This is the end of my last post on our class Ning network for Planning 10 this term. The first link isn't really appropriate but my students get my sense of humour by now, and we just finished talking about sex-ed, so I put it in anyway. For reasons I cannot express in this venue at this time, I will really miss these two classes!

 - - - - -

And finally, I will leave you with this:

1. Make smart, realistic goals for yourself... it takes effort to follow through with your goals, so make them SMART and easier to find success with!

2. Figure out who you are and what is important to you. Don't let media perceptions change you. Be safe, and if you are going to be a role model for others, be a positive one.

3. Remember that the world is getting smaller, and that we are now global citizens... in a new global market... connected in new ways... take care of your neighbours!

Peace.

 - - - - -

Kim Cofino writes on Twitter:

Join us in our uStream session: http://ustream.tv/channel/isb-edu-stream Conversations about the Future of Learning in a Networked World.

 

 

I click the link to uStream and find that 12 others have also joined her meeting, later there were 17 of us.

 

 

Vance Stevens is talking and a participant in the meeting links to the slide show he is showing.  

Vance keeps us up to speed with respect to when to advance the slides. 

I bookmark one of the links in the slides to my del.icio.us, a great link for new bloggers to check out. 

 

 

I chat with some 'familiar' people, Alec Couros and Kelly Christopherson, and ask them to help me out with a Pro-D session I'll be running with student teachers on the 25th. Chrissy says to 'Twitter' her and she will help out. (She actually says, "Twitter us and we will help"). I don't follow Chrissy on Twitter so I go to my open Twitter window and request to follow her. 

I see that I have a new Gmail message in my inbox so I open another window to find out that it is Kris. She is asking if I had seen her new post, which is titled Web2.0 Compatible.

I'm listening to the meeting, I postpone popping open windows to the links Vance is referring to, or checking the live chat on uStream so that I can read Kris' post. I notice a small typo in Kris's second paragraph. I also notice a green dot by her name in Google Chat indicating that she is online. I open a chat box and quote her typo back to her.

Kris replies back minutes later that the typo is fixed, (I hit refresh and it is). Kris' post is about how 'her generation' is totally web2.0 compatible. 

I continue following the meeting where a participant is talking about how these new applications are now 'net' applications and not 'pay-for' software. I realize that other than my computer and Internet connection, all this linking and watching and listening and engaging is free.

The most amazing part to all this: It was almost midnight here and I was 'chatting' with a student, reading her writing, and offering (minor) feedback... while 'sitting in' on a staff meeting at the International School Bangkok, Thailand... 'talking' to Kelly in Saskatchewan and Alec in Regina, as well as others in Australia and The UK... and 'meeting' Chrissy, a new connection from New Zealand, who has offered to Twitter-in and help demonstrate networking/connectivity at my Pro-D session next week in the suburbs of Vancouver.

All this happened in a shorter time than it took me to write this post! 

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Postscript:

While getting links for this post, I discovered that Chrissy also wrote about this experience. Here is a great image she uploaded. Click on it to get to her post. 

...and back again moments later. Apparently this was not a staff meeting, but a session in an un-conference. Kim just linked to the conference wiki page via Twitter.

 

 

The first time I saw the term 'B.G.' referring to 'Before Google' was in Karl Fisch's 'Did You Know' presentation. Tonight that term came to life for me.

Here is an eye-opening statistic I discovered about myself today: 

Total Google searches: 3633 (Since April 30th, 2006, and only counting when I have been signed into Google.)

I did some quick number crunching: On average, I use Google about 450 times a month, which also averages to about 15 times a day. I really do have to ask, what did I do B.G. - Before Google?  

If you have a Google account you can check out your own history here http://www.google.com/history/

Have a look at my Googling trends: (The secret is out... I am a night owl!)

Above and beyond this chart, there is actually quite a lot here that Google knows about me. Add to this the things I choose to RSS into Google Reader, the things I choose to Star and Share there, the sites I sign up with on Gmail, the people (and information) I e-mail, and basically Google could start to make decisions for me.

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A.G. - After Google 

How far away are we from having Google prioritizing items in our e-mail and RSS feeds for us? Or providing us with personalized search results? I wonder how far this could go?

Will there be a truly semantic web? Although Stephen Downes says 'no', and makes a very knowledgeable and compelling argument, I wonder if he isn't looking at it from a paradigm that will change?

