Learning to Teach

Futuristic Schools

2006-08-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

Fernico Brahms Day Off
It's Saturday morning. Fernico Brahms has school today. School on a Saturday? Yes, because it's 2027, and you can go to school on Saturday if you've missed a day during the preceding week. Fernico doesn't want to go because his school has a soccer game against another elementary school in the district, and Fernico is the star player. He didn't go to school on Wednesday because of an injury from Tuesday's game, and now he has to make up for the day he missed.
Then Fernico has a bright idea. He will do his work from home. So he opens up his laptop, uses his password and signs into the class wiki on 'The Eradication of Cancer'. Fernico groans. He was asleep during class, and he doesn't even know what cancer is! So he has to go to wikipedia.org to get a detailed definition before he proceeds. Fernico reads for about thirty minutes and thinks he has a fairly good idea about what the disease is, and what it used to do to humans before it was eradicated. Normally, he dislikes these history lessons, but the wikipedia entry had some fabulous links to Flickr photos that grossed him out. And even in 2027, teenage boys like gross things. He sighs as he checks into Bloglines to see what assignments his teacher, Mr. Fink has posted for homework. He hopes his assignment doesn't take long. He sees that he must create a blog on what he has learnt. He smiles as he thinks of the gross photos he will upload into his blog, and he may even add a podcast with some scary music for emphasis. He thinks, this will take 10 minutes tops. He finishes in 8. Suddenly, the videophone rings. Quickly, he tries to cover the screen with a sheet but he is too late. The face of his mother appears and she looks at him accusingly. "I knew you would do your work up in your room instead of down here in your classroom." He sees the camera above the videophone moving around and he groans because he knows his room looks like a plane had landed in there. She continues her tirade, "What would it take for you to come down one flight of stairs to school?" He knows his mother well. Now she will remind him of how it used to be back in the day. "When I was a little girl, I had to take a bus to school. All you have to do is use the computer that the Department of Education sent you. And it's free too! When I went to school, I had to buy books!" She disconnects, and he returns to his laptop. At least she didn't take away his laptop like she did the last time he pulled that stunt. He pulls up his schedule from the toolbar and notices that he has Economics next. He clicks on the subject in his schedule and he is linked to what was done. Today he has to study questionable banking practices. He clicks on the link to the teacher's website on the lesson and in 5 minutes he has a grasp of what he has to do. He grins. He will soon be finished. At this rate, he'll be able to watch the top ten music videos, play a few games online and still make it to the soccer game. He clicks on Google Earth and types in the address of a small island in the Bahamas. The virtual globe begins to move away from New York, where Fernico lives, to the island. Fernico zooms in and looks at the structure of the island. He notices that there seems to be only one tiny town on the island. There are few streets, and only one main road. He zooms in again and is able to read the names of the buildings on the roofs. He locates the one bank on the island and realizes that it is conveniently located close to the port. He says "Word." into the laptop and Microsoft Word version 94 pops up. A virtual office assistant of a beautiful woman immediately appears and asks, "Fernico, what would you like me to type for you today?'' She walks over to a virtual desk and waits for him.
He commands' The bank is strategically located for offshore dealings." She hits one key and then says, "Done. What should I save as?"
"Save as Detective Notes."
Suddenly, he hears a knock on his door. It is his mother.
"Come in." he says wearily. She has come to see for herself what he is up to.
She asks, "Fernico, why aren't you doing your school work?"
"I am."
"But what is all this about offshore banking?"
"It's a topic we're doing in Economics."
"But what does offshore banking have to do with education? We never did that in elementary school. Is that on the curriculum?"
"Actually I don't think it is. You forget Mom, that the curriculum is not as rigid as it used to be. The topic just came up in class and we wanted to know more about it. So Mr. Peach is teaching us how to manage our finances, to look at all the ways people bank, both good and bad. We analyze, compare and contrast, so we can make informed choices when we have to."
"So what are you going to do now?" He realized that his mother was becoming interested in what he was doing. That's what he liked about school. It was so exciting. The topics they did!They were so interesting, it was all about real life. Mr. Peach called it 'Authentic Learning'.
"Well, the angle I'm taking is that I'm a detective investigating a widow who has stashed some money in an offshore banking. I'm going to email my friends in class to see if they'd like to get together for us to do a short film. I hardly get to see them now that I'm in elementary school and I'm considered an independent learner."
"That sounds great. Be sure to put a copy in my email, so I can forward it to your grandparents." As she left the room, she pondered. With the web 2.0 there were so many changes in education over the last 30 years, some good some bad, but if she had to be honest, it was mostly good. At first, she had felt the changes were too many, and too soon, but everyone had to deal with them. The thing she found most now, was that Fernico enjoyed school. He had fun researching topics. His classwork and assignments always seemed to be some kind of professional presentation and she loved showing her friends and co-workers all the cool things he did. As she took the meat out of the freezer for dinner, she heard Fernico's footsteps on the stairs.
"Where are you off to, young man?" she asked.
"Bernard just text me to meet him at the mall. We're going shopping for new cleats. And, before you ask, Yes, I've finished everything."
She shook her head in amazement. Text had become a verb. And schoolwork was not the drudgery it used to be. It was so easy now, kids just seemed to zip right through it.
"And one more thing. Could I have a thousand dollars, please?"
"A thousand dollars! What happened to the thousand dollars I gave you on Monday?"
"I bid for some obsolete music player called an ipod on Ebay. It looked so cool, I added it to my collection of memorabilia. Imagine having a separate player, when your watch does everything for you. " He shook his head and walked out of the door.
His mother watched him and thought to herself. The one thing they should not have changed is the eight required hours of schooling. With this new system of school's over when your work's done, her son often had almost the whole day off!

