Tinkerings

Join me at 5 PM EST today, July 6, as we cover the Bradley County Schools work session on the Code of Ethics questions LIVE.

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UPDATE (July 7).  Last night’s meeting was extremely helpful to me as the board attorney, Mr. Cagle, addressed several of the questions provided by educators in Bradley County Schools.   Two things stuck out to me about this situation.  First, only 7 teachers emailed questions to the Director out of nearly 1,200 employees in the system.  Perhaps some were afraid to do that, but it is doubtful that the entire system was afraid to do that.  Second, other than the board, the attorneys, and the press, there were only 6 of us in the audience.  That’s 6 out of nearly 1,200 employees.  Half way through, there were only 5 left.  One of them was a principal.  One was a district office employee.  One is running for school board.  One was a member of BCEA. One I did not recognize.  One was me.

Here are the findings in a nutshell (at least the findings I thought were pertinent):

• The policy was intended to give teachers more legal protections than they previously had under the old policy.  Both Mr. Cagle and Judge Deacon stated that it does that.
• The policy is in no way intended to be a witch hunt to fire teachers.
• The policy does offer teachers and others some sort of confidential redress if they have a problem with a school board member (this confidentiality was not present before).  However, the policy is not intended as a means for someone to try to get a board member “fired.”  They may be censured if found guilty of unethical behavior.
• Current employees are not required to sign the policy in order to keep their jobs.  This was a common myth perpetuated early based on, in my opinion, poor communication to teachers about the policy itself.  While I encourage all teachers to sign the form that you are aware of the policy change, you are not legally bound to do so.
• The policy does not infringe on the legal rights of BCEA to negotiate on behalf of teachers in our system.  BCEA does not negotiate policy.  The policy does not change the contractual agreement between the system and its employees.

I would like to thank the Bradley County School Board, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Cagle, and Judge Deacon for taking the time to address the questions of both teachers and board members concerning this policy.  I thought the meeting was very informative.

There, I said it.  I actually communicated the “p” word.  Word meanings are there for a reason, and today I needed that one to get as close to describing my feelings of utter astonishment, bewilderment, anguish, anger, frustration, and the sudden realization of what total stupidity does for society.

Yes, I am back at the Chattanooga airport after spending nearly 5 hours here yesterday waiting for a flight that was ultimately canceled, spending nearly 45 minutes in line to finally get a new flight on another airline with a layover in a different city.  But the weather problems in Dallas didn’t frustrate me that much.  Missing the Discovery Pre-Conference event at the Denver Zoo today is heartbreaking, but not this frustrating.  I’m not even upset that the airport bookstore, restaurant, and snack shop are all closed until almost time for my flight to board.

No, I’m talking about the stupidity of airport security.

Those of you that follow me on Facebook probably already know how carefully I packed, unpacked, repacked, unpacked, and repacked yet again to get 5 days of clothing and technology needs down to two small carry on bags.  I was quite proud of myself.  Yesterday, I made it through security and only lost my can of shaving cream for being too large.  I could live with that.  I could even live with the frustration of taking my belt off and fearing I would resemble a sagging teenager before I could get it back on again.

But today….oh, today.

I smiled as they put all my belongings back through the x-ray machine.  I confidently told them they would find exactly what they found yesterday when pulled my backpack to search it.  I was nearly giddy as they started going through my toiletry bag.

That didn’t last long.

The security guard pulled out my bottles of Polo Black aftershave and cologne.  “The limit is 3.4 ounces,” he said.  “These are 4.2.”  My countenance suddenly changed to one of shock and awe.

“I can’t lose those today!” I cried.  “That’s over $100 to replace them!  They approved them yesterday!”  Alas, my arguments fell on deaf ears.

“You can check a bag if you like,” the nice man said quietly.  He’d seen it all before.  It was quickly evident he wasn’t getting any personal pleasure from inflicting this pain on people, but I wasn’t ready to accept that yet.

“I will check this bag,” I conceded. “But I have to tell you I am pissed about having to do this after clearing security once already.”

“Yes, sir,” he said stoically.  He wasn’t budging. “I can meet you back at the entrance to security and give you the bag there.”

So I’ve checked a bag.  I’ve lost the battle.  I’ve been trounced by security at the most rinky dink airport in the United States. And, yes, I’m pissed.

I may just ship everything back home by UPS before I face security on the return flight from Denver.

I have been a fan of Dan Meyer for about three years.  I should say, I’ve been a fan of his blog.  As a math teacher, he is constantly challenging both his students and his blog readers to think in new ways.  Recently, he did a talk for a TED event.  In it, he talked about the need to fundamentally change the way we teach math.  He coined a phrase that stuck with me (and others from what I’ve seen on Twitter).  He said that we needed to develop our students into “patient problem solvers.”

I totally agree.

