The Kids We Have

“Our task is to provide an education for the kind of kids we have… Not the kind of kids we used to have… Or want to have… Or the kids that exist in our dreams.” Mary Kay Utech

In his Keynote address to the K-12 Online Conference, David Warlick
alluded to teaching "the kids we have rather than the kids we'd like to have".

To do this, I've had to take a step backwards.

Fresh from a summer of self-directed professional development, I offered the students in my Current Events class an enticing (I thought) array of options for required projects. Don't know how to produce a podcast? No problem, we'll master it together. Visual learner? Let's experiment with movies and slide shows, prior experience not necessary. I let them view student-generated content from all over the world so that they were aware of the possibilities.

To a man, they chose PowerPoint.

I've learned quite a bit about our student population through questioning and observing. Many carry cellphones ("banned" during school hours), and own MP3 players, video game systems, etc. Because of the rural location, most families only have dial-up internet service. PowerPoint is something that students routinely use in other classes. It is definitely within their comfort zone.

These are the kids we have.

So I'm working with it. We've watched examples of "old style" bulleted presentations and dynamic SlideShare shows. We've discussed the importance of photos, charts and maps that complement the commentary. There is a PowerPoint checklist and a performance rubric.

Once the class is successful within these parameters, I'll loosen the restrictions and give them more creative freedom. I want them to realize that comfort zones can be cells and being uncomfortable might be very empowering.

"Of course we all have our limits, but how can you find your boundaries unless you explore as far and as wide as you possibly can? I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done." -A. E. Hotchner

Their Most Serious Actions

"For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions." –Montaigne



Our high school soccer team won a sweet victory today. On a crisp autumn afternoon, under sunny skies, they took their first match on the road to a possible sectional title.

Since the game was played at home, teachers were allowed to bring their classes outside to watch the action. First graders cheered for the players and for the "manager", who is one of their classmates. Middle school students threw grass at each other and lazed in the warm sun. High school seniors sat in the bleachers for one last time. Members of the community came to shout encouragement and reminisce about their own days of glory.

The players exemplified all that we could wish for in sports, school, and life: focus, enthusiasm, cooperation, the will to succeed.

All in all, a most wonderful end to the week.


“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” - Mia Hamm

Diversity: School Library Patrons

“The joy of life is variety” -
Samuel Johnson

Chickens and Eggs

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"-Ancient causality dilemma

In the spirit of enhancing education through technology, our district has purchased four mobile SMART Boards and installed an additional two units in designated classrooms. Some teachers were chosen to attend day long training sessions; the rest of us had a quick overview during a recent Superintendent's Day.

It looks like a cool interactive instructional tool, but at around $3,000 a unit, these boards represent a significant investment for a small school district. We've been told that teachers who use the Boards are the most likely candidates for receiving a permanent classroom SMART Board when funds become available. And therein lies the rub.

Following the directions of our trainer, I downloaded some of the SMART software on my home computer. The activities I've begun creating, a current events review set and a presidential campaign page with candidate links, could be used in class with the help of an LCD projector and attached computer keyboard. That would, of course, negate the cool interactivity factor that is the main selling point of the SMART Boards, but I'd still end up with some very useful instructional aids. There is a permanent projector in the tech lab where I do my teaching, so having the appropriate hardware available would not be a problem.

Now consider the realities of most of our K-12 classrooms. Only a few have already had SMART Boards or LCD projectors installed. A teacher who wanted to try out this new technology would have to download an activity from the SB files or create a new activity, find time to give it a test run, sign up for the SB, move the SB and the LCD cart to their classroom, position it, and begin teaching (if all of the equipment is connected properly, something which was not explained in any detail during the mini workshop). Obviously to make this worthwhile, a number of the day's lessons would have to be planned around the SMART Board.

Bottom line: the tool (SMART Board) would be driving the content (lessons).

A better test of the SB's power to engage students in learning might be to provide the tool as part of a classroom learning environment - or studio, as Clarence Fisher would probably describe it. Then the teacher could use the Board when appropriate, while continuing to incorporate other tools and techniques depending on the desired learning outcome.

