A simple click and that contest on facebook has been shared. Another click and that amber alert somewhere in another state or province has been shared. With all of the information available in a few clicks and seconds away we still seem to propogate a whole bunch of junk. Bogus contests, fake reports on deaths of famous people (a la Bill Cosby for one), fabricated amber alerts, speeches that were never made and so on. Why are we so willing to click and forward without even looking if it is real?
I know when the reports of Bill Cosby dying came about I took the time to look up more information, but I cannot remember if it was to see if it was real or to see what happened. This being said, there was an amber alert, supposedly out of Quebec, that came my way and I immediately forwarded it without thinking. A friend of mine on Facebook shared a link with me showing that this was a hoax, and one that had resurfaced on several occasions. Another one was a piece that was supposedly written by Ben Stein about the White House use of the Word Christmas Trees. I liked what was written but it was not the author it was reported to be. I still shared it without checking.
The ability to start and share rumours, make up stories, share false information or hatred in this day and age is shocking. There is more and more a pressing need to teach not only our students, but also the general population about needing to filter the information being shared. There is a tremendous need to change our mindset and not assume that because it is on Facebook or Twitter that is must be real. Deaths of celebrities and amber alerts are usually top news items in google, which are easily verfied. Contests by Disney and Costco are easily checked on their websites. Why don't we do it? Are we still stuck in the thought process that if it is written then it must be true? How do we break ourselved out of this mentality? Is it pure laziness, or based on false assumptions? How do we stop sharing junk, lies and misinformation? It has to become second nature to question all information and to cross reference it before we reference it. If there was ever a day and an age to be mindful about what information we are distributing, it is now.
If only those fake contests and stories werent so appealling!
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2013
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Ed Camp Vancouver
Today was a most interesting day of most amazing professional development. The day was presented as an unconference, no key note speaker, nothing lavish, just a bunch of dedicated people who are passionate about education. It was representative of most stakeholders: parents, teachers, principals and some students. It is hard to describe the day in a way which accurately would reflect the conversations that were held today.
The beauty of the day was the respect for the knowledge of the group that was there, the fact that everyone had something to offer, something to share, something to reflect on, a question to pose and a desire to learn. These were not sessions that were being offered by someone looking to pad a resume, someone who had not been in a school in years and was preaching nor was it someone who had already done the same presentation 25 times in the year and did not adapt it to the group present. These sessions were lead by questions from people within the room. I was looking at the board of potential topics with people putting sticky notes on them to show which ones were of interest.
As we were looking at the board of topics there were other conversations that started and new topics were posted. As new topics were posted some stickies migrated, others added their stickies to the new topics and 16 topics were chosen for the day. 4 sessions per time slot, 4 different time slots. There were conversations around assessment for learning, bringing English LA into the 21st century, Social Media 101, moving away from letter grades, engaging all partner groups, moving away from awards ceremonies, creating online communities as well as many other great subjects. We were there from 9 am to 4 pm, and then some of us went to a pub to continue the conversation afterwards, those who had the long commute home had their continuing conversations in the car, the #edcampvan hashtag continued to be used long after the day was over. It is now 10 pm and that hashtag is still showing up and being used! Talk about powerful pro-d!
I took in 4 amazing sessions, each one passed quickly, with conversations continuing long after the session was over. The discussion were so rich, provocative and reflective. The varying points of view from different districts, levels, stakeholders and experience was so enriching. I honestly feel that I would have happily attended each session for a day instead of just the 45 minutes sessions (which often continued well after the time elapsed unlike other sessions where people were packing up their bags before presentations were over). It just felt as though we were just warming up. To have that many people together is powerful pro-d. There was so much to listen to, so much to share, so much to think about and so much to bring back to schools. As I was driving home I started to wonder how we could make our pro-d days much more like this. Good solid conversations, professional dialogue and getting to the meat and potatoes. Let's get it all out on the table.
I would have loved to have school boards and Ministry of Education representatives there. They need to hear our thoughts without the bureaucratic red tape that can exist when meeting with govenment representatives. Open honest conversations without politics so that they can hear what it is that we are trying to do, hear what our barriers are, understand how it would be better for students and we could hear what their vision is without a podium and a rehearsed speech, what their concerns are, what their barriers are. If we can truly have all stakeholders represented then we can really begin to make magic happen.
There is much to bring home to our schools and a lot to think about how the day was shaped and how we can use this format. Is this the future of pro-d?
The beauty of the day was the respect for the knowledge of the group that was there, the fact that everyone had something to offer, something to share, something to reflect on, a question to pose and a desire to learn. These were not sessions that were being offered by someone looking to pad a resume, someone who had not been in a school in years and was preaching nor was it someone who had already done the same presentation 25 times in the year and did not adapt it to the group present. These sessions were lead by questions from people within the room. I was looking at the board of potential topics with people putting sticky notes on them to show which ones were of interest.
As we were looking at the board of topics there were other conversations that started and new topics were posted. As new topics were posted some stickies migrated, others added their stickies to the new topics and 16 topics were chosen for the day. 4 sessions per time slot, 4 different time slots. There were conversations around assessment for learning, bringing English LA into the 21st century, Social Media 101, moving away from letter grades, engaging all partner groups, moving away from awards ceremonies, creating online communities as well as many other great subjects. We were there from 9 am to 4 pm, and then some of us went to a pub to continue the conversation afterwards, those who had the long commute home had their continuing conversations in the car, the #edcampvan hashtag continued to be used long after the day was over. It is now 10 pm and that hashtag is still showing up and being used! Talk about powerful pro-d!
I took in 4 amazing sessions, each one passed quickly, with conversations continuing long after the session was over. The discussion were so rich, provocative and reflective. The varying points of view from different districts, levels, stakeholders and experience was so enriching. I honestly feel that I would have happily attended each session for a day instead of just the 45 minutes sessions (which often continued well after the time elapsed unlike other sessions where people were packing up their bags before presentations were over). It just felt as though we were just warming up. To have that many people together is powerful pro-d. There was so much to listen to, so much to share, so much to think about and so much to bring back to schools. As I was driving home I started to wonder how we could make our pro-d days much more like this. Good solid conversations, professional dialogue and getting to the meat and potatoes. Let's get it all out on the table.
I would have loved to have school boards and Ministry of Education representatives there. They need to hear our thoughts without the bureaucratic red tape that can exist when meeting with govenment representatives. Open honest conversations without politics so that they can hear what it is that we are trying to do, hear what our barriers are, understand how it would be better for students and we could hear what their vision is without a podium and a rehearsed speech, what their concerns are, what their barriers are. If we can truly have all stakeholders represented then we can really begin to make magic happen.
There is much to bring home to our schools and a lot to think about how the day was shaped and how we can use this format. Is this the future of pro-d?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Education Finances
Education finances are a tricky thing. I don't claim to be an expert in the field, but as the Liberal leadership campaign came to a close, it is time to wonder what will happen with public educational in British Columbia as a result of the new Liberal Party leader. The new leader of the Liberal Party, and Premier of the province, Christy Clark has had a tumultuous relationship with teachers in the past and has pledged to re-examine the funding formulas. As to what exactly this means, I am not sure. Over the past few years as education finances debates continue in BC with the Liberals, the cost of public education continues to rise. There are costs to move forward and there are additional costs just to maintain status quo.
Trying to have a 21st century school is trying. Districts are struggling with bandwidth, and our district is no exception. At this point I am not even talking about the additional hardware necessary. There is no point in adding hardware if the system cannot handle what we currently have. From my understanding BC was one of the first to have Internet in the schools, meaning that the problem is that BC was one of the first to have Internet in the schools and needs to seriously upgrade the infrastructure. Our Provincial Learning Network is outdated and maxed out. In order to deal with this problem our district has had to examine different possibilities. It was mentioned in an article that for the Coquitlam School District "A middle-of-the-road option that costs less than putting fibre at every school site but would still require a one-time $2.5-million investment plus $290,000 a year, or $785,000 annually to lease fibre over 20 years and the tools for five years."
The district can either wait for additional funding to deal with this or take it on by itself. To the best of my knowledge there is no additional funding coming. That means that just to be able to have a manageable system the district needs to come up with nearly $3,ooo,ooo. I just do not understand how the reigning provincial party can be talking about 21st century schools without providing the money necessary for the required infrastructure to make it possible.
Another finance piece that has confused me is how money is taken away. Over the past few years taxes have been added, green initiatives have been put forth and schools have been footing the bill. Perhaps it is just me, but I fail to understand why it makes sense to give schools $ and then take them back. Here are a couple of examples. This year, School District 43 will pay $232,000 to Pacific Carbon Trust to offset its energy, fuel and paper consumption but will get no money back for innovative projects, such as composting or recycling, that are cutting waste and dealing with climate change. The second example is last year districts were saving money for required major renovations and yet had the money taken away because it was deemed to not be necessary because it had not been spent. Since when is it prudent to spend your annual budget when you are not sure what renovations or major work might be necessary.
These renovations would have replaced old and outdated boilers and made the schools heating systems more efficient, provide better air quality and make the schools "greener". Better air quality, I would think, would result in fewer people being sick, another cost. The great part of the Carbon taxes is that the money taken back was money school districts were going to use to make renovations and alterations that would have allowed the school districts to become more carbon neutral and now have to pay the Carbon tax because they were not compliant with the Green Goals. To me it does not make sense to essentially fine a school district $232,000 because of a law that was enacted by the provincial party and then not giving the funding to the schools to make the necessary changes.
Budget times are always interesting as districts have many difficult decisions to make. It would be nice if there were not additional cost pressures added, but perhaps that is not reality.
Trying to have a 21st century school is trying. Districts are struggling with bandwidth, and our district is no exception. At this point I am not even talking about the additional hardware necessary. There is no point in adding hardware if the system cannot handle what we currently have. From my understanding BC was one of the first to have Internet in the schools, meaning that the problem is that BC was one of the first to have Internet in the schools and needs to seriously upgrade the infrastructure. Our Provincial Learning Network is outdated and maxed out. In order to deal with this problem our district has had to examine different possibilities. It was mentioned in an article that for the Coquitlam School District "A middle-of-the-road option that costs less than putting fibre at every school site but would still require a one-time $2.5-million investment plus $290,000 a year, or $785,000 annually to lease fibre over 20 years and the tools for five years."