Stephen states:

But the big problem is they believed everyone would work together:
- would agree on web standards (hah!)
- would adopt a common vocabulary (you don't say)
- would reliably expose their APIs so anyone could use them (as if)

But I think of the sophistication of Language Translators today and wonder if standards and vocabulary will have to be stringent? Perhaps there will come a time when it will be enough to have a somewhat common vocabulary (congruent semantics within different languages)... and so 'loose' standards become beneficial since if you choose to follow along, you reap greater benefits. Or perhaps the same way Mashups scrape information from multiple sites a semantic web could be built by information scraping?

How many billions of dollars were spent on laying down fiber cables in the few years before wireless access mushroomed?

How many experts thought blogs would fail? Without RSS blogs would never have become so prolific. Blogs came first, but they might have drifted to the fringe without the ability to have feeds go to the reader.

Is a semantic web really doomed to fail or is it inevitable? Web4.0 - your webmodality.

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C.E. -Communal Era 

I'm not changing my behavior because I have become aware that 'Google is watching' and tracking what I do.

And yet I'm not fully trusting either. How accurately can they pinpoint my interests and focus Google ads towards me?  (With a last name of Truss this would be refreshing... Yahoo always shows me Roofing and Bra Support ads.) Furthermore, who else can see my information? Who decides this? How secure is my information? All these things concern me, yet I'm still using Google. 

There is an option to 'pause' the history tracking and also to 'remove' an item in Google History, but do these things actually happen or just disappear from my view? (I recall some issues with Gmail not 'deleting forever' after such a request was made.) Yet I'm still using Google.

With OpenID and Corporate ID (Youtube is Google, Flickr is Yahoo) I am going to be sharing my information regardless of how much I chose to 'pause' or 'block' or 'remove' information from the web. My information is communal/shared to a very large extent!

What really concerns me is how this information about me will be used to "help" me? Will "smarter" searches force like-minded ideas on me? Will they stifle my creativity? Will I suffer the 'Dumbness of Crowds'?

Will a semantic web shield me from an onslaught of unnecessary information or will it insulate me from possibilities and learning opportunities?

 

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/you-cant-go-back-now/

It's the old allegory of the cave.

    Last Friday I was leaving the school and I popped into my VP's office. Among other things, Anthony and I often talk about technology in the classroom. One thing led to another and I showed him the YouTube video that was the subject of my last post: iPhone tutorial from a two-year-old. It was shortly after this, while I was saying something, that Anthony interrupted me:

        "You can't go back now, can you?"
    "What?"
        "You could never be able to go back to teaching without technology, could you?
    "No."

    Driving home after our conversation it occurred to me what a transformation my teaching has gone through in the past couple years. Could I go back to a classroom and teach void of blogs, wikis, & online networks? Well, of course I could, but I just wouldn't want to!

    Not only do I never want to go back, but I have become an evangelist.
However I've noticed a bit of a backlash among teachers. Comments like "We can do that without technology" miss the point about what students have the potential to do. "Every time I get them in the computer room all they do is Facebook" recognizes that technology is a tool, not an answer, but comments such as these are used as excuses rather than challenges.

    In the past few weeks I've heard more than one teacher say, "What is Facebook", and "What is a wiki?". This I can handle. But then I hear about how technology is evil; about what a distraction it is. Well here is a little news flash... IT ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE!

    There are times I just want to put my head down, improve what I am doing as a teacher, and forget that there is 'work to be done'. I can't. Not only can't I return to life in Plato's cave, but I am also compelled to 'share the true light'. I now realize that at times I am destined to be seen as 'blinded', such will be the lot in life for many of us.

Can you go back now?

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/digital-exposure

 I've bounced some digital immigrant/native ideas around a few  times. Now I have one more thing to add.

 When I was young my sister had dolls that spoke. This was so amazing! You pulled a string in the doll's neck and as it recoiled the doll said, "Hi Ma-ma" or some other short phrase. Later the dolls would say a series of phrases, changing with each pull-of-the-string. Now my daughters have My e-Pets and Webkinz. Next comes this video:

 It seems that the 'Immigrant/Native' argument is moot. I called the digital range in competency/capability of students a spectrum, not a dichotomy, (I think the correct word should have been continuum -note the reflection/comments on the post to see why I now think 'spectrum' is better than 'continuum'). The fact is students can't be lumped into general categories such as this. George Siemens summarizes this point better than I can, so read his post, and I'll move on to the point of this post.