Online Classes

2006-08-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Online Learning
Online learning poses a challenge for even the most disciplined student. I think this is because it is so contrary to what we have been used to all our lives. Our usual learning situation involves a teacher, present and available to assist us in any way. It is also very structured as to time, and method of working.

The Sofia Experience
I recently did an online class and had a lot of fun. It was a basic course in html written by an excellent teacher and writer named Sofia. It was fun because it was a challenging class, and I had to work through a lot of problems. But, the best part is that there were no time constraints, I could work for hours on end, trying to debug my code, or I could just shuck it when I had enough, save my work (Never ever forget to save your work!) and go back to it another time, with a fresh perspective.

Online Classes involve Independent Learning
Isn't the ultimate goal of elementary and secondary education to create independent learners for tertiary education and life beyond?
I think that most people are independent learners, but they don't realize it. Because many times the Eureka feeling comes when you are reading something quietly, working out a math problem on your own, writing an essay, you get the picture. Not to knock group learning, which has its merits of teaching social values, and sharing ideas, but we have to think of the convenience of online learning. A university in Malaysia might be offering an eight week class as well as an online class on the medical value of the viper's venom. I'm interested. Which do I choose? It might be fun to go to Malaysia and actually walk through the jungle looking for the viper, extracting the venom, and observing its chemical properties. Or, I could sit at my computer desk, at home, in my pajamas, cup of coffee handy, do a virtual walk through of the jungle, watch a videocast of the viper, visit other sites with relevant information, and write a paper on the benefits of the venom. Obviously, the actual experience would be priceless, but it would surely be less dangerous to do the online class.

Both sides of the coin
I think that online learning, like every other thing in life, has its advantages and its disadvantages, so its really up to the individual, if she thinks she can handle this type of learning environment.

The Missing Angle

2006-07-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

NECC Podcast Review
Savvy Cyber Teacher: Using the Internet Effectively in K-12 Education
by Liesl Hotaling, Stevens Institute of Technology

Good Job!
First of all, I must commend these generous people for the wonderful job they're doing in educating about the implications of the Read/Write Web in the classroom. Listening to these podcasts will give you a different perspective on where education is heading.

Moving the Refrigerator Door
In this podcast Liesl makes the point that we can use the Internet to bring the parents into the educational framework. She gave the example of a parent being able to pull up her child's achievements at work (we love to show off our kids' A's), and show her co-workers. This brings to mind the podcast my kids this on this blog. When I got to class, I was so eager to let everyone know my kids did a podcast!
As teachers, we often complain about the lack of parental involvement in the learning process. Applications of the Internet gives us the unique opportunity to let them in. They would be able to access their child's classwork, grades, assignments, schedules, school menus, teacher emails, special school podcasts, holiday and half-day reminders and the list goes on.

