Tinkerings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, and Happy Halloween.  Bah Humbug.

Today I had a blast with my kids, both 6th and 7th grades.  That’s not to say that I don’t have those days every once in a while, but today was just plain…well…cool.  I hooked up my webcam, got on Skype and video conferenced with Mrs. Moore’s 6th grade classes at our county’s other middle school across town.  What a blast these kids had!

We were discussing sequencing and plot in language arts, so we decided to put our two classes together and do a short introduction to the topic using Photo Story and Skype.

I did a video call to Mrs. Moore’s class and her students got to see a big picture of me up on their screen while my kids got to watch Mrs. Moore.  I did a short presentation using our “first story” approach to learning Photo Story.  I showed them 5 random pictures (a small child, a lion, an alarm clock, someone jumping in the air, and a picture of someone holding a heart-shaped Christmas ornament in their hand).  I demonstrated how to randomly select the order of the pictures and write a short story complete with conflict and resolution in five easy sentences.

Then, I put up five different pictures for the kids.  We gave each class 10 minutes to decide what order in which to put their pictures and write their stories.  After that, we looked for volunteers (and volunteered a few) to stand in front of the webcam and read their stories to the other class.  The kids loved it!

I’m looking for a way to get another classroom teacher involved so that all of my kids can participate.  Our other middle school operates on a block schedule while we have 50 minute classes.  But that was really our only problem.  Skype worked great, the Internet connection held, we finally got our speakers working well, and the kids were engaged.

What will be even more interesting is finding a way for my 8th graders to join Mrs. Moore’s 6th graders next semester.  Can you say challenge time?

My special thanks to Mrs. Moore and her kids.  This is what makes teaching fun in the 21st century!

A couple of weeks ago I got an unsolicited phone call from a home security service wanting to install a security system for free.  No doubt you’ve had such a call yourself.

The gentleman on the phone was nice enough.  I explained I lived in a very small home with nothing much worth saving and did not feel like I needed a security system.  He thanked me for my time and we hung up.

That’s when it started.

Over the last two weeks I’ve had 4 or 5 calls from that same number.  It is an automated, computer-generated call.  When I answered the phone, there was no one on the other end.  It started to get frustrating.

Then…on the last call (I hope)…

I answered the phone.  This time there was a gentleman on the other end.  My conversation went something like this:

Me:  Hello?

Him:  May I speak to Tim Childers please?

Me.  That would be me.

Him: Mr. Childers, I am calling on behalf of XYZ Security systems.  We would like to offer….

Me:  Excuse me, but I’ve already had this phone call before.  I already told the first gentleman I do not need a security system.  Please remove me from your call list.

Him: Mr. Childers, did you take the time to listen to our offer during the last call?  Are you aware…

Me: Sir, I don’t need to listen to the sales pitch.  I do not want your product.  Your computer has called me several times over the last two weeks.  Each time I answer the computer does not connect me to a person.  I do not want any more calls from you.  Please remove me from your call list.

Him: Sir, are you aware that you filled out a form online asking us to call you?

Me (more heated):  I can assure you that I have never filled out a form asking for a home security company to call me.

Him: Sir, yes you did.  You filled out a form with a sister company of ours and that generated our calls to you.

Me: Listen, all I’m asking is that you take me off your list.  Do not call me again.

Him: Mr. Childers, why did you fill out the form online if you did not wish to be contacted?

Me:  OK, you are not hearing me.  I DID NOT FILL OUT A FORM ONLINE.  I DO NOT WANT YOU TO CALL ME ANYMORE.

Him: Sir, I would suggest that you stop filling out forms when you do not have any intention of hearing about the offer you were interested in.

CLICK

OK, yes, I hung up.  There was no longer a need to continue this conversation.  I was fed up.  Completely.  Totally.  Over it.

But here is my question.  How many times have we been so determined to get our point across to kids in our classes that we totally missed the fact that they really just didn’t want to hear it?  The reason is not important.  Maybe they had a bad morning at home.  Maybe they didn’t eat breakfast.  Maybe their boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with them.  Maybe they are just obnoxious and rude.  What difference does it make?

