Rebranding History

Rebranding HistoryWoke up this morning and heard 'crackdown' again...this time on NPR.While having a conversation last night during the Olympics Opening Ceremony, a friend expressed disappointment with NBC for the treatment of Tiananmen Square in the historical overview of China. The word NBC employed to describe Tiananmen was: crackdown. Webster's definition of crackdown: as to take positive regulatory or disciplinary action. If that is the correct definition of Tiananmen, I must have watched different video footage when I was 15 years old. If you want a refresher...there are endless videos and readings online. But make no mistake, there is nothing positive about what you will see. Tiananmen was a time when 'democracy was sweeping the globe', the Wall was crumbling, perestroika was working and the people of China were ready to have a voice. As the days clicked by in 1989 and the people began to crowd into Tiananmen Square, I remember thinking that this could be their moment. But all of that came to a halt on June 4th when the tanks rolled down the street.Fast forward fourteen years when I had the extreme privilege of visiting China during the summer of 2003. We traveled to many places in China but I knew that when I got to Beijing, I wanted to see one thing for myself. The city was quiet that morning and I wanted to get there without the crowd I was traveling with, to have a moment before the hawkers and tourists and lines rolled in. I needed to be there, I needed to stand there. At one point I turned around and looked back towards Mao's tomb and my mind flashed to the scene of the military coming down the street. It was unchanged, I could see the tanks in my mind, and I was frozen. This was a place where a generation of people tried to fight against oppression of action and thought, and lost. This was the scene of a massacre, not a crackdown.Possibly most upsetting about the media's word choice in using crackdown is that it adopts the Chinese government perspective of Tiananmen, rather than the perspective from the rest of the world as we watched. When the media starts to adopt the language of the Communist government to describe a catastrophic violent action against free speech and action, we should all take notice and question the re-branding of a staggering human rights nightmare.Words can be incredibly insidious in changing the memory of an event. The use of the word crackdown is one of those moments and, although I wholeheartedly want the Olympics to give the Chinese people their voice, I think much would be lost if the global collective culture began to actually think of Tiananmen as nothing more than a government action to bring order, rather than the massacre that it was. Could be an interesting moment to parse out in the classroom with students about the 'smoothing' of history over time by using vocabulary differently... this unfortunately is not the only example.

Growth, transitions and new challenges!

Tomorrow I attend yet another technology conference and once again I will present.  To be completely honest I started presenting at these conferences because if I presented I attended for free.  This seems like somewhat of a silly reason to present at conferences, but, the fact remains that in the years of limited budgets and no money to pay for such extravagances, I wanted to go and presenting allowed for that to happen. 

My technology use prior to 2005 was primarily at the classroom level using tools and producing projects with my students.  Technology was certainly a part of the classroom as a learning tool, but not as a tool for my own professional growth as an educator.  Then in 2005, David Warlick came to Flagstaff and he did what he does best; assure a crowd of people that there is this really powerful collaborative network of blogs and wikis just waiting to be used for a plethora of learning and creativity.  I started an RSS feeder that day.  The learning curve became steep from there and I was on a new path, wasn’t exactly sure where I was going all the time, but there I was nonetheless. 

The next year I am at the AzTEA conference in Flagstaff, I met Hall Davidson and he did what he does best; amaze a crowd of teachers with the power of media and expression of ideas through a multitude of technology tools and gadgets.  Shortly after, I became a STAR educator with the Discovery Educator Network.  The fast forward button on my life has been on ever since that point.

One of the blogs that was added to my feeder early on was Practical Theory by Chris Lehmann by way of Christian Long’s think:lab.  For the better part of a year I read, I commented, I thought and thought and thought.  Then the connections started to get closer and more meaningful.  Real connections developed between these people I had only known online and in small pictures next to bios and names.  Last August when the first inklings of EduCon started to come to light, I knew I was going.  It didn’t really matter when exactly it was or how much it was going to cost me.  I was going.
   
The visit to EduCon and SLA solidified within me a certainty that I think I had been coming to for quite some time.  I needed to work in a place with people that ‘get’ it with regard to students and learning.  Although many of my revelations and connections were at tech conferences and online, at the end of the day I need to be in a real space with educators that approach education with a similar philosophy and curricular approach.  By walking through the door of the Science Leadership Academy I literally opened a new door on my career path. 

