Tinkerings

Let me begin this post with a disclaimer: I did not have a successful Black Friday.  I ventured out at 4 AM to drive an hour to a store in order to purchase one item that was not available in my state.  So, Black Friday was more like Bleak Friday to me.  However, I tried to pay attention during my travails, and here is something I noticed.

I stood outside Office Max in Knoxville for an hour and a half with a handful of people waiting to see what wonderful electronic deals they had.  The deal I was looking for wasn’t in their sale paper, but I had seen it online.  That was my mistake.  Anyway, we stood there in the windy cold and chatted while we watched the employees readying the store for our grand entrance.

About 30 minutes before the store opened, the manager came out and informed us that she and a couple of other employees would be coming through the crowd handing out pull tickets for whatever sale items they came to purchase.  She thought that would be fair and stop the crowd from pushing and shoving to be first in line.  She was right.

Three employees started mingling through the crowd making small talk, asking what they wanted, and giving out bright red pull tickets.  People were smiling and chatting back.  Suddenly, the atmosphere changed.  Everyone calmed down.  We enjoyed the wait.

Later, after I had exhausted several other stops to no avail, I wandered through the West Town Mall for a bit.  As I entered Dillard’s through the ladies’ fragrance section, one of the associates yelled loudly to the others, “You get double sales credit on all __________ fragrances today, so sell, sell, sell!”  Yes, she yelled that in front of all the customers walking through her section.  I could not get out of Dillard’s fast enough.

Two customer service experiences.  The Office Max / Dillard’s experience spoke to me about my classroom.  You wouldn’t have expected anything different would you?

I can hear some teachers yelling out in their heads, “We’ve got these SPIs to get through today so teach, teach, teach!”  I can almost feel the cringe that comes across the minds of kids who need something different than that.  How would it transform my teaching to offer individual pull tickets for kids each day?

I wondered how much I could cater to each student’s individual needs.  Not desires.  Not likes or dislikes.  Needs.  What pull tickets could I put in their expectant hands each day that ensure they would get that for which they came?  Maybe they don’t even know they need it.  Some need me teach.  Some just need me to smile, or make small talk, or just pay attention.

What is the customer service experience in your classroom?  Have you settled for teaching?  Or are you meeting the needs of kids?

On Saturday I made the plunge into the wonderfully wacky world of Macs.  It had been a long time coming.  I pretty much had my ducks in a row thanks to the help of a great PLN devoted to all things Mac.  I knew going in that I wanted the Pro, but wasn’t sure what screen size I wanted.  I knew I wanted to up the memory.  I knew what hard drive size I could live with (pardon ending that sentence in a preposition…did adding these parentheses fix that officially?).  I took a deep breath, tried to hide the fear of the unknown, and stepped into the store.

Wow, it was busy.  There were people everywhere.  As my eyes adjusted to the ambient lights of dozens of LCD screens, I noticed people standing around in red t-shirts.  A lot of people.  Immediately I knew I wasn’t going to have a problem being served.

I was right.  In less than one minute I had a sales associate asking me if he could help me in any way.  I told him up front what I was there for, and that I needed a few things explained to me.  I asked about the differences between the 13″ and 15″ Pro (the 15″ has 2 video cards if you’re interested), what software comes pre-loaded, why Apple never seemed to have a sale that amounted to anything (oh yes I did), what One on One was, why I needed Apple Care, and a host of other questions.

The sales associate looked me right in the eye while answering all my questions.  He didn’t go beyond what I was asking.  In other words, he didn’t try to over sell me.  He paid attention.  He was focused.  He was committed to his product.  He didn’t try to knock PCs or Microsoft.  Why did he need to do that?

He did make one point that stuck with me.  He said that PCs were basically designed around functions.  It was a good tool to write documents, crunch numbers, and the like.  Macs, on the other hand, were designed for the experience.  Everything was designed with the user experience in mind.  I had to agree.  Just touching the keyboard of a Mac, or looking at the sleek lines of its aluminum case, or watching the list of programs in the dock rise and fall in magnified glory as you run the mouse over them is an experience.

He said one other thing that I picked up on immediately (and made fun of as soon as I could).  He said that Apple users identified themselves as a sort of “family.”  I immediately made a remark about being more of a cult.  He didn’t take the bait.  He said something like, “If by cult you mean that we are all focused on the needs of one another and reach out to help each other at a moment’s notice, then yes, maybe cult is a good word.”  I immediately thought of the DEN Family of which I am a part.  Some see us as sort of cultish too I suppose.  Given this definition they wouldn’t be wrong.

