Change for All Because of the Few?

A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting where a policy change was being discussed.  One of the members of the meeting said, "If we are going to make a change, it should be because it will benefit all or almost all students.  We should not design a policy around the few who will take advantage of the current system."  This obviously reasonable idea is not as universally accepted as you might think.  Most would probably agree with the sentence if you posed it to them, but in practice, they design most of their policies around a few exceptions.

This week, I've been following a fascinating discussion on Twitter about homework that illustrates this idea.  There may be no more divisive topic in education than whether homework is a good or bad thing.  The research is unclear because the different designs of various studies and types of homework will allow you to claim research is on your side either way.  If you hate homework, you can go pick the study in which students were asked to memorize nonsense syllables or color in a worksheet for the sake of having something to do at home and find that it didn't result in increased achievement, giving you permission to say, "See, research shows that homework is bad."  If you want to defend homework, you can find the study that was carried out under ideal conditions with perfect questions that don't reflect classroom conditions in any way, giving you permission to say, "See, homework is critical."  If you consider that we have been using this tool for decades, it is worth examining its purpose and use because there are some who resist change and others who believe in change for no other reason than the belief that newer is always better.

Well, this week, education blogger and host of the podcast Progressively Incorrect, Zach Groshell, decided to host a Twitter conversation on the topic of homework and homework bans.  Now, Zach has a Ph.D. in instructional design and works as an instructional coach, so he has both experience and expertise in this area, but on social media, that doesn't matter.  The structure of social media means I can assert that my ignorance is as valuable as your expertise; so despite his best efforts, the conversation didn't remain one of professional debate about research or how to design meaningful learning experiences as homework.  It devolved into name-calling and emotional rants.  Zach's main premise was that, in addition to homework's function as retrieval practice or extended learning, it was a form of free communication with parents about what is going on in their child's classroom and a tool for parents to assess how their child is doing. I confess that these were not points I had ever considered, but it does make sense that after ten minutes of going over vocabulary words with their 3rd-grader, a parent would know what was being covered in class and know if their child was struggling with those concepts.

What I most noticed, though, was that the theme of the negative responses was about the exceptions.  "What about students who have jobs?" and "But my dyslexic child's experience is . . ." and "How dare you assume all parents can help their students."  I was impressed by Zach's ability to remain engaged in the conversation (I would have muted it pretty quickly) and to respond rationally and calmly to comments that would have raised my blood pressure and brought out my inner snark.  His most common reply was, "We shouldn't remove a tool that is valuable for most because of exceptions; we should design ways to support the exceptions."  He suggested ways to support those for whom homework was not a valuable tool that were doable and scalable because he has experience in this area, but that only brought about accusations of burdening teachers.  One of his replies was particularly interesting because it tackled the idea that just because something feels equitable doesn't mean it is because if we eliminated this tool, the wealthiest would replace it by hiring tutors for their kids while those who couldn't afford that would have stopped receiving it for free.  He also brought up the idea that lowering the standard being met by the top performers will only look like it is closing the achievement gap, giving us a false sense of progress.

That part of this conversation took me back in my mind to a time when "teach to the middle" was a commonly heard phrase.  The idea was that you had a range of students in your class, so you had to design your teaching around the center.  Thankfully, I don't hear that much anymore because it is kind of crazy; it means you constantly chase a moving target depending on what the range in your particular class is.  This is why standards exist.  You should teach to the standard and then provide help and scaffolding for those who struggle to meet that standard.  What we should be saying is, "Teach the best and support the rest."

Around midnight, Zach thanked everyone for the conversation and provided a link to resources on how to design good homework policies, showing far more grace than I could have.  I hope people will respond to his grace by considering what he said rather than just being defensive about their own ideas.  I hope they will consider whether we should design policies around the exceptions or whether we should decide what best meets our goals.  I hope people will consider designing valuable homework rather than submitting to the two extremes of "ban for everyone" vs. "homework for homework's sake."  I hope teachers will use their professional judgment about whether to grade an assignment rather than feeling they must grade them all or grade none of them.  I hope people will resist making a change for everyone because of a few but will embrace giving the few what they need.

What's So Hard About Being a Good Teacher?

Recently, one of my more outspoken 8th graders said, "I don't get what's so hard about being a good teacher.  I mean, you just do it."  We were in the middle of a lesson on the periodic table, so I didn't have time to go into a soliloquy about the training and experience that brought me to the point where I am today.  I replied, "That's because you only see what happens in these 45 minutes." and of course followed up with, "Read my blog."