The district can either wait for additional funding to deal with this or take it on by itself. To the best of my knowledge there is no additional funding coming. That means that just to be able to have a manageable system the district needs to come up with nearly $3,ooo,ooo. I just do not understand how the reigning provincial party can be talking about 21st century schools without providing the money necessary for the required infrastructure to make it possible.
Another finance piece that has confused me is how money is taken away. Over the past few years taxes have been added, green initiatives have been put forth and schools have been footing the bill. Perhaps it is just me, but I fail to understand why it makes sense to give schools $ and then take them back. Here are a couple of examples. This year, School District 43 will pay $232,000 to Pacific Carbon Trust to offset its energy, fuel and paper consumption but will get no money back for innovative projects, such as composting or recycling, that are cutting waste and dealing with climate change. The second example is last year districts were saving money for required major renovations and yet had the money taken away because it was deemed to not be necessary because it had not been spent. Since when is it prudent to spend your annual budget when you are not sure what renovations or major work might be necessary.
These renovations would have replaced old and outdated boilers and made the schools heating systems more efficient, provide better air quality and make the schools "greener". Better air quality, I would think, would result in fewer people being sick, another cost. The great part of the Carbon taxes is that the money taken back was money school districts were going to use to make renovations and alterations that would have allowed the school districts to become more carbon neutral and now have to pay the Carbon tax because they were not compliant with the Green Goals. To me it does not make sense to essentially fine a school district $232,000 because of a law that was enacted by the provincial party and then not giving the funding to the schools to make the necessary changes.
Budget times are always interesting as districts have many difficult decisions to make. It would be nice if there were not additional cost pressures added, but perhaps that is not reality.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
My struggles with the FSAs
Earlier this week I was sitting in the computer lab watching the students complete the grade 4 numeracy portion of the FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment - British Columbia's standardized tests for grade 4 and 7). There were many thoughts going through my head during this time. I had looked at the rankings that the Fraser Institute published and saw that my school had jumped significantly in the standings. I knew that we would be moving up from where we were last year, our focus has been on writing for the past few years. We have enjoyed some rich professional development, had great discussions, found different ways to emphasize and promote writing in the school and continued to work with different writing programs. These have all lead to improvements. I do believe that the students have improved in writing because of these changes, but that does not tell the whole story.
Our results are directly impacted by the number of eligible students who write the different tests and the number of students who have been excused from writing it for a variety of reasons including parental request that their child not write the tests. If a number of very strong students are excused from writing the test, our results will drop, conversely if the number of students excused from writing are struggling learners our results will rise. If there is not a flu bug running through the school around that time then the results go up, if there are a few kids who families all go on vacation at that time our results could drop. There are so many external factors that impact the results of the test beyond the teaching that if they fall in your favour as they mostly did last year, the result is a rise in the rankings, if they do not, as was the case two years ago and this year, they will drop.
To give you some insight as to how it works I will include a brief description. We received the package a few weeks earlier and I decided to wait to start. Over the past few years the system has had problems where students will be kicked out of the electronic portion and have to log back in. For some students this would happen 3-4 times over the course of the time they were working on one portion of the test. This caused a lot of stress and caused some to panic and become very anxious, worried that they would have to start again. (I cannot even begin to imagine what would be going through a high school student's mind when writing a provincial test and this happens!). I hoped that by waiting there would be fewer students using it at the same time, thereby reducing the possibilities of crashes.
During the couple of weeks leading up to us starting I had some conversations with other schools, people on my soccer team and elsewhere discussing the FSAs. A couple of friends with students at schools outside of our district were telling me that the kids had been practicing the tests for a couple of weeks and were a bundle of nerves because they were told how important these tests are and that they had to do well to represent the school. One of my colleagues was telling me that she had 3 different parents come to her and ask whether or not their child should be writing the test because they were worried that their kids would not be successful because of their IEPs (individual education plans) and would therefore bring the school results down. She told the parents that it was their choice, but that they should not be excluding their children for that reason. Would all principals have said the same thing? At our school all students write the test unless we are concerned about the impact that this could have on the student, and we do not spend any time practicing.
I had a few parents come to me a little before we were going to start wondering why we had not started our tests when when some of the neighbouring schools had. I explained my rationale and they felt that it made sense. One then asked me if we all received the tests at the same time and I let her know that I believed that to be the case. The next questions caught me off guard as it was not something that had entered my mind. If you held onto the tests for a couple of weeks, is there anything stopping schools from practicing with the actual tests before starting? Could they all do a rough draft and then copy the good draft into the booklet? If they were not all doing the electronic portion at the same time, would it be possible for a class to begin the reading portion and then copy the stories, print them and be able to go over them with the other students to prepare them for the questions? When I answered that hypothetically speaking this was possible she was stunned. How was this standardized? In order for it to be standardized should all the kids in the province be doing the tests at the same time, or at the very least, all of the kids in the same school at the same time?
There are other factors that concern me as to how the data is used. Two years ago our school received additional staffing partly due to the fact that we had a larger number of students with learning challenges than we normally had. That year, when the students were writing the FSAs, the flu went through the school and some got sick, 1 missed a lot of time from school so I decided to not have that student finish the FSA. Result, not meeting expectations in all areas. 2 students went on vacation part way through the test, result, 2 students not meeting expectations. 2 students broke down in tears because they were frustrated so we took the tests away, result, 2 students not meeting expectations. I believe that 4 of those 5 students would have fully met expectations. I had two students who would not be writing the tests for a couple of reasons and I used their identifications to show the students to log on. Result- 2 more students not meeting expectations because I had logged them in and answered 1 question but did not click on submit thinking the results would not show, this was a boneheaded moment which I did not repeat. When you have a cohort group of about 50 kids and 7 are not meeting expectations for reasons other than the results of the test itself is one thing that a school can address and explain to its community, when an outside agency is ignorant of what happens in the schools and publishes results is another.
Four years ago we had the exact same number of identified gifted students as student with learning challenges two years ago. The school went from double digit number of students who were gifted to double digits with learning difficulties. The cohort was completely different and something outside the control of the school. The result was a huge drop in the number of students not meeting expectations. I go over the results with the parents, give them the numbers as well as some background information. I am able to explain why we have gone up or down. Our community is aware of our context, an outside agency examining and working with the data is not. When a school has their test data compromised because their electronic results have gone into an Internet abyss and suddenly 10 students results are automatically not meeting expectations and those results are published, the public perception of the school can be compromised.
From my vantage point, the FSAs can provide useful information for a staff to look at and plan our school goals. We can use it as a measuring stick to chart our progress, knowing our context. This is not shirking responsibility. I still stand in front of our parents and share the data and listen to concerns that they may have. My concern is that when a non-informed group that ignores or does not care about the contextual situations that can arise in schools, and publishes results that are challenged statistically it impacts the perception of the school. Why are schools punished because H1N1 hit their schools hard one year? Why are schools punished for not practicing for the tests for weeks and choosing to focus on the curriculum and using the FSAs as a snapshot as they were intended to? Why are schools punished because the cohorts each year can be significantly different from year to year and give a false increase or decrease in the students' perceived success? The number of students writing is also compromised, based on parent willingness to have their children write the tests. There are some schools where only 30% of the eligible kids are actually writing the test.
If everybody is not writing the test at the same time, in the same way, under the same conditions, with the same number of kids in a room writing it together, with the same preparation, with ALL students writing the test regardless of abilities, with one large group of independent markers marking all of the tests in the same way and removing the possibilities of possible manipulation of the testing situations, intentionally or accidentally, the test is no longer standardized even if all of the questions are the same. There are just too many outside factors possible to make this testing equitable. Let schools use the information for the way that it was intended and not let outside agencies compromise the validity of a non-standardized standardized test.
Our results are directly impacted by the number of eligible students who write the different tests and the number of students who have been excused from writing it for a variety of reasons including parental request that their child not write the tests. If a number of very strong students are excused from writing the test, our results will drop, conversely if the number of students excused from writing are struggling learners our results will rise. If there is not a flu bug running through the school around that time then the results go up, if there are a few kids who families all go on vacation at that time our results could drop. There are so many external factors that impact the results of the test beyond the teaching that if they fall in your favour as they mostly did last year, the result is a rise in the rankings, if they do not, as was the case two years ago and this year, they will drop.
To give you some insight as to how it works I will include a brief description. We received the package a few weeks earlier and I decided to wait to start. Over the past few years the system has had problems where students will be kicked out of the electronic portion and have to log back in. For some students this would happen 3-4 times over the course of the time they were working on one portion of the test. This caused a lot of stress and caused some to panic and become very anxious, worried that they would have to start again. (I cannot even begin to imagine what would be going through a high school student's mind when writing a provincial test and this happens!). I hoped that by waiting there would be fewer students using it at the same time, thereby reducing the possibilities of crashes.
During the couple of weeks leading up to us starting I had some conversations with other schools, people on my soccer team and elsewhere discussing the FSAs. A couple of friends with students at schools outside of our district were telling me that the kids had been practicing the tests for a couple of weeks and were a bundle of nerves because they were told how important these tests are and that they had to do well to represent the school. One of my colleagues was telling me that she had 3 different parents come to her and ask whether or not their child should be writing the test because they were worried that their kids would not be successful because of their IEPs (individual education plans) and would therefore bring the school results down. She told the parents that it was their choice, but that they should not be excluding their children for that reason. Would all principals have said the same thing? At our school all students write the test unless we are concerned about the impact that this could have on the student, and we do not spend any time practicing.
I had a few parents come to me a little before we were going to start wondering why we had not started our tests when when some of the neighbouring schools had. I explained my rationale and they felt that it made sense. One then asked me if we all received the tests at the same time and I let her know that I believed that to be the case. The next questions caught me off guard as it was not something that had entered my mind. If you held onto the tests for a couple of weeks, is there anything stopping schools from practicing with the actual tests before starting? Could they all do a rough draft and then copy the good draft into the booklet? If they were not all doing the electronic portion at the same time, would it be possible for a class to begin the reading portion and then copy the stories, print them and be able to go over them with the other students to prepare them for the questions? When I answered that hypothetically speaking this was possible she was stunned. How was this standardized? In order for it to be standardized should all the kids in the province be doing the tests at the same time, or at the very least, all of the kids in the same school at the same time?
