Tinkerings

A few days ago I was privileged to be invited to a focus group conducted by Discovery Education concerning possible changes to some of the features within DE Streaming.  It was a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed the give and take of doing the focus group online.  Somewhere about half way through the meeting I had an epiphany about my own classroom instruction.

I am closed.

No, I don’t mean I’m closed for business (or out to lunch).  I mean when kids ask me questions, I give them the answer.  “Mr. Childers, what am I supposed to write on this line?”  “Your name, Johnny, just like it says.”  “Mr. Childers, what is 2 plus 3?”  “That’s 5, Sam.”

Case closed.

But the focus group was different.  We would look at a screenshot of a new form design and someone would ask, “If I click on this drop down menu, am I going to find XYZ?”  Me?  I would have said yes or no.  Closed.  But not the person conducting the focus group.  She said, “What would you expect to find if you clicked that drop down menu?”

Wow.

Now, this might not mean much for you, but it was huge for me.  Students need to struggle more than I let them.  They need what one person (I can’t remember who) called “controlled floundering.”  Let them tread water for awhile.

I’m trying to make my classroom more open.  This semester, especially, I have told my kids to talk to their neighbors if there is something about a new website they don’t understand.  If they look around and see someone else in the room who is already two steps ahead, just ask how they got there.  I’m trying to develop peer teaching.  But still, when the questions come to me I am too quick to just blurt out answers.

Maybe its a man thing.  You know what I mean.  Men feel powerful and important when we can spout out answers to stuff, fix stuff, and find our way somewhere without having to stop and ask for directions.  Whatever it is, I want it to stop.

To turn an old adage on its head, closed gives a man a fish.  Open teaches a man to fish.

And therein lies the difference.  Are you open or closed?

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?

This has been a burning question on my mind for a few days.  I’m going to try to put down some thoughts in this blog, but please be aware that most of my blogs are first drafts.  They are a stream of consciousness at the time I feel I have to write.  Sometimes I look at them later and wonder, “What was I thinking?” or “I don’t remember saying that.”  This post may well turn out to be the same kind of thing.

I can tell you a big reason that is NOT why I teach.  I don’t teach for a paycheck.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like mine.  My creditors like for me to have it.  I know my daughter who is still in college is grateful for it.  But I don’t teach for the money.  If I did, this would just be a career.  It is more.  Much more.

I guess in simplest terms, I teach because I must.  I always have.  I was teaching adult Sunday school classes while still in high school.  Put me in a small group, and I’ll be the one explaining how things get done.  My kids hate it.  Their questions turn into mini-lessons from dad.  Sometimes it even gets me in trouble, but we won’t talk about those times here.

I am a teacher.  That’s not a career description.  It is a personality trait.  Every spiritual gifts inventory I’ve taken puts teaching at the top of the list.  Personality profiles all indicate I would be happiest in an area involving instructing.  I’m a helper.  Plain and simple.  Personality profiles indicate that I will often jump in to “fix” something without thinking simply because I know the answer.  Remember that statement about getting in trouble?  I’m still not talking about it.  If I wasn’t hired as a teacher, I would still be teaching…something….somewhere….to someone.

I teach because I love to see the light go on.  You know the one.  That little light bulb above every head that suddenly brightens when they “get” it.   I love the look of their eyes when the sparkle of learning something new sets in.  I love the fact that I have had an opportunity to change a life for the better….forever.

And I teach because I want to help teachers better themselves.  Some would say it is all about the kids.  I disagree.  Somebody has to be all about the teachers.  Someone has to want to help teachers be better teachers so they can reach more students.  OK, maybe that is all about the students in some convoluted way.  Streams of consciousness are tough to get out sometimes.

Why do you teach?  If you’re not a teacher, leave me a comment about one of your teachers that really showed you what teaching is all about.

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.