What I find interesting is that when the kids walk in the classroom, the first thing they do is whip out their laptops. Yeah, we will use them a lot, no doubt. But it’s a TOOL. Not everything depends on that one tool. If only they were that ambitious about opening a book….an English teacher can dream, can’t she?

Stay tuned as we continue our adventures in 21st century learning.

I’m really  excited (and a little bit nervous) about the huge technology initiative our district is implementing. It’s sooooo cool. High school students will each get a laptop. Teachers will have tablet PC’s, and all elementary and middle school classrooms have Promethean interactive boards. How cool is that?!

We’ve spent the summer training and preparing for the new year. I know there will be a huge learning curve for all involved, but what an awesome opportunity. We’re preparing our students to thrive in this century using the tools of this century. For the most part, I think a lot of schools do a great job or preparing kids to do quite well for the 1980’s. You have to admit, the 80’s did have some good points, but I really don’t want my children educated that way. I’m so glad I work where I do. I’m glad our school board and administration have a vision and the courage to follow it–to take risks and make this step. I think other districts may wish they were doing something like this, but I don’t see it happening just yet. BTW, before anyone (like anyone reads this blog anyway……) gets any wild ideas about our district having a lot of money and resources, let me clarify where we stand. Last I heard, our district is the third-lowest funded school district in Colorado, and Colorado is pretty low on education funding too. By no means do we have tremendous amounts of money to spend. This technology initiative has taken a lot of creativity and determination on the parts of many people in our district. It would have been very easy for us to join so many others in simply wishing we could do something like this—get technology tools in our students’ hands, train our staff, and so forth. We coiuld have become discouraged and left the idea sitting there on the table in the board room. But that didn’t happen. And we’re all the better for it.

So, everyone, ready or not, time to saddle up. Be confident and try some new things with your classes. Have some fun and trust yourself. Be willing to make some mistakes and learn from them. The question isn’t “what’s the worst thing that can happen?” It is “What’s the best thing that can happen?”

Some thoughts on online vs. traditional classrooms….
<rant>
My online teaching experience has been with adult learners, but honestly, they aren’t all that different from high school students. They may be a bit more mature in some areas and have different issues to deal with, but I still see the same types of learners and trends in behavior that exist with 17-year-olds.

I don’t see classroom teachers becoming obsolete ever. Scratch that—some individual classroom teachers can make themselves obsolete if they continue to work the same old way all their careers. I think that concept would apply to most jobs. My husband has been a lineman for 30+ years. He doesn’t work on a power line or transformer or sub-station today the same way he did in 1980. If he insisted on doing so, he would not have a job.

Sorry–getting off track. Back to the originally scheduled topic of online vs. traditional classrooms….

It takes a LOT of discipline to be an online learner. We’re all seeing that this week, aren’t we? It takes time, handling distractions and interruptions, etc. I don’t think the general population has the discipline necessary to be completely online learners. Teaching is a very hands-on, relationship-building kind of career. I guess if you were the kind of teacher who just writes the assignment on the board and sits at the back of the room reading your newspaper and let the kids figure it out on their own, then you could easily be replaced with an online class and no one would notice you weren’t in the room any more. But do you really know anyone like that? Yeah, it makes for a funny movie, but that’s it.

Frustrations can run high with online courses, especially for those who are less tech-savvy or who have any kind of learning challenge. They give up, disappear, and the teacher may not have any other way to contact the student. If they don’t log in to the class, you can’t contact them. They’re just gone.

Now, online learning certainly has many benefits. One of the greatest that I see is that students can access the material as many times as they want/need to comprehend. They can slow down or speed up through material as best suits their learning needs. In a classroom, most of the time it all happens at one pace.

Students have more time to compose their thoughts when responding to a discussion posting. They tend to revise more, go back an tweak their message a little more, before posting or sending an e-mail. More students participate in online discussions than live conversations in a classroom. We all know the one or two kids who will always answer a question or participate in a discussion. But when you take away the pressure of speaking up in front of a group of peers and give them time to process their ideas, many more students will open up and write their thoughts/feelings/ideas/concerns in an online environment. I’ve watched my juniors do that for the last two years when we blog every week. I guess I would fall into that category too. I would never speak this much in a class.

Another benefit I’ve noticed with online learning is that students will go back and work on something more than once. Again, I see my juniors do that a lot with their blogs. They’ll post one thing, but then later that day or week, go back and add to it. They won’t ever do that with an assignment given to them on paper. They do it once (hopefully), turn it in, and forget about it. They also read each others blogs or discussion board comments, and they write to each other. These same people may never speak to each other in class. Or they may be in different hours and not have the opportunity to comment to each other were it not for the online tools. Online learning opens up HUGE opportunities to expand their learning beyond the classroom walls and time.

