Tag Archives: Blogging

Come Down (calm down) From The Crazy

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I know Dean Shareski, in his post Let’s Stamp Out Busyness, declared a moratorium on claiming to be busy, but I have to break it for the purpose of this post. Man, have I been busy! New year, new school, new country and we are out of the gates strong. Teaching more classes, more kids; it just feels like more, more and more.

A little taste, 8:00 am= Extended mentor time,  four classes in a row, lunch, no prep periods, followed by a English department meeting, (it is now 4:30pm), meeting with Keri Lee Beasely about side ADE project,  capping it off with Pad Thai with KL, home around 7:30. Put kids to bed and now here I am. Exhausted. Feel sorry for me.

But….. as I was making lunch for Kaia, I couldn’t help thinking:

And…..what do I choose to do in this state of exhaustion? You guessed it, I blog. I need to write. Not necessarily because I feel I have anything life changing to share. Not because I am trying to gain sympathy or gain attention for being busy, no…I write because this is how I make sense of my life. This is how I calm down and sort and reflect. Writing for me is a soothing verb. A clarifying one. When life becomes too much, I need to bring order through text and words and sentences and paragraphs, no matter how misdirected or jumbled they may appear, it is in text that I find comfort.

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by stupidmommy

As an English teacher, I instill the therapeutic value of writing, for my students. I sell the verb, because I find value in the act of writing. Perhaps, I am naive or close-minded, or delusional, but I think adults, teachers especially should also value writing. It always ruffles my feathers when people say they haven’t time to write or read or reflect or create. Why is it okay to admit we don’t have time to do the very things we tell students are so important in their lives. If we value literacy, than shouldn’t we need to participate in it, with it. Right?

Okay, stepping off soapbox…

As I write, the little voice is criticizing everything I say. What about numeracy? We value that too, but I don’t see you working out equations or experiencing your right brain. We value athletics, why don’t you go for a run or a swim? Perhaps, I have been biased for gravitating  toward writing because it comes easy for me. Perhaps it is my comfort tool, but causes anxiety and dread in others, just like running or math does for me.

Whatever our release, shouldn’t we share these acts with our students? Let them know that what we teach is what we value and what we do and that is why they should give it a try.

Sorry, maybe this post was just a ramble. It helped me rest and calm my brain, I hope it helps you in some way. If you have made it this far, here some questions to chew on:

What is your release? What helps you come down (calm down) from the crazy, but keeps you connected with the pedagogical ideas and practices you value? What do you do each day despite being exhausted that keeps you fresh and learning? How and who do you share with?

Give A Kid A Blog

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I had two eye-opening experiences this week, both really got me thinking about online sharing, curation of digital versus “real” work (E-portfolios) , and overall student learning, both in terms of motivation for and expressions of. The first was the grade 10 MYP Personal Project exhibition, the second my daughter, Kaia’s, student-led conference for her PYP Kindergarten class.

I will start with Kaia. This was her second student-led conference, and again I was very impressed and proud of her autonomy and independence. After greeting me at the door, her teacher handed Kaia a checklist which Kaia had filled in with the different examples of work she wanted to show me at the various stations: Portfolio, Math, Reading, Art, etc… Kaia proceeded to take my hand and lead me to her favorite spots. The first was her portfolio, at which she carefully and deliberately articulated her learning. She was a bit nervous (Still not sure how they can be nervous at that age) but she did a great job of explaining what we were looking at and was able to answer nearly all of the questions I fired at her! (Not sure if having your parents as teachers is a blessing or a curse.) She was confident and proud of herself and her work. We must have spent at least fifteen minutes discussing her learning. It was awesome to watch.

Next stop, she led me to a shiny iMac where she adeptly opened a folder called Kaia and hit play on a Keynote presentation. Before I continue, let me say that the presentation was beautifully made and showed tremendous amounts of work and time. Each slide had photos, text and little video clips of Kaia playing tennis, reading, acting, singing and more, but the weirdest thing happened–after twenty minutes of her being engaged and talking about her learning in a non-digital format, she became silent. We simply sat and watched a ten minute slide show. When I tried to ask questions, she said, “just watch daddy.”

Of course I see the irony here– part of my job is to promote and facilitate technology and the use of digital tools to enhance student learning. We have spent countless hours discussing what this looks like at every level of our school, but here I was wishing we could just turn off the video and go back to when she was telling me about what an herbivore is, or the features of a Triceratops. What is going on here? Let’s take a look and start with some questions.

Is a collection of photos and videos an effective use of technology? Is the presentation of an E-portfolio as part of a student-led conference the best use of time? I cannot emphasize enough that this post is not a critique of Kaia’s teachers. She has done an amazing job. Kaia is excited and passionate about everything they do in class. I am sure that the format they use is a standard protocol, that they have worked out in the elementary school. As a player in the decision making apparatus at our school, however, I feel that it is my duty to reflect on how our ideas are carried out.

As I mentioned early, the product itself was great. A well told digital story of my daughter’s learning. It was great to see a slide that had a copy of the book she had written coupled with a short clip of her reading said book. I saw her in the art room, in PE and on the playground. I couldn’t help thinking about a few things as I watched: I wish her grandparents could watch this, I wish I wasn’t watching it now at this conference, I wish I could have seen this unfold throughout the year and not all presented in one package, I wish I could interact with it and leave comments. I wish others– family friends etc…could also interact with it. You guessed it, I wished this portion of the conference was on a blog, and that I had had access to it months earlier.