There are other factors that concern me as to how the data is used. Two years ago our school received additional staffing partly due to the fact that we had a larger number of students with learning challenges than we normally had. That year, when the students were writing the FSAs, the flu went through the school and some got sick, 1 missed a lot of time from school so I decided to not have that student finish the FSA. Result, not meeting expectations in all areas. 2 students went on vacation part way through the test, result, 2 students not meeting expectations. 2 students broke down in tears because they were frustrated so we took the tests away, result, 2 students not meeting expectations. I believe that 4 of those 5 students would have fully met expectations. I had two students who would not be writing the tests for a couple of reasons and I used their identifications to show the students to log on. Result- 2 more students not meeting expectations because I had logged them in and answered 1 question but did not click on submit thinking the results would not show, this was a boneheaded moment which I did not repeat. When you have a cohort group of about 50 kids and 7 are not meeting expectations for reasons other than the results of the test itself is one thing that a school can address and explain to its community, when an outside agency is ignorant of what happens in the schools and publishes results is another.
Four years ago we had the exact same number of identified gifted students as student with learning challenges two years ago. The school went from double digit number of students who were gifted to double digits with learning difficulties. The cohort was completely different and something outside the control of the school. The result was a huge drop in the number of students not meeting expectations. I go over the results with the parents, give them the numbers as well as some background information. I am able to explain why we have gone up or down. Our community is aware of our context, an outside agency examining and working with the data is not. When a school has their test data compromised because their electronic results have gone into an Internet abyss and suddenly 10 students results are automatically not meeting expectations and those results are published, the public perception of the school can be compromised.
From my vantage point, the FSAs can provide useful information for a staff to look at and plan our school goals. We can use it as a measuring stick to chart our progress, knowing our context. This is not shirking responsibility. I still stand in front of our parents and share the data and listen to concerns that they may have. My concern is that when a non-informed group that ignores or does not care about the contextual situations that can arise in schools, and publishes results that are challenged statistically it impacts the perception of the school. Why are schools punished because H1N1 hit their schools hard one year? Why are schools punished for not practicing for the tests for weeks and choosing to focus on the curriculum and using the FSAs as a snapshot as they were intended to? Why are schools punished because the cohorts each year can be significantly different from year to year and give a false increase or decrease in the students' perceived success? The number of students writing is also compromised, based on parent willingness to have their children write the tests. There are some schools where only 30% of the eligible kids are actually writing the test.
If everybody is not writing the test at the same time, in the same way, under the same conditions, with the same number of kids in a room writing it together, with the same preparation, with ALL students writing the test regardless of abilities, with one large group of independent markers marking all of the tests in the same way and removing the possibilities of possible manipulation of the testing situations, intentionally or accidentally, the test is no longer standardized even if all of the questions are the same. There are just too many outside factors possible to make this testing equitable. Let schools use the information for the way that it was intended and not let outside agencies compromise the validity of a non-standardized standardized test.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Why do I blog?
I have been trying to figure out what made me start blogging and I am not 100% sure. I never particularly enjoyed writing at school, but perhaps that was a result of being limited in what I could write about or just some negative experiences. It was not until I started my Masters that I discovered that I actually enjoyed writing, although the deadlines were a challenge every once in a while. It was the first time that I was given license to write about something that I actually cared about or was interested in. I was reflecting on my practice, with thought and accountability for the first time since I was doing my teaching degree, and as I think of that now, there is something seriously wrong with that.
This is not to say that I was not reflecting on my teaching, but the reflections were more to do with day to day teaching in terms of what worked and what didn't work with individual lessons. I was not thinking pedagogically, I was not pushing myself to improve my practice. Eventually I started to join some learning teams and was fortunate to be a part of the numeracy task design team with some great teachers under the guidance of Peter Liljedahl from SFU, and for the first time I was really thinking about my practice as a whole and I ended up completely rethinking my teaching. The problem here was that I was only sharing my practice with a few people, and only getting feedback from people who all thought the same way, it was like we all had our own mini-cult (who all became administrators). This would have been a great time to begin blogging.
By blogging I open myself up to criticism, helpful suggestions and accountability. I know that if I am going to put ideas out there I had better be ready to back up and be prepared to defend. I have been limiting myself to topics which I am very comfortable with as I begin to wrap my head around this. I am steeling myself to begin being a model of reflective practice for my staff. If I am not willing to put myself out there and expose my practice to criticism, how can I expect those around me to do so as well? I love the ideas put forth in this following blog entry.
For the first time in a long time I am really trying to put together my thoughts coherently for others to be able to reflect on, give suggestions, thoughts and criticisms. But rather than just an instructor, faculty advisor or sponsor teacher, I am opening it up to the world. I am trying to move outside of my comfort zone, my school, my district and my province. I am hopefully going to be a model for the students in my school and my colleagues. I am getting back into the practice of writing about things that I am passionate about and trying to move my practice forward. Let the journey begin.
This is not to say that I was not reflecting on my teaching, but the reflections were more to do with day to day teaching in terms of what worked and what didn't work with individual lessons. I was not thinking pedagogically, I was not pushing myself to improve my practice. Eventually I started to join some learning teams and was fortunate to be a part of the numeracy task design team with some great teachers under the guidance of Peter Liljedahl from SFU, and for the first time I was really thinking about my practice as a whole and I ended up completely rethinking my teaching. The problem here was that I was only sharing my practice with a few people, and only getting feedback from people who all thought the same way, it was like we all had our own mini-cult (who all became administrators). This would have been a great time to begin blogging.
By blogging I open myself up to criticism, helpful suggestions and accountability. I know that if I am going to put ideas out there I had better be ready to back up and be prepared to defend. I have been limiting myself to topics which I am very comfortable with as I begin to wrap my head around this. I am steeling myself to begin being a model of reflective practice for my staff. If I am not willing to put myself out there and expose my practice to criticism, how can I expect those around me to do so as well? I love the ideas put forth in this following blog entry.
For the first time in a long time I am really trying to put together my thoughts coherently for others to be able to reflect on, give suggestions, thoughts and criticisms. But rather than just an instructor, faculty advisor or sponsor teacher, I am opening it up to the world. I am trying to move outside of my comfort zone, my school, my district and my province. I am hopefully going to be a model for the students in my school and my colleagues. I am getting back into the practice of writing about things that I am passionate about and trying to move my practice forward. Let the journey begin.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Global Collaboration Part 2
For lack of a better way of putting it, this is basically a request for some ideas, links and suggestions about the potential of Twitter. Over the past few weeks I have been trying to encourage staff, colleagues and members of the British Columbia Principals and Vice-Principals Association (BCPVPA) to use Twitter because it provides an effective communication and sharing tool. The best part of it is the fact that it is free and global. In a few weeks I will be meeting with some other members of the BCPVPA to look at effective communication between members across our province. How is it a collaborative tool? I guess there are many ways to try and explain it and Chris Kennedy in his post A Recipient in the Sharing Revolution summed it up really well. A few days after I posted this blog I came across the blog of @Nunavut_Teacher who gave a great explanation of this very point in his post The Power of Twitter: My geographic location did not stop me from meeting these Tweeters!
Much of the talk about the power of Twitter centers around PLNs. Hashtags, such as #edchat, #education and #edtech are quick entries open up potential PLNs. I am amazed at the world wide wealth of knowledge that is out there, but also the world wide wonder wonder when it comes to education. When I wrote my post about Twitter I may have had 30-40 people following me (mainly fabulous colleagues from my school district in Coquitlam, BC), none outside of North America and yet if you look at the page views of my blog below you can see the global possibilities that are there in terms of contact with the World. Last time I checked I know no one in South Korea, Russia, Japan nor South Africa and 1 person in Australia.
Today I had a brief Twitter chat about #Autism with @Grade1 @fiteach @MrWejr as @MrWejr was putting out a question about extrinsic motivation (I hear many times about using rewards 4 studnts w/ autism. I don't normally agree w/ rewards - is it diffrnt 4 stdnts w/ #autism? ) and had a number of people respond to it. None of them live in his city and I was the only one in his province, yet we all have experience with Autistic children and are able to share our experience, strategies and thoughts. It is amazing how many point of views and ideas that can be generated from the use of hashtags and PLNs. A parent from his school had arranged for a video conference on Autism and @MrWejr decided to tweet a few questions and then shared it with the staff and parents present. They were amazed at what came out of a simple tweeted question.
@MrWejr uses his PLN very effectively. Just today (a week later from the original post) he sent out another question. This question was sent out to myself, a principal in China, Alberta, Pennsylvania, and Massachusettes. 5 principals working in 3 different countries discussing the same issue. We all have different training, experience and school boards but we all work with kids. Why limit ourselves to our neighbouring schools? Are we ever going to get better at what we do by always conferring with the same people?
I am looking for examples of this. If you have written a post on this topic or are able to share an experience that directly impacted your profession as a result of putting out a question via Twitter, could you please share. I have found many great resources and fantastic articles and have my own personal experience but I am looking for other perspectives as I would like to have something more to demonstrate other than my own experience. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Remi
Below are some examples that I have picked up from an #edchat discussion:
http://harrison.warsaw.k12.in.us/index.php/classrooms/index.php?option=com_joomlaconnect_ce&Itemid=87&task=showPage&page_id=3
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/
How do we encourage other teachers not online to begin collaborating with peers? #edchat Be role models by doing it ourselves
What are the most effective tools for international collaboration projects? #Edchat wikispaces, skype, Flasmeeting, Animoto
Doing a stu twtr discussion tonite "what is the responsibility of the student" @ 7cnt time. Invite ur stu - use #ohs2010 - #edchat
You cannot understand your own culture completely without understanding it's relationships to other cultures. #edchat
show them the benefits of collab online "work smarter, not harder" #edchat
Much of the talk about the power of Twitter centers around PLNs. Hashtags, such as #edchat, #education and #edtech are quick entries open up potential PLNs. I am amazed at the world wide wealth of knowledge that is out there, but also the world wide wonder wonder when it comes to education. When I wrote my post about Twitter I may have had 30-40 people following me (mainly fabulous colleagues from my school district in Coquitlam, BC), none outside of North America and yet if you look at the page views of my blog below you can see the global possibilities that are there in terms of contact with the World. Last time I checked I know no one in South Korea, Russia, Japan nor South Africa and 1 person in Australia.