His question, however improperly timed, does reflect the thinking of many students (and probably parents and society at large).  It got me thinking about other comments I have heard.  A teacher friend of mine said her husband told her she wouldn't be so tired all the time if she had better boundaries between work and life.  Legislators in most states play political bingo with test scores and teacher pay and school assignment for students because they don't understand what goes into good teaching either.  At the risk of sounding defensive, I'm going to take it upon myself to explain what the big deal is.  What's so hard about being a good teacher?  My dear 8th grader, I'll give you four answers; but they won't even scratch the surface.

Answer one - Let's start with a teacher's education.  I hold a bachelor's degree in secondary science education with an emphasis in physics.  When I was in college I took all the teaching classes an education major has to take as well as two calculus courses, four biology classes and their labs, three chemistry class with two labs, earth science and its lab, and every physics course I could fit into the schedule.  I even pushed some of my general ed into the summer so that I could take Applied Thermodynamics and Modern Physics.  Since graduating from college, I have attended hundreds of hours of workshops, training seminars, and conventions.  I read articles on new educational research and books on neuroscience.  I follow Talks with Teachers on Twitter and participated in their Idea Lab.  I'm not complaining about ANY of this.  I love learning, and it's part of being good.  I wouldn't want a doctor who got his degree in 1998 to have learned none of the medical science that happened since then, and I wouldn't want my teaching to reflect only the information that was available then either.  Professional development is a good and enjoyable thing, but it is part one of the answer to your 8th grader question.  Good teaching is hard because you never stop developing it.

Answer two - All the research says something different.  I was reading an article recently on the importance of homework.  It discussed the part of the brain that is activated when doing work independently after having left the environment in which you learned it.  Then I clicked on the related article, which was about how homework is the worst thing ever invented and why no one should ever be required to do it.  As I have mentioned in the past, I work in a school with a one to one program.  We've read a lot of research about millennial students and technology and the importance of collaboration and are all on board with our program.  Then, in the course of two days, we have read two articles about how technology is messing with our memories and why introverts are being harmed by the focus on collaboration.  What's a good teacher to do?  The research isn't wrong; it is just that we aren't working with widgets.  Every student responds differently to what we do, and only the lazy teacher responds with "teach to the middle."  We have to take in all this conflicting research and figure out a way to turn it into a lesson plan.  This would be like you, my 8th grade friend, trying to write one paper for five different teachers who all believe that good writing is something different.

Answer three - Your school community has specific expectations.  I won't re-hash my post on my school's mission statement.  You can find that by scrolling down to last week.  When I was in public school, spiritual inspiration was not an expectation.  It is here.  Some schools focus heavily on citizenship or service, and others are all about test scores.  Some care about getting grades posted within 24 hours while others want you to take the time to give deep and meaningful feedback.  Learning the expectations of your specific school community isn't easy; most don't post a list or anything.  You learn them at faculty meetings (meetings could be its own answer because there are so many of them).  The expectations of parents are also quite different than they were even a decade ago.  We live in an instant results, consumer driven, Yelp review kind of world.  So, my inquisitive 8th grade student, ask yourself if it would be hard to do well in my class if I had four conflicting expectations of you and graded you on all of them and posted your grades on twitter.

Answer four - All students are different.  I mentioned in answer two that every student responds differently to what we do.  Introverts need quiet time to think while extroverts need verbal processing.  Auditory learners find your diagrams distracting while visual learners can't learn without them.  The student with auditory processing disorder needs you to have lots of bright informational posters in the room while the ADHD student finds the same posters make it difficult to listen to you.  One student needs you to make constant eye contact while another would be riddled with anxiety if you looked in their direction.  All these students are in the same period and are expected to accomplish the same objectives.  Again, I hope you will not read this as a complaint.  I do not want Stepford Students.  It is a wonderful thing to have such a diverse group of people.  We all learn from each other's differences, and it is one of the things that makes my job so wonderful.  It is also one of the things that makes it hard to be good at.

Well, my 8th grade student, have you figured it out yet?  You see me standing in front of you talking as though I am coming up with things on the spot.  I've worked long and hard to make it look that way.  You see me answer your questions as though it didn't take years of training to have those answers and years of experience to learn how to put those answer on an 8th grade level for you.  You see me put a score on a test without any understanding of the years it has taken to build professional judgement about which error is worth 1 point off and which is worth only half a point off.  You see a test as though there is a printed book of tests I am copying.  (By the way, that book does exist, but you wouldn't be happy if I used it).  You don't know this, but you complimented me and all your teachers with your question because you implied that we make it look easy.  I hope this post helps answer your question.  Being a good teacher isn't easy, but as Tom Hanks says in the movie A League of Their Own, "It's the hard that makes it great."