So I’ve been thinking of ways to make kids patient problem solvers in language arts.  We drill and kill all these rules for spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and more.  But I’m afraid kids lose a fundamental truth needed to understand their importance: Why are we doing this?

With text messaging and other forms of quick, concise, truncated communication, kids have lost sight of what makes text messaging work.  Even those messages have certain rules.  Even abbreviations take on a consistent form in order to be understood.  One simply can’t shorten LOL to LL and have anyone understand what it means.  By the same token, I still get a kick out of using ROFLMAO with people that have never seen that acronym before.  It is total Greek to them until they understand the words behind it.

This led me to wonder about going back to Greek in order to get kids to understand the need for grammar rules.  In college, I had three wonderful years of Koine Greek, the derivative of Greek used to write the New Testament.  The original Greek texts were written in all capital letters with no spacing and no punctuation.  I wondered what would happen if I gave kids the note below on the first day of class?

After kids have taken a shot at re-writing the paragraph in a readable form of text, I would want to know the answer to one question: What general rules would you develop to make this and all writing easier to read? I would hope to hear rules about spacing between words, capitalizing only the important words, capitalizing only first letters, adding different punctuation for sentences and questions, and more.

Perhaps by struggling with the why of grammar we could develop patient problem solvers that could correctly use the how of grammar.

What do you think?

If there is one thing that has totally transformed my teaching (besides a few years of experience under my belt now), it is developing and following a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Diigo, LinkedIn, and more.  I go to these sites every single day to glean (which means steal) ideas, find new websites, look at online gaming, discover classroom management techniques, watch motivational and inspirational videos, read blogs, and a host of other things that keep me sharp in my profession.

But I use these sites for fun as well.

Back in February, our local school board passed a major overhaul of our ethics policy for teachers, administrators, volunteers, and others who make up our educational team.  They developed it in two parts.  The first part was a total re-write of our old ethics policy (from one page to four) based almost entirely on the ethics document formulated by PET (Professional Educators of Tennessee).  The second part is a procedural explanation of how to file ethics complaints and what happens once it is filed (another four pages).

Other than asking for clarification on a handful of ambiguities (what legal document doesn’t have those?), I have absolutely no problem with the new policy, and I heartily endorse the two committee system for handling complaints.  It was a much needed overhaul.

However, there was nothing in the policy that directly talked about the ethics of teachers’ use of online social networking.  Perhaps this was not the place to put such a policy, but after reading through the entire policy manual online last weekend, I can’t find anything directly related to teachers’ use of online social networking or social media.  Email is addressed, as is the creation of web pages for direct use at school.

Is such a policy needed?

That is the question hanging at the back of my mind.  I could list several things that “bother” me about what I see with teachers’ and social networking, but let me just mention one.  It is one I was guilty of myself for a brief time.  I see teacher friends who Facebook and MySpace that have friended students in their classes.  I did this when I first started on Facebook.  I saw it as an opportunity to reach kids outside the classroom.  I tried to make myself available to them if they needed help with homework, or wanted an easy way for their parents to find me.  While I changed my mind after the first year and “unfriended” students still in school (even in high school – I’m a middle school teacher), I suppose it is still left up to one’s own judgment about such things.

While some teachers choose not to friend students because of possible legal situations or because the teacher simply needs a space “without kids,” mine was more of an ethical conundrum.  I realized that some of the kids I had friended simply were not old enough to even have a Facebook or MySpace page.  According to those sites, you must be 13 to create an account.  Many of our 6th graders have accounts, and they are definitely note 13 (although one claimed to be 27 on her page).

I realized I could not support these kids lying about their ages in order to participate in these networks when other social networking sites were available for kids their age.

Which leads me to the question that has been on my mind since last week.  Do we need an ethics policy for teachers related to social networking and social media?  Is it enough to simply block such sites at school and then pretend like they don’t exist after school?  Do school boards have a right to set such a policy for teachers?  Or do they have an obligation? Where does free speech come into play?

I don’t have any answers to these questions.  I’ve asked my friends on Twitter to let me know if their school district has such a policy (I’ve read about a few online), but so far no one has volunteered one.  I wouldn’t know what to put it such a policy myself, but I have this nagging feeling in the back of my brain that a policy, even a flawed one, might be helpful.

There is an #edchat hashtag on Twitter where knowledgeable professionals discuss all manner of education needs, but I haven’t seen a discussion on this topic yet.  Perhaps its time.

What do you think?  Does your district have such a policy? If you are a teacher, would you welcome such a policy?  What about the parents that read this blog?  Any and all comments are welcome!

It is the end of the school year.  Usually around this time I start to think about what I did right this year as well as what I did wrong.  I try to make it an even handed list, but I’m usually harder on myself than others would be, so the “wrong” list seems longer than the “right” list many times.  Thankfully, Santa doesn’t use my list or I would never get any presents at Christmas!