There is an issue of 'digital exposure' that many (but not all) of today's kids have that simply wasn't available when we were young. Despite my new distaste for the 'digital native' catch phrase, I am back to liking my Batman/Borg quote:

"I come from the Batman era, adding items to my utility belt while students today are the Borg from Star Trek, assimilating technology into their lives." 

 My daughters interact with their toys in ways that I never could. In the same vein, two year old Paige from the above video will expect her toys to interact with her, to provide her with choices that I never had. Does it not follow that she will expect the same interaction and engagement in school?

Basically this is about 'exposure to' and 'integration with' digital technology at a young age as opposed to 'adaptation to' digital technology later on in life.

When Paige is 9, she will have peers that instant meesage each other on their PDA's... they will be more likely to communicate online at a younger age... they will be more likely to connect to like-minded social groups digitally. They will be continually exposed to 'new technology' that they won't ever remember living without. (Technology and tools that we name, and they participate with.)

Meanwhile, I will continue promoting the value of integrating technology into the classroom to teachers who have "enough on their plate already". I will offer out some 'delicious' tools for their utility belts... while Paige plays with an iPhone and learns to connect to the world around her in ways many of us are now learning about... learning side-by-side with a two year old.

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/evaluating-a-journey/

Have you ever spent hours working on something and then looked at the final product only to wonder where the time and effort went? That's how I feel about the rubric I have been working on for the Graduation Transitions Program (for which I am the coordinator at our school).

Last year, under the old program, the 'Final Presentation' was about showing evidence and meeting criteria. This year the 'Exit Interview' is more about the journey...

So how do you create a rubric to give feedback to students about their journey? I decided on a few things first:

1. Reflection is important and needs to be valued.
2. This is a big transition... some forward planning also needs to be valued.
3. This is NOT a grade! (The program is not graded, you just need to meet the requirements.)
4. It needs to be 'different' enough that the many different teachers doing the interview won't fall into 'grading' mode.

Here is what I came up with...    (Link to a larger view)

 

At this point I can't decide if this achieves what I want it to, or if I wasted my time... feedback is really appreciated... I have to present this to students on Monday. 

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/most-influential/

We are influenced by so many things in our lives. Identifying what has a significant influence on us can be difficult. Here are two things that I believe can be categorized as most influential... and they both happened Monday.

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1. Fifteen year old Kristine wrote a very influential blog post last May. It coincided with a lesson I was doing in my class for our school's Renaissance Fair. The post, "How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci", has made the finals for the Edublog Awards 'Most Influential Post '. She is the only student to make the finals in this category. Furthermore, the post has had an impact on me, and many teachers that I have shared it with. Thinking back now, as I write this, I realize that Kris has influenced my blog posts, time and again. (The student as teacher, or at least as an influential node in my learning network:-)

As I told Kris in my comment months ago: "You are, and always will be, a lifelong learner who engages in a quest to meaningfully exploring your world, (dare I say like da Vinci)… I guess one would argue despite your education rather than because of it… so there is hope, and there is potential for us to find our next da Vinci… perhaps SHE is within our midst today:-)"

As edubloggers I think that it is great to recognize students like Kris who deserve more recognition than they usually get at school. We should also recognize that although we strive to give students the best possible experience in our classrooms, Kris' message holds more truths than most would like to admit. May her blog influence many learning discussions in the months to come.

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2. Two good friends, Dave Sands and Gary Kern came to my school Monday night and did a presentation with me on: Technology, Your Child, and You. Twenty seven parents braved the threat of the first snowfall of the year to participate in the presentation. On a personal note, I felt a little like a rookie called up to the majors to help out with this presentation. Dave and Gary have given it many times, and they had a 'flow' about them that I lacked. Overall I think it was great to be part of the presentation and it was fun to see my Batman/Borg metaphor being used (though they use the more recognized Terminator rather than the Borg).

Dave was very impressed with the parent's involvement and interest. The most vocal of them wanted answers about what to do about Facebook and all the screen time kids have. This presentation however was much more about asking questions than giving answers.

The presentation delivers a number of key ideas: Technology feeds student needs. Technology isn't going away. Parents need to figure out what they value, and they need to understand and engage with the technology their kids are using. If parents want influence with their children, they are far more likely to get it engaging from the inside rather than policing from the outside.