I thought about both of those things on the hour-long drive home.  Experience and Family.  Questions swirled in my head.  What experience do the kids in my classes have?  What does “family” mean to them?  Is family a good thing?  Is the experience positive?  How can I make sure both are positive things in the minds of the middle schoolers I touch every day?  Do I give as much attention to an individual student in my class as this sales associate did for me in the Apple store?  Isn’t that kid’s education experience more important than the way I feel using a laptop?

Only the kids in my classes can tell me about their experience.  Before they get gone at Christmas break, I think I’ll ask them.

I’m a PC.  At least, that’s what I’ve been all my life.  I learned how to use a computer on a PC running Windows 3.1 and another running DOS.  Oh what fun those days were!  I’ve been through Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and (ugh) Vista.  And now, just when Microsoft might have it closest to right with Windows 7 (doesn’t that number seem like a giant step backwards from all the others?), I am about to embark on a new life path.  I’m about to be a Mac.

i’ve been spending some time looking at laptops and considering options.   I’ve checked in with my PLN to get some ideas about what I should buy (probably the 15″ Macbook Pro if I can afford it).  I’ve tried to see where I can get the best deal (not an easy task with Apple).  I think I’ve done my homework pretty well.  I feel prepared to go out and make this purchase.  I know that whatever I do in the next few days will impact me for the next several years.  It has to be “right.”

Education operates a lot like that.  Kids in are given opportunities to explore who they are.  I’m not talking about whether they are smart or dumb, cute or ugly, fat or skinny (take the worst of all those and you have how I felt in junior high and high school).  I’m talking about whether they are an artist, an engineer, an accountant, a doctor, a lawyer, and more.  The curricula should not only instruct them on reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.  It should be experimental.

My youngest went through high school determined to be a lawyer.  After taking classes, talking to teachers, exploring options, and discovering herself, she changed her mind and wants to be a nurse.  I thought she would be successful at either endeavor.  But she took the time to discover who she is, and that led to what she wants.

Benchmark tests didn’t tell her that.  The TCAP Writing Assessment didn’t tell her.  Essays didn’t.  Algebra, geometry, and trig didn’t.  Biology helped, but it didn’t do it either.  So what made her decide to change the course of her life in mid-stream?

Relationships.

She had a fantastic guidance counselor.  A wonderful band director and his wife.  A caring principal.  Awesome teachers who watched out for her. (Yes, that’s a shout out to all the faculty and staff at Walker Valley High School).  They didn’t “tell” her what she should do.  Rather, they listened.  They chatted.  They discussed.  They let her explore.  Eventually she knew.

I have a great Personal Learning Network.  All this time I thought I was a PC.  I hate PCs.  I hate the blue screen of death.  I hate viruses and trojans.  I hate browser crashes.  I think my PLN knew all along I was never meant to be a PC.  I think they knew there was a Mac inside just waiting for the right time to surface.  I love Macs.  I love how easy they are to use.  I love the creativity that went into designing them.

I have a great PLN that helped me come to a conclusion about who I am and what I need to do.

My daughter had great teachers and administrators to help her do the same.

Who do the students at your school have?

I have been the executor of a few trusts set up for daughters and other relatives in my life.  I say that to indicate that I have had some experience in receiving sizeable checks to post into my checking account and dole out for college and other trivial life experiences.

Today was an eye opener.

I went to the branch of my local bank that is closest to where I work in order to deposit a rather large check into my account to help a family member with college expenses.  I don’t like this branch of the bank.  The reason is simple.  When I go to the drive-in window I get my checks cashed, but it does not matter who the cashier is, I do not get spoken to.  My check is cashed correctly.  Deposits show up in my account on time.  But there are rarely smiles and never a word spoken.  It is depressing.

But, it was on my way to somewhere else I wanted to go, so I stopped and went through the drive through.  I was expecting rudeness, but I did not expect my deposit to be rejected.  Because it was a trust fund check, the lady explained, I had to deposit it into an account with both my name and the other person’s name on it.

Now, I’ve been cashing these checks for over five years, and I have never experienced this response.

So I did what any red-blooded, angry American would do.  No, I didn’t flip her off.  I went to the branch I like.

At the branch across town I get greeted by smiling tellers.  They speak to me when I walk through the door.  Everyone smiles, and everyone greets.  I feel the love.  They deposited my check with no problem.  I got an explanation that the funds would not be available until the check had been vetted, and I was okay with that.  Within 2 minutes I was out of there.

