Bud the Teacher

Connected

Jennifer Jones tweeted a link to this video this morning, and I think it's a fine example of what a connected organization, in this case Abilene Christian University, and connected teaching and learning,  can look like. 

We're getting to a stage in the learning game where we should be thinking about ways to help students create connections to each other and to their learning.  Handing students and teacher a device that connects students and serves as a platform for the teaching and learning in a system just makes sense, even though it's not always a socially or culturally or politically accepted idea.  That needs to change.  Soon.  I feel like the political climate for 1:1 (or even 1:3, or 1:10) continues to improve - but we're still in a transitional place between analog and digital instruction. 
    I can't say that the iPhone is THE device - I couldn't imagine writing anything of substance on the iPhone or any other tool without a reasonable keyboard - but I understand why they featured it, as I do think it's a game-changer, in terms of its functionality and ease of use.  Of course, there are plenty of other game-changers coming to the table at the moment.

The Podcast: A Project of Projects

   

Tonight's short offering is a thought or two about an idea I had today.  Aggregating content is nothing new - but makes sense when you need a "new" project.  We could all use a few more connections to the good work we're up to.  Would love to hear your thoughts, or anything you're up to in this vein.  Enjoy.

A Belated Answer

    About a week ago, Brian posted:

Paul Hamilton  left this comment on my last post:

This week, I did a workshop for classroom teachers on using blogging in the classroom as one UDL approach for ALL learners. There were questions about the quality of posted student writing. So, here are my questions to you. Do you approve and/or edit every student post? How much editing do you do? How time consuming is the process? (I notice that you were working at it on a Friday evening!) Do you have any related tips for teachers who are holding back out of concerns in this area?

Since I'm not sure about the statute of limitations on blog responses, I'm going to answer now, as I was asked at the end of the post. 

    I've run blogs where I approve everything and others where my students had all the control of what got published and when.  I always approved material for our student newspaper (now defunct, sigh), in part because I wanted an opportunity to do revision and editing with each student, and in part because I thought the professional nature of the newspaper made sense for such controls.  When I taught speech via blogs, I was willing to let my students decide what they published and when.  We discussed appropriate behavior as well as that if they weren't sure about whether or not to publish , they could certainly seek the advice of their fellow students or their teacher.  Since their blogs were more for reporting research than they were for formal presentation, I tended to cut the students some leeway when it came to the "rules."  If it was readable, and approaching formal English (or, if you prefer, "acceptable public voice,"), then I let it go. 
    In two years of blogging with students, I asked one student to change a piece, once, and even he agreed, after re-reading, that he shouldn't have hit "publish" in the first place - but that he was frustrated when he made the post.
    The time involved with editing is much the same as with not editing.  I think it's irresponsible for a teacher to require writing and then to not read that writing.  (I don't mean read every word; teachers, though, should at least skim every post a student makes, for a number of reasons.)  So whether or not a teacher is editing prior to publication, or is reading after publication, the time factor is still there.  I would argue for making the time spent editing a student's work with a student a learning experience, akin to a writing conference.
     The trick, when editing, is to help the writer to become a better writer - and not to mask their student voice with your own teacher voice.  I struggle with that one every time I work with a student in a conference. I don't think we should edit every word or sentence for grammar and proper punctuation - but we should attend to egregious errors.  Your own judgment will help you to determine what "egregious" means for your students. 
    I hope this is helpful, even if it's a bit late.  You asked a great set of questions, Paul.  Thanks, Brian, for allowing me to take a crack at them. 

Worth Watching. And Thinking About.

    I tweeted this.  Then Dean posted it.  And he's right to do so  - I'm forgetting to blog in the wake of Twitter.  And that's a bad thing - worthy of a podcast in the near future.  Will's having the same trouble, it seems, as are others in my network(s).  Things are getting ever-more complicated.  And that's a good thing. 
    Anyway - I think this video is of interest to many - both because of the way it was made - which I like very much - as well as the accompanying post on the statistics behind its creation.  What a great model for transparency in creation - as well as a good piece for conversation.  Enjoy. 

