Tag Archives: Changing Teachers

Marathon Man

As the year comes to close there will be the inevitable litany of blog posts recapping achievements, documenting successes and reflecting on next steps. Kim Cofino started it with her latest post, and since I am flying to Lombok tomorrow and hoping to take a much-deserved break from Twitter and Edublogging, I want to gather my thoughts here, now, in this blog post.

Unfortunately my list of accomplishments may sound a bit more personal than Kim’s, because I am not really working within a Tech team, regardless I would like to thank my colleagues at school, and my wife/team member/tech protégé Mairin Raisdana for being so open and hungry to learn about technology and move forward. So where to start?

It is a bit taboo and perhaps considered vain to talk about numbers, but since it is clear I have no issues with ego, awards, or numbers counting, I will start there. My numbers are up!

I am sure there are many that will say numbers don’t matter, but for someone who started a few years ago writing to an audience of one, it is encouraging and rewarding to watch the bars on the graph grow taller and taller. I am not arguing that higher numbers mean success or a better blog, or a better community, but I am saying that the more people stop by and read my blogs, the more chance there is to build authentic connections. Beyond the numbers, however, the thing I am most proud of and happy with are the consistent comments from my regular readers. People like Will Chamberlin, Adrienne Michetti, Clint Hamada, Cathy Crea, Melanie McBride, Tim Bray, and Keri Lee Beasley (There are so many more to mention!) have proven time and time again that having a small committed readership is more important than a huge one. So while increasing numbers are a good way to build a robust readership, a blog must have a foundation of people who look to it as a pleasure to read and with which to connect. I know that I have a support system in place that challenges my thinking, supports me and my students, and offers me material on which to reflect. So why mention numbers?

Over the last semester as my blogs have gained popularity, my voice and ideas are reaching more people. Through Twitter and my two blogs I have been able to connect with a variety of people worldwide. School kids in Canada, a variety of online interviews, and of course face-to-face connections. I have been accepted to present at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong, and I am speaking with Melinda Alford about leading a cohort at the next Learning 2.0 conference in China. I have had constructive feedback on my teaching more here, and support for the blogging initiative I am trying to spearhead at our school.

Wow! That’s a lot of hyperlinks. Which means it has been a busy productive term. For people who are new to this online world of networks and connections, I hope my recount can shed some light on the power of blogging and connecting. It is not my intention to brag about my work, but to show what powerful professional development maintaining a blog can be. I was able to do all of this in addition to the in house “real” work I am doing on campus, building an ESL department from scratch, learning about the MYP, and helping the IT team move forward on schoolwide initiatives!

Furthermore, my students are making great progress within our classroom. I am experimenting and pushing the boundaries of what second language learners can do when given the tools to express themselves. In short, I am doing what I love and modeling behavior I would like to see in our school.

How does this happen? How did I go from blogging to myself to creating an authentic, caring, supportive, critical group of individuals who read my work, comment, share tweets, and invite me to conferences?

Consistent, open, honest sharing. This is the model that has worked for me. Everyone says they haven’t the time to blog or connect or do anything other than what the curriculum demands of them. I simply find that to be a cop out. In addition to what I have described above, I am raising two kids, writing a book, and leading a pretty satisfying rich life. I am not trying to say that I am superman and you should be like me; I am simply pointing out that building these networks takes time and energy and it is hard work, but if you take baby steps and stay with it it will bare fruit. Managing time is a choice we all make. If you are serious about blogging, it must be built into your day. Even if it is a few hours a week, it must be consistent.

I often catch myself comparing writing/blogging with running. I don’t do the latter, but first saw the connection through the book What We Talk About When We Talk About Running. Writing is like a marathon, you take your time and pace yourself, but always have a goal in mind.

image by seeveeaar

My goal has never been to become an Edublog celebrity, or to leave my classroom and present at conferences worldwide. I have only ever wanted to share my ideas, my thoughts, and yes my feelings in the most honest way I can to connect with as many individuals across the world as I can. I see this connection as the first steps toward understanding, which eventually I believe leads to a more just and peaceful world. A marathon indeed.

So as 2010 comes to close, I want to thank everyone who has supported me this year with your comments, tweets, external validations and of course love. I feel proud of the work I am doing and I owe much of its success to you. Whoever you, where ever you are reading these words.

Now I am off to Lombok to enjoy some of this:

image by Fadil Basymeleh

I look forward to spending time with family, friends, and my thoughts. Looking forward to disconnecting for awhile, taking a break from Twitter and blogs and enjoying the ocean, my daughter’s laughter, and my camera. See you all in 2011!

Call This Progress

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We say we have a new kind of student, but we want them to be like we were, share our values and find what we find important, important. Then we say we want to change and be more like them. We are all growing and changing and learning, but then we discredit what they do, what they like, who they are becoming. They are distracted and can’t read a book! Gasp! We want to teach them new things, what they want to learn in new ways, but really we just teach them what we want them to learn in the ways we were taught, with new tools and call this progress.

We say we want to be inquiry driven and constructivist, but we get through curriculum we design, assess by our standards and bore them to death. Just exactly where does student inquiry fit into teacher planned curriculum? We say computers are good. We say they are bad. Connected, disconnected. We teach writing and reading, but can’t say why and most of teachers seldom do either.