Goal Setting

I am a person who needs goals.  During the school year, this isn't hard.  You are always working toward something - a test, the end of the quarter, exams, a project presentation, yearbook deadline, or just Friday.  During the school year, goals are a given.  During the summer, goals are essential.  Without them, it is possible to end the day, realizing you have done nothing (like I did during snow days).


I divide my goals during the summer into reading goals, school goals, home goals, and personal goals.  This summer I will:

- Read for at least an hour a day.  I just finished Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins, a book I have had for years but finally started reading during the school year.  Last night, I started Dewey, a book about a cat who lived in the library in Spencer, Iowa.  After that, I will read a few Sherlock Holmes stories.  My friend, Cheryl, keeps telling me I need to read The Martian, so I will be getting that one soon as well.

- Proofread the textbook I wrote last summer.  Getting the book finished took longer than I thought (see my posts Hyperlinking Brains from January), so there was no time for proof reading.  As a result, my students and I found many errors.  They spent the year sending me any errors they found in e-mail.  I will soon be fixing these, so it will be better when it gets handed out next year.  The other thing I need to with the book is a media credit page.  I want to model proper crediting of the work of others, but I ran out of time to complete that as well. 

- Read several books specifically for school.  I just finished Checking for Understanding, a required reading book about formative assessment.  I checked out Drive by Daniel Pink, a book about motivation and How We Learn by Benedict Carey.  I love that we are starting to translate brain science into curriculum modification; it has taken a while.

- Make my home organization match my school organization.  When people ask what I am going to do during the summer, I usually reply, "All the things I don't have time to do at home during the school year."  Yesterday, I was waiting for my new refrigerator to be delivered, so I started organizing the kitchen cabinets.  I am not done with that yet, but my junk drawer looks amazing.  I have some repairs to do, but most of this summer's goals at home are related to cleaning and organizing.

- Use my Reformation Study Bible.  In depth Scripture reading takes time.  I always feel like I don't give it enough attention during the school year.  During the summer, I will get to spend time reading all of the notes and insets.  I printed a chronological reading plan, an approach I have never tried before.  Today, Cain killed Abel, and Seth was born. 

- Walk 500 miles.  Last year, I wanted to accomplish a half marathon for myself (walking - I don't run), and I did.  Once I accomplished, it however, I didn't walk again until spring break.  This year's goal will ensure that I don't stop (although I must reduce) when the school year starts.  Using The Proclaimers song "I Will Walk 500 Miles" as inspiration, I have set a goal of walking 500 during the summer and following up with 500 more during the following school year. 

- Donate Blood.  I am in the middle of an ongoing goal, to reach 100 pints of blood donated by my 40th birthday.  My 40th birthday is next May, and I am on track to hit 101 by then.  One of those blood donations will happen this summer.  Since they only let you give every 8 weeks, I can only do one during the summer.

Well, I have an appointment at the Apple store, which is seven miles away; so I better get ready to knock out 14 of these miles.

Reflections on Four Years of Teaching With Technology - The History

GRACE Christian School is wrapping up its fourth year in a one to one laptop program, so I thought it was time for a bit of reflection. 

It all about this time started five years ago.  At that point, we had a lot of teachers who were incorporating technology with their own devices and buying projectors as we could.  We had about twelve SMART boards in our school, which we were using to the best of our ability (although we didn’t really know the best way to use them). 

I was asked to serve on a technology planning committee, where I found out that we were seriously considering changing everything.  We discussed device options, budgeting, vision statements for the program, and what kind of accountability should be involved.  My role was mostly to insist on training.  The board members on our committee rightly felt that the SMART boards had not been used as well as they could have been in the classroom and didn’t want to make this investment to have it fail.  I reminded them that the teachers who had SMART boards had been given one day of training on the function of the boards and none on how to incorporate them into our lesson plans.  When we talked about devices, I said, “Without training, it might as well be a stone and chisel.”  When we discussed the budget, I said, “There has to be budget set aside for training.”  When we talked about the vision statement, I reminded them that none of that vision could be accomplished if teachers were told HOW to carry it out.  When we discussed accountability, I reminded them that they couldn’t be expected to use it well without training.  I’m sure they got tired of hearing the word training from me, but I felt it was my role as the representative of the teachers. 