The more we talk when they aren’t listening, the more we risk having them hang up the phone in their brains and cut us off.  Back up.  Take a breath.  Teach another student.  But don’t do this.

Copyblogger has a very nice list of the 11 traits of highly creative people (paraphrased).  I am not going to elaborate on them here, but here is the list:

Creative people have COURAGE, use INTUITION, like to PLAY, are EXPRESSIVE, can find ORDER in confusion, are MOTIVATED by a task, find SOLUTIONS, CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS, make CONNECTIONS between the old and the new, PUSH THE ENVELOPE, and TEST new ideas.

As I read through this list, I realized I exhibit many of these traits.  That isn’t a statement to say, “Hey! Look at me! I’m creative!”  Oh no, not me.

Rather, I look at this list and begin to realize why I am often misunderstood at work.  In education, we say we want creative people, but in practice we really want the status quo far more often.  We want teachers to be creative in their classrooms, but we have pretty strict and rigid rules for things beyond those walls and doors.  If we carry our creativity too far, we open ourselves to ridicule, attack, or just being misunderstood.

But this goes further than misunderstanding teachers. Teachers often don’t want creative students either.  After all, we spent hours, sometimes days and weeks, perfecting this lesson plan, this PowerPoint, this exam.  We don’t want to be challenged on any part of it.  That is insubordination.  But is it?

I can’t do anything about what other teachers think about me when I try to exercise my creativity in the workplace.  I can’t do anything about what my assistant principals, principal, secondary supervisor, or even the district superintendent think about it.  It is an inherent part of my total being.  To cease to be creative is to cease to exist.  I can’t do it.

But I can change the way I respond to my students.  I can accept them more and disregard them less. I can feed off their energy rather than squash it to maintain “order” in my room.

What about you?  What will you do when you are faced with a student who exhibits these personality traits?  Will you encourage?  Mentor? Emulate? Build up?  Or will you maintain order above all.

I really don’t have a point to this blog. It is more a sense of streaming consciousness today as I think about getting ready for school to start in just over two weeks. I’m so not ready.

I have to get things organized in the labs. We are remodeling two of our rooms this year and it will be a miracle of they are put back together by our first report day. All the computers are in the library. The carpet was pulled up and tile is about to be laid. The rooms have been painted and all cabinetry and water fountains removed. After the tile is laid we have 5 coats of wax to put down. Then the computers have to be brought back in, re-imaged, and re-assigned static IP addresses. I’m not ready.

I have to get things organized with my team. Our principal has agreed to hire a 4th person for our labs this year. I’m still not sure who that person is. We need to sit down and talk about strategies for the year. How are we going to teach keyboarding, reading, and math to 6th graders in one semester? What language arts lessons will we do with the 7th graders? How will we incorporate 4-year plans, career education, and TCAP prep with the 8th graders? Without that 4th person in place, the meeting is moot. I’m not ready.

I have to finish lesson plans for 6th grade. My goal when school was over was to have the first six weeks of new lessons together for our 6th graders. This would include the basic lessons, any online tutorials, quizzes and assessments prepared, DE Streaming videos chosen, and more. Although I’ve done some work on this over the summer, it is obviously not enough to be ready in 2 weeks. I have a lot of organizing to do. Jing will be working overtime. The class website and wiki has to be updated. Students have to be enrolled into DE Streaming so we can assign them to classes. I’m not ready.

So, while I am supposed to be organizing things for the beginning of school I sit here at my favorite Panera Bread Company and write this blog. That’s the part of organizing called P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. And it is my favorite part.

I’m not ready.

Today was the big day. Teachers and principals from all over the district converged on Ocoee Middle School to participate in 4 hours of demonstrations from SMART and Promethean. Each school was tasked with the challenge to choose one system for the school.

