Well, we discussed google sites in tech class yesterday. I'm sure that the rest of the class' mind was swept up in the tide of possibilities as mine was. Initially, I was focused on all the great resources I could add: homework calendars, subject timelines, discussion forums, announcement sections, lecture presentation postings.
This morning, I got thinking about marketing the website. How do I get the students to actually visit the website? I can give them all the resources they could possibly need, but why would the students leave Facebook and Youtube for a classroom resource? I'm sure that some would visit it anyways ... and when it came to assignment time, the students would seek that final resource.
But I don't want my website to just be a study site. I'm dreaming of voluntary visits. I realized that what I wanted more than anything was a site that would teach history the way I dream of teaching history. Like this:
Or teach viking history like this: Viking Quest
Or problems with the British Succession like this:
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Passion vs Possession (sounds like the world's worst soap opera)
Yes, I realized too late that I had stumbled upon a learning moment. Yes, I overreacted and I figured that walking around in a sleep-deprived state for a couple days was enough punishment. Sadly, (insert higher power of choice here) decided that I hadn't fully figured things out, so my lesson was reinforced by a dose of the campus plague.
Cough. Hack. Blah. I should know better than to try to get away with placing my thumb on the school / sleep scale. At least the cold is fading quickly so I can return to getting ready for the coming week. Wouldn't you know it, group work was at the root of my sniffles ... ok, maybe my over-the-top reaction to one of my partner's e-mails ... but I still blame group work.
So we're discussing evidence in our history class, and I focus in on what I consider the most problematic part of facts - the bias we impart. More specifically, how do we provide adequate context for an event while allowing our students to form their own opinions. Now I'm not fooling myself into thinking that I can completely bury my personal bias in a history class; my students will figure out my bias fairly quickly but I'm hoping to find a way to avoid shouting it from the rooftop. For if I'm not careful, all the serendipitous newspaper articles I find (that tie into a lesson plan) will be from one paper and my sources of choice will tend to exclude social history. It's not the overt bias that I'm concerned about, it's that habitual, unquestioned and unconscious bias that concerns me.
Add to that any biases uncovered among my students. Our law class this week happened to deal with two cases where the teacher didn't recognize a student's bias and ended up offending that student. And I wondered whether as history students, our history class had walked so far down the road of acknowledging and sifting through bias that we no longer recognize that our students will have a far more engaged view of controversial topics. So I proposed to my partner that we use the Bible as an example. Acts is one of the few readily accessible written accounts of life in the Eastern Roman Empire. Also, the nice (or problematic) thing about the Bible is that most people have an ingrained bias in favour of or in opposition to it. Along with this, I proposed an couple of different exercises dealing with the way the use of context can lead to a bias.
My partner replied that the exercises that I had prepared did not fit the assignment request (she was correct). She advised that the primary source examples that I had picked did not fall within the standard curriculum (I could debate this). And finally she gently said that I seemed to be a little hung up on bias and that it wasn't that critical. By the time that she listed the course offerings in the high school curriculum (after we had read the curriculum for that class), I was seeing 10 shades of red. I crafted and re-crafted a reply until 3 am trying to avoid the apology style of Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda.
So after a couple of 3 hour sleep nights (the previous caused by my over-preparation for my 15 minute microflop), I ended up with a cold. And realized that it was my own fault. I had let a relatively courteous correction lead me to over-react, over-stress ... and over think. As the title indicates, my passion regarding bias had led me to believe that I possessed the one right approach. All I can say is that I'm glad that I got this wake-up call now. I'm fairly sure that somewhere along the way a parent, co-worker or student is going to hit one of my hot buttons while proposing something with which I have difficulty agreeing. When that happens, I'll have the choice between being right and being healthy. I just hope that I remember which option to pick when those times come.
Cough. Hack. Blah. I should know better than to try to get away with placing my thumb on the school / sleep scale. At least the cold is fading quickly so I can return to getting ready for the coming week. Wouldn't you know it, group work was at the root of my sniffles ... ok, maybe my over-the-top reaction to one of my partner's e-mails ... but I still blame group work.