This summer I move to Philadelphia and to the Science Leadership Academy.

The move didn’t have to be to SLA (although that was my first choice ;), but I need to be in a place that is more true to the teacher that I am striving to become.  You see I have much to learn, I need to grow and I am hoping to a find a ‘ripe environment’ at SLA.

The point of this little trip down memory lane is to say that this is all possible because of my network.  Sitting in Flagstaff while playing in the mountains, I was able to reach out, build connections, make friends and learn a ton.  There are no excuses for staying hold up in your classroom with the door shut or feel like the struggles you feel in the classroom are yours alone.  There is a dynamic, enthusiastic and resourceful group of people just waiting for you to join in on all the shenanigans. 

For me, this is only the beginning and it is all thanks to my network.

Personal Economics

As a part of my teaching philosophy, I believe strongly in empowering students to discover their learning, developing life skills and encouraging positive decision-making.  Keeping that in mind, several years ago my teaching team wanted to come up with a method for developing a yearlong program that bridged the distance between all of our classes and reinforced the basic team-wide goals for the students.  Our result was not revolutionary or all that original, but we developed something that was manageable and well designed for our particular situation that also reflected our overarching educational philosophy.  This was intentionally crafted to be very straightforward and simple as this is used with four different teachers  and 130 middle school students.

Goals
1.    Reinforce the habits of being a responsible student.

• Credits
  • Money earned for good grades - quarterly 
  • Money earned for having perfect attendance – bi-weekly
  • Money for a parent signature in agendas - weekly
  • Money for books read
  • Money for participating in special community service events

• Debits
  • Money deducted for being tardy
  • Money deducted for losing checkbook register
  • Money deducted for a hall pass   

2.    Introduce the concepts of a personal economics.

• Credits
• Debits
• Consequences for overdrawing account
• Benefits of saving money

3.    Provide incentives for supporting the greater community.

• Throughout the school year we have community service events in which we encourage students to take part.
• For instance, during the food drive, they would have the possibility of receiving credits based on the number of food items they collected.

Process

1. Each student staples a blank ‘check register’ into his or her student agenda.
2. The first of every month one teacher would ‘pay’ the students a credit.  At that time, the balances were checked and if any student had lost their agenda or overdrawn their account, they were assigned a lunch detention. 
3. Bi-monthly the students receive payment for two weeks of perfect attendance
4. Quarterly the students received a bonus for getting good grades.
5. Extra pages of the check register available as needed.  It is important for each teacher to have copies of the register pages on hand.
6. Balances are verified the last week of school.
7. At the end of the year students gather in the commons area for a large auction.

Challenges

• Teacher transience
• Consistency of use/implementation
• Students fail to bring the student agendas to school or lose them
• Use of instructional time for salary, checking balances, etc.

Since we are a multi-age looping team of students, there are both 7th and 8th graders on the team.  Often times the 7th graders are irresponsible with the registers and use up all the money on hall passes or lost registers.  The 8th graders are much more tuned into the balance in the register because they sat through the auction the previous year and know opportunity awaits them.  It became evident is that the benefits of the program were best seen in year two.  My proposed solution if I only had the students for one instructional year is to conduct two smaller auctions to instill that saver mentality.

The concept of money is slippery for students.  When conducting this activity one can really start to see what the natural tendencies of a student are with regard to long term goals.  Most students want to have a large balance going into the auction, but do not seem to make choices that will yield that result.  The students that are the savers in the group use their hall time wisely and make sure to get the easy money, like the agenda signatures.  In addition, when a student wants a hall pass, it takes the pressure off the teacher to let the student go or not, because no money means no hall pass.  If they have forgotten their agenda or have no money, they have no flexibility for hall passes.  This mirrors the real life reality of being out of money and not being able to do whatever you want. 

The credit crisis in America should give rise to a larger conversation about teaching and practicing the skills of personal economics in a much more deliberate and meaningful way for students.  The lack of money sense and restraint has contributed to the current national money debacle.  There are some very simple but effective ways to bring basic concepts and habits of practice to our young people.  This has to be one of the most relevant lessons that can be taught to all students and KNOW that they will need it as the years pass.