Questions on Collaboration

    Ben shares a frustrating experience he's having with a collaborative partnership torn asunder by parental concerns in a different state.  Lots to think about here, amidst the perceived parental overreaction, but I'm particularly interested in the comments from students on their collaborative wiki about the issue.  They're frustrated -- but are communicating, too, the value of their learning via wiki.  One comment in particular struck me as very astute:

Seriously, I never even got a chance to talk to them, and   
do you know why? Because I was working and learning and writing! What does that tell you! That tells you that by them not being on here they are being deprived of something they could have learned from. I just hope whoever the parent is that called that attorney something
knows how much they have affected.  And that they have deprived an entire class of kids of some of the learning they needed!

Another student is a bit more practical about the situation:

.  .  .  we can still use wikimail and make our own wikispace.

    Hmm.  After school wiki work?

   

Ben concludes his post with several excellent questions for moving forward:

The question I kept thinking about after reading this e-mail is, “Who failed?” Was it the teacher who didn’t set up enough rules and guidelines for the students that were written down? Was it the parent who failed to work with the teacher and understand the nature of the collaboration? Or, was it the students who couldn’t grasp the public nature of the internet?

Because of one or a combination of these factors, these students are being shut out of an avenue for self expression and learning. What can we do so that this doesn’t happen to us?

    Head on over to his place and share your thoughts.

A Quiet Week

    Been quiet lately.  It's one of those weeks that's about introspection. 
    I've been writing a little, though, and I thought I'd point you to the post I just put up at the CSUWP Advanced Institute Mother Blog. Take a peek. 
    If you'd like, you can join us in our Book Club which begins in about a week and will run up until the start of the AI.  The book, Working toward Equity, is available as a free download.  It's a book of and about teacher research.  Feel free to join in on the discussion.  Check out this post for details and a reading schedule.

A Better Tasting Drupal

    I've had a quick peek at FunnyMonkey's new flavor of Drupal, soon to be DrupalEd.  It's pretty dynamically fantastic, despite the fact that it's in alpha/beta.  Here's the annoucement:

In conjunction with our work within the Drupal community and with OpenAcademic, we have brought a site live for people to check out: http://drupaled.alphabetademo.org

The site can function as a blogging platform, a podcasting platform, a wiki, an informal learning space, a course management space, and/or as a replacement for an organizational intranet. Within the site, users can create working groups or communities of practice. The site also supports social bookmarking. The homepage of the site gives a more complete overview of the functionality.

We would like to turn this site into a downloadable installation profile as quickly as possible, so that whoever wants this functionality can grab it and install it. This install profile will be released under the GPL license.

If you want to check the site out, feel free to create an account and play around. If you want to get involved, we'd love your help!

• To start, we'd love to get people's first impressions as they check out the site, What made sense? What was intuitive? What was confusing? We have set up a wiki page for this feedback; your responses will help us tweak the look and feel of the site to make it easier to use. Please, share your thoughts! The more feedback we get, the more tweaking we can do.
• Second, what do people need to know about using the site? We have begun some "Getting Started" documentation that people can build as they work through the site. What functionality do people need to know about as they use the site? This documentation wouldn't need to be technical, but rather should lay out how to use the site from an end-users perspective: ie, click here to do this.

  As I envision it, this "Getting Started' documentation will be edited/distilled into a user's manual that will be included in the final install profile. This way, people who are new to Drupal, or new to working in an online environment, will have some guidance to help them get up to speed.

• Third: Spot where it's broken. See a broken link? Let us know about it.
• Fourth: Theming. If there are any graphic artists/designers who want to throw some expertise into making the site look pretty, please let us know by leaving a comment here, or on this post.
• Fifth: Add your name to the contributor list. If you added documentation, provided feedback, or helped get the site live, let the world know. The Contributors List, along with the Getting Started documentation, will ship with the site.