I was thinking about these lists recently in a spin class.  I had to think about something other than the fact that I couldn’t breathe and my legs felt like jello.  This particular class was a bit annoying.  One of the bikers kept shouting things out throughout the routine.  You know the type.  He was tall, physically fit, barely broke a sweat, able to pedal and talk at the same time.  I would have hated him if he had never said a word.  But I digress.

I often have one or two kids in my classes that like to blurt things out.  They interrupt me in mid-sentence with a request to go to the restroom.  They try to finish my sentences for me.  Many times they will try to answer my questions before I finish asking them.  That last one always reminds me of the old “Name That Tune” show: I can answer that question in 3 words from Mr. Childers!

As a teacher, these kids are often the first to get on my nerves.  Probably because they remind me of dealing with my children (ok, one of my children, but I love her anyway).  But cycling in this class was the first time I had been able to see these students as another student.  It was a little weird.

At first I thought, “OK, here is someone who is trying to impress the instructor.”  That thought had never crossed my mind as a teacher.  Are these kids really trying to impress me? If they are, they are missing the mark by a country mile (for those of you from the North, that’s sort of like a baker’s dozen).  And yet, I could see that perhaps they really are looking for some type of validation.  Which led me to wonder about their home life and how that would create such a need in a child.  Suddenly, my thoughts of these “constant interrupters” began to soften.  Then we cranked up the evil red knob and began to ascend a hill.  My compassion went downhill.

My second thought was, “This guy is just a class clown.  I know the type.”  But I had no more gotten that thought into my head than another chased right behind.  “This guy is kinda funny.”  I was irritated and chuckling inside at the same time.  What did the kids in my class think about these interrupters?  Do they have the same kind of conflicting thoughts?  As their teacher, how can I use mental judo in the classroom and refocus their energies so that they are funny when I want them to be funny?  That was a new thought to me.  In my early days of teaching, I would just humiliate the kid into submission.  There’s nothing quite like a teacher’s sarcasm to quiet a crowd.  After I realized that wasn’t helpful, I would tell the clown..er..student to wait out in the hallway.  When I had the other students working I would walk out and have a quiet talk about his or her behavior, get a promise to do better, and then hope for the best.  Next year, I need to figure out how to make the kid’s humor match my own and be a teammate with me.  Lots to think about there.

I’m still struggling with this one.  What do you do with kids that continually interrupt you in the classroom?

I recently purchased a flip cam for use at school.  After the purchase, I used it for a few things and then it sort of went into hiding.  Oh, I filmed a few sports clips on campus, and I’ve definitely used it at holidays to record the grandkids.  But I’ve really struggled with both how to use the camera and how to get teachers excited about using the camera for themselves.

Below is a Slideshare presentation on 42 ways to use a flip cam in the classroom.  I really like them.  Even the ones geared at younger kids will work in a middle school setting.  And it definitely would help with project based learning in a number of ways!

How are you using flip cameras at your school?

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a Twitter entry from The Art Guy that had a link to ask him anything.  I say “stumbled” because I don’t check my Twitter feed quite as often as I should, and it just happened to be in the stream of posts at the time I was there.  But that’s probably too much information, so let’s just move on…

The link took me to an interesting site that allows users to ask The Art Guy anything.  I was intrigued enough about the possibilities for my classroom, that I created my own account.  You should be able to see a widget for this site now on the right side of this blog (I had a little trouble with my widget editor, so I’m hoping it is still there.  If not, just click here).

The questions are private until he chooses to answer them, so even if inappropriate questions get asked by anonymous jerks, they don’t show up anywhere unless the user decides to take the bait and answer them anyway.

Eventually, I plan to include this on my class homepage and give an assignment to all our 8th graders to “ask me anything” about high school, graduation requirements, etc.  Then, my answers can appear on our class page for both students and parents to read.

So….

Go ahead.  Ask me anything.  Who knows?  I might just grant you an answer.

In our last post we talked about the first three of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and how they relate to Project Based Learning (PBL).  Today, we’ll briefly go through the last 4 together.

Habit #4 – Think Win-Win

Project Based Learning cannot be a rigid demand of results from the teacher.  By its very nature, the student owns the work and the results.  If the teacher has laid out a set of guidelines for providing a finished product for assessment, he or she should realize that they are just that: guidelines.  Allow the student to offer tweaks to your expectations that relate more directly to his own interests, learning style, or abilities.  Compromise.  Make exceptions.  Believe me, you will enjoy the finished product so much more.

Habit #5 – Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood

Hand in hand with Habit #4 comes this nugget of wisdom.  As the student is working her way through the steps of the project, make it a priority to understand what her concerns are, where her limitations lie, and where her knowledge needs broadening.  By understanding where your students are, you will more powerfully propel them to success.  There is no need to pound your rubric into their heads if they genuinely need help or guidance.