@MrWejr uses his PLN very effectively. Just today (a week later from the original post) he sent out another question. This question was sent out to myself, a principal in China, Alberta, Pennsylvania, and Massachusettes. 5 principals working in 3 different countries discussing the same issue. We all have different training, experience and school boards but we all work with kids. Why limit ourselves to our neighbouring schools? Are we ever going to get better at what we do by always conferring with the same people?
I am looking for examples of this. If you have written a post on this topic or are able to share an experience that directly impacted your profession as a result of putting out a question via Twitter, could you please share. I have found many great resources and fantastic articles and have my own personal experience but I am looking for other perspectives as I would like to have something more to demonstrate other than my own experience. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Remi
Below are some examples that I have picked up from an #edchat discussion:
http://harrison.warsaw.k12.in.us/index.php/classrooms/index.php?option=com_joomlaconnect_ce&Itemid=87&task=showPage&page_id=3
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/
How do we encourage other teachers not online to begin collaborating with peers? #edchat Be role models by doing it ourselves
What are the most effective tools for international collaboration projects? #Edchat wikispaces, skype, Flasmeeting, Animoto
Doing a stu twtr discussion tonite "what is the responsibility of the student" @ 7cnt time. Invite ur stu - use #ohs2010 - #edchat
You cannot understand your own culture completely without understanding it's relationships to other cultures. #edchat
show them the benefits of collab online "work smarter, not harder" #edchat
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Global Collaboration
Yesterday I had the opportunity to take part in the British Columbia Principal and Vice-Principal's Association (BCPVPA) Professional Development Representative training. At this meeting were representatives from all around the province, representing 42 different school districts. Towards the end of the meeting one of the members asked how could we share? Well that is a good question.
There are many ways that we could share, including a privately paid, restrictive portal that only members of the BCPVPA can access or do we do something that is wide-open? Is there a place for both? I guess it depends on what is being shared. If we are sharing ideas, collaborating on projects that would benefit many outside of our group, shouldn't we be sharing this more than we are? I understand that there can be documents that need limited disclosure, but professional development, templates and information that is beneficial to other teachers and administrators probably should not be restricted to a private portal.
The more we share, the more that is available out there, the more feedback we get on projects, documents, ideas and conundrums and therefor the more the very group we are targeting, the kids, benefits. Why limit ourselves to a select group in a select area and not open it up to the world. Blogs, Wikis and Googledocs are just a few examples that are out there. We are putting laptops and internet connections in classrooms, supposedly to open up the classroom to world, yet we seem to be restrictive is how these resources are used and how the information is shared. Its almost akin to bringing a kid to Central Park but limiting them to a 10 x 10 foot square.
I feel fortunate to have a superintendent that supports our endeavours and desire to extend beyond the curriculum, and work in a district where there are many amazing teachers on Twitter sharing their thoughts through articles, blogs and quotes. I feel fortunate that there are many great educators around, but I do not feel that we have even begun to tap into the World Wide Wealth of information. Is it a resource challenge or a way of thinking that needs to be altered? I would argue it is the latter. It is time we changed our way of thinking about how we collaborate and set the examples for out students for their benefit and ours. So, what is the next step?
I think this quote from @gcouros (http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/1364) sums it up: If administrators are truly to be leaders, we need to continuously learn and connect with others to shape ideas. We are the role models for our staff, students, and community. You should never ask something of your staff that you are not willing to do yourself.
There are many ways that we could share, including a privately paid, restrictive portal that only members of the BCPVPA can access or do we do something that is wide-open? Is there a place for both? I guess it depends on what is being shared. If we are sharing ideas, collaborating on projects that would benefit many outside of our group, shouldn't we be sharing this more than we are? I understand that there can be documents that need limited disclosure, but professional development, templates and information that is beneficial to other teachers and administrators probably should not be restricted to a private portal.
The more we share, the more that is available out there, the more feedback we get on projects, documents, ideas and conundrums and therefor the more the very group we are targeting, the kids, benefits. Why limit ourselves to a select group in a select area and not open it up to the world. Blogs, Wikis and Googledocs are just a few examples that are out there. We are putting laptops and internet connections in classrooms, supposedly to open up the classroom to world, yet we seem to be restrictive is how these resources are used and how the information is shared. Its almost akin to bringing a kid to Central Park but limiting them to a 10 x 10 foot square.
I feel fortunate to have a superintendent that supports our endeavours and desire to extend beyond the curriculum, and work in a district where there are many amazing teachers on Twitter sharing their thoughts through articles, blogs and quotes. I feel fortunate that there are many great educators around, but I do not feel that we have even begun to tap into the World Wide Wealth of information. Is it a resource challenge or a way of thinking that needs to be altered? I would argue it is the latter. It is time we changed our way of thinking about how we collaborate and set the examples for out students for their benefit and ours. So, what is the next step?
I think this quote from @gcouros (http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/1364) sums it up: If administrators are truly to be leaders, we need to continuously learn and connect with others to shape ideas. We are the role models for our staff, students, and community. You should never ask something of your staff that you are not willing to do yourself.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Technology brings us closer
I have heard on occasion that people fear that we lose our social connections by becoming too dependent on technology. I guess that there is a certain element of truth to that, but is it not entirely dependent on the context? I was watching a video Open and Connected and it raised a lot of good points. I am going to put forward that technology actually brings us closer.
I am a child of immigrants. My parents tell the story of my grand-father running alongside the train that was to take them on their journey and he ran alongside the train until he could go no further. Planes were not as available as they are now. When my parents came to Canada from Europe they came by boat. My grand-father's fear was that he would rarely ever see his daughter again. There would be an exchange of letters, but it would take weeks for the letters to arrive. Phone calls were prohibitive because of the ridiculous costs. It was not easy.
When I was younger I would see my French grand-parents about every 2nd summer, and that was with them coming here every once in a while. I would talk to them every once in a while on the phone for a few brief minutes, always aware of the cost. Birthday phone calls were a treat and I loved my Christmas calls as well. I looked forward to the occasions when I could talk to them. Eventually costs for flying came down so we started to see them every summer, alternating visits.
This is where technology comes in. About 20 years ago my mom bought her parents a fax machine. Letters were transmitted instantly and letters flowed more freely. It was great because I got news from my grand-parents much more quickly. Just a little later when my grand-father was around 75 he decided that the old super 8 style movies that he was making just wasn't cutting it anymore and decided that it was time that he learned how to do digital video editing and he bought his first computer, which came, obviously, with email. I was in touch with my grand-father so much more than ever and I developed a close relationship with him that I never had before. Even though he lived 9 time zones away I felt as though he was very close. Technology is what really allowed me to get to know him. I no longer had to wait for special occasions to hear from him or wait a month to hear back when I wrote a letter. Skype was just starting to come into prominence when he became ill, but if not I know we would have been having weekly conversations via Skype.
I am now connected via Facebook with 2 of my cousins in France, 1 cousin in New Zealand and another in San Francisco. One of my aunts jokes around that I know more about her kids than she does because of Facebook. I get to see regular updates as to how they are doing, see family pictures and stay in contact. It allows my parents and my brother and sister to share family pictures much more easily than before. Don't get me wrong, we talk by phone and see each other on a regular basis but we are much more connected as a result. If we are online at the same time then we instant message each other and enjoy conversations that we would not normally have.
When one of my colleagues' son was off in Europe working they were in regular Skype conversations. I found my godfather that I had not seen since I was around 1 because of the internet and I was able to re-establish that connection. Through Twitter I have established great working connections and have begun to develop an amazing professional learning network. Technology has brought us closer. For me technology has made the world smaller and brought me into greater contact with my family and friends. It has brought me closer to my family which is spread over 3 continents and I am grateful for that.
I am a child of immigrants. My parents tell the story of my grand-father running alongside the train that was to take them on their journey and he ran alongside the train until he could go no further. Planes were not as available as they are now. When my parents came to Canada from Europe they came by boat. My grand-father's fear was that he would rarely ever see his daughter again. There would be an exchange of letters, but it would take weeks for the letters to arrive. Phone calls were prohibitive because of the ridiculous costs. It was not easy.
When I was younger I would see my French grand-parents about every 2nd summer, and that was with them coming here every once in a while. I would talk to them every once in a while on the phone for a few brief minutes, always aware of the cost. Birthday phone calls were a treat and I loved my Christmas calls as well. I looked forward to the occasions when I could talk to them. Eventually costs for flying came down so we started to see them every summer, alternating visits.
This is where technology comes in. About 20 years ago my mom bought her parents a fax machine. Letters were transmitted instantly and letters flowed more freely. It was great because I got news from my grand-parents much more quickly. Just a little later when my grand-father was around 75 he decided that the old super 8 style movies that he was making just wasn't cutting it anymore and decided that it was time that he learned how to do digital video editing and he bought his first computer, which came, obviously, with email. I was in touch with my grand-father so much more than ever and I developed a close relationship with him that I never had before. Even though he lived 9 time zones away I felt as though he was very close. Technology is what really allowed me to get to know him. I no longer had to wait for special occasions to hear from him or wait a month to hear back when I wrote a letter. Skype was just starting to come into prominence when he became ill, but if not I know we would have been having weekly conversations via Skype.
I am now connected via Facebook with 2 of my cousins in France, 1 cousin in New Zealand and another in San Francisco. One of my aunts jokes around that I know more about her kids than she does because of Facebook. I get to see regular updates as to how they are doing, see family pictures and stay in contact. It allows my parents and my brother and sister to share family pictures much more easily than before. Don't get me wrong, we talk by phone and see each other on a regular basis but we are much more connected as a result. If we are online at the same time then we instant message each other and enjoy conversations that we would not normally have.
