Tinkerings

Teachers get a bum rap in a lot of ways.  Low pay.  Blamed for all low performance results on standardized tests.  Caught between parents and students.  The list is long.  But, we do get summers off.  Believe me, that’s huge.

But there’s one other way teachers get a bum rap.  We get to make two sets of resolutions each year: One on January 1st and another sometime in August or September depending on what state in which one teaches.

Of course, not wanting to be an underachiever, I also set myself up for resolutions at the end of the last school year.

Like all good resolutions, we mean well.  We honestly intent to do things differently.  Sometimes we even succeed.  Other times we learn to tweak the resolutions so they are easy to complete.  Like this one from last New Year’s for me:

I will begin the process of losing 40 pounds.

And I did.  Several times.  In fact, I’m beginning that process again next week.  (Hey, we’re teachers.  We’re smart).

Here are just a few of the resolutions I’ve set for myself this school year.

1. Delegate more of my work among my team members.  I am one of those people that like to do my work and the work of thirteen other people.  It is time to give it up.
2. Learn all of my students’ names in the first three weeks of school.  I am horrible with names.  I think the only way I learned mine was from my mom writing it on the inside labels of my clothes when I went to church camp.
3. Find a working phone number for every student before the semester is over.  I’m giving myself a little more time here, but those of you who don’t teach would be surprised at the number of kids who don’t know a phone number for their parents.  Or a street address for their house.  Or what a pencil looks like.
4. Only grade what matters.  No more extra credit for bringing hand sanitizer.  Or getting a form signed.  Or staying awake in class.  (You can’t make this stuff up).
5. Refuse to allow a single student to leave my class without learning the things I intended for them to learn.

OK, I really only wrote all those to get to that last one.  It is this dogged determination to see kids learn that keeps us coming back to the classroom every year.

I will let the teachers, admins, school board members, and other members of PLN that read this blog hold me accountable to these resolutions.  Feel free to ask anytime how I’m doing.  If my answer starts with, “Ummmmm….” just shake your head and walk away.  Ask again on a good day.

What resolutions have you made this year?

A lot has been said, argued over, and voted on in recent years concerning funding for schools.  Our own school system has cut about everything they can without having to cut personnel.  However, at one of their recent meetings it was made clear that if the economy doesn’t improve, personnel cuts are inevitable.

And yet, there is money on the table.  We just overlook it way too often.  And by “we” I mean “me.”

Our local paper recently published a story that one and only mall in our town was sold in a foreclosure.  It seems we can never keep stores solvent in that place.  I rarely go there.  Even the stores I like don’t carry things I want.

Yesterday I discovered an article where a local restaurant had closed its doors on Wednesday.  Oliver’s hadn’t been in business that long, but the Shoney’s that closed up shop a few months ago was the place to eat when I got here in 1976.  A landmark is gone.

We passed a referendum last year increasing our county tax in order to fund schools at a higher rate.  It costs me $.01 more to buy a tall Pike Place from Starbucks locally than it does to purchase it in Hamilton County.  Everything is now a little more expensive in our town.  But people were flocking to our neighboring county even for all those years when it cost more to do so.

Why?  The easy answer is that its the economy.  Businesses are hurting everywhere.  And yet there is a more difficult answer we often don’t want to hear.

We don’t shop or eat in Bradley County.

For years, I have made the trek to Hamilton Place Mall 20 miles down the road to go shopping.  I’ve even started getting my haircut there.  And while you’re shopping, it is just easier to eat there, too.  And the movie theater is more comfortable.  Even the popcorn sometimes tastes better in Hamilton County.

We had a long fight over liquor by the drink in our county.  The biggest argument for approving the change was that it would bring in more businesses.  And it did.  Chili’s is now here.  The Outback showed up.  And yet people are still heard complaining because we don’t have a Red Lobster.  Hamilton County does, of course.

Here’s the bottom line: Every dollar we spend outside of Bradley County reduces the funding we provide our local schools.

Can we purchase everything we need locally?  Maybe. Can we purchase everything we want locally? No.  We will spend money elsewhere.  I will spend money elsewhere.