So we're discussing evidence in our history class, and I focus in on what I consider the most problematic part of facts - the bias we impart. More specifically, how do we provide adequate context for an event while allowing our students to form their own opinions. Now I'm not fooling myself into thinking that I can completely bury my personal bias in a history class; my students will figure out my bias fairly quickly but I'm hoping to find a way to avoid shouting it from the rooftop. For if I'm not careful, all the serendipitous newspaper articles I find (that tie into a lesson plan) will be from one paper and my sources of choice will tend to exclude social history. It's not the overt bias that I'm concerned about, it's that habitual, unquestioned and unconscious bias that concerns me.
Add to that any biases uncovered among my students. Our law class this week happened to deal with two cases where the teacher didn't recognize a student's bias and ended up offending that student. And I wondered whether as history students, our history class had walked so far down the road of acknowledging and sifting through bias that we no longer recognize that our students will have a far more engaged view of controversial topics. So I proposed to my partner that we use the Bible as an example. Acts is one of the few readily accessible written accounts of life in the Eastern Roman Empire. Also, the nice (or problematic) thing about the Bible is that most people have an ingrained bias in favour of or in opposition to it. Along with this, I proposed an couple of different exercises dealing with the way the use of context can lead to a bias.
My partner replied that the exercises that I had prepared did not fit the assignment request (she was correct). She advised that the primary source examples that I had picked did not fall within the standard curriculum (I could debate this). And finally she gently said that I seemed to be a little hung up on bias and that it wasn't that critical. By the time that she listed the course offerings in the high school curriculum (after we had read the curriculum for that class), I was seeing 10 shades of red. I crafted and re-crafted a reply until 3 am trying to avoid the apology style of Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda.
So after a couple of 3 hour sleep nights (the previous caused by my over-preparation for my 15 minute microflop), I ended up with a cold. And realized that it was my own fault. I had let a relatively courteous correction lead me to over-react, over-stress ... and over think. As the title indicates, my passion regarding bias had led me to believe that I possessed the one right approach. All I can say is that I'm glad that I got this wake-up call now. I'm fairly sure that somewhere along the way a parent, co-worker or student is going to hit one of my hot buttons while proposing something with which I have difficulty agreeing. When that happens, I'll have the choice between being right and being healthy. I just hope that I remember which option to pick when those times come.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Make the first two minutes go away
So, the first microteaching trial is done. This was one that I wish wasn't going to touch my handicap. Overall, it was a comedy of errors that left me fighting for recovery.
I'm a relatively shy fellow, so I feed off of nervous energy to help energize my presentations. I'm also a fairly relaxed fellow so high energy states aren't my standard state of being. As such, I haven't yet learned how to harness that energy ahead of time to the point where I can control it and gauge the appropriate amount. After a couple of minutes, I get into the flow and my patter takes over and can feed off of that well of energy that I have waiting in the back wings. But for the first couple of minutes, I've pulled a cork out of Mt Vesuvius and I'm desperately hoping that the flimsy "please be kind to Pompeii" sign that I'm holding up can actually steer the lava flow.
I love the material that I'll be teaching, whether it will be math or history, and desperately want to communicate that joy to my students. I realize that not everybody will see the excitement of Roman History, but I'd really like to infect a few of the fence sitters along the way. And I also know that my semblance of nerves won't help the matter since nervous teacher => anxious class. I enjoy talking in front of people, I just have to find a way to control the energy within me when everybody focuses their attention on me. And I recognize that much of this will come with time, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression ... and I'd rather not have my shaky impression colour me permanently. But for now, Wile E Coyote has stepped off the cliff, and is holding up his 'HELP!' sign.
- That disc that we were supposed to bring to record the session ... the only thing that I forgot
- That 15+ minute lesson plan that I had crafted ... cut down to 10 minutes because
- I misread the clock and didn't realize that we were running so far behind as a group
- The hours that I spent converting a technology based presentation to a non-tech version ... wasted as it was actually possible to get a projector
- Trying to present a grade 10 topic to 5th year university students ... watch the activity timing shrink
I'm a relatively shy fellow, so I feed off of nervous energy to help energize my presentations. I'm also a fairly relaxed fellow so high energy states aren't my standard state of being. As such, I haven't yet learned how to harness that energy ahead of time to the point where I can control it and gauge the appropriate amount. After a couple of minutes, I get into the flow and my patter takes over and can feed off of that well of energy that I have waiting in the back wings. But for the first couple of minutes, I've pulled a cork out of Mt Vesuvius and I'm desperately hoping that the flimsy "please be kind to Pompeii" sign that I'm holding up can actually steer the lava flow.