As I drove away the thought crossed my mind that our classrooms are often like this.  Some teachers are sticklers for the rules.  Everything has to be exactly their way, or students suffer.  There is no room for negotiation, compromise, or creativity when it comes to assignments, grades, behavior, or any other of a long litany of items one could list.

And then there are the other teachers.  The teachers that smile and serve students even if what they’ve done isn’t exactly kosher.  The teachers that make students feel welcome as soon as they walk through the door.  The teachers that get Christmas cards from students five years after they’ve left the school.

I know what bank branch I want to go to.

Students know what teacher they want.

Enough said.

OK, that’s a big title, and I’m not a researcher so I really don’t know the answer to the current state of math in this country.  Or in Tennessee.  Or even at our school.  But I do know the current state of math with the kids in my classroom.

I really thought we were doing great.  I have kids from all 6th grade teams, and even though some of them are a little slow with math (and I’m talking about mental math here), I didn’t have any real issues until today.

We have added, subtracted, and multiplied with little problems.  Today, we dove into the Wide, Wide World of Division.  Not just any division.  Division involving decimals.  Suddenly, the world stopped spinning on its axis and everything in my classroom went flying around the room much like that tornado scene in the Wizard of Oz.

I had to rethink my strategy, and I had to rethink it quickly.

I decided to stand in a chair and talk to them from my soap box.  It got their attention at least.  I talked to them about how we have crippled them from an early age by allowing them to use their calculator for everything.  I talked about how the state of TN was going to surprise them on this year’s TCAP by adding a lot of information on the test that their teachers won’t have had time to cover.  I talked to them about the fact that graduation requirements just increased from 3 maths to 4 and from one high stakes test to 4.

And I talked to them about how they needed to know that no matter how well they could use a calculator, if they didn’t understand how to interpret a word problem they would probably get it wrong.  I threw up 6 word problems on their screens and asked by a show hands how many would multiply and how many would divide.  Nearly everyone in every class got every problem wrong.

I asked for a show of hands in all my 6th grade classes to see how many kids would admit that they struggled with multiplying and dividing if they didn’t have a calculator.  I counted.  I did the math.  80% of my kids raised their hands.

Kids in elementary grades must learn how to think in abstract math terms.  They need to learn how to struggle and fail and get back up and struggle again and again until they win.

What is the current state of math in my classes?  Rough.  I’m not a math teacher.  I don’t know all the cutesy, artsy stuff math teachers do with manipulatives and games and songs to help their kids “get it.”

Ask me tomorrow what the state of math is in my classes.  I’ll guarantee you it will be improving.

What about you?  What’s the state of math where you are?

In October, our school hosted a Day of Discovery for Eastern Tennessee teacher.  We participated in live workshops and a virtual conference.  During the day, Discovery had a video crew shooting footage and interviewing teachers.  The final video for the day is now available.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  Several Bradley County teachers are highlighted!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Veterans’ Benefit concert in Chattanooga, TN.  Three groups were on tap for the evening, and they could not have been any different from one another if someone had planned it (which they might have).  The night included a local treasure, the Overland Express; a Rock/Blues staple, Edgar Winter, and the orchestrated rock sounds of Kansas.

I had never heard Overland Express, but I was not disappointed.  They play Southern Rock the way it was meant to be.  Throughout the night we enjoyed the duet sounds of two guitars harmonizing with one another through long rifts reminiscent of the Allman Brothers or the Eagles.  They were laid back and continually smiling as they road from one song wave to another.  The crowd had them back for one encore before the stage had to be completely torn down and then rebuilt for Edgar Winter.

At first, I thought the musicians playing with Edgar Winter were just stage hands.  They were all dressed in black pants and t-shirts.  They carried in their own instruments and took time to get everything set up.  They looked to be in their late 20’s or early 30’s.  I was expecting a band aged at about 100 (that’s how old Edgar is, right?).  The entire band was one drummer, one bassist, and one guitarist…plus Edgar Winter, of course.  I was hyped up for Frankenstein, and I was thrilled when they finally got there.  The song lasted over 10 minutes as Edgar riffed through his synthesizer, saxophone, and drums.  By the time they got to Tobacco Road, possibly his first hit with his brother Johnny, the crowd was wound up tight.  It would be difficult to describe the vocal range of Edgar Winter as he would “scat” his way through musical notes and then be echoed by one of the other band members.  Each round grew longer and more complicated as Winter belted out his notes, but the band did their best to keep up.  Overall, Edgar Winter put on the best show of the three bands.  The fact that he is almost completely blind did not stop him from being a commanding, larger-than-life presence on stage.