A simple example: a kid that won't phone a parent from a friend's house to say they are changing locations, might not think twice about texting a parent while in the back seat of a car heading to the new location... if text is a mode of communication that the kid already uses with their parent. 

The presentation is very well designed and parent feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with several of them wishing more parents showed up, "Parents need to hear this!"

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It was a most influential Monday!

After my last post I went to hear Alan November speak at an afternoon Pro-D session. I then read Brian Kuhn's blog post and added a comment, which I have edited slightly and included below. In the process of writing this comment I realized a valuable lesson, which I will discuss below the comment:

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The afternoon session With Alan November was great!

It was wonderful to hear Alan November again. His webcast for the district was one of the things that lit a fire under me and encouraged my to explore technology as a means for students to learn 'new things in new ways'.
This weekend I was listening to some of his podcasts and I wrote a blog post about them : Looking back at it, my reflections were somewhat sarcastic and negative... A product of feeling like things just haven't been moving fast enough.

Tuesday afternoon changed that for me. There are a lot of great teachers out there doing wonderful things, and there are many more teachers out there feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to learn, who are still willing to take the next step forward. On a more personal note, the world of web2.0 has given me wings , but I realized that I too have a long way to go before I am doing all the things that I can to give my students wings too!

Thanks to Jill Reid for the invitation, to all the leaders who helped make a day like today possible, and to Alan November... I am refueled and ready to continue my journey of learning along with my students.

Here are some notes about today e-mailed to me from Joni, a true leader in our school. She may not be tech savvy (yet), but teachers like her who offer their leadership, guidance and support are what will help 'us' move forward using technology 'for learning' rather than just using technology to teach!

Great tool: webcast site 'Jingproject'
http://www.jingproject.com/?CMP=KgoogleJhomeTM

Suggestions: Kid jobs for the class

1) Answer questions from class. This kid needs to answer all questions, if he can't, he needs to find the answer on the web, then post the answer.
2) Continuous researcher through class
3) Official scribe: takes notes for the class every day. Post them to the site.
4) Create a Wiki site. Allows children make a contribution to the world. wikipedia, or your own space like www.wikispaces.com [My attempt - ScienceAlive.]
5) Contributing any source that they find on he web to the class: use a social networking site. eg. www.diigo.com create a diigo account for the class or every student has their own account and then "share to group". [I use delicious]

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Reflect and Learn

Here is the sentence from above that has hit home with me over the past few days, "the world of web2.0 has given me wings , but I realized that I too have a long way to go before I am doing all the things that I can to give my students wings too!"

I currently have a private Ning network for my students, but it is really driven by me! The blog posts, the groups, the forums... all initiated by me! Yesterday I read a post by Konrad Glogowski. The post, "Conversation with Pre-Service Teachers - The Set Curriculum", was about just that, 'the set curriculum' (something I have written about a few times) but a specific section struck a chord with me:

"It seemed logical to me that my responsibility as an educator was to prepare a collection of texts, resources, diagnostic and assessment/evaluation tools in order to achieve specific learning outcomes. I saw myself as a subject expert whose primary responsibility in the classroom was to teach a very specific set of skills and competencies. I saw myself as someone who possessed knowledge and perceived my students as individuals who needed to acquire it."

I am new to teaching planning 10, and I am trying to launch a specific program, YPI , that I am learning about with the students. So, I did what many teachers do when they are unfamiliar with the curriculum... I teach to it. When I look at the 'Suggestions' listed in the comment above, I realize that I currently do none of those things with my students.

In the last little while my posts have been peppered with negative undertones about things not moving fast enough and technology limitations that I have found frustrating. Well, although those things are legitimate concerns, they are things that are for the most part beyond my control. What I can do is create an engaging classroom environment that actually gives my students wings.

Another thoughtful lesson inspired by Alan November , and realized through my blogging/web2.0 experience.

I started this post sitting in a waiting room at the auto shop waiting for my car: No WiFi, pay-for coffee and snacks available. It had an outlet if my laptop battery didn’t hold out, comfortable seats and, if I was interested, a tv to make the experience a little more comfortable. But I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I am a fan of Alan November and I just downloaded, to my iTunes, his November Learning Podcast Series. With ear plugs in and a word doc open, (I would have preferred Google docs), I began listening to Alan November interview Dan Pink.