I love the material that I'll be teaching, whether it will be math or history, and desperately want to communicate that joy to my students. I realize that not everybody will see the excitement of Roman History, but I'd really like to infect a few of the fence sitters along the way. And I also know that my semblance of nerves won't help the matter since nervous teacher => anxious class. I enjoy talking in front of people, I just have to find a way to control the energy within me when everybody focuses their attention on me. And I recognize that much of this will come with time, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression ... and I'd rather not have my shaky impression colour me permanently. But for now, Wile E Coyote has stepped off the cliff, and is holding up his 'HELP!' sign.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Snobs Anonymous
Me: 'hi, my name is Roy and I'm a snob.'
Group: 'hi Roy'
Me: 'I'm still kinda nervous admitting this, but I hate group work, and the irony of being here is killing me.'
Group: 'We were all where you were once. Relax, we're here to help.'
Me: 'And I really need to change this. I won't be able to assign group work with a clear conscience until I get over this hurdle.'
Group: 'Just remember the affirmations and you'll be fine. Learning is a collective process. Trust in your group mates and have faith that the end result will make everything worthwhile.'
One of my greatest concerns when entering teachers' college was the amount of group work that would be required. Group presentations, group reports, group meetings, group .... Suddenly I had visions of the past groups and the members that I had issue with:
Trust. When you set expectations for yourself such as I do, and you don't willingly accept the 'shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars' sidestep, it's tough to trust that others will try to live up to your expectations when you know that you can't realistically achieve them yourself. And when an introvert is thrust into an extroverted world, an uncomfortable world within which no semblance of control is possible, fears starts to creep in like ants to an unguarded bowl of sugar. I'd really like to confirm that I have the answer to this personal Gordian Knot, but I'm not sure that it exists. All I can do is try to partition the past and try to find my own group work Tabula Rasa. And I sure hope that I'm able to. Because, somewhere down the line, I'm going to meet a student with similar foibles, insecurities and concerns ... and when I do, I'll be uniquely qualified to give an honest and convincing argument.
Failing that, I'll go back to my favourite Nietzchean philosophy, Amor Fati. My version has always been: There will be successes in life and there will be failures. There will be things in the past that you might want to change, things that you can accept, and things that are ideal. But deep down, you have to love the life that the fates handed you ... every error and every checkmark ... not by whitewashing over the past, but by accepting and loving your life to such a degree that you wouldn't want to change a thing. For to do anything else is to deny those influences that made you who you are, and therefore, to regret your existence.
(someday in the future, I'll likely move my inside voice posts to private. But for now, I'd much rather leave these nasty bits hanging around with the hope that someone else who's facing a similar issue might find a nudge in the direction that they wish to move)
Group: 'hi Roy'
Me: 'I'm still kinda nervous admitting this, but I hate group work, and the irony of being here is killing me.'
Group: 'We were all where you were once. Relax, we're here to help.'
Me: 'And I really need to change this. I won't be able to assign group work with a clear conscience until I get over this hurdle.'
Group: 'Just remember the affirmations and you'll be fine. Learning is a collective process. Trust in your group mates and have faith that the end result will make everything worthwhile.'
One of my greatest concerns when entering teachers' college was the amount of group work that would be required. Group presentations, group reports, group meetings, group .... Suddenly I had visions of the past groups and the members that I had issue with:
- The apologist. The one who arrives late for meetings, doesn't complete the task assigned on time, but usually has 'legitimate' reasons
- The opportunist. The one who knows some members are driven to get good marks so will happily coast along
- The minimalist. Always gets things done, but never really pushes beyond what's necessary
- The inspirationalist. The one who has a completely different spin on the article to the point where many question if it was the same source, and wishes to move the group in a counterproductive direction.
- The born leader. The one who must run the meeting and control the agenda.
Trust. When you set expectations for yourself such as I do, and you don't willingly accept the 'shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars' sidestep, it's tough to trust that others will try to live up to your expectations when you know that you can't realistically achieve them yourself. And when an introvert is thrust into an extroverted world, an uncomfortable world within which no semblance of control is possible, fears starts to creep in like ants to an unguarded bowl of sugar. I'd really like to confirm that I have the answer to this personal Gordian Knot, but I'm not sure that it exists. All I can do is try to partition the past and try to find my own group work Tabula Rasa. And I sure hope that I'm able to. Because, somewhere down the line, I'm going to meet a student with similar foibles, insecurities and concerns ... and when I do, I'll be uniquely qualified to give an honest and convincing argument.