But I promise you this.  I will think long and hard about whether I really need to drive the 40 mile round trip to get a steak that is available to me within five miles of my house.

So, in my new found patriotic fervor, I had breakfast at the Rebel this morning.  And I’m writing this post while enjoying my tall Pike Place at Starbucks.  Our school district’s CFO can thank me later.  In the meantime, I’ll hold my head a little higher when I walk into my classroom this year.

I’m learning to support myself.

I received a round of interview questions recently with regard to an assistant principal opening in another district.  While most of the questions were pretty straightforward with regard to my opinions about the role of APs, discipline, management style, and such, the first question was extremely interesting.  It was much more philosophical (the kinds of questions I love to grapple with for days, weeks, or even years….don’t get me started on Walter Brueggemann’s Israel’s Praise again).

The question asked for my ideas regarding the purpose of a public school education in the life of a middle school student.  After writing my answer, I posed that question on my Facebook wall and asked my friends to give me their ideas.  Their responses were somewhat close to my own in some ways.

Here is what I wrote:

Middle school is the most interesting part of education.  Our school is grades 6 to 8, and it is really more three schools than just one.  Students change so much in each year, so middle school has to take on several roles as well.

First, middle school is a time of exploration.  Middle school students are exploring relationships, extra-curricular interests, academic strengths, boundaries put in place by anyone in authority, and a lot about themselves.  Middle school should be a place where the exploration has meaning.  Students learn how to act in society, how to be kind and giving (sometimes they learn this by experiencing the opposite), how to organize, study, and a host of other lessons aimed at making them more productive students and citizens.

Second, middle school is a time of preparation.  The changes from self-contained classrooms to changing teachers every period, from cubbies to lockers, from no dress code to some form of dress code, and more, help students create a slow, deliberate readiness to life in high school and beyond.  Middle school is a place that helps foster this readiness for life.

Third, middle school is a time of decision-making.  Students begin to decide who they are in the world.  They also decide if they like school or not or if they are good at it or not.  Some research indicates many decide in middle school whether or not to even stay in school.  As such, middle school takes on an even greater role in engaging students in academics (learning in general), exploring career choices (discovering what they like and what they are good at), socialization (how to treat others as well as deciding how they want to be treated), and aiding in the formulation of a beneficial world view (citizenship, family, friends, etc).

I would love for you to leave me some comments as to your own thoughts.  What did I get wrong?  What did I leave out?  Or better yet, what did I get right?

I have a YouTube account.  When I go there, the nice people at YouTube have provided a list of videos they think I will like based on the videos I’ve watched.  There is usually a video by Brian Regan or Taylor Mali mixed in the bunch.  Sometimes Tim Hawkins.  Maybe another Axe commercial.  And almost always a Gaither Homecoming song or two that I haven’t seen yet.

This morning it was the Gaither video that caught my eye.  I knew it would be good because it was David Phelps singing.  He has one of the most beautiful and articulate tenor voices of any genre.  His classical training shines through in everything he does.  But it was the title that got me first.

“Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go.”

Something about that sentence clicked in my head today.  My mind went back to a talk I’ve had many times with others who seemed to need it in that moment.  A talk about I Peter and the totally unmerited favor of God.  Peter tells us two things in his opening epistle.  First, he tells us that there is a reward for us in heaven that cannot be taken away because it is being held by God.  Second, he tells us that we cannot fail to reach the reward because we are held by that same God.

Think about that for a moment.

When I was walking last week through one of the many beautiful parks surrounding Boston last week, my friends and I came upon a fundamentalist preacher standing in a crossroads of paths with his Bible held like a weapon and shouting, “If you don’t repent you will fall into the hands of an angry God and spend eternity in hell!” at the top of his lungs.  Some made fun of him as they walked by.  Others ignored him.  It just reminded me of all those times, week after week, Sunday night after Sunday night, I found myself in an altar at the end of a church service praying and crying and begging God to forgive for not wanting to go to church that day.  I had not yet matured enough to understand God’s Grace.