A little history here…
My first classroom blogging experience was inspired by an Alan November webcast that launched me into my web2.0 experiences… (My teaching2.0? What do you call this transformation?
…And a question on the side…
What do you call a digital ‘immigrant’ that is fully immersed in a digital world? I am an immigrant to Canada, but truly consider myself a Canadian, though I will never be a ‘native’. Perhaps I am a Digital Citizen, or more aptly a Digital Denizen!

den•i•zen noun formal or humorous an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place : denizens of field and forest. • Brit., historical a foreigner allowed certain rights in the adopted country.

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Here are the highlights of the interviews with my two-dimes worth added in!

Interview 1: With Dan Pink

Pink Re: Standardized Testing as a measure of a school. “What ultimately I care about is the individual kids, that’s what parents care about and obviously that what the kids themselves care about… if I had a magic wand I would do a very serious, very radical overhaul of the entire education system”.

We have to be willing to measure these: (From Wikipedia on Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind )

1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument.
3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
6. Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.

As long as we measure schools and measure students with tests that do not appreciate and include measuring a student's ability to express these senses, we are measuring the wrong things.

I have an idea: First we will measure a poem with a word count... Then we will measure compassion with a ruler... And finally we will measure the making of a work of art with a stop watch. Then we will add the numbers together and tell you how well your child is doing in school.

From a previous post , "there is a dichotomy here: Our ‘educational language’ around standardization and accountability juxtaposed with differentiation and flexibility… we seem to have two mutually exclusive camps, yet there seems to be a move to embrace both. To embrace both is to accomplish neither."

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Interview 2: Dan Pink

School architects use a 35-year-old formula, with teachers left out of the conversation… “Appalling that a Starbucks is a more appealing place to be than a classroom.

It doesn’t have to be more expensive, just smarter. If you built cabinets and shelving units for picture-tube tv’s or carrying cases for Sony Walkman’s and you didn’t adapt your designs, where would you be now?

Pink: People are opting out of the public/formal education system… “Our education establishment, which we pay lip service to as the most important element of our society, are probably the most out of sync with the realities of 21 century life than any other institution in American society.

‘This is important! We need to change… pass the chalk’.

November: Emerging models – Schools… “should be much more embedded in the community, where kids are adding value and making a difference, much more action based.”

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Interview 3: Dan Pink
(The last podcast (#2) ended a discussion about Design: Creating things in context, ideally cross-curricular. This theme continued here.)

Pink: The two most important things in professional success & personal fulfillment are “intrinsic motivation & persistence.”

I wonder how much schools pay attention to these two things? Even when we praise, we don’t inspire intrinsic motivation, and although in some ways we promote persistence, we also give students a grade of ‘C’ and move on.

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Interview: Dr. Mitchel Resnick (MIT)
Topics: Creativity and Innovation to the Digital Divide
Research group name: Lifelong Kindergarten Group (kindergarten-like exploration and play)

Many of the best learning opportunities come when people are engaged in creating and designing things.

Check out http://scratch.mit.edu/ (I've been here a few times, but need to explore the possibilities)

Sharing… building on other’s ideas… ‘borrowing’ not copying. Give proper credit and acknowledgement and then adapt and go further, and then putting your ideas out there for others to add to.

This reminds me of the Larry Lessig's TED Video I recently watched on ‘(Re)-creativity’.

If you give credit, it isn't 'appropriates' but rather 'appropriate'! 

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Reinforcing the thoughts of Resnick I recently found this post on the blog of none other than Dan Pink:

Re: a pop artists exhibit , “The show celebrates the fizzy remixing typical of Pop Art and is replete with "cut up magazines, copied comic books, . . trademarked cartoon characters like Minnie Mouse… But in a bizarre move, the curators have banned photographs -- not to protect the physical integrity of the works, but to avoid infringing on the copyright of the creators.”

 
The irony is not lost on me.

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/the-lowest-common-denominator/

The LCD

In Math, the Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) is a good thing...
it allows you to simplify an equation and usually makes the work easier. (If you were looking for a Math post go here or here.)

For the sake of this post the LCD is not good.
Here, the LCD is when you reduce things to in order to oversimplify a problem, to avoid it or make it go away, (rather than to make an effort to resolve it). It is about taking an easy way out instead of choosing a smart way forward.