When one of my colleagues' son was off in Europe working they were in regular Skype conversations. I found my godfather that I had not seen since I was around 1 because of the internet and I was able to re-establish that connection. Through Twitter I have established great working connections and have begun to develop an amazing professional learning network. Technology has brought us closer. For me technology has made the world smaller and brought me into greater contact with my family and friends. It has brought me closer to my family which is spread over 3 continents and I am grateful for that.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The need for digital citizenship in elementary
Sometimes trying to follow the different conversations on Twitter is as hard as trying to watch the different scores and news on the sports channels' ticker on the bottom. Blink at the wrong time and you probably missed what you might have been looking for. There is no line-up to enter conversations, it seems as though you just jump in. When the kids are lining up to jump in on the skipping rope, they do so because they have been taught the rules and expectations. This leads to the question of, who is teaching them the rules and expectations online?
I have learned about Twitter by being on Twitter. No one has taught me about the tags or etiquette. I have just been trying to figure it all out. I would go to Google to figure out terminology I was getting like RT and tags. I have mimicked what others have done and what I have seen. I have tried using common sense but sometimes my eagerness may have overtaken me. When two people are having a Twitter conversation, is it appropriate to add your 2 cents? The conversation is public and other people have contributed to a discussion that I have had, so does that make it right? And herein lies the challenge, as a reasonably well informed educator on this topic, I am not sure. Where does that put many teachers, parents and students? Who is teaching digital citizenship and net responsibility?
There is an age-limit, supposedly, for Facebook and yet I have received Friend requests from current and former students who are not yet 13. Their profiles are wide-open and they have hundreds of friends.The information that they have posted pretty much violates every suggestion for safety and privacy I have seen. Their parents have no idea when I talk to them. I have had to delve into youtube videos with highly inappropriate content, and again their parents do not know and were stunned to see the content and see all of the people looking at it. The conversations that I have with the students demonstrates that they do not know. Who is responsible to teach them?
Technology is changing at an insane pace. Kids are seemingly on a technological trip reminiscent of Columbus' trip on the Santa Maria, a time where they thought there was land but no one knew for sure. We are in uncharted water. How can we teach ICT and not address Net Citizenship? The last info tech BC IRP (Our curricular guide) was written in 1996 and is longer considered "curricular" but something that is to be taught within the confines of the other subjects. If there is no guide and the experience at elementary can be limited to word processing and typing tutor are we meeting the students' and society's needs?
When should Net Citizenship be started? Who is responsible for what? What should it look like at each grade? Are schools responsible for teaching the greater community as well? There are so many aspects of Info Tech that impact the safety and emotional well being of the students of the school that it is going to take a crucial partnership with parents that must expand beyond calls about work completion, behaviour and help on field trips. It is a huge journey and to be honest, I am not sure where to start as we are already way behind.
I have learned about Twitter by being on Twitter. No one has taught me about the tags or etiquette. I have just been trying to figure it all out. I would go to Google to figure out terminology I was getting like RT and tags. I have mimicked what others have done and what I have seen. I have tried using common sense but sometimes my eagerness may have overtaken me. When two people are having a Twitter conversation, is it appropriate to add your 2 cents? The conversation is public and other people have contributed to a discussion that I have had, so does that make it right? And herein lies the challenge, as a reasonably well informed educator on this topic, I am not sure. Where does that put many teachers, parents and students? Who is teaching digital citizenship and net responsibility?
There is an age-limit, supposedly, for Facebook and yet I have received Friend requests from current and former students who are not yet 13. Their profiles are wide-open and they have hundreds of friends.The information that they have posted pretty much violates every suggestion for safety and privacy I have seen. Their parents have no idea when I talk to them. I have had to delve into youtube videos with highly inappropriate content, and again their parents do not know and were stunned to see the content and see all of the people looking at it. The conversations that I have with the students demonstrates that they do not know. Who is responsible to teach them?
Technology is changing at an insane pace. Kids are seemingly on a technological trip reminiscent of Columbus' trip on the Santa Maria, a time where they thought there was land but no one knew for sure. We are in uncharted water. How can we teach ICT and not address Net Citizenship? The last info tech BC IRP (Our curricular guide) was written in 1996 and is longer considered "curricular" but something that is to be taught within the confines of the other subjects. If there is no guide and the experience at elementary can be limited to word processing and typing tutor are we meeting the students' and society's needs?
When should Net Citizenship be started? Who is responsible for what? What should it look like at each grade? Are schools responsible for teaching the greater community as well? There are so many aspects of Info Tech that impact the safety and emotional well being of the students of the school that it is going to take a crucial partnership with parents that must expand beyond calls about work completion, behaviour and help on field trips. It is a huge journey and to be honest, I am not sure where to start as we are already way behind.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Why is change hard?
I had an interesting discussion with a colleague from my district the other night via Twitter (another example of why I have come to really appreciate the professional value of Twitter). She has a tendency to pose some very good and interesting questions which get my neurons firing. Her question was "Can adult learners be more difficult to teach because they don't feel they have to conform?" My first reaction was that adults fear change. I sent her the first message of "Adults fear failure in a way that children do not. Kids don't know what they can't do, adults tend to believe in their limitations." This was followed with "Ask a kid to do something and they will ask how?, ask an adult and they will tell you why the can't." She had other ideas so I sent back one more argument "to change you must be willing to admit that there is a possibility that you did not have the answer."
After having given it more thought I had to reflect on why I am reluctant to change some aspects of my life/personality. Why am I reluctant to conform? For a brief moment I thought I might ask my family, but I was not sure I would be ready to hear their reasons, and my mother very much seems to enjoy sharing stories about us when we were kids and all of the embarrassing things we did. No, this journey is definitely going to be one of self-reflection.
I don't like to be embrassed. I do have great difficulty in putting myself out there. I am mortified to be on stage and have to do anything other than talk into a microphone. Our staff went to a dinner theatre, and because I was the principal, I was chosen to go up on stage in a costume. The routine? No shirt, coconut bra, grass skirt and having to do a striptease. I was so red at first that I probably could have stopped the entire downtown street traffic. I got through, swallowed the little pride that I had at that moment at went on stage and did a weird version of a striptease which one of the staff dutifully recorded for me. So I guess that is lesson one, if you want people to conform to the expectations don't put them in a situation where they are going to be embarrassed. There will be some people who will make it work, but many others may never go back. I fear returning to the dinner theatre because of what I may have to do next time, but I survived and am game.
There have been times where I have come to a cross-roads in my educational belief since the start of my career. There have been a few occasions when I have heard a presentation at a pro-d and thought "This is a load of bs. I would love to see that person in my class trying to do that stuff. Why don't they leave the ivory tower, get their hands dirty and see what teaching is like in the real world." I also know that I was not the first, nor was I the last, to have those types of thoughts in my head. I used to think that was the case with problem solving in math. How can I do this? How much time is this going to take up? There is no way that the parents are going to accept this in Math! Fortunately the prof from SFU, Peter Liljedahl, was very good at convincing. By the time that I was done listening I was converted. It was not a "Thou Shalt" seminar, it was not a "That is old school and wrong the way that you were doing it" type of presentation either. He stood there in the firing line and took the questions, turned them around and convinced a bunch of grade 8 math teachers of the value. End result? I could do it in the class, it was not going to take any more time after I got going then it did in the past and the parents loved it when I took the time to explain it to them. I guess Lesson 2 is, if you want people to change, don't bash them on the head and insinuate that they are teaching in the caveman era, but rather respect what they have done and are doing and show them how this accentuates what they are already doing. It also requires someone to be ready to change.
I guess what is toughest is how to address the question of comfort. What can be done when someone is a comfort zone, has been doing a good job, is well respected by the staff and the teaching community. What right do I have to go into the classroom and tell them to do things differently? I know myself in terms of my habits, they are hard to break. If things have been working well for me then why should I have to change? Do I give time? Do I bring in experts? Do I mandate the pro-d that they must attend? If they do not see the need to change, is forcing going to be effective?
I was reading a great blog entry, 10 things teachers should unlearn, and it made me further reflect on change. If they do not feel the need to change, how to you help them want to unlearn what they have learned? As educational philosophy and theory shifts, there are those who see it as another fad or trend that will shortly go the way of the albatross. In BC the pendulum has shifted in several directions with several examples such as moving from phonics only to whole word approach and settling somewhere in between. I have overheard the conversations along the lines of "Here we go again", "New principal, new agenda", "This is the district's new pet project". Too often a great initiative is started and then because of finances or a change of direction at a school or within the district it loses its momentum and dies. Teachers become frustrated by this and become pessimistic as a result. At times we are our own worst enemy.
How do we facilitate change? By showing how it will be better for the kids and it not an add-on but rather a supplemental strategy. We stand up and answer their questions, respect their knowledge and work with them. We try to make sure that they understand that we are not asking for the whole approach to be change. We provide the time and the collaboration that is needed for them to value the ideas. Sometimes we need to recognize that it is going to take time. Uncomfortable is OK, embarrassment is not.
After having given it more thought I had to reflect on why I am reluctant to change some aspects of my life/personality. Why am I reluctant to conform? For a brief moment I thought I might ask my family, but I was not sure I would be ready to hear their reasons, and my mother very much seems to enjoy sharing stories about us when we were kids and all of the embarrassing things we did. No, this journey is definitely going to be one of self-reflection.
I don't like to be embrassed. I do have great difficulty in putting myself out there. I am mortified to be on stage and have to do anything other than talk into a microphone. Our staff went to a dinner theatre, and because I was the principal, I was chosen to go up on stage in a costume. The routine? No shirt, coconut bra, grass skirt and having to do a striptease. I was so red at first that I probably could have stopped the entire downtown street traffic. I got through, swallowed the little pride that I had at that moment at went on stage and did a weird version of a striptease which one of the staff dutifully recorded for me. So I guess that is lesson one, if you want people to conform to the expectations don't put them in a situation where they are going to be embarrassed. There will be some people who will make it work, but many others may never go back. I fear returning to the dinner theatre because of what I may have to do next time, but I survived and am game.