*** The Personal Economics program was developed by the fabulous teaching team of Barry George, Kathie Quigley and Amy Smith (and me of course).***

***This whole post came out of a great twitter conversation with Wes Fryer this morning about economics education.***

Something worth doing...

In the past week I have spent much of my days attempting to be useful, with my energy and my time.  These are not necessarily easy things to do while trying to teach full-time and pretend to have a 'life'.  In the past week I have worked about two days for Grand Canyon Youth (my favorite non-profit), bought into the Give One, Get One Program from OLPC and launched a program at school to raise money for Dr. Jessie Stone to purchase mosquito nets for use in Uganda.  I believe strongly in giving when you are able in terms of both time and money.  Although I don't have a ton of extra in either category, I make it work when there is something to believe in, something worth doing.  Yesterday my students watched Nomads: Women of the Wandering Whitewater Tribe in class.  This was one of the films shown at the Grand Canyon Youth Film Festival from last weekend.  In the documentary there is a 15 year old girl, who is a professional kayaker, that talks about giving up roughly $3000 of her winnings to support a doctor's salary and remodel two school rooms in Uganda.  I love watching students struggle to understand that, in fact, the power of a dollar (although worth less in some regions of the world), goes a long, long way in the developing world.  So, our latest project is to raise enough money to purchase 100 mosquito nets to Dr. Stone in Uganda AND look to make a PSA to encourage other teenagers to look outside themselves to see what they have to give... be it time or money!  Stay tuned for PSA's in the near future.

Students will be able to...

As the result of a recent requirement in my district, we are being asked to write both content and language objectives each day, post them for the class and recite them at the beginning of class.  Although I am naturally repelled by things that are formulaic, this is something that, in theory, I can wrap my head around.  The part that I am struggling to deal with, though, is that each objective is supposed to start with the phrase, "students will be able to" or SWBAT as has been shortened by a vast majority of teachers. 

Now, there are exactly two pieces of this that rub me the wrong way.

1. The SWBAT phrase negates the teacher as learner within the classroom and furthers the 'us vs. them' mentality. 
2. SWBAT is plain and simply boring.

So, as a means of complying with the spirit of the requirement, I have been devising new ways to introduce the content and language objectives.  Here are some examples:

• Today for our learning enjoyment we will...
• In order to expand our gray matter today we will...
• Because we just can't get enough knowledge today we will...
• In an attempt to add to our already voluminous mental capacity today we will....

Now, I admit, some of this is meant to be silly, but if I am going to list something on the board everyday, it just can't start with SWBAT.  The very acronym'izing' of the phrase shows how little the words actually mean to the overall message.  So I have a request... I am in need of some other starters to make it through the 130 school days... 

YouTube and CNN Democratic Debate

Tonight I pulled into Williston,North Dakota just in time for the airing of the Democratic debate on CNN.  As a vociferous follower of all things political and a self acclaimed tech geek, I was in awe at the format for the debate this evening.  Throughout the past fifteen years I have watched many debates spanning all parties and political affiliation.  This debate brought a new tone to the conversation at the debate.  The average Americans featured as the questioners were willing to go on the record asking the incredibly difficult questions that Americans want answered.  There is something about watching people from their living rooms, questioning the leading candidates in the election.  The participatory nature of the format and the ubiquitous presence of YouTube have launched debates into a completely new realm.  Previously, the questions for debates came from a very one dimensional space hatched from the pundits, reporters and ‘experts’.  Occasionally, a town hall format had been used, but even then there is a limit to who could participate based on geography or economy.  We have crossed into a new era of interaction between those candidates previously insulated from the publicly broadcast interaction with the candidates. 

I will watch with a keen eye and listen with an attentive ear to the commentary that follows this debate format.  I am incredibly interested to see the changes that will occur between the Democratic debate this evening and the Republican debate that will follow on September 17th.  Democracy is about people having conversations about the issues of the time WITH the individuals elected to represent these interests.  Technologies like YouTube allow for a massive nation, both in population and acreage, to connect, converse and comment in a way that has not been possible to date.