Reforming the Triangle
The transparency and access this gives parents will help to rebuild the triangle of parent, child and teacher and education will become more of a collaborative effort.

Credit: By kind permission, this chart is a part of the mission statement of the Montessori Academy of Arlington.

Wiki Wonder

2006-07-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a collaborative effort by many unknown authors and editors. The most popular wiki for now is Wikipedia, but there are many other wikis on the web. As a matter of fact, anyone can start a wiki about anything.

Two heads are better than one
Once I had done a Google search and pulled up Wikipedia,used it and never realized what it was until recently. The beauty of wikipedia and other like wikis, is that you have an enormous number of editors. Someone might ask; how accurate is the information? My feeling is that there are much more editors than any company could ever hire, so there are more persons to monitor the content as well.

Interest is half of learning
The aspect of wikis that will make them
invaluable in the classroom, is that you will
soon have wikis on every imaginable topic. So it doesn't matter how 'culturally diverse', how eccentric, or how socially unacceptable your students' prferences or interests may be, chances are, they'll be able to find a wiki (with thousands of editors) on the things they like. Who knows, maybe soon the phrase, "Nobody understands me." will be a thing of the past.

The Global Village

2006-07-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

Break these walls
Breaking down walls have always been symbolic of the dismantling of unjust, biased regimes. The breaking down of classroom walls, to allow more transparency, will also dismantle the autonomy that education administrators and the government have enjoyed in curriculum management for ages. With the recent upsurge of this new ideology, Web 2.0 ,also known as the Read/Write Web, Congress has been struggling to maintain its stranglehold on an education system that has been failing our kids for some time now.

Dopes on DOPA
Their narrow-mindedness has made them create a bill, DOPA, which has banned schools and libraries from allowing students to use social bookmarking services on the Internet. Out of the millions of new, wonderfully educational sites, they have chosen one, MySpace.com on which to base their fear of the Internet. In a recent update, DOPA has been passed onto a Senate review committee.

Owned by none, belongs to all
Will Richardson, in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (2006) says,

"It used to be that schools and teachers owned the content taught

in their classrooms.... Today, however, that information is as far

away as a Google search, and the breadth and depth of the

content are staggering."

We had to do a podcast as a group project in class, and we chose to interview some class members, 'experts on Latin music'. In the script, someone said,

"..I want Latin music to become an integral part of the broad spectrum of music

that belongs to the United States. I don't want Latin people alone to own it, but

everyone in all the 50 states should have access to it, and be able to listen to it

and appreciate it like all the other genres."

I think this mirrors the notion that any kind of information will be at the fingertips of anyone. Collaboration is the new buzzword. You tell me, I tell you. I listen to you, you listen to me.

The Global Village
The potential of the Read/Write Web is to be able to create the global village that we speak so glibly about. The ease with which we will be able to share information, ideas, and our culture with others via blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, social bookmarking sites, and videoblogs will bring people around the world closer to us.

If you go to the Natavillage website, you will meet with the villagers of Nata, a remote village in South Africa that has the highest incidence of AIDS in the world. The photos and videoblogs will take you out of your skin, and you will experience life in that village. There is no teacher like experience.

Will This Work?

2006-07-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Will this work?
In my first post, I mentioned that in the new year I hope that each student in my class would have a computer and we would try the things I've been learning in this class. An experiment, as it were. The main reason for this is one comment that a student made. He said, "I didn't feel like I learnt anything much this year." This blew me away, because I prided myself on being a good teacher, and as can be evidenced by my millions of lesson plans, I did teach. But the question remains, what was learnt?