Failing that, I'll go back to my favourite Nietzchean philosophy, Amor Fati. My version has always been: There will be successes in life and there will be failures. There will be things in the past that you might want to change, things that you can accept, and things that are ideal. But deep down, you have to love the life that the fates handed you ... every error and every checkmark ... not by whitewashing over the past, but by accepting and loving your life to such a degree that you wouldn't want to change a thing. For to do anything else is to deny those influences that made you who you are, and therefore, to regret your existence.
(someday in the future, I'll likely move my inside voice posts to private. But for now, I'd much rather leave these nasty bits hanging around with the hope that someone else who's facing a similar issue might find a nudge in the direction that they wish to move)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Fortuna Major Let Me In
Or if you prefer Dante to Harry Potter:
"It was the hour when the diurnal heat no more can warm the coldness of the moon,
Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, when geomancers their Fortuna Major see in the orient before dawn"
Last night, my wife attended her high school reunion. Although I have yet to attend a high school reunion, I had considered attending my 10 year reunion (was a little too soon for my taste and a little too far away) so I had some idea of thoughts that might be coursing through her mind. She`d be putting on that old favourite sweater that got lost at the back of the drawer; it was comfortable and cozy back when you wore it regularly, but now it`s a little too tight, the stitching has changed and instead of recreating modern feelings of home, it can only evoke fond memories of those emotions.
In addition, I`m not sure if she could`ve kept me away if she tried. There`s something providential about my first placement being at my wife`s alma mater. I was going to be able to tour the school within which I`d finally be testing my teaching mettle. It`s a strange feeling knowing that my first of four pre-practicum observation days is under two weeks away. Gemini twin alpha is screaming, `how am I supposed to get my in class work done by the start of the teaching block` while beta is urging the coming 5 weeks to pass quickly.
So, while listening to stories of where lockers were and how much they had changed the school, I dipped my toe through the education student looking glass. Within the math class, I saw the standard 4 x 8 grid of white-topped metal-legged desks. Change the smart board for an overhead projection screen and it could`ve been my high school class. I`m not saying this to be critical, since you work with whatever furnishings you`re given and with a large enough class size, options become limited. But, I`d feel constricted in that room; I`d be as tethered to the smart board as students are to their desks. The walking space was quite limited and for a heavy-set fellow like myself, so helping the student in C-6 (you sank my battleship) would be a challenge. I`d need to rely solely on assignments, test scores and verbal responses for assessments ... and the possibilities for group work would be quite restricted.
Shortly thereafter, we wandered into one of the English classes. Instead of the industrial grid pattern, the desks were arranged in 4 parallel columns with a wider center aisle and a backstop row. No smart board in this class, but at least there was some walking space. It seemed more conducive to group work (except for the back row) and there was more strolling room. Individual assistance and assessment would be possible ... overall a slightly more conducive set-up for me. Overall, things looked nicer until I looked up on the wall.
Step four of seven in the essay writing algorithm was a rough draft. I remember the last conversation about rough drafts with a TA - it came shortly after expressing my dislike of Turnitin.com. Given my feelings that beneath the happy surface of that service is an implication that I was guilty of plagiarism until proven innocent, I was investigating the `hand in your notes to prove your innocence` alternative. The TA advised me that I`d need to turn in my rough drafts and barely avoided rolling her eyes when I asked her what a rough draft was. Unfortunately, I write my essays by developing a skeleton, typing the essay while proofreading, and handing my final copy to my wife to take a quick glance. Given that the final step only involves minimal changes, I don`t really consider my step two result as rough - especially since most of the final changes involve splitting up grammatically correct but clause-heavy sentences. Her advice was to just hit save every so often so I`d have something to print. Assuming that most students will choose the word processor option in lieu of the hand written version, I`m not sure that step four exists for most people. At the same time, the other six steps work and having a misleading step four there could bring up a great conversation ... and having 1-3, 5-7 wouldn`t quite look right.
Overall, it seems that plus ca change ... This visit gave me the opportunity to at least start thinking about classroom set-up in a more concrete manner. In addition, I ended up one huge step closer to actually being there for real. Plus, this might be my only change to teach history (with plans to change my first teachable to math along with hopes for my third placement), and as much as I love the more hiring friendly math option, history is just as wonderful.