As a Social Studies teacher, this debate is EXACTLY the type of teaching resource that I plan to use at the beginning of the school year, to drive home the point that there are powerful conversations to be had in the global community and that you need not have a pocket stuffed with money to gain access to the direct election conversation.  Civic participation has hit new lows over the past few years and I look to technologies like YouTube to draw people back to the conversation that we desperately need to be having as a democratic nation.  Only through vigorous dialogue and careful questioning can the people of a democratic nation stay attentive, involved and engaged.  Social networking sites can and will change the very fiber of American elections and have the potential to become great change agents towards a more perfect union. 

Summer Vacation

  For the past few years the end of the school year has meant one thing... getting on the road!  In the past three summers I have toured and taught in China, driven cross country in the US and studied and traveled in South Africa.  When the end of this school year approached I once again started to feel the pull to get going.  Last week I did indeed get started and it was lovely.  The best part about traveling in the US for me is that I have friends all over the place.  Night one was spent in Montrose, CO (picture above is from nearby Telluride) with my friend Meghan Rowe, Science teacher at Delta High School.  She is somewhat new to the profession and I had a fantastic time chatting with her about education, life in Colorado and her upcoming nuptuals!  I actually made her late for Tech Camp by gabbing so long Thursday morning. 

Thursday found me driving a new route home to Wisconsin.  Driving from Montrose to Colorado Springs wound me past mountains and rivers only known to me as names on maps.  There is something that literally takes my breath away in the mountains and if there is anyplace in the world that I feel at home it is in the mountains.  I have a new goal to get on the Arkansas River yet this summer.  This was a great day and for the first time in a long time I shut everything off (except the car) and just drove; no radio, no cell phone, no nothing! Bliss.

I saw western Kansas in the best possible light, darkness, and then rolled in very late to Lawrence, KS... where my teaching career began.  I had plans to see some friends (Scott and Kylee Sharp) for an hour or so and then get on the road for Wisconsin.  Well, one hour turned into five and as far as I am concerned I could have stayed even longer.  There are people in your life that you can go long stretches without seeing, but when you do it is like hitting the play button after pausing it the last time you were there.  Meeting their two beautiful children and discussing their experiences in the classroom was truly wonderful. 

As the time was approaching that I absolutely had to get going Kylee's phone rang and she didn't recognize the number so she let it go to voicemail.  Then Scott's phone rang with the same number and when he answered it was another old friend from when I lived in Lawernce, Laird Riddell.  He was calling to share some amazing news that he would be taking part in a three year round the world sailing trip focused on bringing the stories, experiences and sights to classrooms all around the world.  The organization sponsoring the trip is Reach the World and looks like an online learning experience that I will be paying attentio to as they prepare to sail in the fall.  After the phone call we said our goodbyes and I hit the road for my least favorite part of the drive, Iowa. 

The best part of getting in the car was that I was reminded of how many fantastic people I know in my life, many of whom are dedicated teachers and quite a few are choosing to have children that are truly special. 

There is still much driving and thinking to do over the summer as I will leave Wisconsin at the end of July headed for Glacier National Park, Jackson, WY and then back to Colorado.  At the last possible minute I will be rolling back into Flagstaff for the start of the school year.  Travel revives my perspective, opens my eyes and reinvigorates my desire to learn, explore and grow.  Ahhhhh, summer... so good!!!

Change it up a little...

These two symbols play a daily part in my professional development... blogs and podcasts are two of the most exercised parts of my information gathering pursuits.  So it is in honor of these two icons that I offer a suggestion... change it up a little.  Yesterday I found myself digging through new podcasts, weeding out ones I didn't seem to gravitate to and decided to do the same with my bloglines account.  Summer isn't just for weeding and planting in the garden, it applies to our digital lives as well.  Enjoy!