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They Both Get Dirty

Doug Belshaw does NOT want you to vote for his blog in the upcoming Edublog Awards. I'm not a regular reader of Doug, but the size of his audience suggests that he is a noteworthy edublogger. I ended up finding his Please don't vote for this blog! post since I read Kelly Christopherson who wrote about it twice, and so I did venture over there. The worst of the comment spat that ensues comes from Dan Meyer who I first read when he wrote a brilliant post on How Math Must Asses and then later on Why I don't Assign Homework, but he isn't in my quite limited RSS feed either.
To put my 2 dimes worth into this I will quote my grandfather, "Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it!"
What I don't like about the comments in this post is that they get personal and neither of these two bloggers have any intent to resolve things, they just want to get the next jab in. I am a fan of healthy discourse, but this is unhealthy, vindictive, and I would even add cheap. LCD.

My suggestion to Josie Fraser and the Edublog Awards team: After a blog gets nominated, ask the bog author(s) if they accept the nomination... problem solved.

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Easier Isn't Better

When I took this job as Graduation Transition Coordinator, I adopted a few other responsibilities too. One such obligation was organizing the Take Our Kids to Work Day (TOKTWD) event for our Grade 9's. Apparently our school could not coordinate the Grade 10's Junior Achievement event on the National TOKTWD so we held this Grade 9 event one day early. This saved us from turning our entire schedule up-side-down for 2 days rather than just one... but this was an LCD solution. I didn't make this decision, but I dealt with the upset parents whose work places had created special activities for their children on the National day (one day later). Our response, let your child miss the next day of school, so teachers had to settle for a number of absent students the day after our event.

Next year: Either the two dates fall on the same day, (I'm already in the process of booking it), or we move them completely apart and keep the TOKTWD on the designated National day. If it needs to turn our timetable upside down on two different days - so be it!

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Build it and they will come...

I first blogged about the idea for FieldFindr here. I created a mock-up wiki for that post which has now been viewed over 2,500 times. Later I wrote about it in the Ning in Education network:
"...I think that perhaps a social networking site such as Ning could be a great launching point for teachers to connect with 'resources' in their, or the global, community. What do others think?"
... and got positive responses from Nancy Bosch and Steve Hargadon. So I launched a Ning version of FieldFindr. I then asked for help in my other Ning (Educational) Networks, and I also 'nudged' my Ex.plode.us friends... only to get a very small response. It's kind of funny that I took this personally at first. I thought to myself that I had network issues... but I think the main problem is that I went to the easiest audience I could find... I went to the LCD... the wrong audience! If I really wanted to make Fieldfindr work, I would need to promote it with potential volunteers, not educators. I did what was easy, not what was necessary. Build the volunteer network and teachers will come... but we need to start with the volunteers!

I don't feel that I personally need to start such a network, but I do believe in the idea. If by this summer I can't find a network, or group, or website that does what I think FieldFindr can, then I will start seeking out networks of potential volunteers to sign up... For now I won't do that because I can't offer the commitment needed to make it work.

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Busier Isn't Better

I shared this quote with staff in a staff meeting last Monday afternoon.
"The task of organizing and operating a huge and complex educational machinery has left us scant leisure for calm reflection."
The quote is by Irving Babbitt, and it seemed very appropriate for me to mention before discussing the plans for the heavily reflection-based program I was presenting to students the next day. The interesting thing about this quote is that Irving Babbitt died in 1933, and I think few could disagree that education has gotten much more complex since then!
In our school there is an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In order to run the programs in sync with the rest of the school, our Grade 12 IB students are now doing 5 straight classes in a row for this semester. They start their day at 8:30 and end at 3:15, eating in classes and not getting more than a 5 min. break unless a class ends early. They also have to work on their Final IB paper as well. It is not uncommon to hear a Grade 12 IB student say they have between 3 and 5 hours of homework when they are leaving the school for the day- this would be ok if they weren't saying and doing the exact same thing the next day, and the next day too...
As a new staff member coming in and observing this I have to wonder about subjecting students to this. I don't doubt that there are some wonderful learning opportunities that happen in their classes, but how much is too much? The idea that these kids are bright, and that they can handle this pressure is nothing more than an acceptance of a LCD.