The members of the committee were sworn to silence until the plan was unveiled.  In the mean time, projectors and MacBook Pros were purchased for every teacher.  They were made ready by our wonderful tech team (which at that time only consisted of Sean and Diane) in an empty classroom that had new locks and paper over the windows.  You practically needed a secret password to enter that room.  As the day of the unveiling approached, we all got a little excited and nervous.  Diane was going to be chaperoning our 8th grade DC field trip, so Sean would be on his own that day for training.  He was nervous about whether or not people would like the idea.  Including myself, there were about three faculty meetings that were long term Mac users; so we were asked to help people during the training.  All the teachers knew when they came in that morning was that the day would be about technology and that Sean would be leading it.  Sean talked about the importance of increasing our technology usage in 21st century education, showed a prezi about the importance of changing education from the industrial model, and talked about how critical it was that we lead in this area.  Then, I was scripted to ask, “So, how do we do this if we don’t all have the tools?”  Sean announced that everyone would be getting a projector, which was met with minor enthusiasm.  Then, he said, “You may be asking what good a projector will do if you don’t have your own laptop.  Well . . .”  The laptops were hidden in a closet, and I got to help roll them out.  It was super exciting.

We spent that entire day of training, learning how the Mac works, looking at each type of application, and brainstorming ideas.  We got a video message from Diane since she couldn’t get to us from DC.  We obviously had teachers with a wide range of experience and comfort with the tool (one person asked me what it meant to click), but everyone was super on board and willing to learn.  At the end of the day, I hugged Sean and told him how well he did and how excited everyone was.  We knew we were at the beginning of something awesome.

Since that day, we have learned so much.  Our kids have done so much.  Our tech team has supported us so much.  It is too much to put in this post, which is already long.  Read all about our first year with tech in my next post.

Wikipedia in School - It Has Its Place

I know I already posted this week, but my brain is too tired to let me do any of the stuff on my to do list, and I need to distract myself from the fact that I really need to use the restroom but can't leave my room for the next ten minutes because there are study hall students in here.

Last week I wrote something on the board that I could not have imagine writing sixteen years ago because it didn't exist.  I would not have dreamed of writing it ten years ago because I hated it.  Here's a picture of what I wrote as bellwork for my physics class.

That's right.  I instructed my students to go to wikipedia!  You know what else?  It's not the first time.  Here's another thing.  It won't be the last.  I need some kind of support group.  Hi, my name is Beth, and I use wikipedia in my classes. 

If you were in my class ten years ago, you will probably be surprised to hear that I would not only allow students to go to wikipedia, much less instruct them to do so.  Back then, I could not have been more passionately against the use of wikipedia in my classroom.  When I assigned a project, the instructions specifically forbid the use of wikipedia.  When a goofy student was editting wikipedia in the computer lab, I asked other students if they really wanted Josh as their source.  Now, I am telling students to go read about mirrors there or posting links to it in my own digital book.

What has changed?  Wikipedia has changed.

In the beginning, the way wikipedia worked was extremely flawed.  Anyone could post anything, and it was a long time before it got reviewed.  Students would tell me back then that they took down wrong things, and I would point them back to Josh.  He had posted something about UFO's on a page about Abraham Lincoln, and it stayed for weeks before it was removed.  If something so obviously bogus was staying there, how long would it take them to catch more subtle errors? 

As wikipedia grew quickly, they set some policies that would allow them to maintain quality control.  They have a page on how to report edits and some extensive rules about what constitutes credible objections.  There is even a wikipedia page on the reliability of wikipedia.

One of the things that also turned me around was a Ted Talk by Jimmy Wales.  He discusses the community of people that do most of their contributions.  "These are people who write in encyclopedia in their free time for fun.  You think they don't care about accuracy?"  I found that a compelling argument.  It doesn't mean there aren't still people vandalizing the site intentionally, but that dropped pretty significantly when the novelty wore off.

Wikipedia isn't appropriate for everything.  It shouldn't be a source for formal research (you may remember that printed encyclopedias weren't for that either if you can remember back to those).  I wouldn't quote it in a valedictory address or an argument in court (although people have).  If you want to learn about the history of the dual nature of light, however, they have a great article that will give you an overall summary going all the way back to Democritus and Aristotle.  If you want to see ray diagrams for concave mirrors, there is nowhere better to find all you need to know in one place.  If you want to find a source that you can use in your research paper, scroll to the bottom of a wikipedia page for the list of works cited in that article; it's a great place to start looking for sources. 

If you teach kids to think critically, you need not fear wikipedia.  If you teach kids to confirm information in more than one place, you need not fear wikipedia.  If you teach kids to use wikipedia appropriately, you need not fear wikipedia.  Let's face it; it's not going anywhere.  Let's teach them to use it well.