I knew something was a little off when I pulled in ten minutes before the first presentation and saw the SMART people unloading their van. The presentation started a little late. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Our reseller, Southern Business Machines, decided they could do the presentation on their own. They brought in a software tech to demonstrate the board. Not a good idea. The guy stumbled through his presentation. He kept forgetting to change the touch screen from pointer to pen to eraser to highlighter. After a few minutes he was sort of in a groove. But he thought the window shade effect was really cool.

Someone asked about pre-made lessons. We are, after all, teachers. We are busy. We “borrow” lesson plans. We don’t create them. So he pulled on up. It was a rather simple slide on the screen. And this is what he said (I’m paraphrasing), “I don’t really know what this lesson is about, but you can see we have them.” My hand is on a Bible. Honest.

We didn’t see the interactive writing pad or the student response system. They were talked about, but we could not see them in action. Very few teachers went to the board after the presentation to “play”. We just sort of stood around waiting for the next demonstration time.

Next up: Promethean. I had already told my principal that SMART was an easier software to use, the fact that we could use our fingers to write would negate extra costs for those teachers that lost their pens, and on and on. Whatever.

Promethean sent in their #1 trainer from Nashville. The head honcho of trainers. He let it “slip” that he had to sort of cut our meeting short so he could get to another presentation at our local university. And then he began.

One after another, the features of the Promethean board were demonstrated. Lesson plan after lesson plan was put up on the screen for math, science, social studies, and language arts. He showed how they worked along with the magic behind them. “You don’t have time to create these?” he teased. “No problem. There are literally thousands of lessons just like these on Promethean Planet.” Eyes widened. Nostrils flared. Mouths drooled.

And then, the killer finish. He brought out the clickers. We took quiz questions. Saw how they came out in instant results. He demonstrated how to export them to Excel. He even told us that you didn’t need the board to give a quiz. You can send out a pre-made quiz that kids take at their own pace on the clickers, and then just look at the scores later. Even my eyes got that lustful look in them. I wanted that technology.

Every school in our district is looking to buy interactive boards with federal stimulus dollars. This is a once in a lifetime (or a presidential term) chance. Promethean stepped up to the plate and delivered a homeroom out of the ball park. SMART wasn’t so lucky. It was a nice base hit. Nothing fancy. But the runner is still on the bases. I’m not sure if he’ll get home or not.

We’ve been working hard today (ok, hold down the laughter).  But seriously, we had a great general session from 9 to 10.   A lot of introductions, but I won’t bore you with over 60 names I’ve now commmitted to memory just in case someone decides to build an assessment quiz in DE Streaming Quiz Builder!

I sat through the bloggers session with Steve Dembo from 10 to 12.  Great stuff coming to the blogs, at least on the dashboard side, as we move to the newest version of WordPress.  Learned to do a few things I didn’t know I could do, so I might be blogging a bit more soon on the TN DEN blog in order to learn them all.

Lunch was awesome as usual.  Great sandwiches, salads, and chips from the Whole Foods grocery store across the street from our hotel.  I am so full I may not need dinner.  Of course, need has nothing to do with it when the food is actually put on the table.

This afternoon I am attending 2 of the 3 sessions available.  I learned a lot from Steve Dembo (again) related to Media Share.  It has sort of been on the back burner of my to-do list for a while.  I am looking forward to uploading resources for the teachers at my school.  You can also embed videos, presentations, and more so that people who look at the asset can actually see what it is before downloading it.  As we start to use Media Share more, look for updates on the TN DEN blog.

Right now I am sitting in a session on Wufoo.  Wufoo is a great site for creating online forms.  Lots of cute bells and whistles.  Discovery provides this for the LCs as a courtesy for our use.  However, I have to say I am very comfortable using Google Docs to do the same thing, so I don’t think I’ll be getting on this bandwagon anytime soon.

Since Teryl is actually helping to present the session on Google Docs (and since we use these with our LC already), I am taking my car to a local dealer to get the air conditioning fixed.  I hope to be back before the unveiling of a new sneak peek in DE Streaming.  Then, tonight it is dinner and fun times.

Learning a lot!