Do as I say not as I do is still the backbone of most school environments.

Irrelevance is the Distraction

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Really? Am I writing this post, my third one in a week, (News Alert Humans Like to Socialize and Shackled By Fear) about how computers and the Internet are ruining our children’s lives? More importantly are you reading it? Are we not past this topic yet? News flash! The use of technology, whatever that nebulous term even means, is changing the world and nowhere is this shift more apparent than in our schools. Why? Because most schools are based on antiquated models of what learning used to look like. We can bemoan the fact that students no longer want to sit dopey eyed in rows and hear us ramble on and on about whatever we feel is the most important thing in the world, but really wouldn’t it be better if we started to learn how to bridge our two worlds?

We’ve all heard it before; I am not saying anything new, which begs the question why am I writing this post? Why are you reading? Why can’t we seem to move forward? Why do we need a six-page New York Times article telling us that teenagers are distracted and Facebooking instead of reading novels?

My main gripe and perhaps the impetus of my new crusade is that I refuse to be polarized by the Ed-tech evangelists and the paranoid chalk and talk dinosaurs. I refuse to be forced to make a choice between the book and the computer, between the organic and the digital, between a walk in the woods and a flight through second life, between “real” and virtual life. I refuse to believe that there is only one way to reach young people today. I want to be able to reach them on their level by helping them understand identity creation and digital footprints, but I also want to reach them on their level by taking trips into nature where we write poetry about what we see. There is a middle ground between kids watching Brain Pop videos and creating Power Point videos no one will ever see and calling it integrated technology, and doing worksheets; it is called teaching. It is not the technology that is distracting kids, it is the irrelevance of what we are teaching them and our inability to make it meaningful. You can teach under a tree with a piece of chalk if the kids are buying what you are selling. How do you do that, you may ask? Well that is the million-dollar question isn’t it? I am still learning. That’s the beauty of teaching.

This latest article epitomizes this polarity. Offering examples of exasperated teachers who can’t get their students to read a book versus the cool guy teacher, who is teaching them how to use Pro-Tools, doesn’t help our understanding. We simply cannot make students, teachers, and parents choose between being connected and “tech savvy” and “Old School.” There has to be a middle ground. Where are the stories about teachers who have infused technology to make it ubiquitous like air, (Love that Chris Lehmann quote) so that students can use their talents and newly found knowledge to change the world? Where are the stories about teachers who with passion and love of literature have convinced seventh graders that the pages in a novel can be just as excited or more so that a Facebook feed. I mean really, do we have such little faith in literature that we think a text message is competing with John Steinbeck? If you believe in what you teach and you make it relevant for your students there is nothing they won’t stop doing to follow where you lead.

It is still possible to connect to students without bells and whistles and show them the beauty of well-written prose or the magic of science. I am tired of both sides thinking that students will only learn and stay engaged if the teacher offers a technological carrot. I can no longer, with a straight face say, “It is about the learning and not the tools.” I cannot say that teachers need to create and build meaningful relationships with their students based on trust and honesty if they want them to read on their own.

I could go on and on, but you have heard it all before, and unfortunately most people who will read this post already agree with me, so maybe this connected technology is not as great as it appears. Besides, I have a movie to start editing and I am feeling a bit distracted after reading a six-page article. Maybe, if I can get my work done in time I can actually curl up with a good book. It is really a collection of online columns. Does that count?

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.

Starting From The Learner

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Helping teachers get into blogging has been an enlightening experience so far. Yes, I know we have only had one session so far, but I have spent the greater part of the last seven years trying to find ways to “shift” teacher attitudes about the use of technology.

This post will not be some long polemic about my thoughts, and that is okay as I am trying to make a point. Blogging, while called publishing, need not always be so polished and perfected. One may have a thought or an idea that needs a bit more flushing out, an idea that may need more space than Twitter can provide, and so one can simply crank it out, get it on he web, and see who responds.

Blogging can be a great tool to simply work through your thoughts. First by sitting down and articulating exactly what you are trying to say and secondly through the instant feedback from your readers. So here is what I have been thinking about since Wednesday:

I have been very careful to meet teachers at their starting points. I am very aware that I could, by moving too quickly, push teachers out of their comfort zones and lose their interest. I am noticing that adults treat their learning with care and caution. They question it. They are timid at times and move quiet slowly. As a teacher working with them, I am very aware of their trepidation and try to acquiesce to their fears. This is good practice. This is starting from the learner and moving forward.

My question is how often do we do this with our students? How often do we sit back and think about the comfort levels of the diverse students in our classes. Are we worried that if we move too fast we could lose them, or are we trying to get through curriculum? Are we worried that some students maybe fearful and nervous of what they are being asked to do, or do we simply assume that all are eager learners?

Differentiated instruction has become a buzz word, and like all jargon has lost much of its meaning, but I think it is important to show the same level of care and attention to students that we pay when working with teachers. Furthermore, why is it that some teachers are so cautious when it comes to learning new things? Is this hesitation a characteristic of life long learning? What do you think?

By the way this post took me nine minutes to write.