"It was the hour when the diurnal heat no more can warm the coldness of the moon,
Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, when geomancers their Fortuna Major see in the orient before dawn"
Last night, my wife attended her high school reunion. Although I have yet to attend a high school reunion, I had considered attending my 10 year reunion (was a little too soon for my taste and a little too far away) so I had some idea of thoughts that might be coursing through her mind. She`d be putting on that old favourite sweater that got lost at the back of the drawer; it was comfortable and cozy back when you wore it regularly, but now it`s a little too tight, the stitching has changed and instead of recreating modern feelings of home, it can only evoke fond memories of those emotions.
In addition, I`m not sure if she could`ve kept me away if she tried. There`s something providential about my first placement being at my wife`s alma mater. I was going to be able to tour the school within which I`d finally be testing my teaching mettle. It`s a strange feeling knowing that my first of four pre-practicum observation days is under two weeks away. Gemini twin alpha is screaming, `how am I supposed to get my in class work done by the start of the teaching block` while beta is urging the coming 5 weeks to pass quickly.
So, while listening to stories of where lockers were and how much they had changed the school, I dipped my toe through the education student looking glass. Within the math class, I saw the standard 4 x 8 grid of white-topped metal-legged desks. Change the smart board for an overhead projection screen and it could`ve been my high school class. I`m not saying this to be critical, since you work with whatever furnishings you`re given and with a large enough class size, options become limited. But, I`d feel constricted in that room; I`d be as tethered to the smart board as students are to their desks. The walking space was quite limited and for a heavy-set fellow like myself, so helping the student in C-6 (you sank my battleship) would be a challenge. I`d need to rely solely on assignments, test scores and verbal responses for assessments ... and the possibilities for group work would be quite restricted.
Shortly thereafter, we wandered into one of the English classes. Instead of the industrial grid pattern, the desks were arranged in 4 parallel columns with a wider center aisle and a backstop row. No smart board in this class, but at least there was some walking space. It seemed more conducive to group work (except for the back row) and there was more strolling room. Individual assistance and assessment would be possible ... overall a slightly more conducive set-up for me. Overall, things looked nicer until I looked up on the wall.
Step four of seven in the essay writing algorithm was a rough draft. I remember the last conversation about rough drafts with a TA - it came shortly after expressing my dislike of Turnitin.com. Given my feelings that beneath the happy surface of that service is an implication that I was guilty of plagiarism until proven innocent, I was investigating the `hand in your notes to prove your innocence` alternative. The TA advised me that I`d need to turn in my rough drafts and barely avoided rolling her eyes when I asked her what a rough draft was. Unfortunately, I write my essays by developing a skeleton, typing the essay while proofreading, and handing my final copy to my wife to take a quick glance. Given that the final step only involves minimal changes, I don`t really consider my step two result as rough - especially since most of the final changes involve splitting up grammatically correct but clause-heavy sentences. Her advice was to just hit save every so often so I`d have something to print. Assuming that most students will choose the word processor option in lieu of the hand written version, I`m not sure that step four exists for most people. At the same time, the other six steps work and having a misleading step four there could bring up a great conversation ... and having 1-3, 5-7 wouldn`t quite look right.
Overall, it seems that plus ca change ... This visit gave me the opportunity to at least start thinking about classroom set-up in a more concrete manner. In addition, I ended up one huge step closer to actually being there for real. Plus, this might be my only change to teach history (with plans to change my first teachable to math along with hopes for my third placement), and as much as I love the more hiring friendly math option, history is just as wonderful.
Friday, 16 September 2011
Curriculum Hubris
Our math teaching class has spent a significant amount of time focused on the curriculum documents. Everything from format to goals to specifics on courses has been discussed. So to prepare for the review of the 11-12 math curriculum, I sat the documents side by side. I watched where the paragraphs moved within sections, and saw what remained unchanged. And one section shocked me.
So far, the entire purpose of our classroom dynamics class has been stages of physical and mental development of the brain. Students will not be at the same level, but they will tend to progress through cognitive and social ranges within the stages. But when I'm reading the expectations of parents and students within the curriculum, I notice cut and paste descriptions. I'm kinda confused.
Unlike the 14 & 15 year olds, 16 & 17 year olds are concerned with getting licenses, part time jobs, life after high school. During this period when their concerns are being focused on the future. I'm not quite convinced that the 17 year old is going to be as motivated to work on school-related tasks in order to reconfirm the 'direct relationship between effort and achievement' cited in the 11-12 curriculum.