After we have received some input from the community (aka you), we will bring a version of this site live at DrupalEd.org -- in addition to providing a blogging platform for people who would want one, the DrupalEd site could also become a place for educators to get feedback on the non-technical issues of teaching and working online.

As I said, it's pretty dynamic -- but can and will get better as folks share feedback and responses and suggestions and ideas.  I'd encourage you to give it a look.  Bill's a very responsive guy -- and he's eager for your thoughts.  Give it a whirl.

 

The Podcast: Creating Resources for Digital Storytelling

    In today's podcast, I'm asking some questions about digital storytelling (like, for example, is it digital storytelling if you don't use pictures?) as well as sharing some ideas and asking for input on some resources I am creating for a class that I'll be team teaching in a few weeks.  I also mention proctoring our state standardized tests, although that's certainly not the focus of the podcast.  Please give a listen and offer your advice as I am plunging into a new avenue of digital storytelling. 
    At least, if it counts that we're not using pictures.  Does it?
    Here're the links that I mention, as well as others that are relevant, in no particular order:

• Ira Glass discussing the process for his show, This American Life (via Presentation Zen, where you can still read about the videos if they're blocked at your school)  TAL also has a comic-style "how-to" guide for folks interested in learning how to write/record in the style of the show.  As if that weren't enough, there's also an educator page where teachers explain how they use the program in their classes.
• Hall Davidson was involved in the development of Kitzu tools for multimedia projects.  At one point the idea, or one incarnation of it, was called Schoolhouse Video.  Here's a link to a resource on how to create your own kits.  Now he works for Discovery Education. 

Leading? Me(me)?

    Several days ago, (or, last year in Internet time) Todd tagged me with an interesting meme on leadership.  I'd rather be thinking and writing about Moodle and how I think it might be a better tool than it is for classroom writing workshops - but I do think I have a little something to offer here as I teach a course on leadership at my school, although I certainly don't have all the answers.  The question (originally asked by Miguel) is:

What are seven qualities we don't know about you that help you to be a leader?

    I believe the original intention of the question was to get administrators to blog about some of their leadership skills -- but I think teachers can and should lead in the classroom and in educational reform efforts.   Here goes:

1.  Humility.  I believe that I am right more often than I am wrong -- but I am often wrong.  Knowing that I am fallible and human means that I need to pay attention to others' ideas and styles -- there's much to learn from how other folks conduct themselves.  Even on my best day, I could be better.

2.  Modeling.  I don't know if this is a quality or an attribute -- but I'm going with it.  The best leaders are those who model in their actions and thoughts the paths that they believe are worth taking.  Every morning, when I ask my students to read and to write, I write and read with them, as it's so important that they see me doing the same things I ask of them.   I am very fond of Mohandas Gandhi's charge to "be the change you wish to see in the world."

3.  Service.  I teach servant leadership to my students.  Leaders who serve their fellow folks learn what those folks truly want and need.  I try to find little ways to be helpful when I can.
    One aspect of service, though, is that sometimes serving someone honestly means denying them a want and instead fulling a need.  The trick to being a good leader is knowing when a "need" is essential. 

4.  Passion.  If you're going to be successful as a leader, you've got to care about where you're going and why you need to get there.  Bill Cosby took some criticism in October for sharing his thoughts on passion -- but I agree with him on this one.  We've got to care an awful lot about what we're doing -- and we must be able to communicate that passion to others.

5.  I don't like ham.  (Okay -- I don't like metaphorical ham.  But I've nothing against the real stuff.)  When I took my current position, an administrator told me about a woman, let's call her Linda, who, every year at Christmas, cut the ends off of the ham she prepared for the holiday meal before sticking it into the oven.  One year, someone asked her why she did so.  She did so because that's how her mother had always done it.  Linda called her mother to ask why she cut the ends off of the ham. Linda's mother laughed and told Linda that when Linda was a little girl, the family didn't have a roasting pan that could accommodate the size of ham that she always bought -- so she cut off the ends so the ham would fit.

