Tinkerings

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.

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.

This morning I wandered over to the TED site to see what new talks might interest me, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a talk by David Byrne of Talk Heads fame doing a talk on how architecture has impacted the evolution of music.  I have always been drawn to “off the wall” music types that can demonstrate a truly educated mind.  Personally, I think David Byrne may be a genius on many levels.  But  I digress.

Byrne talked about how music changed through the centuries as the architecture used to house listeners also changed.  He covered the gambit from small store-front bars like those on Music Row in Nashville or Beale Street in Memphis to grand opera houses, concert halls, and stadiums.  In each of those settings, the creation of music changed to fit the audience, acoustics, technology, and more.  Store-front bars have little reverberation, so the music has to be played loud to get over the drinking crowd.  Stadiums have lots of echo, so rock bands started slowing things down and writing rock ballads in order for the music to come through more clearly.

Although he didn’t mention them, my mind thought back to the Beatles in the early 60′s and the frustration they had trying to play their music in places like Shea Stadium.  The technology of the time was simply not enough to boost their sound over the screams of ecstatic fans.  As a result, the Beatles stopped touring and moved all their music to the studio.  They had originally created music that would sound good on the radio and plastic albums.  It couldn’t be recreated in a stadium.  In the mid to late 60s they no longer cared about the radio as much.  Stadiums were out of the picture.  Their music took several new twists and turns and demonstrated their true music genius over and over.  You can hear this most eloquently in a YouTube video shared by a friend of mine on Facebook.

Near the end of his talk, Byrne moved his argument to nature.  Birds that sing in the canopies of forests have a much different, higher pitched call than those that sing on the floor of a forest, or even those that sing in the open fields.  Each has a call acoustically adapted to its environment.

This naturally gave me the leap to the classroom.  How does the architecture and technology of our classrooms change the way we teach?  I think we are all familiar with the industrial model of the classroom with a black or white board in front of nice straight rows of desks.  The teacher stands at the front of the class and writes notes that children copy into their notebooks.  All is quiet and orderly.  This model is the perfect description of the classes I attended from 1st grade through most of my college education.  Teacher control worked.

Today, our students have been brought up in a different environment.  Our classrooms no longer look like their world.  They are wired to cell phones, iPods, PCs, TVs, and more.  They listen to one thing while they read something else.  All the while images are on the TV with the sound muted.  In fact, this is quickly becoming my life at home.  NCIS is playing on the TV with no sound.  I don’t need it because it is the 4th time I’ve seen this episode.  Music is playing over iTunes, Slacker, or YouTube while I read the latest news online.

These kids won’t….maybe can’t….sit in straight rows and listen to our engaging lectures one more day.  They check out.  They are bored.  They act up.  And they constantly reach for the technology we deprive them of in our classrooms.

Interactive White Boards will only make a difference if lessons are designed for kids to come and work at the board.  PCs in the back of the room will only matter if kids are able to use them to find things that interest them.  The technology of our world has re-wired the brains of our students.

How is that evolving your instruction?  Your classroom layout?  Your management techniques?  Your assessment strategies?

After a few days away, and following the grueling workout known as P90x, sipping coffee at my local Starbucks just seemed like the best way to relax before starting on my trips to the dry cleaner and the grocery.  I was nearly humming a tune in the car on the way here.  I had already decided to have a snack of oatmeal.  My only other food this morning was a Greek Yogurt (much more protein than regular yogurt), so I was a little hungry and trying desperately to stay out of the drive through at McDonald’s or Sonic.

I came in and placed my order, still giddy with anticipation about being back in a great wifi spot to people watch and surf the Internet.  “I’ll have an oatmeal,” I said as I pointed to the sample bowl in the display case, “and a tall Pike Place, please.”

I was caught off guard when he asked if I wanted the oatmeal on a plate. “Sure,” I said a little hesitantly.  I thought maybe that might be good since the little paper bowl it comes in gets kind of hot.

I looked down and saw a plate with an oatmeal cookie on it.  I had to laugh.  The plate question made perfect sense now.  “I’m sorry,” I said apologetically, “I meant I wanted a bowl of oatmeal.”

The barrista was so embarrassed by his mistake he forgot to give me my coffee.

It made me laugh at Starbucks, but it also made me think about the number of times I’ve said something to a student only to get a blank stare, or questioning eyes, or just ignored.  Why is my first thought usually that the kid just “didn’t get it”?  Why don’t I do a better job of understanding that I just didn’t communicate clearly.

It made me think, too, that I do a pretty good job of that as a grandparent dealing with my grandkids.  I make sure I explain myself.  Why didn’t I do better at that as a parent?

Next year will be the year of clear communication.  How about you?