Reach in your pocket and take out a quarter.  No, go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Got it?  Good.  Place it in the palm of your right hand.  Now close your hand around it.  The quarter is you.  Your hand is the grace of God.  Do you think anyone or anything can rip you out of that hand?  Not even your own sin can remove you from that hand.  (We can discuss the whole issue of backsliding at a later date, ok?  For now, just follow this train of thought with me.)

I’ve lost a lot of confidence in things at times.  I’ve lost confidence in friends.  I’ve lost confidence in the church.  I’ve lost confidence in family.  I’ve even lost confidence in myself.  But there is a sentence that keeps me grounded.  Keeps me strong.  Keeps me at peace.

Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go.

That is nothing less than the grace of God.  A love that won’t let go of me even when I struggle and wrestle and try to break free.  His love will not let me go.  And I am at peace in the midst of life’s strongest storms.

I went hiking yesterday.  I don’t hike.  But yesterday, with the invitation of a good friend from Florida, I wound up driving 90 minutes to Pigeon Forge, TN, and taking a 6 hour hike over a total of 8 grueling miles.  I really didn’t think that much about it…until about hour 4.  That was when I started to hit “the wall.”  It was really only through shear determination (and the refusal to be the only one in our group to say, “I don’t want to walk anymore”) that I made it back to the car.

The walk was beautiful.  And hard.  I got to see some gorgeous mountains to the right and left of me as I trekked up the hill.  None of us really knew what the trail was like since we had never been there before.  Oh sure, one of us had looked at it on a map, but that really didn’t do it justice.  Each of us had a pre-conceived idea of the hike ahead and each of us, it turned out, were wrong.

You see, I thought starting at out 5,050 feet was pretty high.  I sort of envisioned a trail meandering around the tip of the mountain tops with a few uphill and a few downhill slopes.  I thought the entire trail would be like the beginning: flat and wide with steps braced by fallen logs.  Someone had gone to great lengths to make the beginning of my journey as easy as possible.

As we went along the trail, rising to over 6,100 feet, the trail began to change.  Suddenly it was more wild with rocks and water and foliage hanging over the sides.  It was more narrow and much more difficult to maneuver.  I had strategically placed myself 3rd in a line of 3.  At first that was so I didn’t have to set the pace.  But later I realized it was better to follow someone along the trail and watch how they proceed.  I could see steps that were difficult and make minor changes in direction from the leader so that my walk was somehow easier than his.

When we hit 6,100 feet we thought we were fairly near our goal, which was a large outcrop of rock on the knob of a mountain top called Charlie’s Bunion.  We were wrong.  We began a fairly fast descent back down to 5,500 feet over another 1.5 miles.  I realized that going downhill so fast was just as difficult as the climb, but for different reasons.  On the climb my legs were tired from stepping up and up and up.  My calves and quads were feeling the burn.  On the downward slope my legs felt better, but not my feet and knees hurt.  The angle of the slope made my feet slide into the front end of the inside of my tennis shoes.  My toes were hurting and that caused my entire foot to ache.  The change in the angle of my ankles caused extra pressure on my knees.  I was reminded of a talk I had with a runner a week earlier and how people who train for marathons find that training to run downhill is just as important and training to climb hills.  More injuries occur on the downward slopes where we think the hike or run is easier.  In reality, it is equally hard to climb the hill as it is to go down the hill.  But hard in different ways.

We enjoyed Charlie’s Bunion for about 30 minutes.  The views were spectacular.  We met a few other hikers there.  Everyone was resting and eating something.  It was a welcome break.

Most people on this trail never make it to Charlie’s Bunion.  For many it wasn’t their goal in the first place.  They walk in enough to get some beautiful views and walk back out again.  How did I know this?  Because the last mile toward our destination was the roughest, most underused portion of the trail.  It was very narrow and wet and covered over with brush.  I suddenly began quoting “The Road Less Traveled” in my head.  Going all the way to this small bald rock really was making all the difference for me.

Then it was time for the return.