There have been times where I have come to a cross-roads in my educational belief since the start of my career. There have been a few occasions when I have heard a presentation at a pro-d and thought "This is a load of bs. I would love to see that person in my class trying to do that stuff. Why don't they leave the ivory tower, get their hands dirty and see what teaching is like in the real world." I also know that I was not the first, nor was I the last, to have those types of thoughts in my head. I used to think that was the case with problem solving in math. How can I do this? How much time is this going to take up? There is no way that the parents are going to accept this in Math! Fortunately the prof from SFU, Peter Liljedahl, was very good at convincing. By the time that I was done listening I was converted. It was not a "Thou Shalt" seminar, it was not a "That is old school and wrong the way that you were doing it" type of presentation either. He stood there in the firing line and took the questions, turned them around and convinced a bunch of grade 8 math teachers of the value. End result? I could do it in the class, it was not going to take any more time after I got going then it did in the past and the parents loved it when I took the time to explain it to them. I guess Lesson 2 is, if you want people to change, don't bash them on the head and insinuate that they are teaching in the caveman era, but rather respect what they have done and are doing and show them how this accentuates what they are already doing. It also requires someone to be ready to change.
I guess what is toughest is how to address the question of comfort. What can be done when someone is a comfort zone, has been doing a good job, is well respected by the staff and the teaching community. What right do I have to go into the classroom and tell them to do things differently? I know myself in terms of my habits, they are hard to break. If things have been working well for me then why should I have to change? Do I give time? Do I bring in experts? Do I mandate the pro-d that they must attend? If they do not see the need to change, is forcing going to be effective?
I was reading a great blog entry, 10 things teachers should unlearn, and it made me further reflect on change. If they do not feel the need to change, how to you help them want to unlearn what they have learned? As educational philosophy and theory shifts, there are those who see it as another fad or trend that will shortly go the way of the albatross. In BC the pendulum has shifted in several directions with several examples such as moving from phonics only to whole word approach and settling somewhere in between. I have overheard the conversations along the lines of "Here we go again", "New principal, new agenda", "This is the district's new pet project". Too often a great initiative is started and then because of finances or a change of direction at a school or within the district it loses its momentum and dies. Teachers become frustrated by this and become pessimistic as a result. At times we are our own worst enemy.
How do we facilitate change? By showing how it will be better for the kids and it not an add-on but rather a supplemental strategy. We stand up and answer their questions, respect their knowledge and work with them. We try to make sure that they understand that we are not asking for the whole approach to be change. We provide the time and the collaboration that is needed for them to value the ideas. Sometimes we need to recognize that it is going to take time. Uncomfortable is OK, embarrassment is not.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Is talking about computers a different language?
Sometimes trying to help someone who is not very comfortable around computers is frustrating for both sides. There are things that I take for granted when I am explaining how to do something over the phone. When I pay attention I can almost see the person on the other side just nodding their head and giving me the occasional "yes" or "uh-huh". I have to remember to slow down and do a better job of explaining. In education we have our own language with all kinds of abbreviations, acronyms, and words that appear confusing to those outside of our profession. ICT is no different.
This is something that we really need to remember before we condemn someone for not being tech literate in this day and age. There are all kinds of words and terminology that are nonsensical to an outsider. USBs, ports, Ethernet, fire wire, firewall, source, Google, Delicious, Wikis, Blogs... I wonder if a big part of the solution is removing the fear by explaining what the different parts are. I know how I feel when watching figure skating in the Olympics and they are talking about the different jumps. What is the difference between a lutz and a salchow? I have problems telling the difference between doubles and triples and quadruples. I can tell if they wabble but if it weren't for the announcers I would have no clue.
We need to remember who our audience is. What is the probable knowledge base? It might even be worthwhile doing a KWL (another education acronym) and see what they know. What do they need to know? Watch the lingo and watch the audience. I fear to often we make too many assumptions in these presentations and scare them off. I am not making excuses for those who are unwilling. I have to figure that if my grandfather, when he turned 80 (around 10 years ago) can buy a computer for video-digital editing and make home movies, then there is little or no excuse other than a lack of willingness.
If we want them to join the parade and be a part of 21st century learning then we do have to respect their fears and uncertainty, otherwise they feel as though they are being treated as pariahs. I have not met a teacher who is unwilling, only uncertain as to how and where to begin and this should be our starting point.
This is an email that was sent to me that resonates this idea. Are we talking a different language?
*Subject:* Abbott and Costello Buying a Computer. You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...
If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this: /
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT/*
*/ABBOTT: /*/Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?*
COSTELLO: *Thanks I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer. *
ABBOTT: *Mac?*
COSTELLO: *No, the name's Lou.*
ABBOTT: *Your computer?*
COSTELLO*: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.*
ABBOTT: *Mac?*
COSTELLO: *I told you, my name's Lou.*
ABBOTT: *What about Windows? *
COSTELLO: *Why? Will it get stuffy in here?*
ABBOTT: *Do you want a computer with Windows?*
COSTELLO: *I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?*
ABBOTT: *Wallpaper.*
COSTELLO: *Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.*
ABBOTT: *Software for Windows?*
COSTELLO: *No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?*
ABBOTT: *Office.*
COSTELLO: *Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?*
ABBOTT: *I just did.*
COSTELLO: *You just did what?*
ABBOTT: *Recommend something.*
COSTELLO: *You recommended something?*
ABBOTT: *Yes.*
COSTELLO: *For my office?*
ABBOTT: *Yes.*
COSTELLO: *OK, what did you recommend for my office?*
ABBOTT: *Office.*
COSTELLO: *Yes, for my office!*
ABBOTT: *I recommend Office with Windows.*
COSTELLO: *I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need? *
ABBOTT: *Word.*
COSTELLO: *What word?*
ABBOTT: *Word in Office.*
COSTELLO: *The only word in office is office.*
ABBOTT: *The Word in Office for Windows.*
COSTELLO: *Which word in office for windows?*
ABBOTT: *The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.*
COSTELLO: *I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *That's right. What do you have?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *I need money to track my money?*
ABBOTT: *It comes bundled with your computer.*
COSTELLO: *What's bundled with my computer?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *Money comes with my computer?*
ABBOTT: *Yes. No extra charge.*
COSTELLO: *I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?*
ABBOTT: *One copy.*
COSTELLO: *Isn't it illegal to copy money?*
ABBOTT: *Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.*
COSTELLO: *They can give you a license to copy money?*
ABBOTT: *Why not? THEY OWN IT!*
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: *Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?*
COSTELLO: *How do I turn my computer off?*
ABBOTT: *Click on 'START'............./
This is something that we really need to remember before we condemn someone for not being tech literate in this day and age. There are all kinds of words and terminology that are nonsensical to an outsider. USBs, ports, Ethernet, fire wire, firewall, source, Google, Delicious, Wikis, Blogs... I wonder if a big part of the solution is removing the fear by explaining what the different parts are. I know how I feel when watching figure skating in the Olympics and they are talking about the different jumps. What is the difference between a lutz and a salchow? I have problems telling the difference between doubles and triples and quadruples. I can tell if they wabble but if it weren't for the announcers I would have no clue.
We need to remember who our audience is. What is the probable knowledge base? It might even be worthwhile doing a KWL (another education acronym) and see what they know. What do they need to know? Watch the lingo and watch the audience. I fear to often we make too many assumptions in these presentations and scare them off. I am not making excuses for those who are unwilling. I have to figure that if my grandfather, when he turned 80 (around 10 years ago) can buy a computer for video-digital editing and make home movies, then there is little or no excuse other than a lack of willingness.
If we want them to join the parade and be a part of 21st century learning then we do have to respect their fears and uncertainty, otherwise they feel as though they are being treated as pariahs. I have not met a teacher who is unwilling, only uncertain as to how and where to begin and this should be our starting point.
This is an email that was sent to me that resonates this idea. Are we talking a different language?
*Subject:* Abbott and Costello Buying a Computer. You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...
If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this: /
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT/*
*/ABBOTT: /*/Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?*
COSTELLO: *Thanks I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer. *
ABBOTT: *Mac?*
COSTELLO: *No, the name's Lou.*
ABBOTT: *Your computer?*
COSTELLO*: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.*
ABBOTT: *Mac?*
COSTELLO: *I told you, my name's Lou.*
ABBOTT: *What about Windows? *
COSTELLO: *Why? Will it get stuffy in here?*
ABBOTT: *Do you want a computer with Windows?*
COSTELLO: *I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?*
ABBOTT: *Wallpaper.*
COSTELLO: *Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.*
ABBOTT: *Software for Windows?*
COSTELLO: *No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?*
ABBOTT: *Office.*
COSTELLO: *Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?*
ABBOTT: *I just did.*
COSTELLO: *You just did what?*
ABBOTT: *Recommend something.*
COSTELLO: *You recommended something?*
ABBOTT: *Yes.*
COSTELLO: *For my office?*
ABBOTT: *Yes.*
COSTELLO: *OK, what did you recommend for my office?*
ABBOTT: *Office.*
COSTELLO: *Yes, for my office!*
ABBOTT: *I recommend Office with Windows.*
COSTELLO: *I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need? *
ABBOTT: *Word.*
COSTELLO: *What word?*
ABBOTT: *Word in Office.*
COSTELLO: *The only word in office is office.*
ABBOTT: *The Word in Office for Windows.*
COSTELLO: *Which word in office for windows?*
ABBOTT: *The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.*
COSTELLO: *I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *That's right. What do you have?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *I need money to track my money?*
ABBOTT: *It comes bundled with your computer.*
COSTELLO: *What's bundled with my computer?*
ABBOTT: *Money.*
COSTELLO: *Money comes with my computer?*
ABBOTT: *Yes. No extra charge.*
COSTELLO: *I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?*
ABBOTT: *One copy.*
COSTELLO: *Isn't it illegal to copy money?*
ABBOTT: *Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.*
COSTELLO: *They can give you a license to copy money?*
ABBOTT: *Why not? THEY OWN IT!*
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: *Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?*
COSTELLO: *How do I turn my computer off?*
ABBOTT: *Click on 'START'............./
Monday, September 6, 2010
How Twitter is helping me professionally
I used to wonder what purpose Twitter could serve. I just could not wrap my head around it. I will be honest, I signed for more leisurely reasons. As a proud Canadian hockey fan, I realized that there were a lot of updates coming via twitter. On July 1st every year, the Free Agent season begins and I usually follow that quite closely. Twitter was giving me up to the second updates about the signings and the rumours that were out there. This was my true reason for signing up. As the Free Agent Frenzy started to die down and I was getting a little bored, I started to look up a few colleagues and read some of their postings. This is when I realized the potential.