Obviously, buying one SMART Board per classroom is not in our immediate future. It might be possible, though to set up a model studio, with SMART Board, student computers, listening centers, white board, tables and desks, etc. and let teachers "test drive" it for a day or a week or longer. Feedback from such a model classroom would provide valuable information which could then be used when promoting the acquisition of further Boards, assuming that evaluations from teachers and students were positive.

Which comes first: the tool or the content? Create a need or fill a need?

"First the stalk -- then the roots. First the need -- then the means to satisfy that need. First the nucleus -- then the elements needed for its growth." -Robert Collier



"Chickens and Eggs" by ashe-villain

My Voice

In celebration of my 100th posting, I decided to share a photo and a quote:

"I found you could raise your voice and talk out loud in the world." -John J McCloy

Nothing Gold Can Stay

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay."
-Robert Frost

An Occasion for Reflection

“Leisure is not tied to work the way that recreation is—leisure is self-contained. The root of the word is the Latin 'licere' which means 'to be permitted,' suggesting that leisure is about freedom. But freedom for what? According to Chesterton’s cheerful view, leisure was above all an opportunity to do nothing. When he said 'doing nothing,' however, he was describing not emptiness but an occasion for reflection and contemplation, a chance to look inward rather than outward.”-Witold Rybczynski


A number of bloggers have been apologizing lately for infrequent or abbreviated postings. Dan Meyer has a laundry list of future topics but can't get to them right now (he is quick to assert that his love of blogging is still intact, in stark contrast to the unsettling comments by Will Richardson which seemed to indicate that, since "blogging is work these days", Will might be moving in the direction of more personalized communication venues, like Skype). Christian Long is seriously involved in family and career at the moment, but relies on cyber colleagues to keep his "radar tuned in." In Tim Stahmer's case, a scarcity of postings is "completely due to an overload of work."

Are apologies or clarifications necessary? Perhaps. A blog is more than a news article or casual "conversation". Bloggers speak directly to their audience, sharing their convictions, emotions, hopes and dreams. Personal relationships are established between people who might, probably won't, meet face to face yet who have connected in a very real sense. The more prominent the blogger, the more the audience becomes attached to, and reliant upon, his/her communications. An abrupt cessation of blogging might be seen as a betrayal of sorts.

Yet the blogger has the right to a balanced life, a time for professional and personal growth: the leisure to investigate, reflect, create.

Blogging is not a job. It's a medium of creative expression, an avocation.

"Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface ... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones."-Paul Klee

Clash Day

"The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom."-Lady Bird Johnson

Today was "Clash Day", part of Spirit Week at school. Students - and some teachers - wore wacky, mis-matched clothing combos in wild patterns and colors. It is harmless fun and results in a lot of good-natured banter, even from those who choose not to participate.

Today my Reader feeds contained posts by:

• David Hoff: "Senate aides last night circulated a discussion draft of sections of NCLB. The draft addresses issues that aren't controversial, avoiding topics such accountability and teacher pay."
• Annoyed Librarian: "I'm not saying many, and perhaps even most, librarians aren't dedicated to library users. I'm saying it's time librarians stopped claiming that user satisfaction is all they're interested in, or pretending that public library service is somehow more noble than going out to work for the Man. If librarians were interested only in user satisfaction, they wouldn't complain about library outsourcing in such a knee-jerk manner."
• Library Thing Blog: "In defending Linden I want to make it clear that I am not a high-volume user of Second Life. I visit about once a week, usually for something like the BookMooch/LibraryThing meet-up... Until now, I enjoyed the site, but I wasn't passionate about it.Now, Doughty Lindens, I am on your side!"
• LifeHack: "While it makes good sense to teach your children to be aware of themselves and their surroundings in the company of strangers, the feverish panic that breaks out every year in the weeks before Halloween is way out of proportion to the actual threat posed to your children."
• Christopher D. Sessums: "While I regularly use both a PC and a Mac, the Mac generally makes me happier."
• Karin Chenoweth: "Hardly anyone ever talks about it, but the thing about schools is that most of them are incredibly sloppy, organizationally speaking."
• Clarence Fisher:"There are enough tools and filters available to track kids online and ensure they are "safely" closed off from being able to make meaningful connections and become digital citizens. Instead, this is about teachers and students being able to develop profiles of their learning online."