The Joy of Graduation

June 1^st, 2007 goes down as one of my most wonderful days of being a teacher.  As I sat quietly and listened as the names for graduation were read, I actually had to look twice… twice to the program and twice to the stage.  Walking across was a young man that I hadn’t seen in three and a half years.  He entered my classroom as a 15 year old 8^th grader with near perfect attendance, honor roll grades and a smile.  After it was evident that he was beyond the middle school, I looked into his file and spoke at length with him about how he ended up with three years of a two year middle school program.  The story was long and lackluster, but the end result was a young man clearly ready to move onto the high school, but stuck in the middle.  The dropout rate for Hispanic boys in the community is embarrassingly high and I knew that if he didn’t get going in the high school, his chances were getting worse by the day. 

I set about trying to get him moved to the high school… and this is not an easy task.  The high schools do not want to take these students for a variety of reasons.  It took awhile, but I kept pushing and he was allowed to move to the high school at semester.  Fast forward three and a half years… there he was crossing the stage in a cap and gown.  After the hats were thrown and the balloons let go, I worked my way to the floor to shake hands with former students.  Seeing this particular one was high on the list of ‘must sees’.  I tapped him on the shoulder, shook his hand, gave him a hug and let him know how proud I was of him… but could hardly get anything out because he spun towards his Mom and said, “Mom, this is the one… this is the teacher that got me into high school”.  At which point his mother snapped a picture of the two of us. It was over in a second as the throngs of people pushed and pulled to get close to their grads.  Short and sweet never made more sense than in that instant.

Attending Graduation

Currently I am in between graduations in Flagstaff.  I have the distinct pleasure of having taught a number of students attending two different high schools.  Here is the thing... I am one of the only teachers from my middle school that goes to the graduation ceremonies. I stood on a chair yesterday in front of 130 students and reminded them that there were 130 students in those chairs four years ago that I was going to watch walk across the stage at graduation today and I make the same promise to them that I made four years ago.  "I will see you there, at the Dome, walking across the stage and finishing what I was able to be a part of for two years out of the 13 years of school".  We all should feel compelled to commit to being there to watch those students that rolled through our classrooms take that final step in their K-12 experience.  One graduation down and one to go.... makes me realize all over again why I choose this job... it's just too good!

Post River Trip Let Down

Returning from a trip on the water with students is hard, particularly hard when the trip went as well as it did.  School just never feels the same when we get back.  This is the list of quotes I love hearing from students since we got off the river....

1.  How will we ever be able to go back to school now?

2.  I sat down to watch TV last night and I was totally bored

3.  Can we go hiking more when we get back to Flagstaff?

4.  I really liked playing in the mud.

5.  Remember that time I almost stepped on the rattlesnake?

6.  School should always be outside.

7.  Before going on this, I didn't really think I liked sleeping outside.

8.  When can I do this again?

I am in the process of making a montage video, burning up all the pictures for each student, printing nice 8 X 10 group pictures, making thank you cards for the guides and organizing the post-trip party.... phew.  I will post a link to the wonderful pictures as soon as I get them uploaded!   

Kids and the Outdoors

There are very few perfect moments in the course of the school year, especially at the end.  The past four days probably qualify as some of the most perfect days with students.  Most people that I told I was spending four days on the river with 20 middle school students thought I was nuts!  What they don't know and what most people fail to realize is that the outdoors have a transformative effect on kids.  We ask them to sit in desks and soak information for an insane amount of hours each year, hoping that straight rows, 'good textbooks' and the proper discipline model will accomplish the goal (which seems to be high test scores).  But, if you were on my trip the last four days you would rethink everything about the nature of learning and kids.  Coming back from excusions like this become harder and harder because I KNOW without a doubt that kids are too patterned, regulated and standardized at school.  I KNOW that there is a better way to learn than sit and get.  I KNOW that I want to be a part of something that allows kids to learn by experience, connected to that which they are learning about (as much as humanly possible).  Nature has a way of bringing out the essence of a person and I was lucky enough these past few days to be part of a transformative moment for everyone involved in the process!  A special shout out to our PHENOMENAL guides... Pam, Jeri, Jerry, Aaron, Julia and Mark.  A monumental debt of gratitude to Angela for taking personal time to accompany and assist the group.  Finally, to the fabulous GCY staff... Emma, Reid and Chantal... we would not have been able to do it without you!

Grand Canyon Youth and the San Juan River

20 Eighth Graders + 2 Teachers + 5 River Guides + 4 days + 1 River = PRICELESS

Will be back from the trip on Tuesday... we are all in need of serious 'hydro' therapy!