The 2nd half of a long hike can be brutal.  Your body is already tired.  Your muscles are calling you a wimp.  And you know they are right.  And then it hit us.  That fast downward slope that felt so good on some of our leg muscles had just done an about face and was now the steepest part of the mountain to climb.  Our tired legs, breathless lungs, and weary minds stopped often. Yet on we trudged.  This was no place to stop and quit.

After reaching the 6,100 feet level again, we started the 2.5 mile decline into hell.  One thing I learned about hiking started to really become a concrete reality in my head: Take care of your feet.  My feet hurt.  And now my toes were forced back into the front of my shoes.  My knees hated every time we met a stair step that had to be traversed in reverse.

It was on this leg of the journey that I hit “the wall.”  I realized then and there that most of my life can be summed up as a quitter.  If I hit the wall on a treadmill, I just hit stop and go do something else.  I even joked that it might be worth it to fall down and break my leg and just wait to get airlifted to a hospital.  But I kept most of my thoughts of quitting to myself.  I wondered if I was the only one feeling this way.

It was about 1.5 miles away from our car that I realized part of my problem.  I had established the wrong goal from the beginning.  My goal was to get to Charlie’s Bunion.  In reality, my goal should have been to get back to the car.  This became crystal clear as a young man in his early twenties came running down the trail behind us.  Yes, I said running.  He was skipping from rock to rock and jumping over things that jutted out in his way.  We gladly stopped to let him by, but he stopped for a minute with us and asked if any of us had a map of the trail.  You see, he knew there was one particular trail that went off from ours, but he couldn’t remember the name of it.  He wanted to add about 5 miles to his hike that day, and thought that would be a good plan.  Luckily, he wasn’t standing close enough to me to deck him.  But then, I was probably too tired to take the swing anyway.

I love metaphors.  And this hike has given me many to ponder.  Here are a few:

• Make sure you are headed toward the right goal in life.  If you are, the entire journey will be enjoyable.  If not, the journey will hurt every step of the way.
• There is no map that can accurately prepare you for the journey.  Watch those in front of you.  Do what works.  Change what doesn’t.
• Hike your own Hike.  OK, this is not original to me.  One of the guys we met that has hiked for 25 years gave us this quote.  He meant every hiker should wear what they want, hike where they want, carry what they want, and don’t be conformed to what they think a hiker should do.  I translate to be “Live your own life and not someone else’s.”
• It really is all about your mindset.  Your mind is more powerful than your body.  It can sit your body down, or it can pick your body up.  Be determined.  Don’t quit.  Its just pain.
• Travel with a buddy or two.  The Bible makes this point in a couple of ways.  First, if one falls down and he has a partner there is someone to help pick him back up (words of wisdom on a long hike).  Second, anyone can break a cord of just one string.  Some can even break a cord of 2 strings.  But a cord made out of 3 strings is not easily broken.  We all agreed that if we had been alone, we would have turned around before we got to Charlie’s Bunion.
• When you think the journey is over…its not.  Charlie’s Bunion wasn’t the end.  Even making it back to the car wasn’t the end.  I’ve still got more journey today.

What about you?  Do you have a metaphor you would like to share?  Or is there a life lesson from this post that you found and I didn’t mention?  Leave me and the rest of the world a comment!

I read this blog from Cool Cat Teacher with great interest this morning.  She makes valid points about both the upside and the downside to using an e-reader in school.  I suggest you take a look at (but wait until you’re done here please).

Personally, I think the Kindle is a step in the right direction, but will ultimately turn out to be an expensive step that can be avoided.  I understand why the Kindle would sound so good today.  Amazon just announced that for the first time ever e-books outsold hardcover books on their website.

While there will always be a demand for books, there won’t always be a demand for $100 textbooks that wear out or become obsolete faster than districts can cycle back around to get more.  In fact, with Amazon’s newer lower pricing, the Kindle is not cheaper than most textbooks.

Imagine what it would mean for a student to have all of his or her books in one, small, lightweight, easy to carry e-book reader.  The savings in chiropractic care alone should make parents do the dance of joy!

For me, I’m skipping over the Kindle and other e-book readers for a shot at using an iPad or a future, as-yet-unseen competitor that allows kids to do so much more.