I did start off as a lurker, looking at blogs and opening up articles that were suggested by colleagues. Reading suggested links and blogs I began to see some of the power. As I lurked further I discovered more people to follow, and I discovered more amazing people from my district. I have always felt that I work for an amazing district, but the opportunity to connect with teachers that I have never met, and might never have known about, is fantastic. Wow were my eyes ever oping up to the education world outside of my building and district.
The other part that I am loving is connecting with teachers and administrators from around Canada, the US and other parts around the world. Every once in a while I get caught up in the microcosm of my school and my district and am unaware of what is happening. The beauty of this is that I now have contacts about libraries, student services, French Immersion, adminstration and so on. There is a good chance that if I need an answer, I will find it faster through Twitter than Google. I have better ways of finding great articles to read and share with my staff. I have been globally connected to an amazing group of people who share my passions, thoughts and struggles. I am learning from others who have a different insight, have different struggles and are just flat out brilliant in their ability to synthesize information.
There are a few great Henry Ford quotes which come to mind
1) Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
2) Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
3) Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently
4) If I should really want to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?
This is what Twitter represents. The fourth one is a bit harsh, but to me it represents that I do not have to know everything, but I probably know enough people that someone will have the answer. At the push of a button I am able to send out my questions to thousands of educators in a microsecond.
I now follow a great group of parents, teachers, principals from my district, my province, my country, my continent and my world. They all have a vested interest in creating the best learning opportunities for our students. I am more aware of issues that they are facing, that other teachers are facing. Through this process I have greatly increased my professional reading and I feel that I will be a better leader in my school as a result. It is not just reading the initial posting of the blogs but also the discussion, differing view points and insight.
As I get more versed in the Twitterverse I am finding even more fantastic blogs, articles and videos. The discovery of hash tags has greatly expanded my universe. Twitter is helping me grow as a professional. It is also doing a great job of keeping me up to the minute in following the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL.
I did start off as a lurker, looking at blogs and opening up articles that were suggested by colleagues. Reading suggested links and blogs I began to see some of the power. As I lurked further I discovered more people to follow, and I discovered more amazing people from my district. I have always felt that I work for an amazing district, but the opportunity to connect with teachers that I have never met, and might never have known about, is fantastic. Wow were my eyes ever oping up to the education world outside of my building and district.
The other part that I am loving is connecting with teachers and administrators from around Canada, the US and other parts around the world. Every once in a while I get caught up in the microcosm of my school and my district and am unaware of what is happening. The beauty of this is that I now have contacts about libraries, student services, French Immersion, adminstration and so on. There is a good chance that if I need an answer, I will find it faster through Twitter than Google. I have better ways of finding great articles to read and share with my staff. I have been globally connected to an amazing group of people who share my passions, thoughts and struggles. I am learning from others who have a different insight, have different struggles and are just flat out brilliant in their ability to synthesize information.
There are a few great Henry Ford quotes which come to mind
1) Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
2) Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
3) Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently
4) If I should really want to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?
This is what Twitter represents. The fourth one is a bit harsh, but to me it represents that I do not have to know everything, but I probably know enough people that someone will have the answer. At the push of a button I am able to send out my questions to thousands of educators in a microsecond.
I now follow a great group of parents, teachers, principals from my district, my province, my country, my continent and my world. They all have a vested interest in creating the best learning opportunities for our students. I am more aware of issues that they are facing, that other teachers are facing. Through this process I have greatly increased my professional reading and I feel that I will be a better leader in my school as a result. It is not just reading the initial posting of the blogs but also the discussion, differing view points and insight.
As I get more versed in the Twitterverse I am finding even more fantastic blogs, articles and videos. The discovery of hash tags has greatly expanded my universe. Twitter is helping me grow as a professional. It is also doing a great job of keeping me up to the minute in following the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Mixed Tapes and Mixed Messages
I was talking with a friend the other day about how much music has changed and starting thinking about how music represents the speed of change in technology. The phonograph was invented sometime in the 1870s and was around for over a hundred years, and many people still swear by their vinyl. I remember as a kid being given my own Fisher Price turn table and listening to my read-along books, buying Billy Joel, Duran Duran and ABBA albums. Cassette tapes became more common and then I entered my teen-aged years and mixed-tapes were quite the labour of love.
The amount of time and planning that went into making a mixed tape was insane! I remember getting all of the cassette tapes out, planning what I wanted to be on that tape, was the tape for me or was it for that someone special... Fast forwarding, rewinding, cuing, redoing and then dubbing. While the song was being recorded I would start writing out the song on a sheet of paper in case I had to change the order because I ran out of space on the tape and had to flip it over to the other side. Once the tape was done there was the matter of writing on the casette tape cover the song list. Cd's made the mixed tapes a little easier, but man o man did burning ever make the art of the mixed tape disappear. Going into iTunes, creating the mix, burning and printing the CD cover took less time then doing one song on a tape. Now with the iPod I have so many mixes and am not limited by time constraints at all.
I have not bought a single CD since iTunes was launched in Canada. My time might be off, but basically the record player was around for over 100 years, the tape deck for around 25, cd players are slowly being phased out so they made it about 15 years and now everything is digital (8-track is in there somewhere in the timeline, but I feel as though it went the way of the Betamax videos). The speed of change is amazing. I was asking a couple of grade 4s to check out our ghetto blasters and I gave them a cd and a tape. They looked at the tape with a very puzzled look and asked me, rather sheepishly, how does it work?
The speed of change in computers has not given people the time to adapt, unlike the music players. There was not really a precursor for people to adjust to. We got our first computer when I was in grade 6 or 7 and to be able to do a e with an accent required about 6 key strokes before and about the same after. The dot matrix printer was loud, long and a pain, especially if you wanted to bold or underline. The floppy disks were the size of the old singles records and loading a program onto the computer required about 7 disks and a lot of patience. Not many people bothered.
We have many people who have only embraced a part of the power of IT. Doing searches on the Internet and checking email is the online repertoire for many and using Word is about it. The generation gap has never been more evident. Once computer labs were in place we put a specialist in and IT was taught completely separately from other areas. IT had its own curriculum and prescribed learning outcomes. There were specific learning outcomes that students were expected to learn and teachers were expected to teach. ICT took another turn in our province and it was no longer a separate entity on its own, but it was never really announced. A lot of people were surprised that it no longer stood on its own. This is where the mixed messages seem to come.
Everywhere I look people are talking about the amazing abilities of students as well as their learning needs. There are videos being made demonstrating the needs such as the video by New Brunswick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjJg9NfTXos , A vision of K-12 students http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=fvw and Education Today and Tomorrow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&feature=related.
When ICT was expected to be integrated, where was the push? In comparison to problem solving in Math, the ICT changes have been rather muted. When the BC Math curriculum changed to remove problem solving as a separate unit and was instead to be integrated into the day to day teaching there were a couple of key statements added to the Rationale of the Mathematics K-7 2007 IRP (Integrated Resource Package: )
1) "Numeracy can be defined as the combination of mathematical knowledge, problem solving and communication skills required by all persons to function successfully within our technological world. Numeracy is more than knowing about numbers and number operations. (British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers 1998)
2) "The learning environment should value and respect all students’ experiences and ways of thinking, so that learners are comfortable taking intellectual risks, asking questions and posing conjectures. Students need to explore problem-solving situations in order to develop personal strategies and become mathematically literate. Learners must realize that it is acceptable to solve problems in different ways and that solutions mayvary. Positive learning experiences build self-confidenceand develop attitudes that value learning mathematics."
These two statements and the push by the ministry and districts with pro-d, textbooks and other resources made it clear that it was expected that numeracy was going to be a part of the day to day teaching of math. The technology component, in my opinion, has not been as clearly stated nor pushed.
The English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7 (2006) IRP states in its introduction that "The development of literacy is a key focus of this curriculum. The rapid expansion in the use of technology and media has expanded the concept of what it is to be literate. Literacy today involves being able to understand and process oral, written, electronic, and multi-media forms of communication. This curriculum acknowledges that students learn and develop at different rates and that the time frame for literacy development will vary."
The Science K to 7 (2005) document states "Diverse experiences in a Science program will provide students with many opportunities to understand their interrelationships among science, technology, and society that will affect their personal lives, their careers, and their future." The Social Studies K to 7 (2006) has essentially no mention of technology at all.
There is a resource package that is available called Information Technology Resource Document (K – 7) that was published in 1996 and on the very first page states: "This document is available only as a resource for teachers and is not an IRP. Neither is it listed on the Education Program Guide Order. It is still expected that students will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes described in this document but it is expected that the teaching and learning will be integrated across all other subject areas. Information and communications technology is a tool to support and enhance student learning. The learning outcomes described in this document should be incorporated into all of the learning students are engaged in.
The K-7 Information Technology resource document can also serve to assist schools and districts with requirements for school and district technology plans."
I am finding that the technology piece is a mixed message. There are expectations that it will be integrated without a clear direction. The only document available is something that is 15 years old and not really representative of what can be done today. Elementary students see a lot of kidpix and typing tutor and the infrastructure, equipment and priorities are as diverse as the students. Our district has very good IT support, with IT support teachers who are incredibly hard working and have great ideas and resources. We do have our limitations due to financial constraints, but for the most part the opportunities are there.
The challenge that I see is that there are no clear learning outcomes so some schools are uncertain as to where to start. If they do not have a person who is comfortable with IT it makes it even more challenging. If the computers are old and slow or the Internet connections are weak, or even worse a combination of both, then the motivation is going to be seriously wanting. Do we need a scope and sequence? Do we need a mandate?
The beauty of teacher autonomy is that it offers different ways of presenting the curriculum to the students so that different learning styles are tapped throughout their academic lives. This allows for greater creativity in the teaching of the outcomes and I feel offers a greater opportunity to make important connections. The downfall of autonomy is that if it is not prescribed it does not necessarily have to be done. Is typing out projects on the computer in word or doing a project on PowerPoint sufficient at the elementary level to state that the needs are being met? How do we make technology a priority when the mandate is a mixed message?