(Brought to us by the most wonderful non profit in Flagstaff... Grand Canyon Youth!)

Bullying...

Thanks to Steve Dembo over at Teach42 for the link to the Hero in the Hallway video.

After a particularly long day at work dealing with a situation involving bullying, this video sums up what is really going on and what I would like to see happen to empower our kids to feel safe and welcome in their own schools.  This is a problem that cannot seem to receive enough attention.  Kids learn what we teach them and I fear in the day and age of high stakes testing we have forgotten to teach our kids how to be human, to care for one another, to do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing.  We, as a world community, need to do better by our kids. 

The YouTube of Documents!

Playing around a bit with a new tool... Scribd... here is a document that I created for the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival Student Program this year.  I enjoy the fact that you can attach a multi-page document inside the blog post.  It brings new meaning to attaching a document!  Here is the example...

Before Google

This week in Arizona is AIMS week... standardized testing week... not my favorite week of the year, but we get to start school late and the students and I have breakfast together in the morning... very civilized.

Today is the fourth and final day of the testing and as we went over the sample question prior to starting the actual test, one of the multiple choice options was 'encyclopedia'.  A student raised her hand and said, "What's an encyclopedia again?".  Without missing a beat, I said that it is what we used to look things up before google.  She nodded knowingly and went on with her sample bubbling. 

What I really wanted to say, is that if I need to know the population of a country the options should not have read a.table of contents  b.index  c.encyclopedia and d.dictionary. 

The options should have read a. Google  b. Wikipedia   c. ask.com  d. cell phone  e. all of the above.

Makes me laugh...

So, I send emails everyday through our webmail service at school... which is basically an online version of Outlook.  I have the preferences set to spell check each email before it is sent.  The amusing part is that the list of words that are 'spelled' wrong are those that just are not recognized by the dictionary.  Words that are either spelled wrong or unknown: blog, wiki, RSS, mashup, Google, etc.  The list goes on.  Each and everyday I misspell words that I want to catch, but I also see these words and more sorted out as 'unknown' by the ONLINE EMAIL dictionary.  Does anyone else find that absolutely bizarre?  In a place where we need to start recognizing the potential of Web 2.0 tools, it is quite a contradiction to see that the easily updated online dictionary can't seem to recognize those tools.

Technorati Profile

Transcending the Bubble

Bubble tests.  Bubbling.  Standardization.  Benchmark.  Quartile.  NCLB. AYP.

This is a list that the vast majority of American teachers are obsessed with, not because they believe in it as a means to improve the education of children, but because that is what the federal government requires.  I would rather the list that we were all consumed by read something more like this...

Think. Feel. Create. Collaborate. Help. Challenge. Innovate. Engage. Inspire.

I wish there were acronyms that rolled off the tips of every teachers tongue that spoke of inspiring the kids in our rooms to explore the world and opportunitites that exist outside the walls of the classroom.... I wish that the field that I worked in is concerned with more than the ability of a child to bubble.  The conversation in mass media education is too focused on hurdling a low bar of expectations, while we fail to see the potential of all kids to transcend not only the bar.. but also the bubble.

What will it take to turn the conversation from one of certainty to one of untold possibility? 

I love my job!

Right before Christmas break I gave out email accounts to all my students.  I knew that using the tool would be beneficial for the students.  They really enjoyed the freedom to have their own account.  It allows for the easy, safe transfer of documents from home to school.  Overall I had an idea of the benefits that this tool may offer my students. 

We are almost a month into it and all that I expected has come to be.  But, today I realized the wonderful extra benefit.  After I played (and lost) two volleyball games tonight I pulled up my school email account to see several messages.  Most of them appeared to be questions about the project we are working on... love that they are going home to work on their own!  But there were two messages from kids thanking me for teaching them... I worked really hard this weekend to pull together a meaningful project, it took a ton of my time, but after getting those emails I knew how well spent the time was.  I love my job, and not in a 'PollyAnnaish' kind of way, but in the 'I've been doing this for ten years' kind of way, and there's no place I'd rather be working than in a classroom.  It's just too good.