After another quick tear down and rebuilding of the stage, Kansas came on without any introduction.  They burst quickly into a wall of sound that sounded every bit as tight and complicated as their albums from over 30 years ago.  Not having seen them live before, I was surprised that there were only 5 members.  The music they produce sounds like so many more.  I have always liked Kansas.  Not just for their unique rock-orchestra sound, but because they write lyrics that sound more like philosophers than rockers.  I always felt they were a band in search of life’s meaning, and as a much younger man 30 years ago, they struck a chord in my life.

Other than the fact that the concert was in an open-air pavillion and I nearly froze my tuckus off, the evening was everything one could hope for in a concert.  It was an intimate venue with only a couple thousand people.  I was center stage in the 5th row of carry-your-own lawn chairs.  And I got to hear three of my favorite songs of all time: Frankenstein, Dust in the Wind, and Carry On My Wayward Son (Kansas’ second encore).

For those of you expecting a tie-in to education (as I am usually prone to do in this blog), here it is.  These three bands have been around for 30 plus years.  They are still playing the same songs they played 30 years ago.  And they still have a profound impact on the people who hear them: young and old.  So all you teachers out there who feel like you are being left behind in the technology boom, take heart.  You can still touch kids’ hearts and lives doing the same thing you’ve always done.

Standards change.  Technology changes.  Even kids change.  But teaching is teaching is teaching.  Go out and do some this week.  Your students will love you for it.

No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot make things stay the way they used to be.  That was made very clear to me last Saturday night.

When I was younger, Halloween was a neighborhood event.  My friends and I would dress up and walk from house to house around our neighborhood.  We would rake in a tons of great candy within a few short minutes and then go home to enjoy our cache.

When my kids were younger, we took them in the car to various neighborhoods and walked up and down the street with them while they knocked on the doors of strangers asking for treats.  They loved it, of course.  We made sure they got to the grandparents’ house to show off their costumes (and to get more candy).  There was a fundamental shift in the way we “did Halloween,” but it still looked and felt somewhat familiar.

Now my grandkids are Trick or Treating.  My days of being excited about the holiday are pretty much over.  Oh, I still love to see them in their costumes and all, but going out and buying candy and waiting by the door all night just isn’t what it used to be.

But I did it.  I bought the candy.  I sat in my living room all night.

You need to understand that I live in a quiet, extremely walkable neighborhood.  We have lots of kids in our neighborhood.  It is an older venue with houses built in the 60s and 70s.  How many kids showed up, you ask?

One.

My granddaughter, Malia, came to see me last night.  She was beautiful in her gangster outfit.  She had the Michael Jackson “Smooth Criminal” look and moves.  (Of course, I thought more about Fred Astaire, but that’s another blog post on change I suppose).

Most of the kids in our town go to the downtown block party, the mall, a local church, or Centenary Avenue for their Halloween fun.  Halloween has left the suburban sprawl and concentrated itself in the “mall mentality.”  That’s the American right to have everything you want to buy conveniently located under one roof for your shopping convenience.

As I sat and reflected on the changes to Halloween, I realized that everything in life is similar.  Nothing is the same as it once was.  Families have changed.  Work has changed.  Kids have changed.  Television, radio, movies, and games have all changed.  Some even contend that our climate is changing (let’s not go there, ok?).

And then I look at our classrooms.  Chairs and desks are still in nice, neat rows.  Students are still expected to be seated most of the time.  And let’s not forget about quiet.  Most of us like our students to be quiet!  Yeah, even me on most days.  As teachers we try to make our classrooms look and feel as much like the 1950s as humanly possible.  About the only thing that tells outsiders that we are in a 21st century classroom is the presence of at least one computer.  Well, maybe that puts us in the 1980s anyway.

All the research says that TV, the Internet, music videos, online gaming, and more has changed the way our kids think.  Some research even says their brains simply operate differently than brains used to.  They no longer think linearly (which is awful for language arts, math, and social studies teachers).  Their attention spans have shortened.  Their imaginations are non-existent.

Why should they be forced to think in a classroom when everything they want to know is less than six mouse clicks away? To quote one of my students from last year, “Just tell me the answer, Mr. Childers.”

I must admit that most of my attempts to bring technology into the classroom is still on my terms.  I want it the way my brain functions.  It is difficult to get out of that mindset and think like a middle schooler.  After all, isn’t that why I went to high school?  To stop thinking like a middle schooler?

What about you?  How has change impacted you?  Your teaching practices?  Your classroom management?  Parent relationships?

Oh, and Happy Halloween.  Bah Humbug.