When Things Don't Work

I have been sitting in on another teacher's classes for the past week.  She is doing a pretty new thing in our school, and I wanted to see how it went.  Since we are a school that encourages innovative ideas in teaching, it is fun to go see when a teacher has done something new.  She took on the idea of 20% time projects, inspired by Google.  You may or may not know this, but Google gives its employees the freedom to use 20% of their work time on personal projects.  To see how this has gone at Google, click here.  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/googles-20-percent-time-in-action.html

This innovative Google idea has spurred on a lot of talk in education.  What if we gave students one day a week to work on their own passion projects?  What would we have to give up teaching, and what parts of our curriculum would be covered by a project like this?  Since the kids end up writing a lot in this project and present them to an audience, one of our English teachers decided it was right for her 10th grade class.  For the first three quarters of the year, they have spent their class time on Fridays working on a project of their own making.  They are now in presentation time, and teachers and parents have been invited to see the presentations.  I've gone to as many as I can and have live tweeted them as they go.  One of the most important things that the students are required to address in their presentation is what they have learned about themselves and what their greatest challenges were.

Most students have said something along the lines of,  "I failed to accomplish my goal because . . . "  Fill in the blank with "poor time management, procrastinating, being used to being told what to do, not having a specific enough goal, etc."  Those who have failed to accomplish have been encouraged to own it and explain what went wrong for the benefit of the listeners. 

As I listen to these presentations, one thing has stood out to me.  I have spent a lot of time in my career batting clean up.  Every teacher (except for those who never try anything new) spends time analyzing what went wrong and how to do it better next time.  What we have not traditionally done is allow the students to see that process.  Much like the post where I encouraged you to let them see you sweat, I think it is just as important to let them see you fix things.  When a project fails, own it - in front of your students.  Send an e-mail explaining what part of the mess was on you and thank them for allowing you to try new things with them (after all, it isn't like you can try them with an experimental group before presenting it to your class).  This will encourage them to self analyze as well.

I am currently in the middle of a challenge based learning project that appears to be failing.  I don't know if it will fail in the end, but the beginning is rough.  I called the beginning a false start, posed the question again with more clarity, and we started over.  We aren't where I want to be, but we are definitely better than we started.  Don't be afraid reflect and repeat.

This is, by the way, the reason we beat the Soviets to the moon.  All of our mistakes were addressed in front of the world, open to public scrutiny, and able to be solved.  The Soviets never announced anything until AFTER it had been successful.  No one knew of their failures until decades later.  Even within their space program, mistakes were not allowed to be spoken of.  How can improvements be made if there is no acknowledgement of failure?  They cannot.

One of the things that is squeezed out of education when we run short on time is reflection.  Our class time is precious, so we fill it with all the activity and teaching we can.  However, as John Dewey said, "Learning does not come from experience.  It comes from reflecting on experience."  Thanks to technology, students can reflect outside the classroom.  You can have them reflect on a project using a Google form.  You can ask them a reflective question and have them e-mail you the answer.  If you want them to reflect together, you can have them use a discussion board or wiki.  There are many ways to give time for reflection without using your class time.  Don't be afraid to assign it for homework because it is critical to learning.

Growing in the SAMR Model

My school has a one to one MacBook program.  Every student that I teach brings a school issued lap top to class, and we do many different kinds of things using technology.  There are good ways to do this, and there are bad ways to do this.

The first year of our program (four years ago) was amazing.  We all learned new tools and how to express the same material in new ways.  Kids were making videos left and right, and it was all new and exciting.  As happens with many projects, we reached a plateau.  In the second year, we reverted into what was comfortable while keeping a sort of veneer of technology over it.  This is the way to fail with technology.  Our awesome technology team recognized this and made sure that we would keep growing.

Enter the SAMR model.  If you are in education, you probably know what the SAMR model is and can skip this paragraph.  For the uninitiated, SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.  As you move from one level to another, you increase thinking level, creative skills, 21st century tool usage, etc.  An example of Substitution would be taking notes on the computer.  It is essentially the same as taking notes on paper with some slight improvements (search ability, the ability to input pictures, etc).  Augmentation means that the technology provides a feature that couldn't have been done to the same project (e.g. inputting links to youtube videos to augment written work).  Where you want to be is called "above the line" because the M and R portions of the model bring you into the good pedagogical places.

That first year of the program, we had jumped from nothing to the S and A levels of the scale.  It was exciting because it was new.  Jumping straight to M and R would have been overwhelming for everyone, so it was appropriate that we were at that level in the first year.  After that plateau, our awesome tech team (Can you tell I like them?) encouraged us to LEVEL UP!  They made it fun by inventing "missions" that we could earn badges for completing.  The missions involve using new tools, watching TED talks on education, speaking at a faculty meeting about technology, etc.  We earn the badges by doing discussion board posts.

Another addition was the technology integration meeting.  Each quarter, we meet with the media/tech specialist to discuss how we would like to implement technology and how she can help us do it.  At our first meeting this year, I wanted to hit the R on the SAMR model.  R means Redefinition.  It means accomplishing something that was unthinkable before we began using technology in the classroom.  We decided that we would have my 8th grade make their own website about the chemical elements.