The amount of time and planning that went into making a mixed tape was insane! I remember getting all of the cassette tapes out, planning what I wanted to be on that tape, was the tape for me or was it for that someone special... Fast forwarding, rewinding, cuing, redoing and then dubbing. While the song was being recorded I would start writing out the song on a sheet of paper in case I had to change the order because I ran out of space on the tape and had to flip it over to the other side. Once the tape was done there was the matter of writing on the casette tape cover the song list. Cd's made the mixed tapes a little easier, but man o man did burning ever make the art of the mixed tape disappear. Going into iTunes, creating the mix, burning and printing the CD cover took less time then doing one song on a tape. Now with the iPod I have so many mixes and am not limited by time constraints at all.
I have not bought a single CD since iTunes was launched in Canada. My time might be off, but basically the record player was around for over 100 years, the tape deck for around 25, cd players are slowly being phased out so they made it about 15 years and now everything is digital (8-track is in there somewhere in the timeline, but I feel as though it went the way of the Betamax videos). The speed of change is amazing. I was asking a couple of grade 4s to check out our ghetto blasters and I gave them a cd and a tape. They looked at the tape with a very puzzled look and asked me, rather sheepishly, how does it work?
The speed of change in computers has not given people the time to adapt, unlike the music players. There was not really a precursor for people to adjust to. We got our first computer when I was in grade 6 or 7 and to be able to do a e with an accent required about 6 key strokes before and about the same after. The dot matrix printer was loud, long and a pain, especially if you wanted to bold or underline. The floppy disks were the size of the old singles records and loading a program onto the computer required about 7 disks and a lot of patience. Not many people bothered.
We have many people who have only embraced a part of the power of IT. Doing searches on the Internet and checking email is the online repertoire for many and using Word is about it. The generation gap has never been more evident. Once computer labs were in place we put a specialist in and IT was taught completely separately from other areas. IT had its own curriculum and prescribed learning outcomes. There were specific learning outcomes that students were expected to learn and teachers were expected to teach. ICT took another turn in our province and it was no longer a separate entity on its own, but it was never really announced. A lot of people were surprised that it no longer stood on its own. This is where the mixed messages seem to come.
Everywhere I look people are talking about the amazing abilities of students as well as their learning needs. There are videos being made demonstrating the needs such as the video by New Brunswick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjJg9NfTXos , A vision of K-12 students http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=fvw and Education Today and Tomorrow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&feature=related.
When ICT was expected to be integrated, where was the push? In comparison to problem solving in Math, the ICT changes have been rather muted. When the BC Math curriculum changed to remove problem solving as a separate unit and was instead to be integrated into the day to day teaching there were a couple of key statements added to the Rationale of the Mathematics K-7 2007 IRP (Integrated Resource Package: )
1) "Numeracy can be defined as the combination of mathematical knowledge, problem solving and communication skills required by all persons to function successfully within our technological world. Numeracy is more than knowing about numbers and number operations. (British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers 1998)
2) "The learning environment should value and respect all students’ experiences and ways of thinking, so that learners are comfortable taking intellectual risks, asking questions and posing conjectures. Students need to explore problem-solving situations in order to develop personal strategies and become mathematically literate. Learners must realize that it is acceptable to solve problems in different ways and that solutions mayvary. Positive learning experiences build self-confidenceand develop attitudes that value learning mathematics."
These two statements and the push by the ministry and districts with pro-d, textbooks and other resources made it clear that it was expected that numeracy was going to be a part of the day to day teaching of math. The technology component, in my opinion, has not been as clearly stated nor pushed.
The English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7 (2006) IRP states in its introduction that "The development of literacy is a key focus of this curriculum. The rapid expansion in the use of technology and media has expanded the concept of what it is to be literate. Literacy today involves being able to understand and process oral, written, electronic, and multi-media forms of communication. This curriculum acknowledges that students learn and develop at different rates and that the time frame for literacy development will vary."
The Science K to 7 (2005) document states "Diverse experiences in a Science program will provide students with many opportunities to understand their interrelationships among science, technology, and society that will affect their personal lives, their careers, and their future." The Social Studies K to 7 (2006) has essentially no mention of technology at all.
There is a resource package that is available called Information Technology Resource Document (K – 7) that was published in 1996 and on the very first page states: "This document is available only as a resource for teachers and is not an IRP. Neither is it listed on the Education Program Guide Order. It is still expected that students will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes described in this document but it is expected that the teaching and learning will be integrated across all other subject areas. Information and communications technology is a tool to support and enhance student learning. The learning outcomes described in this document should be incorporated into all of the learning students are engaged in.
The K-7 Information Technology resource document can also serve to assist schools and districts with requirements for school and district technology plans."
I am finding that the technology piece is a mixed message. There are expectations that it will be integrated without a clear direction. The only document available is something that is 15 years old and not really representative of what can be done today. Elementary students see a lot of kidpix and typing tutor and the infrastructure, equipment and priorities are as diverse as the students. Our district has very good IT support, with IT support teachers who are incredibly hard working and have great ideas and resources. We do have our limitations due to financial constraints, but for the most part the opportunities are there.
The challenge that I see is that there are no clear learning outcomes so some schools are uncertain as to where to start. If they do not have a person who is comfortable with IT it makes it even more challenging. If the computers are old and slow or the Internet connections are weak, or even worse a combination of both, then the motivation is going to be seriously wanting. Do we need a scope and sequence? Do we need a mandate?
The beauty of teacher autonomy is that it offers different ways of presenting the curriculum to the students so that different learning styles are tapped throughout their academic lives. This allows for greater creativity in the teaching of the outcomes and I feel offers a greater opportunity to make important connections. The downfall of autonomy is that if it is not prescribed it does not necessarily have to be done. Is typing out projects on the computer in word or doing a project on PowerPoint sufficient at the elementary level to state that the needs are being met? How do we make technology a priority when the mandate is a mixed message?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Giving a voice
It started rather simply enough. There was a 2 for 1 sale of smart boards and I went for it. My student services teacher is the assistive technology go-to person for the district and she had some great ideas for how it could be used. What I saw in the student services area amazed me. We have a largely non-verbal autistic boy who was able to demonstrate his writing and ability to read much more concretely than before. The whiteboard essentially took away the difficulties with fine motor skills for writing and the verbal part of reading. Watching him write on the smart board was moving. We were now able to better see his strengths and abilities and minimize his challenges. His progress has been amazing. He is much more communicative than before, and I also feel that he is far less frustrated. Our SEAs have embraced the technology and now work daily on the smart board with our students. They have become engaged learners and are enthusiastic when it is time to come down to the student services area.
A staff member who also has an autistic child has been sharing about the transformation that she has seen in her daughter. She has seen what the smart board and laptops allow some of our students to do. Her daughter is non-verbal and has struggled to share her knowledge and I believe that seeing the transformation of some of our students she felt more comfortable with technology in the hands of students. When her daughter was at her Occupational Therapy session she began tracing objects in coffee grinds and then began writing, perfectly. She had not written previously. Suddenly three words written by a 9 year old have rarely ever conveyed so much and created such an emotional response. She wrote to her mother "I love you". Her mother was amazed that she was able to write all of the family members' names correctly, that her spelling was perfect and that she had a large vocabulary. Through Facebook over the summer I have been getting updates on her daughter's progress and it is amazing. She is now sending her mother emails and writing on the computer. She may still be non-verbal but she has found her voice.
Why is technology so important in schools? It gives students a voice that they may not have had before. It gives an opportunity for students who may have been limited in their ability to express themselves a new media in which to convey their knowledge. It is an opportunity to see not what they cannot do but what they can do and in some instances it can bring you to tears.
If inclusion is to work, then we need to have a greater focus on technology in the classrooms as well. We need to find resources in order to put laptops or something akin to laptops in the hands of some of our struggling students in order to facilitate their ability to convey their knowledge. Opportunities such as Tumblebooks, Virtual manipulatives and imovie allow for students to demonstrate their knowledge without being hampered by their reading or writing struggles. Struggling readers are able to engage in the same books, struggling writers are able to show their math comprehension without pencil and paper and demonstrate their understanding orally through multimedia. There are resources out there that teachers can access without having to reinvent the wheel for individual children.
We will never know what students are capable of unless we find a way to minimize their weaknesses and harness their strengths.
A staff member who also has an autistic child has been sharing about the transformation that she has seen in her daughter. She has seen what the smart board and laptops allow some of our students to do. Her daughter is non-verbal and has struggled to share her knowledge and I believe that seeing the transformation of some of our students she felt more comfortable with technology in the hands of students. When her daughter was at her Occupational Therapy session she began tracing objects in coffee grinds and then began writing, perfectly. She had not written previously. Suddenly three words written by a 9 year old have rarely ever conveyed so much and created such an emotional response. She wrote to her mother "I love you". Her mother was amazed that she was able to write all of the family members' names correctly, that her spelling was perfect and that she had a large vocabulary. Through Facebook over the summer I have been getting updates on her daughter's progress and it is amazing. She is now sending her mother emails and writing on the computer. She may still be non-verbal but she has found her voice.
Why is technology so important in schools? It gives students a voice that they may not have had before. It gives an opportunity for students who may have been limited in their ability to express themselves a new media in which to convey their knowledge. It is an opportunity to see not what they cannot do but what they can do and in some instances it can bring you to tears.
If inclusion is to work, then we need to have a greater focus on technology in the classrooms as well. We need to find resources in order to put laptops or something akin to laptops in the hands of some of our struggling students in order to facilitate their ability to convey their knowledge. Opportunities such as Tumblebooks, Virtual manipulatives and imovie allow for students to demonstrate their knowledge without being hampered by their reading or writing struggles. Struggling readers are able to engage in the same books, struggling writers are able to show their math comprehension without pencil and paper and demonstrate their understanding orally through multimedia. There are resources out there that teachers can access without having to reinvent the wheel for individual children.
We will never know what students are capable of unless we find a way to minimize their weaknesses and harness their strengths.
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