Simply putting text in an electronic format is not the answer.  Putting text, images, videos, games, assessments, word processing, spreadsheets, picture and video editing tools, and more into the hands of kids is the answer.  At least for now.  Who knows what it will look like in 5 years.  Or 10. (View a video of how the iPad works here)

What is the drawback to the iPad in education?  Cost.  And Apple does not have a history of lowering costs just to get into the education market.  Why should they?  People are falling all over themselves to get an iPad, an iPhone 4, a Mac Pro, an iPod, and any other device Steve Jobs and company can think up.

What are your thoughts about the future of textbooks?

In an answer to the age-old problem of “Which came first, the chicken or the egg,” I read this week that scientists have finally decided the chicken had to come first.  The chicken creates some type of protein necessary for the egg shell to harden.  So, they concluded, the egg would not have had this protein without first being inside the chicken.  Wow.  Thanks for that.

A larger question, for me at least, emerged this week at our DEN LC Symposium.  I was leading a group discussion on the power and pitfalls of allowing students the unique privilege of using their cell phones in class.  Our group was sharing best practice ideas of how cell phones could be used to create podcasts, produce videos, snap pictures for assignments, respond to questions using text, view video tutorials hosted at iTunes and much more.  It was a great discussion.

Then one of our many STAR educators hit me upside the head with the reality stick.  Lisa Parisi said something to the effect that it sounded like we had discovered this great tool and we were trying to find creative ways to use it.  Instead, she continued, we should be looking at curriculum and standards and developing lesson plans and only then deciding which piece of technology (if any) would best help us and the students in the learning process.

That was a light-bulb-over-the-head moment for me.

This article from the Washington Post helps demonstrate her point.  It discusses the boom in sales for Interactive Whiteboards such as SMART and Promethean.  Our school just purchased a Promethean board and short throw projectors for every classroom.  The article talks of teachers who are using the product with minimal results.

DISCLAIMER: To be fair, those teachers frustrated with the lack of gains using an IWB seem to be those that are just using them as a glorified way to lecture; a new PowerPoint if you will.  Reading the article you will find few who are actually engaging students with the boards.  But I think Lisa’s point is still valid: design the lesson first and choose the technology second.

Teachers are under pressure now to “use those boards” every day in their classes.  This seems reasonable.  After all, schools just spent tens of thousands of dollars purchasing them, installing them, and training teachers to use them.  But what if it isn’t the best tool for the job?  What if you don’t need technology at all?

I teach in a computer lab.  My kids get hands-on computer experience nearly everyday.  Yet, even in that environment there are days when our kids won’t touch a computer.  We want them in circles talking.  We want them manipulating things together on a table top.  Could I put them in a chat room for the discussion?  Sure!  Will I? Well….it depends.

If the goal of the lesson is to get kids to work collaboratively to discuss a particular aspect of a story, or design a math lesson for their peers, or talk about their summer vacation, then no, they don’t need a computer for that.  If, however, the goal is to demonstrate for them the power of collaboration in a Web 2.0 environment where they learn how to discuss these things together at home outside of class, then yes, a chat room or a Google Doc would be perfect.

We are pushed so hard to earn the title of a 21st Century Classroom.  But whether we like it or not, this is the 21st Century.  Every classroom is now a 21st Century Classroom with or without technology.

So. back to my question.

I have to change my paradigm a bit.  The lesson has to come first.  It contains the “protein” that solidifies the reason to use the technology.  Not just any old technology.  The right technology.  Sometimes that’s a computer. Sometimes a phone. Sometimes an iPod. Sometimes an IWB.  And sometimes it is something just as revolutionary in its day: a pencil, a crayon, or a foldable.

Last night our DEN Leadership Council Symposium attendees had the wonderful opportunity to visit with Peter and Paul Reynolds and their gracious staff at the US headquarters for Fablevision.  It was an extraordinary night.  As we entered the facilities, I could hear people who had gotten off the elevator before already gasping as they were taken aback at the “play” feel of the offices.  I sensed the evening might be the best part of our day.