Perhaps I was the exception when I was growing up, but I had very little desire to spend time with my parents in my late teens. I recognize that relationships have changed to some degree, as what would have mortified me as a teen (my parents coming to my job interview with me) is now being accepted by students (universities holding parent orientation sessions while students enjoy theirs), but I imagine parents are still having to fight for quality time with their teenagers. I just can't see my father saying, "Roy, before you go out to see your girlfriend, we have to sit down and have a chat. It's been a while since we sat down and shot the breeze about the second derivative test." Firstly, because the material was far beyond my father's experience and expertise, and secondly because he was having enough trouble remaining an active part of my life that I'm not sure it would've been worth the fight to stay engaged in my high school education subject by subject.
Of course, I don't recall ever reading a curriculum document within high school, and I would be surprised if my father would have. And I'm not saying that my father wasn't interested in my education, but unless things have changed significantly, the course summary was usually enough. And please don't take my critique as disagreement with the expectations - I fully agree that they would be ideal conditions to ensure that both students and parents benefited as much as possible from the students' school years. Unfortunately, the lack of changes between the expectations of the two documents kinda tells me that these expectations are for us alone. Perhaps I'm overemphasizing the changes, so one size fits all. But my gut feeling is that the students are moving from a time when parents can best help through hands on & subject related assistance to a time when parents can best help their teenagers with the planning necessary for increasingly complicated and independent lives ... and it's a shame that the curriculum expectation doesn't reflect this.
Before I forget, during our curriculum discussions, one of the students went on a couple minute rant. 'Logic should be taught in math class but it shouldn't only be math's responsibility; humanities should be teaching it too.' And for those few minutes, I felt less like a mature student and a little more like a member of the class.
So far, the entire purpose of our classroom dynamics class has been stages of physical and mental development of the brain. Students will not be at the same level, but they will tend to progress through cognitive and social ranges within the stages. But when I'm reading the expectations of parents and students within the curriculum, I notice cut and paste descriptions. I'm kinda confused.
Unlike the 14 & 15 year olds, 16 & 17 year olds are concerned with getting licenses, part time jobs, life after high school. During this period when their concerns are being focused on the future. I'm not quite convinced that the 17 year old is going to be as motivated to work on school-related tasks in order to reconfirm the 'direct relationship between effort and achievement' cited in the 11-12 curriculum.
Perhaps I was the exception when I was growing up, but I had very little desire to spend time with my parents in my late teens. I recognize that relationships have changed to some degree, as what would have mortified me as a teen (my parents coming to my job interview with me) is now being accepted by students (universities holding parent orientation sessions while students enjoy theirs), but I imagine parents are still having to fight for quality time with their teenagers. I just can't see my father saying, "Roy, before you go out to see your girlfriend, we have to sit down and have a chat. It's been a while since we sat down and shot the breeze about the second derivative test." Firstly, because the material was far beyond my father's experience and expertise, and secondly because he was having enough trouble remaining an active part of my life that I'm not sure it would've been worth the fight to stay engaged in my high school education subject by subject.
Of course, I don't recall ever reading a curriculum document within high school, and I would be surprised if my father would have. And I'm not saying that my father wasn't interested in my education, but unless things have changed significantly, the course summary was usually enough. And please don't take my critique as disagreement with the expectations - I fully agree that they would be ideal conditions to ensure that both students and parents benefited as much as possible from the students' school years. Unfortunately, the lack of changes between the expectations of the two documents kinda tells me that these expectations are for us alone. Perhaps I'm overemphasizing the changes, so one size fits all. But my gut feeling is that the students are moving from a time when parents can best help through hands on & subject related assistance to a time when parents can best help their teenagers with the planning necessary for increasingly complicated and independent lives ... and it's a shame that the curriculum expectation doesn't reflect this.
Before I forget, during our curriculum discussions, one of the students went on a couple minute rant. 'Logic should be taught in math class but it shouldn't only be math's responsibility; humanities should be teaching it too.' And for those few minutes, I felt less like a mature student and a little more like a member of the class.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Yo dude class rox lol
Busted. Fail. Burned.
It was bound to happen eventually. Hidden behind a name card on top of the desk, one of my classmates got caught texting. I hopped immediately into people watching mode and loved how the teacher initially handled it. The teacher asked, 'what's your position going to be on cellphones in your class? It may be driven by school policy, but either way, how are you going to deal with it?' Sadly, no discussion ensued and the student sheepishly put the cellphone away. Still, I thought this was an amazing way to deal philosophically with cell phones at our level.