What is in it for the student?
I have felt for a while now, that education as we know it was becoming more irrelevant to my students. The content and the method of teaching bored them, and the only time when they seemed to come alive was when, I veered off course in the lesson, or when we did something a bit crazy like the time I just told them "Put on your coats, we're going for a walk." and I took them for lunch at a nearby White Castle. I got their attention and my rambunctious group were unusually well behaved.
Real Learning
I just learnt what authentic learning is, but I feel that it's putting into words what I've been thinking. My students need a revolutionary way of learning. The emphasis on texts, rote learning, and written work, leaves out a lot of individualized instruction. The different learning styles of the students are not adequately addressed, and in a nutshell, it's very boring. Maybe that's why my students throw pieces of paper at each other, when my back is turned to the board.

Unrequired Reading

2006-07-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to blogging two weeks ago in a course on Internet Based Applications. Since then I have been fascinated. I find myself staying up nights reading and reading blogs on anything and everything.

Google has a website called Blogger where you can search for blogs to read. (You can also sign up for a free blogger account.)

It is amazing the amount of people out there who have something to say and are finding a forum to do it. The thing that stands out in my mind is how many of the blogs are so articulate and thought-provoking. It seems as though the art of blogging itself causes the writer to be more conscientious because he/she knows that it will be out there for anyone to read.

Kathy Sierra's blog is a must read. She writes so delightfully, you will want to read all her posts. David Smith has a website, which reads like a blog. He is so eloquent, when he describes the challenge that faces us:

Teachers have their work cut out, to be sure, but the web
is enormously enriching, a source of endless discovery:
the invisible, or visible, walls of schools have been
rendered porous and the outside world is now with
us — inside the walled garden.

Tasting Delicious

2006-07-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

What's so delicious?
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site which allows you to link to other members who have bookmarked the site you did. Imagine walking on the street and hundreds of people are asking you, "Did you hear about this site that teaches you how to .... " or "Let's go to that online symposium on ....'. Sounds overwhelming? It's not really. The content on the Internet is growing by the minute. To surf wiser, you have to be more selective, and these new web tools help you to manage your time online.

Let's order in
Delicious, and other bookmarking sites such as Furl and Bloglines help you to get more specific content on the things that you are interested in. They also help you to subscribe to your favorite sites through RSS Feeds, so that you don't have to go looking for what you want. You just tell these RSS feeds what kinds of topics you'd be interested in , and the content is delivered to your doorstep, just like pizza.

A click away
The technical aspect of it escapes me, but once you go to the websites and start fooling around with it , you'll have no problem ,because most of them, especially Delicious, have a user-friendly interface. Besides, it places a button on your browser, so it's the easiest thing just to click and start organizing and reading/writing.

A new perspective
The thing I've found about social bookmarking with these new web tools is that you don't seem to search for information that narrows to a particular topic or item as much as before. It seems to me that the trend is to widen your knowledge base as much as possible. For instance; a student doing a research paper on Napoleon would typically give his (Napoleon's) characteristics, and a brief history of what he was famous for. Now, with a del.icio.us search, the student could probably find other people who have saved relevant pages about Napoleon such as he had problems learning how to ride a horse maybe because of his height, (I'm just making these up as an illustration) or maybe there's a science museum in Brussels that has a lock of his hair and gives his DNA. This type of information may make this figure in history seem more real, and will certainly make the paper more interesting for readers.

Now I can have that cup of coffee
These web tools will make the teacher's job easier as the content that her students are exposed to is so great, that she will need to either filter it to suit the needs of the students or allow the students to filter it themselves.

Using Podcasts in the Classroom

2006-07-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

There are several suggestions for using podcasts in the classroom:

Encourage students to review a book they've read in an informal chat session.
Let students read a play with sound effects (e.g. door closing, footsteps).
Let them interview someone, like a television reporter with breaking news.
Do a running commentary on school activities or news. (Daily or weekly, as is convenient for your situation)
As a link, discussing a Science experiment or Social Studies project they may have blogged about. (To go into more detail or maybe to clarify an issue)
As a public speaking forum, where students give speeches on topics.
To keep the school community updated on upcoming events.
To listen to and talk to students from another school, perhaps even in another country.
To insert excerpts from school concerts etc. on a website or blog.

A good way to get good ideas is to read what other teachers are suggesting in their blogs, as I have done, in what I call the virtual network of ideas. Check out Dude's blog for some other ideas, and Jon Gordon's blog to listen to some actual podcasts. I think your greatest resource may be ideas from your kids themselves. Have fun!

