage them to create something new from acquired knowledge.

They gawked and said, “Yeah right! We would get in so much trouble. We would never ask a teacher that.”

This left me thinking about the power structure of schools, the relationships between teachers and students, and the image students have of most of us. I had a brief discussion on Twitter about standing up to authority figures. The following post is the result of my ruminations:

I don’t want to be an authority figure. I don’t want to be the type of teacher who students are afraid to face, to challenge, to argue with, to understand. Do not get me wrong, I believe in running a tight ship. After ten years, I am beginning to find a classroom management style that works for me, and it is based on The Golden Rule. I treat my students how I wanted to be treated when I was their age. I respect them and their opinions. I understand the struggle, pain, and confusion they deal with on a daily basis. I want to encourage their passions and help them find their voice, their curiosity, and desire to learn, grow, and evolve.

In order to this, I have to have an open door. I don’t speak to them, but talk with them. I put my guard down. I am vulnerable. I have to share my ideas, my thoughts, and my struggles. Don’t get me wrong, I am not proposing being their friends or the “cool” teacher that everyone takes advantage of and doesn’t respect. I am simply saying that if we want to guide are students, if we want them to feel comfortable coming to us when they are lost or confused or when they want clarification, we must build trust. You cannot do this if your students are afraid of challenging your authority.

I don’t know about you, but I have never trusted an authority figure in my life. Back to my point about my students not feeling like they are able to speak to their teachers about their own learning. Their apprehension goes back to the antiquated notion that teachers are the experts and that students are simply receptacles of our infinite wisdom.

Much has been said about educational reform, technology and the new classroom, but the way I see it nothing will change until students are not afraid of their teachers. We are not equals. That is not what I am saying. Teachers, after all, have years of training and life experience under our belts. The best way to change student attitudes is to be aware of their perceptions of us, be open to helping them change those perceptions, and build honest, trusting, relationships based on respect and a shared goal- Learning.

In the next few weeks, I hope to write about some of the things I have done to build these relationships. I will share some success and failures, but in the meantime, what do you do to build closer relationships with your students so they are not afraid to come to you for guidance? Or do you think an authoritative teaching style is more effective then the mentor model I have described? Is there a hybrid model, what does that look like? Please leave some comments. This is an important topic for me and I would like to explore I further.