In my connected world, there are always new concepts to ponder, old beliefs to question, people with whom to begin or continue a dialog.

Color, pattern, clash and compromise: I love this environment!


"Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict."- Saul Alinsky

Questions

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"-Henry David Thoreau

In a recent post, Stephanie Sandifer
challenged bloggers to ask themselves:

What? (…is going on with our work, with our blogging, with our exploration… OR …new tools are we discovering, playing with, trying to find classroom uses for?)

So What? (Who cares? Why is this important? Why is this not important? What does it matter? Will it ever matter?)

Now What? (What do we do NEXT? What kind of gameplan do we need? Do we need a game plan? Do we collaborate, start over from scratch, quit doing whatever we are doing altogether, or disappear somewhere deep in Second Life? Seriously — WHAT NOW?)

Here is my response:

What?
I'm becoming more comfortable with Twitter, was a bit intimidated by the rapid pace of the Fireside Chat (but plan to dive headfirst in to the K12 Online Conference offerings), have experimented with ToonDoo, Animoto, Voki, wikis and nings. Can't live without Google Docs and Google Reader, TinyURl, Flickr, and my own two blogs (Journeys and A Hundred Echoes). Most of the above are blocked where I teach, but, depending on the circumstances, I am able to have the IT unblock them for class use. I try out tools I see mentioned in the blogs I read, with varying levels of success.

So What?
Ah, there's the rub! I care very deeply about my responsibilities as a Teacher/Librarian. The kids in my district live a relatively sheltered life (due to location, not income levels) and I want to broaden their horizons. I spend my free time blogging and attempting to keep current on emerging technologies; if I'm no expert, at least I'm aware of the possibilities.

Our administrators and BOE support the concept of preparing our students for the 21st century world that they'll inhabit, but theory has not yet translated into practice. Professional development is still a top down model with isolated training and little follow-up. Most of the teachers are struggling to meet mandates and prepare classes for standardized testing and show no interest in the new skills I'd like to share with them. Tech resources are unreliable and spread too thin. I do what I can on a student by student basis, but we're failing these kids as a group.

I learn because I love to; I'll continue in this mode into retirement and beyond.

Now What?
My Currents Events class only has nine students, but as we get rolling on some tech-enhanced projects, we may be able to generate some positive buzz and create a demand for similar courses next year.

I've been seeking out teachers for some impromptu collaborative planning, trying to expand my boundaries beyond the library's physical space. There are one or two teachers who are at least open to suggestion as far as technology goes. If I can show them tools to make their life easier and their classes more interesting, I may be able to make a few converts.

I'm getting close to retirement. I hope to expand my part-time online job and maybe even return to my school as a consultant or volunteer. I don't think I'll ever stop blogging, since it links me to a community much richer and more diverse than any other professional group I've encountered. I want to learn and share what I've learned. I want to explore and experiment and have fun doing it.

Thanks to Patrick Higgins for pointing me to Stephanie's posting.


"The real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions."-Mandell Creighton


"Puzzle BomBoy" by Zedwee

Control

"When I grip the wheel too tight, I find I lose control."-Steve Rapson

For all my fine talk of "student voice" and being partners in learning, I realized the other day that I'm still in pretty tight control of my high school class. As the teacher, I certainly should set some parameters (not walls!), but there is room for student input and a bit of shared decision-making.

Once I'm sure the kids are clear on information literacy basics like website evaluation and source citation, I'll let them work on mini-research projects - alone or in small groups, their choice - as practice for a larger project later in the school year. They will need to choose a current events issue to focus on, but the shape their project takes will be up for discussion.

I've already told the group that they'll be helping me to master the fine art of podcasting. I bought a relatively inexpensive MP3 player specifically for the Current Events class and would be willing to let students borrow it for project use. Other techtools will be introduced, as appropriate.

Today, I turned over my digital camera to some of them during our class. Their shots weren't very different from the ones I usually take (except, of course, that now I'm also in the picture) but I'm hoping that they'll get more creative as we go on.

Not a radical instructional strategy but, hey, it's a start!


"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."- Mario Andretti