As we entered the area where we were gathering for pizza and drinks, some of the staff were still working.  They were very comfortable having us just walk up behind them as they made creative changes or simply wrote emails.  They all smiled and immediately engaged in conversations with us; immediately leaving their work and joining the party.  There were tall stools, bouncy balls, desk chairs, bouncy ball desk chairs, and even an old hair dryer chair from a beautician’s workspace in which to sit.  Our group filled the tiny space with the beautiful views of Boston Harbor (or Hah-bah as they say in Boston).  Fablevision employees spent their time making sure we were comfortable, had enough food, and were engaged in chit chat with someone around us.  We were treated like kings and queens, and it felt very special.

As the evening progressed, Peter Reynolds, the creative founder of Fablevision with his twin brother Paul, addressed us.  He talked about the importance of education and, specifically, educators.  He had been encouraged to use his doodles to help teach by his math teacher when he was 12.  A short animated film was created with the help of a media specialist at the high school, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Peter’s first book, The North Star, became sort of his philosophy of life, education, and business.  The point of the book is that each of us has a North Star that is uniquely ours.  It guides our steps as we become who we were intended to be from birth.  Other stars help point us in the direction of that one, true, North Star.  It is in the connections of these stars, our personal constellations of contacts, that the universe is made clear to us as individuals.  It is a great metaphor for life, and especially for education.

Peter talked about how his other teachers tried to get him to stop doodling and pay attention.  But his math teacher was different.  His math teacher asked him to take what he loved and apply it, engage it, in something else.  He helped Peter make a connection.  Later, when Peter was looking for a job, that media specialist at the high school was now working for Tom Snyder Productions and recommended Peter for a job.  Networking.  Connections.  Constellations.  They all drive us to the North Star.

Peter’s talk really made me think about teaching and education in a much deeper way.  Most of us, when asked what we do, reply, “I teach English,” or “I’m a tech coordinator,” or “I teach in middle school.”  Taylor Mali has a slightly different answer for teachers, “I make a (expletive deleted) difference.”

I had to wonder about my own experience.  How much do I get caught up in “you’ve got to learn math,” or “we need to improve your writing,” instead of “what do you love?”  Education is about engagement.  If you can’t engage students, you can’t teach them.  We engage them by finding what they love and helping them make connections.  Their lives are like those connect-the-dot books.  There may be 62 dots outlined on the page of their lives, and we’re just dot 14.  We can help them see a little of what lies ahead.  We can point them in the direction of the next connecting dot, the next star in their own personal constellation.  Along the way, maybe we can teach them the concept of slope or a 5-paragraph essay.

I’m constantly amazed at seeing former students when they hit their junior or senior year in high school.  Kids that I thought might be hopeless at the time they were in my class have found a niche in high school that engaged them. They are now excited about school.  About learning.  About their future.  It really helps me realize that I’m a dot on the page of their puzzle book.  Alone, I may not look like much.  But when you step back and see how all the dots are connected, their life simply wouldn’t be the same without me.

Thinking these thoughts while listening to Peter talk about his new book Rose’s Garden, a commemoration to Rose Kennedy and her Rose Garden that is nearly within eye view of those wide, expansive windows overlooking Boston Harbor, I felt a small tinge of pride at being a middle school teacher.

It felt good.

Thank you Peter Reynolds and the staff, now friends, at Fablevision for a marvelous evening.  You are now one of the shining stars in my own constellation.

I think I was in shock last night as the school board listened to Christy Critchfield read a recommended policy change for the students of Bradley County Schools regarding the use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices.  So much so, in fact, that I think I may have missed part of the policy actually says.  I have asked for a copy to post here for discussion.

The previous policy (6.312 here) stated that students MAY have cell phones on campus, but they must be turned off and put away.  Other devices like iPods, mp3 players, and CD players were prohibited from being on campus at all.  Cameras of any kind were also forbidden.

Last night, as the policy was read, my mind started reeling at the educational possibilities that were suddenly opening up as the policy change now states (as I understand it at this time) that students MAY use cell phones and other personal electronic devices (namely iPod Touches) for educational purposes as directed by their teacher.  Inappropriate or unauthorized use of these devices will still mean they are confiscated and returned at a later time.  How long is being worked out by the principals across the district in an effort to make the policy uniform from school to school.