We’re very lucky. We’ll have the best of both worlds. We will continue to have face-to-face classes and relationships with our students, and we will have all the power and benefit of online learning tools to add to the experience. What an amazing future we have ahead of us.

</rant>
Nancy

Today

Today, I will learn more about Moodle to prepare for training other teachers.

Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of what we can’t control–these are all valid concerns. Many people who do not understand or use social networking tools have fears about them. Some of those fears are well-founded. Yes, child predators have used MySpace to stalk victims. Yes, bad people have done bad things using these tools. Yes, we are obligated as parents, as educators, and as a society, to protect and monitor our most precious resource–our children.

MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking tools are not intrinsically bad. How some people may choose to use them can be bad. They are useful communication tools. Similary, cars are not bad, but some people choose to drive while intoxicated or in an unsafe manner. They use their cars in a harmful and irresponsible manner; however, the cars are not bad. They are useful transportation tools. Most people use their cars safely and in a responsible manner. Most people use their MySpace and Facebook accounts in a responsible manner as well.

These social networking sites are powerful communication tools that allow people to remain in contact with one another, regardless of time or location. Now when kids leave home and their friends to go to college or join the military, they don’t have to “leave behind” those relationships. They can remain in contact. They can share pictures and videos. They keep their relationships alive and thriving by using their social networks.

I feel a responsibility as a parent to have MySpace and Facebook accounts to keep tabs on my teenagers’ online activities and relationships. This excellent blog post by Vicki Davis gives great advice to parents for monitoring their children’s online behavior. The nature of communication allows for many ways to do so. We always pick the best and most efficient way to communicate. Young people (and a few of us older ones too!) are finding that Web 2.0 tools like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and others are often the best, most efficient ways to get our messages out, to keep in touch with others, to build our personal networks.

As an educator, my accounts have become avenues for former students to re-connect with me. Sometimes current students use MySpace to contact me with a question or to turn in an assignment if they were absent from class.

As educators, we are in a “position of trust.” We have a strong influence on the young people entrusted to us. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly. Because of that position, we are held under scrutiny, examined by the communities we serve. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Part of choosing this profession is choosing to live under that public microscope. It just goes with the territory. Do I want parents of my students to look at my website? Of course I do! It’s just another place for them to be involved in their children’s education, to get in touch with me. Do I have anything to hide on my website or MySpace site? Nope.

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About a year ago, my daughter was bemoaning the fact that she was the only girl in the video class at our high school. I posted a couple of blog articles here about it and got some feedback from girls in one of Ray Davis‘ classes (thanks, Ray). Their answers about why they don’t get involved in technology classes at school was informative. I also tossed the idea out to the WOW2 blog and got a little bite there too. We talked about how cool it would be to have a club or a class for girls to introduce them to different areas of technology and let them build some confidence, explore some new things.

And that’s about as far as the idea got. Just a few discussions, and then it was shelved and forgotten.

About a month ago, a science teacher and I met with some people from GCC, the new cement plant in our area. They want to find ways to connect with the schools and collaborate to bring math and science classes some great hands-on opportunities. Toward the end of that meeting, one of the engineers, Gina, said something about wanting to find a way to get more girls interested in engineering fields.

“Oh yeah,” says I. “We had this idea about a year ago for a program called GIFT–Girls In Fun Technology. And we wanted to start a club or something for girls to get involved in….” Well, all the GCC people were out of their chairs, and for a minute, I thought Gina might kiss me. (just kidding…) They were so excited about the idea, and they have really helped drive this program into existence.

So here we are, a few weeks later, and it’s actually going to happen. Everyone we have talked to about this is totally excited and supportive. I can’t get over the enthusiasm. We have our kick-off scheduled for Oct. 19, and we are having all of the girls from our high school plus the 8th grade girls from the middle school there. We have been making contacts (each person I call has about 6 more people that I should call….this thing is snowballing…amazing!) and getting people from all over to commit to working with our girls. The overall plan is to meet one afternoon a week and have our partners/sponsors come and present information about all kinds of opportunities for the girls. They can get a chance to try out all different activities from technology, math, science, and engineering disciplines. That will run Oct. - Feb. Then for March, April, and the beginning of May, the girls will choose a particular field to explore more in depth. This will be more of a mentor situation, with the girls working on real-world, hands-on projects. Then we’ll have a huge celebration at the end of the year for the girls, parents, partners, and community.

It seems so simple, but, honestly, I alternate between excitement and panic about getting this up and running.

Last night, I was speaking with a friend who is an engineering professor at CSU-Pueblo, and he made the remark that many people would probably wonder why an English teacher is doing this. I told him that it was simple: I don’t want these girls growing up like I did, convincing themselves that they “can’t do” math and science.

No one ever came out and told me that I was bad at math or science or gave me any reason to think I was dumb, but I tell you what, by the time I was in 5th grade, I had convinced myself that only the “smart” kids were good at math and science, and that I wasn’t good at math and science, and therefore, I was dumb. Just give me a book to read or throw a spelling test my way–I’m all over that.