Today, April 30, is National Poem In Your Pocket Day.  No, I don’t know who established it.  Its after our TCAP tests in Tennessee, so I’m sure we won’t celebrate it in our classes across the state.  Yet, poetry is one of the most beautiful art forms we can embed into the minds and hearts of our nation’s children.

Poetry leads to music.  It makes rhetorical speeches eloquent.  It lifts the heart.  It expresses our inner angst in a way no other medium can.

Today’s observance is not about those poems you have to look up and read (even though you love them so much).  It is about those poems you carry with you.  The ones you have memorized.  On Facebook this morning, I posted this one I learned nearly 25 years ago:

A diamond in the rough is a diamond sure enough / For before it ever sparkled it was made of diamond stuff / But someone had to find it or it never would be found / And someone had to grind it or it never would be found / But once its found and once its ground and once its burnished bright / That diamond’s everlastingly just shining out its light.

Back about five lives ago, I worked for our denominational publishing house.  Part of my job was to travel to Christian education workshops.  Sometimes I ran the bookstore.  Sometimes I got to lead workshops.  Sometimes I did both.  It was always fun.

My boss at the time, Tony Capps, pulled this poem out of the air one day as part of his opening keynote.  I was mesmerized by its simple beauty and its telling way it describes the job of a teacher.  I committed it to memory after hearing it once.  I still use it occasionally when I lead education workshops across Tennessee.

As teachers, we sometimes gripe about the kids we have.  We wish we had more technology.  Better textbooks.  More supplies.  More time.  Fewer students.  Shorter weeks…. You know what I’m talking about.  And yet, too often we forget that we are diamond miners.  We are digging through rock and dirt.  We are getting dirty in our attempts to find the diamond buried beneath the surface of each one of the precious children placed in our care.  (Yes, I said precious).

Thanks Tony.  25 years later you are still impacting kids in ways you never dreamed possible.

This is the time of year I really like my job.  Well, OK, I really like my job the entire year, but this time of year is really special.  I get to work with 8th graders to help them discover things about themselves they might not have already known and point them in a path toward high school graduation that will make them love school all over again like they did in kindergarten.

When we are dealing with our Career Education section of our lab classes, one of the personality assessments we look at is the Holland Hexagon.  We watch a DE Streaming video on the subject over a couple of days and then the kids take their own assessment to see which personality traits are dominate in their lives.  For those who are unfamiliar, let me give you a brief (and somewhat stereotypical) breakdown of the 6 Holland Types:

The Doer is someone who likes to work outdoors, work with his hands, is mechanically inclined, athletic, and doesn’t really care much what other people think about what he does. (Think auto mechanic, forest ranger, athlete, etc)

The Thinker is a person who likes to investigate and research, works better alone, not athletic (usually), and can get lost in the process of finding answers to complicated questions. (Think scientist, researcher, data cruncher, etc)

The Creator is a student who doesn’t like rules, does everything in her own unique way, loves art, music, and drama, and can get lost in the creative process.  (Think artist, singer, graphic designer, architect, fashion designer, etc)

The Helper is someone who is very social, engages with others easily, empathetic, and tries to offer solutions to personal problems that his friends are facing.  (Think teacher, minister, social worker, nurse, etc)

The Persuader is a person who just naturally takes charge, extremely social, loves to use words, likes to organize events, and is usually respected for his or her leadership qualities.  (Think politician, salesperson, televangelist, etc)

The Organizer is a person who loves numbers, usually more comfortable alone, meticulous, well-organized, and doesn’t usually relate well to people with personal problems.  (Think accountant, math teacher, etc)

The thing to remember about the Holland Types is that none of us are just ONE type.  We are a blend of all these things, but usually 1 or 2 rise to the top as dominate traits.

I have about 130 students I teach this semester.  Out of those students, the 3 predominate personality types were the Doer, the Creator, and the Helper.  Think about that for a moment.

In education, when we talk about differentiation we are usually referring to teaching those that already “get it,” those that are struggling to “get it,” and those that will never “get it.”  We design different types of activities for these levels of knowledge or engagement.

But think again about the Holland results.  The majority of 8th graders (at least in my classes) are kids who want to be outdoors and love to work with their hands, other kids who don’t like to follow the rules and express themselves better with pictures than with words, and a group of kids who are extremely social and drawn to friends with problems in order to help them (what we lovingly call “drama” in middle school).

Maybe differentiation should focus more on how kids learn than on their present level of knowledge.  A Doer might not ever write a great essay.  She might always struggle with words.  Be fidgety in her chair.  And just long to breathe some fresh air outside the classroom.  The Creator may want to draw you a picture of what he thinks about a certain subject.  But that isn’t the assignment, so we stifle them (one of my favorite Archie Bunker terms…stifle).  The Helper really just needs some time in class to TALK for goodness sake.

What kind of differentiation are you doing?