In my next post, I'll tell you how that website is going.

Hyperlinking Brains - Part 2

In my last post, I talked about why I decided to write my own textbook for 8th grade as a way of taking advantage of their hyperlink prone minds.  I have now been using the book for one semester, so I cannot yet fully speak to how it is going but I do have a few observations about it.  I also have some advice for anyone out there who would like to try for themselves.

My Observations
1.  On the first day of school, the kids are super impressed.  When your textbook was written by your teacher, you think that person is an expert whether they are or not.  I have tried to tell them that it isn’t like I had to get it published, but they don’t get that. 
2.  All media is in one place (offline).  Our school as a great LMS where I can put videos and other resources; but you have to be online to get to them.  Having them in the book has been great because they don’t have to be online to use it.  This means they can still do their homework on an athletic bus or if the network goes down.
3.  I was able to use the analogies, mnemonic devices, examples, and stories in the book that I think work well with the material.  If you have been teaching longer than two years, you have a favorite analogy for double replacement reactions, an acronym that you love for helping kids remember a list, a great example of iambic pentameter, or the perfect illustration that helps your kids wrap their minds around the meaning of manifest destiny.  These are rarely things you got from your textbook because they have to use pretty bland or generic examples to avoid problems.  If you write your own, you get to include what works for you.
4.  The kids are more likely to read it because they know (and like, hopefully) you. 
5.  It is editable.  Because I was trying to get this done for this year, I didn’t have time to the proofing I would have liked.  As a result, I have found spelling errors and grammatical issues while using the book this year.  I remind the kids that they are the guinea pig group and encourage them to point them out.  I will be able to fix it for next year.  Better than that, I can edit the content for next year.  If I find a video that better illustrates a point than the one I have, I can replace it.  If I go to a national park and see a good analogy that I never thought of before, I can add it to the book.  I can update the book as often as I want to re-issue it.  For me that will be only once a year, but that is still better than the printed textbooks I was using 6 years in a row before replacing them.
6. 


The hyperlinks.  You may remember that this was the reason I started this to begin with.  I wanted to include links for students so that they could explore something if they found it interesting.  These are screen shots of a couple of pages.  Each red word you see is a link.   They mostly lead to wikipedia pages, although I did include a few for How Stuff Works, WebMD, dictionary.com, and the Physics Classroom as well as some other sites I thought might be of interest.  While writing, I learned some interesting things that I wouldn’t have time or space to include in a book, but including a link allows anyone who finds the thought as interesting as I did to explore it.  For example, when researching about the early days of NASA, I found that we built it from an already existing organization called NACA, which had been the governing body for airplane flight.  I don’t have time to teach them this, but if they find it interesting, they can link to the NACA wikipedia page.  I don’t know how many of those the kids have taken advantage of, but it is an option for them.  When I survey my kids at the end of the year, it is something I intend to ask.

Advice
If you’re a teacher with Mac access, let me recommend that you take advantage of iBooks author to make some content of your own.  You don’t necessarily need to write an entire textbook.  Perhaps, there is one unit in your book that you feel is weak.  You could just make your own chapter for that.  Here’s some advice if you are up for the challenge.

1.  Organize your thoughts first.  Remember making outlines for research papers?  It’s still a good idea, but now you can do it in a way that is a little more helpful.  I dedicated a jump drive to the book.  I made a folder for each chapter.  Within that chapter, I made folders for each section.  I put a document or two in each folder.  If you have videos that you use frequently, you might want to include those too.  I already had those separated by chapter on my Mac, so I didn’t use jump drive space for that.
2.  However long you think it is going to take, it will take longer.  This isn’t a weekend project for the weekend before you start the chapter, at least not if you want to do it well.  I made doing the entire book a summer project and got through about two thirds of it.  If I hadn’t had other goals for the summer, I probably could have finished it; but it was more time consuming than I imagined. 
3.  Let the links come to you as you write.  I started making a list of links before I began writing, but as I wrote, I found that it was really easier to let them lead me.  As I was writing an example, I would want to look it up.  I figured if I wanted to look it up, the kids might too and included it.  If I had limited myself to the planned material, I wouldn’t have as much good stuff.

4.  Don’t feel like you have to write in order.  If you are putting your writing in documents and then copying and pasting them into iBooks Author (which I recommend), you don’t need to write it in order.  Start with what you are most comfortable with writing.  It gives you some momentum.  Write the chapter you taught this week this weekend while it is still fresh in your mind.  When I was trying to start with chapter 1, I made little progress.  It was too daunting.  When I started with my favorite chapter, it was much easier to get going.

