Notes from Somewhere over the Rainbow...

"Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next." (23) Slaughterhouse 5

My former tekkie colleagues who have read this blog in the past know that I retired from my teaching job last June. My life has been somewhat "Billy Pilgrimesque" in that, now that I'm legitimately unemployed, I often have these time-travelling mental experiences of who I am and what I am doing with my time. Let me try to explain.

For 29.2 odd years of my life I've needed a mental front-end loader to get me up, get me dressed, and get me out the door to work. I'm not a morning person. This is how I've survived teaching until about noon each day. Now I can park the loader, but I'm more than a little lost without it. Often I get this overwhelming panic that I'm going to be late - and then realize "for what?"

I can walk pretty much where I need to just like I could in high school and university. Sometimes, en route, I revert to this pre-working self. I like her. I love being in Saskatoon with my feet on the ground that I've trodden all my life. The landscape alternately confirms and shatters my sense of where and who I am in time and space.

I have to say, one of the biggest reasons I liked teaching was for my creativity fix. Those adrenaline rushes were wonderful. Other than taking photos I haven't really found a substitute; the rush made the drudgery of the front-end loader life worthwhile. I love teaching and much of what it entails, but I don't have the energy to keep up with the grind. Creativity takes energy.

Am I old? Mentally I can feel 18 to 22 again, but physically my body tells me I'm not. I hurt. "I ache in the places where I used to play," as Leonard Cohen put so eloquently. I love listening to my iPod, but I worry about hearing loss. I'm a step-grandmother, but the kiddies aren't anywhere nearby for me to dote on. My hair hasn't even turned grey! I swallow pills, and I have to watch what I eat.

I'm sitting writing this post about the time I would have been starting work for 29.2 odd years. I'm fighting the urge to go back to bed. The sunshine and blue sky beckon me, and I know I'll have much more pep if I shower and get dressed. Maybe I'll finally make the NIA class at Lawson Civic Centre today...

Teaching with (more) Technology: The Adventure So Far

I like teaching social studies. Really. I loved social studies as a student. Now I get to teach it...sometimes. I even did my masters project ( in 1998) on using the internet to teach grade 6 social studies

At my present school, I've taught grade 5 and 6 social studies for at least 5 years. This year, much to my surprise, I'm teaching grade 7 and 8 social studies for the first time in at least 5 years.

I'm also the "computer teacher" at my school. After somewhat of a hiatus of a few years, I'm back in the lab.

I've decided I'm going to experiment to my little techno-teacher heart's content this year. Here's the summary of some adventure highlights and lowpoints:

1. Every student I teach has a Google Docs account. I have them complete and share as many assignments as possible on them. I can "mark" them (or even PRE-VIEW them) and give suggestions how to improve the assignment. Some students are actually revising their work. They can email me with questions. (Buzz just came out last week. I wonder if that will be useful).

1a. Students started playing with Buzz the minute they saw it. I don't think they quite get how public it is. There is a 78 comment conversation between some of my grade six students that strays into the realm of cyber-bullying. We'll have to deal with that when we get back to school next Monday.

2. I have been composing "study units" using a Google Doc. I do run off a paper copy for students. What is really useful, however, is having my unit online by linking the doc as a web page. All the links are live. Students can copy and paste parts of my doc (a chart for example) into their work. I've been able to scan useful pages of their ancient textbook into PDF format and link them. Graphics are in colour. No student is ever without a copy of the assignment as long as they have access to a computer and the internet.

3. Online videos and photographic slide shows are wonderful teaching tools. Unfortunately they clog up bandwidth. We've choked up the network on many occasions. We are still working on possible solutions. I'm not sure how legal it is, but I made screenshots of a particularly wonderful slideshow and put them on a Google Doc presentation. When the original website chokes, students have an alternative.

3a. We need to reframe the idea of watching video and looking at pictures as "work."

3b. We need to reframe the idea of being on a computer as "work."

4. I'm finding I have to provide a lot of modeling and framing for students. For example: I've started to include frame paragraph outlines to help students structure short answers. I provide cut and paste charts for compare and contrast activities. I'm finding that If I want to get students to use higher order thinking skills to finish assignments, I have to provide pretty concrete instructional examples on how to complete the assignment. Some students don't need this structure and can create their own. I'm fine with that. Some will always need that structure. (Did I mention I used to be a special ed teacher?)

5. My grade six classes have been epals with a school in Illinois for a few years now. We usually have a Skype session at the end of their quarters. Just this week I've made contact with a teacher in New Jersey to do more Skyping and online collaboration.

6. I'm liking the conversations I'm starting to have with my students. I'm liking that I can incorporate information sources from close to home and analyze them.

7. I'm tired. This kind of teaching, no matter how much fun, is a LOT of work and takes even more time.

7a. You can't always get what you want. Some online stuff, no matter how cool or useful, just will never be available on our school network.

8. The adventure continues...

Why I Really Liked Being on the In-School Technology Committee

I've always known why I love being in Educational Technology. It isn't machines, or computer scripts, or games, or....

The real reason I love it so much is that I get to indulge my passion for eclecticism and to hang out with an eclectic group of people all concerned with teaching and learning. We all come from different academic and technical backgrounds so for us to "talk shop" we need to focus on how we teach not what we teach. I can't think of getting any closer to educational heaven than that!!!

What Have I Learned? A Response to the REAL Gary's Post

What is the most recent thing I've learned as a teacher? I've been mulling that over since Gary wrote his post and put out the "challenge". I guess I have to haul out my "dirty little secrets" about why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place.

Way back when (1976) when I finally finished my first degree (Arts 4 year, sociology) I began to re-ponder the question..."What do I want to be when I grow up?" I'd had one disastrous (for me) year in the (now defunct) College of Home Economics (I wanted to learn interior design). I'd always said I didn't want to become a teacher; however when I sat down to look at my career options one of the things I always like to do is learn. It seemed to me at that time that teaching was a logical choice to meet that need.

Even though teaching has been difficult (I'm a pretty hardcore introvert) it has met my need to learn (and learn and learn....). Teaching is never dull. If it becomes dull (for me) it means I need to learn something new which has meant going back to university ... in 1981 -82 to study special education, and in 1994 to start a masters in educational communications.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm teaching something new just for the sake of meeting my need for novelty as opposed to being a truly innovative teacher. Am I meeting my students' academic needs or are we just mucking around in the unknown for the sake of doing it? Is it even ethical to depart from the "tried and true" in order to forge new pedagogical territory? My step-daughter has just finished five semesters of medical education; her studying arsenal includes piles of flashcards to prepare her to write multiple choice exams.

. I know I have to follow "the curriculum". My experience and what I have learned from my studies in grad school don't always match up to what "the curriculum" tells me to do. Teaching ro me is a never-ending series of questions, and experiments in order to teach my students effectively.