Power-Rangers-Podcast

Educating children out of Creativity

2006-07-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

What do we teach our students?
As educators how much do we really know about the capacity for creativity we are faced with on a daily basis? Sir Ken Robinson, speaking at a seminar in Feb 2006 at TEDTALKS, Monterey, California., says that we are wasting the talents of the children we are supposed to be teaching, and educating them out of their creativity.

"Class Management"
This is something I feel very strongly about because I usually get into some trouble for lack of "Class Management". I am reminded of being on Teaching Practice, and getting a C' for lack of "Class Management". My lack of Class Management was a 7 -year old making a joke about something in the lesson, and the class including me laughed.

Where do we learn?
My theory is- Education is life. Every minute of every day we are learning. We need to get out of the paradigm that most learning takes place within the classroom environment. I believe the opposite to be true. Much of what is learnt occurs in a non-classroom, non subject-oriented situation.

The Hierarchy of Subjects
Sir Robinson also spoke of a prevailing hierarchy of subjects. He has noticed that all over the world,sadly, this hierarchy is the same. It's probably the one thing we agree on. Math and Language Arts are at the top, Humanities in the middle, and the Arts at the bottom. Having taught both in the Caribbean and the United States, I can agree. There are vast differences in content and teaching methods, but the priority given to certain subjects remains the same.
We are in the middle of a Math lesson. A student is drawing a picture of a Pokemon character. It is a credit to me that I even know what that is. I ask him about this drawing. He knows me, and how easily I can be sidetracked, so he makes it very interesting, and soon the entire class is launched into a lively discussion about the advantages that Gokool has over his mortal enemies. It is at this moment the principal chooses to visit.

The Principal's Office
My lecture consists of ;
1. Who is in charge of the class?
2. If you're doing Math, you're doing Math,
3. Do not allow that little so and so to draw in class. He can be very disruptive.
4. This is your final warning.
I ignore all, but moreso the latter because I have much more lectures to sit through silently.

Renegade Teacher
I've been dubbed 'The Renegade Teacher'. I'm sure one of my more favorable nicknames. I've often been told that I have the most disruptive class in the school, because the students mirror my behavior. There are so many things wrong with that statement, which I will leave for another post. When I enter a classroom for the first time, my thought is not as I've been warned, to take command first and don't let them sense fear. I'm going to spend the better part of a year with these kids. I need to get to know them. I try to build a relationship with my kids so that both students and teacher can have an enjoyable life in the classroom. Because that is what we'll be doing. Living and learning from each other.

Fingers Crossed
I must be doing something right. I haven't been fired yet.

Every September is a New Year

2006-07-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Influence of Technology in Schools

As the first student pushes open the doors in September and pokes that eager little face around, the challenge will begin. The challenge to provide a learning environment that will be better than the year before.
At my prep school in Brooklyn, we faced many problems last year with the Grades 5, 6 and 7 students. It seemed like spring fever had begun in January, and lasted all the way to June! Many teachers felt that there were just too many students being transferred during the school year, and they were bringing the very problems that were the reasons for them being with us. Hey, look! That was last year. Let's forget the problems of the past and look forward.
I'm so happy that I'm not working for the summer this year. I'm going to spend most of my time de-stressing myself and preparing for the new year.

Come September, I hope to introduce computers and the internet in the class as a major learning tool. I know for a fact, that many of these students have access to the internet at home, and are quite adept at surfing the net. What I hope to do, is to create a different, more interesting type of learning atmosphere in the class, to help with the behavior problems. My principal has promised me, and I hope she does come through, one computer per child . While the use of computers in the classrooom, will not totally obliterate the traditional methods, I hope that it will transform the classroom into a sort of work environment, where the students will feel less like students, and more like participants in a special project. Their familiarity with the internet will allow them to productively use spare time (surfing the net, listening to music, or playing games between projects) to minimize unnnecessary interaction with other students. The use of email will mostly be between parents and myself, to keep them abreast of what's going on in the classroom, and have more 'conversation' with their child's teacher than what would normally be convenient.

While I do not view this as a panacea for all that can go wrong in the classroom, I certainly feel that it's a step in the right direction.