If your kids have Macs with Mavericks, they have iBooks to read.  If not, you can export to pdf.  The videos won’t work, but everything else will.  Some of my kids parents have asked for it on pdf because they have windows machines at their home and would like a “printed copy.”  I don’t know if they ever print it, but they can if they want to.

Don’t be afraid of this.  It seems scary, but it is really taking what you already know, teach, and do and putting into a lovely and accessible format. 

Hyperlinking Brains

A few years ago, before GRACE began to implement our one to one laptop program, our wonderful IT trainer, Diane, began talking to us about kids brains being wired different from ours because of their lifelong exposure to technology.  She sent us articles that described the students as “digital natives” while we were classified as “digital immigrants.” 

One of the things that stood out to me in this discussion was that they liked to learn with hyperlinks.  If you don’t know, hyperlinks are what you see when you read a page on wikipedia.  It allows you to have choices while you are reading because you can choose to continue on the page you are reading or click on the word that seems more interesting or that you didn’t understand.  When I was a kid, if I was reading a passage in the textbook and encountered a word I didn’t know, I would have to take the initiative to look it up in the dictionary.  Let’s be honest, most of us didn’t.  We just skipped the word and hoped context would be our friend.  If a kid is reading a website and come across a word that they don’t know, they can usually click on it and be taken to a page about that word.

There are certainly drawbacks to this in the sense that you can end up going down the rabbit hole and never finish the passage you were supposed to be reading.  However, the great benefit of this is that you will pay attention to what you are reading because you chose to read it. 

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to teach in a way that would take advantage of their hyperlink thinking.  If I could figure it out, I could teach beyond my curriculum guide, interest the kids, keep their attention, give them choices in what they learned (sort of - because I do still have to cover what is my curriculum), and give a bit of self pacing.  The problem was, I couldn’t figure it out.  How was I supposed to arrange my notes to let them jump to what interested them? 
I tried including links in my keynote and giving them choices about what to go to next, but that fell apart pretty quickly.  I teach science, and some things really depend on what you learned before that.  Jumping over the foundation wasn’t going to work.
I tried KWL sheets.  Tell me what you Know and what you Want to know.  (L means tell me what you learned, but nobody ever gets to that part.)  This didn’t work at all.
I design all my projects with some choices, but that wasn’t really taking advantage of this hyperlink idea.

We were three years into our one to one program, and I still hadn’t grabbed onto an idea that really worked.  Each kid has their own laptop, so it should be easier; but I just couldn’t land on an idea that really represented what I hoped to achieve.

A year ago, the school sent the science department to a free three hour workshop on Apple Apps.  I don’t remember everything I learned at this workshop.  I mostly remember two things.  First, the newest business buzzword must be leverage as a verb.  She must have told us these were things we could “leverage with our students” 941 times in the three hour class.  At point I thought I could teach her what leverage meant by actually hitting her with a lever, but we were learning good things in spite of it; so I held back.

The thing I left most excited about was the App called iBooks Author.  As she described writing your own digital textbooks, I turned to my friend and said, “We could do this.”  In my first 11 years at GRACE, I had 8th grade physical science textbooks that I didn’t use at all.  Ask my kids; we may have opened the book twice during the year.  Some years, I didn’t even check them out to them because it seemed silly to have them carry them when we didn’t use them.  I didn’t like the books because they rarely arranged the material in the order I thought best to teach it.  They often overemphasized points I found trivial and under-emphasized points I found critical.  I e-mailed our administration and tech people from the workshop, telling them that I would like to write my own textbook, because I knew telling them would force me to follow through.

I sort of began writing during the school year, but it was pretty slow progress because I still had normal things to do.  I took it on as a summer project.  It took far longer than I anticipated.  You think you know something well that you have been teaching for sixteen years, but it is difficult to sum it up when writing.  I also wanted to use pictures and videos and links, so that took some time.  At the end of the summer, I was completely finished with first semester and about two chapters into second semester.  I exported first semester and handed it out on jump drives to the kids.  This turned out to be better anyway because of the file size.  I continued writing a bit on weekends and finally finished the second semester book on New Year’s Day.  I can give this out to the kids our first day back. 

I have just realized how long this blog post is, so I am going to save the evaluation of all this for my next post.

Let Them Stress

We are almost at the end of first quarter.  This inevitably leads to one really stressful week for everyone.  Many teachers are trying to get in one last test or one project so that students who haven't done so well on the others can have another grade to provide balance.  It also means that the fall play is this week (and, at GRACE, it means Granparents' Day).  This is the first time in years that I haven't gotten an e-mail of complaint about the stress of this week, so I feel pretty safe posting this blog without anyone thinking I am directing it at them.