A couple minutes later, someone tried the baseball catcher approach to texting and got a less Socratic reaction - a blend of the wrath of Achilles, the Medusa gaze, and Napoleon's whiff of grapeshot. Well, if nothing else, we had learned the real cellphone policy in that class.
Personally, I hate cellphone culture. My personal opinion is that it's impolite, egotistical, and places unreasonable expectations upon its participants. If I'm having dinner with you, your text message can wait until the bill is paid. If you have to answer your phone in the restaurant, either head to the lobby to take the call or spare me the dirty looks when I comment on your conversation (loudly enough so the person on the phone at the other table can hear me). And, with my 'get off my lawn' fist raised in the air, people don't need to be able to reach you at any minute of any day - 'when I was young, we didn't even have answering machines.'
Oh, and I'd best add that I know that my opinion is wrong ... well, make that slightly out of touch with the times. And because my opinion doesn't reflect everyone's values, students will be allowed to use cellphones in my class. Someday in the future, I may be cursing Pandora for not warning me ahead of time; but for now, if the school policy leaves cellphones up to my judgement, I'll be giving a reluctant nod of assent.
I assure you that it's not because I have any desires to be the cool teacher. My wife convinced me to watch the Harry Potter films not by telling me what amazing films they were, but by telling me that all of the spells they cast were in Latin. I'm never going to play halo, I will never watch Jersey Shore, and good luck getting me to sit down and appreciate any music recorded after 1987. If the only way that I can build rapport with the students is by feigning the ability to do as they do, I'm wasting my time in teachers' college.
Part of the reason I'd rather allow cellphone use is that my genetic code doesn't include the 'do as I say, not as I do' allele. Every essay and blog entry (ooh an e-mail) that I've written has (I wonder what's going on in twitter) likely taken twice as long as it could have (I wonder if students will appreciate me yelling 'accio glasses' from time to time) due to my mayfly attention span. We live in a multitasking world, and with very few exceptions (final exams come to mind), it's rare that one can devote more than 15 straight minutes to a given task. The ability to switch tasks is critical, and despite my wish that something more important than a 'whazup' text message was the distraction, the students will need the skill. With the appropriate boundaries, hopefully I'll be able to instill a bit of The Road Less Travelled at the same time.
The second reason for cellphone use will be a bit of a quid pro quo arrangement. I'm hoping to get the smart phone users to agree that in return for the ok to use their cellphones in class if they'll agree to be my researchers from time to time. What's the current $CDN value, what are today's mortgage rates, how does wikipedia sort their entries on vampires? I've seen another teacher use cell phones in the class this way and it seemed to be quite effective, so I'm hoping to model his practice.
In addition, I recognize that there will be times when they're going to test their boundaries in the class. There will be times when the student's action will require immediate correction, times when the action is worthy of a gentle I'm aware and not impressed acknowledgement, and some things that I'll have to let go. As someone advised me, 'you've got to pick and choose your battles' and I'm going to have a tough time seeing texting a message on the same level as a racist comment.
My final reason is that I know that my initial reaction is out of touch with the modern cellphone reality. Every day I'll be certain to see a couple students walking to class together, both of whom are texting other people, and neither student sees an issue with the behavior. If it were me, I'd see it as the height of impoliteness, but for them it's perfectly ok. And I'm guessing that's why the teacher blasted the class ... because cellphone use in the class was seen as a personal insult. Given my feelings about cellphone use, I'd like to say that I won't reach that limit of frustration ... but I know that someday I'll regret having reacted as that teacher did. I just hope when those days come, I'll lean more towards the "how can I make future classes more engaging" than the whiff of grapeshot. After all, it's not like I was able to remain focused on creating that lesson plan from start to finish without interruption, so how can I hold them to a higher standard?
In closing, I'd appreciate any other thoughts on this. I was able to convince myself in August that I would need a cellphone to gain an understanding of the cellphone culture, but two months of texting hasn't helped me understand why someone would feel the need to text from class (emergencies excepted). And perhaps I'm lying to myself, since students who text always try to hide their texting in some way.