In a world that is increasingly applying pressure for the digitization of our lives, we must be careful not to go digital for its own sake. Sometimes, most times really, sitting and talking with a five year as she talks about symmetry, while building a perfectly symmetrical house– using blocks, is far better than sitting in silence as you both watch a video of an assembly that happened months ago.

What’s my point? None of this is easy. Finding the balance between the digital and analogue is a major theme for this generation.  We cannot, however, assume that one method is better than another simply because it is digitized or “real.” In this case, I really enjoyed watching and interacting with Kaia’s independence and confidence as she showed off her work. I was disappointed, however, when we sat and watched her video. Especially when I knew that in a proper blogging platform, we could have been watching these digital events and interacting with them as they occurred in real time.

Final question–is curation of work in a digital format really using technology to enhance learning? Every school in the world is grappling with these questions. We are all at different levels of understanding and implementation of technology. Our school has made tremendous progress in the two years I have been here, but as we start crossing one bridge, it is time to look ahead and ask what’s next. What if Kaia had  shown me content she had created using digital tools? She is an adept photographer and storyteller. I would have loved to have seen a movie that she had made. What if she had interacted with another classroom? What if her peers had commented on her work as well? What if…..

Soon we will have our middle school student-led conferences, and we are working hard on building a structure for students to highlight and eventually curate their work through their blogs. I would hate to see, however, parents and students, simply watching a screen and not talking. A blog should be an ongoing space. A place where work is current, relevant and interactive. While I feel, that our blogs will eventually be great e-portfolios housing a range of student work and learning, I do not think that they serve much of a purpose in a student-led conference. Unless, the students are coached on how to navigate their work on a blog, so as to engage their parents in conversations, not simply click from link-to-link.

The second experience I had this week, was the grade 10 MYP Personal Project exhibition. Once again an incredible display of student learning, motivation, and independence. A huge round of applause to everyone who was involved. The weeks of work and learning were evident in all the displays. Students had created original perfumes, compositions for piano, iBooks about golf and more. Students confidently presented their guiding questions and were able to answer all the annoying questions I asked.

All except for one? Is this online? Not one of the grade 10 students had thought to share their work and final product online. True that the majority of them had used their blog as a process journal, properly tagging their posts and keeping impressive running diaries of their progress, but not one student had felt the need to share their final product with a global audience. They saw nothing wrong with spending weeks on a project, building a display that would last only two days and then being done with it. Up and down. Gone! Why is this?

I think students are still thinking of everything they do at school as a part of school. Even their personal projects, which are meant to be based on a passion and personal interest are nothing more than a school assignment to be shared and evaluated by teachers and perhaps a few peers. Why? How do we change this? How do we instill in students that what they create has value in a larger context?

I want to teach kids that their content has a place on the web? It has value and they should look forward to sharing their ideas and content, rather than being afraid of the exposure. If you spend over ten weeks writing an original piano composition, doesn’t it make sense to post it on Soundcloud and have it live on the web? If you wrote an iBook on golf, why not go the extra step and put it on iTunes so other people can download it?

I will be talking to the grade 10’s today about the ephemeral nature of their projects. Ten weeks of work, two days of presentations and then gone! Vanished like dust in the wind. I hope that they see the value of etching a space online for their minds, for the work, for themselves. Like Kaia’s conference, there is definite value in the physical personal project exhibition. It is just disappointing that they are gone. I cannot go home and listen or watch and comment more deeply on what I saw. I cannot share their work with you or your students. We cannot build conversations and community around their content.

In conclusion, I hope I have laid out the value of online spaces for students from kindergarten to grade 10. Give a kid a blog as a space to tend their garden. Let them learn how to be just as independent and confident online as they are off. Teach them how to balance the digital and the organic. Let them present and talk to peers face-t0- face, but also create lasting portfolios of their work online. This is the road ahead. These understandings are what people mean when they speak of 21st century skills.

Would love to hear your ideas. Share your experiences in the comments below.

 

Enriching Curricular Conversations Through Blogs

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Here is a quick post about the value of having a school wide blogging system to help foster and promote cross-curricular and interdisciplinary units. In English, we are at the beginning of a series of viewing text units at each grade level. We are looking at film literacy and the ability of students to identify and use the same techniques film makers employ to create mood, suspense and convey theme.

In grade six we are watching How To Train Your Dragon, unit plan here, we are focusing on setting, camera movement, and music. What does this have to do blogging and cross-curricular and interdisciplinary units? I was reading my student blogs when I discovered that in DT they are studying Color Theory, and in Drama they are looking at movement. These elements are not really incorporated into my unit, because I did not know that this is what they were learning in their other classes, but at least now I do. I can now touch on the elements in my unit. I will also share this post with the other teachers, so that maybe next year we can better coordinate our units.

Reading student blogs gives me great insight on what else is happening in our curriculum. We are in the process of empowering and teaching teachers to run their own class blogs. I can’t help but think how much richer our curricular conversation will be, when I can read what is happening in other classroom from both student and teacher blogs. School-wide blogs help enrich and expand conversations about what happens at a school, and last time I checked that was a good thing.

 

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.

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.