Middle school didn’t make it any better. I had only one science class–7th grade. I hated it. I was so psyched out that I made it miserable for myself. My next science class after that was biology when I was a freshman in college. That’s right–no science in high school for me. I’ll explain that later.

Before I started 8th grade, we were all tested to see if we should be placed in pre-algebra or 8th grade math. I was right on the border to go into pre-algebra, and I was so relieved when they said the class was too full and I would take regular 8th grade math. Even that was bad. (Again, no one ever told me I was no good at this…I just convinced myself.)

So high school….I took algebra my freshman year and geometry the next. I struggled through algebra, and I have no idea how I got through geometry. Honestly, I don’t think I learned a thing in that class. All we did was correct our homework from the night before (meaning we filled in the answers to our homework from the night before) and then were given the next assignment. It’s anybody’s guess how I got a decent grade. I still needed one more math credit my junior year, and I just couldn’t bear the thought of another math class. That was 1981, and our school was offering a basic computer programming class that year that would count for a math credit. SIGN ME UP! I could get a math credit and not have to do another math class–that was the ticket for me! It was challenging, but I’d take that over trig any day!

So now it was time for my senior year. All I needed to graduate were two P.E. credits (I hated gym even more than math or science!), one more elective, and one science credit. I already had 6 English credits in three years (we needed 4) and all the other classes I needed to graduate. I hated the thought of spending my senior year taking P.E. and Astronomy (the easiest science class I could find) just to graduate. I had accomplished the other goals I had set for myself in high school. I had already taken college-prep English and all of the performing arts classes (several times). Why should I stick around for that? It’s not like I was going to be the prom queen or something.

So we called the little Christian college in Nebraska that I wanted to attend, and asked if I could double up on my credits in the fall, graduate a semester early, and start college in January. They said, “Sure! What do you have left to take?” “Uh, well, P.E. and astronomy.” “You’re kidding, that’s it?” “Yup, that’s it.” “Don’t wait until January. Go get your G.E.D. and we’ll see you in three weeks.”

What? I’m going to college in three weeks? But I’m not quite 17 yet! Can I do that?

Well, we got all the paperwork started, and mom took me up to the high school so I could formally drop out. (Yep, kiddies, I’m a drop out.) The principal had a fit. How could I drop out? I was in the top-whatever percent of my class. I was a good student–all A’s and B’s.

Well, everything was set except for the G.E.D. testing. I had to wait until I was17 to take it, which was about a week and a half before college would be starting. The day after my birthday, I went up to the university to take the tests. There were 5 of them–reading, writing, grammar, math, and science. I was terrified of the math and science. tests. I knew that would blow it for me, and I wouldn’t be able to go to college. They wouldn’t let me take all 5 tests in one day, so I had to go back again. I finished early enough the second day that they let me take the last test. Then the grading…I was terrified when they graded the math and science. “Here we go….I’m not going to be able to go to college. I just know it. I’m dumb. I can’t do math and science.” and on, and on, and on….I just kept beating myself up about it.

To this day, I will never figure out how this happened, but it turned out that my highest score was in science (WHAT? How did THAT happen?) and my second highest score was in math. Okay, G.E.D. lady, what’s going on here? How could I possibly score higher in math and science than in language arts? Don’t you know I’m dumb? I can’t do math and science!

Fast forward a bit–I ended up in biology that first semester in college, and I was terrified. It helped that I had a truly wonderful professor, and I studied my butt off for that class. I received a 98% on my first test. (Yes, I still have that test tucked away somewhere.)

Well, at that time, York College offered only 2-year degrees, so I graduated with an Associate’s Degree when I was 18 years old. Of course, I was still convinced that I was dumb because I struggled through math and science.

It wasn’t until 2004, 20 years later, when I finished my Master’s Degree with a 4.0 GPA that I finally began to think that maybe I wasn’t so dumb after all.

I don’t want these girls to be 38 before they figure that out. I want them to know RIGHT NOW that they are smart, that they can do math, science, technology, and engineering.

And THAT is why an English teacher is doing this. I have to. I owe it to my daughter and all the other girls that I can reach.

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wow2blogs

Pay Attention!

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This prompt came from Sage Advice, a column in Edutopia. Some of these ideas have been bouncing around in my head for a while, but this made me put those ideas into concrete goals.

These are my resolutions for the 2007-2008 school year:

• Incorporate more podcasting in my classes
• Instill a sense of selfless giving and service in my students
• Promote the concept of “Making a Difference”
• Clean out old files and materials (What list of resolutions would be complete without the obligatory goal to “lose weight” or “get organized”? Since weight loss doesn’t really apply to a list of school resolutions, I’ll go with the one to declutter.)

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