Of course, this change has little impact on my classes.  After all, I teach in a computer lab.  The kinds of things kids can do educationally on their cell phones can more easily be done on the computer sitting in front of them.  And yet, it does offer me the opportunity to help train students in responsible use of these devices.

When I posted this vote on FB last night, immediately my “techie” friends started “liking” the post and congratulating the system.  My “not-so-techie” friends were afraid the school board had opened a Pandora’s box that could unleash all kinds of havoc on our classrooms.

How can this help the classroom?  Oh yes, I hear some asking that question already.  Let me list for you just a few:

• Students with smart phones (and there are plenty) can learn to use the web to do research at home when they do not have a PC or other Internet connection available.
• Teacher lessons and videos can be uploaded to iTunes for students to use for study materials.  (Teachers, did you know that the TN Education Office has an iTunes page with professional development opportunities available to you now?)
• Discovery Education has just introduced an iPhone app for Geography that sells for $4.99.  While I am all about free apps, DE is a for-profit company and the app, I’m told, is totally awesome.  Other educational apps are available.  iPhone apps are not all about bumping, beer guzzling, and announcing your every move on 4Square.
• Students can participate in real-time polls throughout a lesson in order to demonstrate that they are paying attention and getting the material.  It operates much like voting for their favorite American Idol.  We will have to teach teachers how to do it, but we can get some kids to do that.
• Teachers can now establish Twitter accounts for classrooms where the tweets are used for study and review or discussion of novels and more.

I could go on and on, but I don’t mean to minimize the down side here either.  Here are just a few that I have already considered in the past 12 hours or so:

• The Internet capacity on smartphones comes without filters.  Facebook, YouTube, and other sites presently blocked by the state of TN are now fair game in the classroom.  For those teachers who feel filters are the greatest thing since sliced bread, using cellphones in class for educational purposes might put you at some amount of discomfort.  But hey, that’s why its called teaching.
• Greater vigilance will be required of teachers now than before.  Before this policy, a student with a cell phone out was automatically busted.  Now, teachers will need to monitor usage to make sure students are really on task.  Much like making sure those notes they are writing are the ones they should study and not the ones being passed to a girlfriend or boyfriend.
• Teachers need to be trained on the policy and how to use it without abuse.  If guidelines are put in place for students, every teacher must respect those guidelines and enforce them to make believers out of students.  You can’t have one teacher saying, “Johnny, your phone is only for answering this questions and then you put it back on your desk,” and another teacher saying, “Johnny, if you want to send out a couple of text messages while you have your phone out, its ok.”  That’s just like family where little Johnny plays mommy against daddy to get what little Johnny wants.

These are just a few thoughts I have.  Do I believe every teacher is going to start creating lessons that require the use of a cell phone in class?  No.  Most classrooms won’t look any different than any other, except now perhaps teachers will ask students to lay their cell phones on their desks in plain view while class is going on.  That in itself would stop a lot of the inappropriate use students do now when they text from under the desk.

Until I see the new policy, I am not sure what it does for the use of cameras on campus.  Like other uses of phones, cameras and video cameras can be a positive educational experience or a teacher’s worst nightmare.

In the meantime, what do you think of the new policy and its possibilities?  Are you in favor or against the policy?  What other educational benefits have you seen or done with cell phones in the classroom?  Please leave your comments below.

Once again, we will Cover-It-Live at the regularly scheduled school board meeting today, July 8, at 5:30 PM.

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Tonight’s agenda:

1. Call to Order
2. Invocation
3. Pledge to the Flag
4. Approval of Consent Agenda
5. Director of Schools Report
6. Update on Construction Projects
7. Ratification of Executive Approval for Set-Up of Portable at GOAL Academy
8. Policy Review – Policy 6.312 – Use of Personal Communication and Electronic Devices
9. Ethics Policy Revision
10. Ethics Committee Report
11. Bus Route for Park View Elementary (new school)
12. Adjournment