We are taking some of the brightest students in our district and working them so much that they can't think, reflect, or for that matter even care about learning. It is their final year in the public education system and they are wasting it away being busy-bodies. I've learned so much from reflection, from taking my time to think things through, and from asking myself what I want to learn... we need to give this students a bit more time to reflect and explore their own interests in their final year... they prove themselves capable of the busy work enough in Grades 10 & 11.

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Is Ping Pong a Sport?

To meet one of the requirements of the Graduation Transitions program, students are required to do 80 hours of physical activity after Grade 10. Last year as part of the Portfolio program the hours had to be considered either Moderate or Intense for the activity to count, but working definitions of those two terms were difficult. This year that language has been removed, but many school have kept it. LCD.

I was recently asked in an e-mail, "Is ping pong a sport?"
This was to figure out if time playing Ping Pong could be 'counted' towards the 80 required hours. This is what I had to say:
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I've spent way too much time thinking about this.

Our judgments and values don't matter.
Get students active, have them think about that activity, and if it is enough to keep them healthy or not... that's the best we can do. Trying to tell students that an activity of their choice does not count accomplishes nothing. LCD.
(Oh, and Ping Pong is definitely a fun and exciting sport.)

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I am a Hypocrite!

Tuesday Nov. 6th, 2007 was going to be tough for me to get to, and through. I knew that when I accepted this job.
When someone asked me in August, "So, is this going to be a good move for you?"
I replied, "Ask me on Nov. 7th". Well the 6th has come and gone now. I never want to repeat the hours that went into this event- sleeping 19 hours in 5 nights the week before. Getting 2 hours sleep before doing two big presentations, and doing more paperwork that I care to do in any given year... The end result is that feedback has been very positive from teachers, secretaries, admin., support staff and students. Part of me wants to talk about this, and part of me wants to be happy with how positive the day was and just move forward... The fact is that the hard work came from getting all the background paperwork for the program fully developed to present to students, (such as the section of the 80hr Physical Activity Reflection seen above).

Three really positive things about that event that I would like to mention:
1. Students understood the value of the day and did not skip the assemblies in droves, which could easily have happened after their disgruntle attitude for the Portfolio program it replaced. Their feedback to me was very positive and I've had a number of the absent students come in on their own accord, or by suggestion of their peers, to find out what they missed.
2. My PowerPoint was pretty slick, I broke it up with a few good videos, and kept people's attention with great images and subtle transitions. For someone who has used it very little (beyond my presentation week this year) I have become pretty good at creating engaging PowerPoint presentations.
3. I brought in a Bike Trails Champion, Steve Baia, to do a demonstration for us and promote Healthy Living. Not only was this a fantastic addition to the presentation, but he and his dad, Mike, were also wonderful role models of a great father-son relationship. Furthermore Mike watched my presentation and made sure to reference things that I said while he commentated Steve's performance... very classy!
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Up until now this section is all about really good stuff. So where is the LCD and why the hypocrite title of this section?
Well, here I am developing a program for which one third of the outcomes are related to Healthy Living, and what do I do? I deprive myself of sleep, I completely stop exercising, and I put myself through tremendous stress... Some role model I am:-(
Whenever I get busy my healthy lifestyle takes a back seat. I turn 40 in a couple weeks and I am, without a doubt, in the absolute worst shape of my life. For me physical activity is the LCD, the one thing that I can always drop from my schedule to make more time for other things... and that is wrong.

So here is my plan- and it started yesterday! Three treadmill runs a week and one other activity during the week- Every Week! I'm also going to sign up for the Vancouver Half Marathon in the spring. I had students create one Healthy Living SMART Goals this week, and to practice what I preach, I'm going to create 2 SMART goals to help me live healthier, (one around weekly exercise and one specifically to build my endurance and speed for the half marathon).
By the way, for you SMART Goal fans: The 'A' should stand for Action-oriented not Achievable or Attainable. If you think about it, the 'R' stands for Realistic and if it is Realistic it is already Achievable but without Action your goal gets nowhere.

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The Greatest Common Factor

None of my LCD's above are things that can't be 'fixed'. The common factor in each of the sections above is that the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Sometimes big ideas need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to question what we do, and why we do it... and we need to be willing to make a difficult change because it is the right thing to do!

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Images:
ARGUMENT by Shaun.numb/ Shaun Morrison on Flickr
Work in Progress... by Spike 55151 on Flickr
Influence Ning profile image for FieldFindr
Perfect Blue by Netean/ Iain Alexander on Flickr
Steve Baia by Mike Baia