It was bound to happen eventually. Hidden behind a name card on top of the desk, one of my classmates got caught texting. I hopped immediately into people watching mode and loved how the teacher initially handled it. The teacher asked, 'what's your position going to be on cellphones in your class? It may be driven by school policy, but either way, how are you going to deal with it?' Sadly, no discussion ensued and the student sheepishly put the cellphone away. Still, I thought this was an amazing way to deal philosophically with cell phones at our level.
A couple minutes later, someone tried the baseball catcher approach to texting and got a less Socratic reaction - a blend of the wrath of Achilles, the Medusa gaze, and Napoleon's whiff of grapeshot. Well, if nothing else, we had learned the real cellphone policy in that class.
Personally, I hate cellphone culture. My personal opinion is that it's impolite, egotistical, and places unreasonable expectations upon its participants. If I'm having dinner with you, your text message can wait until the bill is paid. If you have to answer your phone in the restaurant, either head to the lobby to take the call or spare me the dirty looks when I comment on your conversation (loudly enough so the person on the phone at the other table can hear me). And, with my 'get off my lawn' fist raised in the air, people don't need to be able to reach you at any minute of any day - 'when I was young, we didn't even have answering machines.'
Oh, and I'd best add that I know that my opinion is wrong ... well, make that slightly out of touch with the times. And because my opinion doesn't reflect everyone's values, students will be allowed to use cellphones in my class. Someday in the future, I may be cursing Pandora for not warning me ahead of time; but for now, if the school policy leaves cellphones up to my judgement, I'll be giving a reluctant nod of assent.
I assure you that it's not because I have any desires to be the cool teacher. My wife convinced me to watch the Harry Potter films not by telling me what amazing films they were, but by telling me that all of the spells they cast were in Latin. I'm never going to play halo, I will never watch Jersey Shore, and good luck getting me to sit down and appreciate any music recorded after 1987. If the only way that I can build rapport with the students is by feigning the ability to do as they do, I'm wasting my time in teachers' college.
Part of the reason I'd rather allow cellphone use is that my genetic code doesn't include the 'do as I say, not as I do' allele. Every essay and blog entry (ooh an e-mail) that I've written has (I wonder what's going on in twitter) likely taken twice as long as it could have (I wonder if students will appreciate me yelling 'accio glasses' from time to time) due to my mayfly attention span. We live in a multitasking world, and with very few exceptions (final exams come to mind), it's rare that one can devote more than 15 straight minutes to a given task. The ability to switch tasks is critical, and despite my wish that something more important than a 'whazup' text message was the distraction, the students will need the skill. With the appropriate boundaries, hopefully I'll be able to instill a bit of The Road Less Travelled at the same time.
The second reason for cellphone use will be a bit of a quid pro quo arrangement. I'm hoping to get the smart phone users to agree that in return for the ok to use their cellphones in class if they'll agree to be my researchers from time to time. What's the current $CDN value, what are today's mortgage rates, how does wikipedia sort their entries on vampires? I've seen another teacher use cell phones in the class this way and it seemed to be quite effective, so I'm hoping to model his practice.
In addition, I recognize that there will be times when they're going to test their boundaries in the class. There will be times when the student's action will require immediate correction, times when the action is worthy of a gentle I'm aware and not impressed acknowledgement, and some things that I'll have to let go. As someone advised me, 'you've got to pick and choose your battles' and I'm going to have a tough time seeing texting a message on the same level as a racist comment.
My final reason is that I know that my initial reaction is out of touch with the modern cellphone reality. Every day I'll be certain to see a couple students walking to class together, both of whom are texting other people, and neither student sees an issue with the behavior. If it were me, I'd see it as the height of impoliteness, but for them it's perfectly ok. And I'm guessing that's why the teacher blasted the class ... because cellphone use in the class was seen as a personal insult. Given my feelings about cellphone use, I'd like to say that I won't reach that limit of frustration ... but I know that someday I'll regret having reacted as that teacher did. I just hope when those days come, I'll lean more towards the "how can I make future classes more engaging" than the whiff of grapeshot. After all, it's not like I was able to remain focused on creating that lesson plan from start to finish without interruption, so how can I hold them to a higher standard?
In closing, I'd appreciate any other thoughts on this. I was able to convince myself in August that I would need a cellphone to gain an understanding of the cellphone culture, but two months of texting hasn't helped me understand why someone would feel the need to text from class (emergencies excepted). And perhaps I'm lying to myself, since students who text always try to hide their texting in some way.
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