Being sick is absolutely  no fun.  Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is itching for a fight.  Yesterday I came down with what I can only describe as a severe head cold.  I couldn’t breathe.  My eyes were watery.  My nose alternated between clogged and runny.  And my fever came and went throughout the day.  On the advice of my principal, I got hold of a substitute teacher who had been at our school in the morning and offered her an afternoon of work so I could go lay down.

After about an hour’s nap, I felt a little better, and my nose had completely stopped running.  Instead, it felt like a concrete truck had poured a full load of high impact concrete into my sinus cavities.  It was awful.  I tried to drink liquids, but nearly died from suffocation while drinking water simply because there was no way for air to get into my nasal passages.  It was awful.

This morning, after an Allegra D and a squirt of Afrin nose spray, I am better.  I can breathe.  My fever is gone.  My eyes are still a bit hazy from it all, but overall I’m probably an 8 out of 10 on a wellness scale.

It did, however, make me think (what doesn’t, right?).

How many times are kids in our classes that should be at home.  Maybe they want to go home, but their parents can’t come get them.  Or perhaps they are over achievers and want to stay at school no matter what.  If they felt half as bad as I did, it wouldn’t be any wonder if they were not able to concentrate or do the work I set out for them.

Sometimes I forget that these are children in  my care.  I’m more than just a teacher to some of them.  I’m a role model.  A friend.  A big brother.  And sometimes I’m a parent.

Being sick yesterday and today has reminded me just how vulnerable some of my students are in this world.  I hope I can take better care of them as a result.

Today I spent about 15 minutes of each class period teaching a mini-lesson on essay writing live over the Internet on our TN DEN Leadership Council’s Livestream page.  I have to admit, it was sort of fun.  One of our regular teachers was out, so the idea was to help teach her class for the day and then let kids work on editing their essays.  As it turned out, I had several visitors from around the country, and the other two lab classes also tuned in at least one period on their own.

The technology worked great.  Livestream is a great site to do this sort of work.  I was using my Macbook Pro, but added a Logitech Pro 9000 webcam to the mix to get a little better video stream.  The audio was clear, and the other classes could still see the pages I was using in my Promethean flip chart.

The difficulties came in being online a couple of minutes before the lesson actually started.  In the embedded video below, the actual lesson starts 2 minutes into the video, so just go ahead and fast forward there if you choose to watch it.  We also had a small problem when the office came over the intercom and asked for a student by name.  The announcement was to tell that student to be a car rider.  Obviously, I didn’t really want that information going out over the Internet.  I wasn’t able to stop it on the live feed, but did delete that clip from the library.  Finally, we had the wonderful experience of having a fire drill in the middle of one lesson.  Oh yeah.  It was fun.

You can see the lesson below.  As I mentioned earlier, fast forward to 2 minutes in and you’ll see where we are starting.  And if you dropped by today….thanks!

I am one of those people who just refused to watch the  new Jay Leno show at 10 PM on NBC.  It isn’t that I don’t like Leno.  But old paradigms are really hard to break.  The Leno show was supposed to come on after the news, and not before.  His monologue is just funnier up against Letterman than it is standing out there by itself.

So it was with great interest that I began to read and hear about Leno’s possible move back to late night.  You see, here is the thing.  Not only are the dwindling numbers for Leno taking viewers away from local affiliates and their 11 PM newscasts, but Conan O’Brien’s failing numbers after the late news is causing people to go to bed with their television sets tuned to another channel.  As a result, even the morning news shows are taking a hit.

The bigger question is this: if the take Leno away from the 10 PM slot, what is NBC going to do with five hours of prime time broadcasting space that is now empty.

This got me thinking about school (what doesn’t, right?).

I teach in a middle school.  Nearly every class of kids that come to me are different.  Not just individuals, but each class is a distinct group with distinct behaviors.  So now I’m wondering how those behaviors are impacted by the “lead-in show.”  What is it about the teacher they have before me that could impact good or bad behavior?  On the flip side, I am somebody’s “lead-in show,” too.  How are these kids acting in the class that follows me?

All this leads me to think about the importance of culture on our campuses and making the right choices when it is time to tenure teachers.  Principals should think about the long term consequences of tenure decisions.  What happens if, as in the case of NBC, the gamble doesn’t pay off?  Where do you move that teacher?  How do you fill that time slot?  What does that do to other teachers who are already struggling?

Don’t get me wrong here.  Leno didn’t suddenly become a bad comedian or talk show host at 10 o’clock.  He’s doing what he always did.  It just isn’t working in his present location.  Teachers are the same.  Just because a teacher isn’t doing a bang up job in one school, or one class, or one time slot doesn’t mean he or she is a bad teacher.  Maybe the principal just made a bad programming decision.

At any rate, it has me thinking.  Share your thoughts in the comments section.