Without stress, you die.  Seriously - stress is an important part of being alive.  Response to stressors is one of the criteria that must be met to know if something is alive.  The definition of stress is actually pretty neutral.  It is

"Physiological or biological stress is an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus. Stress is a body's method of reacting to a challenge. According to the stressful event, the body's way to respond to stress is by sympathetic nervous system activation which results in the fight-or-flight response. In humans, stress typically describes a negative condition or a positive condition that can have an impact on a person's mental and physical well-being."

When you are born, light is a stress.  Your eyes haven't adapted to it yet because they haven't needed to.  Yet, no one says, "That poor baby, let's keep it in darkness."  When you first learn to walk, you fall - a lot.  When they cry, we comfort them; but exactly no one says, "My Lord, keep that child sitting.  They shouldn't have the stress of falling down."  Somehow, we get that small people have to experience challenges in order to grow and learn.  Somewhere along the way, however, a lot of people start thinking their children should never be uncomfortable.  While I know that no one wants to see their child upset or in pain or stressed or sad or challenged, I also know that without those things, people do not grow.  No parent sits at home hoping that their child will not grow at all, but they do hope their child never experiences stress.  These are contradictory.

I promise that we, as teachers, do not wish to put excessive stress (which is unhealthy) on your children.  I promise that we are for them and not against them.  I promise that no teacher I have ever worked with has gleefully responded to students being overwhelmed.  I also promise that there is no death certificate anywhere that lists cause of death as "one week of stress" or "too many tests."

Stress is in all our lives and preventing students from experiencing it will not help them as they prepare for adult life.  What will help them is reflection.  Have this conversation with your child next week.  "Wow, last week was really crazy hard, huh?  Look, you are still here.  You made it, and now you have more skills than you had before.  I'm so happy you are growing."

Teaching - It's Not Just for the Classroom Anymore

One of the hats I wear at GRACE is yearbook advisor.  This means I show up in a lot of places.  In addition to taking photos in classes, I have been to games, matches, meets, club meetings, pep rallies, dances, NHS and Beta Inductions, art events, theater dress rehearsals, chapels, dance recitals, fundraisers, choral and band concerts.  You name it, I've photographed it.

I was at one of these events this weekend.  The City of Raleigh puts on an awesome artistic event each fall called ArtSpark.  Artists from all over town and students from various schools buy a square of space on a street in the heart of downtown Raleigh.  From Friday night to Sunday afternoon, people use pastels to make amazing designs and pictures in these squares.  There are fashion shows and concerts and a variety of other artistic activities.  Our students look forward to this event every year, and they have a ball crawling around on the street, bringing their creations to life.

It occurs to me that students learn more about art at this event than they possibly could in the art room.  Our art teacher, Elizabeth Walters, is amazing and brings out artistic abilities in our students they didn't know they had, but the most impressive thing she does is arrange actual experiences for them.  ArtSpark isn't easy for her to arrange.  Neither is entering them in competitions, arranging for field trips to art museums or ArtSpace, another great downtown Raleigh location.  Her life would be much easier if she only taught in the classroom, but she knows the value of an experience like ArtSpark.  The kids get to see actual artists produce things they haven't even imagined.  They get to see that there are other people interested in the same things they are.  The four hours they spend on the street is worth weeks of classroom experience, which is why they are terrified any year rain threatens to cancel this event.

Of course, Mrs. Walters is not the only teacher providing students with learning outside of classroom hours.  Our school is filled with opportunities for students to find, develop, and use their gifts.  Trust me.  I've photographed most of them.  We have a student council, a real one, not just one that looks good on your transcript.  Our student council leaders, Mr. Whelply and Mrs. Gill, care deeply about teaching these students to find and use their leadership skills.  Our students plan their own dances (with guidance, of course - We're not crazy.) and our chapel services.  The public speaking class speaks publicly, not just in their safe little classroom.  Our AP Biology teacher, Mr. Smitley, actually takes students to the beach to test the water, the organisms, and the environment because he wants them to get their hands dirty.  Our physics students build crazy things, like hover crafts.  Our English students tweet about what they are reading and participate in online forums.  Today, they have traveled out of town to see a play because they are reading it in class, and it will be more meaningful if they see it acted out.

All of these wonderful and enriching things mean lots of time from teachers.  One of our math teachers was at school helping students until 5:30 last night.  I haven't even mentioned our elementary school teachers.  Imagine what it must be like to wrangle a million second graders (okay, it probably just feels like a million) at the zoo!  Above and beyond is not even a phrase we use here because it is the norm.

What teachers do inside the classroom is important, but what they do outside the classroom is meaningful.