    When I say that I don't like ham, I mean that I always like to know why something is either being done TO me or BY me.  If the "why" doesn't make sense, I work as best as I can to change the situation so that it does.   Good leaders are always looking for the ham stuff in their organizations, groups, or selves.

6. Laughter. This world is full of heartache and pain and disappointment and hurt.  Does every meeting have to be painful?  Every chance I can, when it's appropriate, I like to make a joke.   It's part of who I am, costs nothing, and keeps things grounded. 

7.  Knowing When to Quit.  I considered making up a "seventh" quality/attribute.  But what would be the point.  When it's time to move on, it's time to move on. 

    Time to tag.  If you're in a position of leadership in a school environment, consider yourself fair game for this one.   Tag.   

Publishing Opportunities

    In one of my roles as the co-editor of the New Voices column for English Journal, I regularly have space in a print publication to discuss how particular issues or topics in language arts instruction at the secondary level affect or are affected by early career teachers.  There are several upcoming calls that would be appropriate for writers from this community to address, so I thought I'd better pass along the calls here.  If these interest you, and you'd like to submit a manuscript, or ask any questions whatsoever, please do.  Take a look.  It's my job to help you get published, not to keep it from happening.  In addition, you don't need to be an early career teacher in order to write with me -- you just need to be relevant to early career teachers. 
    You can find more upcoming calls, or more information about requirements, at EJ's website.  If you're interested, I'd need to hear from you by the postmark deadline on these calls.  But I've got some additional time flexibility, so if you're interested but need a little extra time, I can make that work, too.:

New Literacies

Postmark Deadline: January 15, 2007  
Publication Date: September 2007          

As our vision of what counts as texts enlarges, educators are increasingly interested in not only meanings but also representations. We find a variety of ways of labeling our interests in this broader area of meaning-making—multimodal literacy, media literacy, new literacies, multiliteracies—each with slightly different meanings and uses. For this issue, we are not interested in pinning down a particular definition or set of assumptions and approaches. Instead, we are interested in knowing what you do to help students recognize new textual media, understand how texts are created, and think critically about how representation influences meaning and value. We invite you to consider the following questions or create your own. In all cases, we are interested in the research and/or theory that support your practice.

         

In what ways have you expanded the texts you include in class? What roles do graphic novels, video and film, blogs, sound files, visual art (graphic design), or other texts play in instruction? How do you help students understand why certain texts have been valued and others dismissed? In what ways do you engender understanding of media production and consumerism? What multimodal representations do you encourage students to use and critique? What projects or demonstrations do you use to create and assess students' multiple literacies? How do you employ and/or critique digital technologies? How do you address ethics?

Transforming English Teaching                                

Postmark Deadline: March 15, 2007

Publication Date: November 2007

         

To transform is to change substance and form, or to re-create by reconceiving, resituating, reimagining. Because teachers are always in the midst of change, we know that not all change is transformative. True transformation results in changed perspectives and practices, even new paradigms. For this issue, we invite you to write about transformations in teaching English language arts in the past, present, and future, with an emphasis on how and why such transformations are significant in the twenty-first century. We also seek manuscripts that show how you help students use the English language arts to transform their world.

         

How has the profession been transformed by historical moments, such as the formation of NCTE in 1911, the Dartmouth Seminar in 1966, or the English Coalition Conference in 1987, and what is the current significance of such a historical event? How have the provisions and implications of NCLB affected English language arts curriculum and instruction? In what ways have those changes been transformative, or how could they be? In an era of high-stakes testing, how are we teaching beyond tests to help adolescents deal with the challenges of being teenagers in difficult times or learn lessons that will help them live productive lives after graduation? What are English language arts teachers doing to address achievement gaps experienced because of differences in gender, race, class, and language? How is teaching for social change or justice a transformative approach? How have you used technology to transform your teaching and students' learning? What transformations are essential, and how can we make them?