Habit #6 – Synergize

This is a powerful habit.  It is the power of 1 plus 1 equals 3.  We have greatly abilities working together than we could ever have working alone.  Project Based Learning should be a community effort.  Students need to work in pairs or small groups.  They will need your guidance and direction certainly in order to stay on task, but the lessons they will learn about life far outweigh the possibilities of being off task.

Habit #7 – Sharpening the Saw

It is imperative that an assessment be done of the total project when you are finished.  Get feed back from the students.  Write your own notes as you move along through the project.  Think about what is working and what isn’t.  What would you change?  How would you change it?  This summative assessment piece is crucial to future success.

Project Based Learning can be a wonderful experience for students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders.  It can be the greatest of experiences when handled with the right guiding principles.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective PBL will help.

I have been a fan of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for many years now.  Like most fans I know, it is easier to be a fan than it is a fully devoted follower of these habits.  Yet the principles espoused in this perennial bestseller fit with so many aspects of life.  They fit most especially well in the classroom.

As teachers look at creating authentic assessments in their classrooms using Project Based Learning (PBL), these 7 Habits are indispensable for maintaining student engagement and keeping one’s sanity.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

In this age of standardized assessments, many teachers and administrators are afraid of Project Based Learning because they worry that it “won’t be on the test.”  As a teacher, you will have to be proactive in beginning the process.  Tie your project to the standards.  Demonstrate to your administrators how kids will, in turn, demonstrate proficiency through the project.

Habit #2: Begin With The End In Mind

This is crucial.  Don’t think about PBL in terms of “the kids will do this, this, and this.  Now let’s think about how they can demonstrate that.”  Instead, think about the finished product.  Is this a video? A letter? A tutorial?  What do you want kids to do at the end? Then, build backwards.  Fill in the blanks.

Habit #3: Put First Things FIrst

PBL is cool.  It is fun.  Kids love it.  But never forget that it does have to be tied to your state standards.  Establish those up front.  Make sure you know what you are going to assess, how you will assess it, and why you are assessing it.

These are the first 3 Habits.  We’ll cover the last 4 in our next blog post.

Join the conversation!  Leave me a comment.

This morning, as many mornings go, I was looking at YouTube videos recommended to me by the unseen forces of video sharing.  One of them was a 5 minute clip of Seth Godin speaking on the power of Tribes.  If you have read many of my blogs, or seen status updates on my Facebook account, you will know I am a fan of Seth Godin.  Seth is a marketing expert, motivational speaker, and author.

Today, the video was looking at the history of advertising.  My focus was drawn in when he got to television advertising.  Companies who sell products spend a lot of money each year to do one thing: interrupt you.  For years the major method of advertising a product or brand was through a continual interruption of other things you would rather be doing.  In this case, the network creates something you want to see, even see passionately, and marketers create something with which to interrupt you.

And for years it worked.

Now, however, the social power of the Internet, and the humongous failure of the Jay Leno Show, has diminished the power of interruption.  Tribes have taken over.  Marketers find a small cadre of passionate followers and help them spread the word to their friends and friends of friends.  We are no longer interested in being interrupted. We now seek out the advice of our friends.  These friends are our Tribe.  We find them on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Diigo, and more.

Take Facebook as an example.  Marketers are piling ads up down the right column of our pages one after another.  They’re even using the power of Google Ad Words to place just the write captions in those ads.  In the time I’ve had a Facebook account, I think I’ve clicked on two of them just to see what the scam is really all about.  I don’t want them to interrupt me.

BUT…

Let a friend post a link to a website or video.  Let a friend post new pictures.  Let a friend write a new Note.  I will gladly stop what I am doing to take a look.

In fact, one of the main reasons I use Twitter is for the Twibe (in education we call this Personal Learning Networks).  I go to find the links provided by my friends.  I go there to add my own.

Marketing has changed forever.  And if TV networks and newspapers and magazines don’t figure that out, they will go the way of all dinosaurs.

But what about teaching?

Many are still stuck in the interrupting paradigm of teaching.  Stop using your cell phone and pay attention.  Stop passing notes and look up here.  Stop talking and listen to me.  I’m guilty.  We interrupt kids from doing what they want to do and try to get them to do what we want them to do.  It is easy.  It is the “sage on the stage” syndrome, and many days I have it.  And it is ineffective.

BUT…

What if teachers found the right mix of students to form a tribe?  I’m not talking about the kids making straight A’s.  They are going to learn the material if the teacher never came to class in the first place.  They are self-starters.  Self-motivators.  Think lower.  Think about the disinterested kids.  The ones who struggle.  Not to learn, but to pay attention long enough to learn.  What if we captured just 3 or 4 of those in each class?  What if we developed a passion in them about learning and living and leading?

What if we form a Tribe?

What do you think?