It is not quite 9 AM and the crowd is growing here at 1 Discovery Place.  Our sessions begin at 9.  We have a general session for about an hour, then we break out into our respective roles on the Leadership Councils.  I have a 2 hour session on using the blogs effectively.  After that, lunch!

This afternoon consists of 3 breakout sessions that we will rotate through.  After a short break, we all head out to an undisclosed location for dinner.

I turned in rather early last night since I’m just getting over the head cold that attacked me at TAMS in Sevierville.  I’ve been through the watery eyes and runny nose day, the fever is attacking me day, and am now on the coughing my head off at night day.  I won’t even try to describe what it is like to blow my nose right now.  You’ve seen the movie, “The Blob,” right?

I’ve had a couple of cups of real coffee and have gone to the decaf stuff before the shakes set in.  I’ve had my everything bagel and fruit.  I’m good to go for a little while before the chocolate chip cookies are put out for snack time.  (I will try to be good, but I can’t make any promises).

I’m really pumped to be here.  Out of all the people who are part of my Personal Learning Network (PLN), the people from the DEN are the best.  They are here because they want to make a difference in the lives of teachers (who, in turn, make a difference in the lives of students).  They are here because they love to share what they know (and some of what they think they know).  They are here because they love to laugh (we will do a lot of that this week).  And they are here because Discovery is here for them.

Relationships are a two-way street always.  In a marriage, one partner can’t do all the work to keep it together.  In parenting, the kids have to participate, too.  In teaching, it is a give and take between teacher and student, or it isn’t anything at all.

Discovery knows this rule.  They are here to build relationships.  And we are the welcome recipients of their overtures to teachers.  If we can share just a little bit of that with the teachers we work with in our schools, our districts, and our states, then the circle will be complete.

Have a great day.

Teryl Magee and I arrived in Silver Spring, Maryland, today after a less-than-eventful drive up from Tennessee.  Our apologies to all who wanted to join us via ustream on the drive.  I gave up my Verizon USB connection several months back, so we had to rely on our cell phones to stay in touch with everyone via Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook.  Since I was driving, I tried to keep my texting to a minimum.

We got a late start yesterday.  I was supposed to pick Teryl up in Maryville around 6-ish.  I didn’t leave Cleveland until then!  I kept making stops, picking up supplies, visiting with friends, and generally not really caring much about the time.  So we left Maryville around 7:30 and drove to Roanoke, Virginia.  That’s pretty much the half-way point.

The free breakfast at the Quality Inn Suites was not spectacular.  I guess that’s why it is free.  I wouldn’t have paid for it.  The 2 ounce cups for water and coffee was the last straw for me.  But we ate it, and we were on the road again this morning at 6:30.

About two hours into our drive the air conditioning in my car decided to quit.  It made a really loud clacking sound, kind of like playing cards in the spokes of my sting ray bicycle when I was 10.  Then…nothing.  It was annoying, but not extremely uncomfortable, and we made it to the Courtyard right on time around 10:40 this morning.

We dropped our suitcases off at the hotel (no rooms were ready yet), got back in the car and headed to the airport to pick up some friends at 11:00.  THAT is when the we reallyl noticed we didn’t have any air conditioning.  The directions to the airport from the hotel took us right through the heart of Washington, DC.  We must have hit every traffic light and road construction crew between here and Arlington.  The sun was fully up by then and we were melting.  The strawberries I had in the back seat started to sweat and look like strawberry shortcake topping, but not in a good way.

After arriving back at the hotel, taking about an hour for a well-deserved lunch at McGinty’s Irish Pub, and finally getting into our hotel rooms, Teryl took the car back to the airport to pick up two more friends.  Poor thing.  I just got a Skype message from one of them about thirty minutes ago.  It read, “You’re car is hot!”  I don’t think that was a compliment.

So there you have it.  Our first few hours in Silver Spring.  The DEN LC Symposium starts tomorrow morning.  We have a short meet-and-greet tonight, and then tomorrow will be back to back work sessions followed by a little fun time tomorrow night.

Ahhhhh….this is what vacations are all about.