What is old is new again.

I went to high school from 1968 to 1972 (yes that makes me OLD). For the first two years it was an "old school" system: streamed homeroom classes based intellectual "ability", dress codes (no pants for girls, no facial hair for boys!), and regular exam sittings. After my grade 10 year the administration changed and brought with it new and "enlightened" practices. Term and final exams were abolished and replaced with "continuous evaluation." Teachers experimented with new teaching and evaluation styles. (All my social studies evaluations were "oral exams"). We didn't write essays. We had quite a bit of choice as to how to structure our time and when we would complete assignments. We didn't even have to go to class. Dress codes - we had to wear clothes. In total the school experience was supposed to be modern and "relevant."

I should also add we were working class kids. Most of our parents had working class jobs and little experience with post-secondary education. Post-secondary ed was possible because we could live at home and take the bus to tech school or university.

I chose to go to university. I remember how ill-prepared I was for the experience. Most of my academic survival skills came from the first two not the last two years of high school studies. I survived but many others did not. ( I should add that the technical schools are even more demanding than university and often more difficult to enter.) Students who came from more traditional educational experiences coped a whole lot better than I did.

A lot of the people who didn't survive post-secondary studies went to work and stayed in those jobs. In the seventies, you could go to work at potash mines or meat packing plants and make pretty good money. Interestingly now most of their kids pursue university or some form of post-secondary training.

I think we need to be EXTREMELY careful when we talk of educational reform. I see a lot of people arguing for something VERY MUCH like what I experienced my last two years of high school. My students write exams and essays not because I think they are particularly superior educational activities. They may need these skills in order to help them move onto something they really want to do with their lives.

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...

Wall-E, the Flu, and Me

I was taken with the movie Wall-E. I was fascinated with the animation, and how I could be entertained by an animated piece of technology. I was also a little horrified how close to the truth the depictions of future humanity might be. So what does this have to do with the 'flu.

I'm one of those teachers who has been stricken with the "flu du jour". I'm also an asthmatic. The two don't go together well, and suffice it to say extreme fatigue, aches, pains, and coughs have kept me away from work this week in the flesh. (I thought it would be extremely rude of me to cough in parents' faces during parent-teacher -interviews even though I've finished a course of Tamiflu.)

Interestingly enough, despite my illness and because of technology, I've been "working" a lot.

No matter how sick I am, no matter how much sleep I need, I still need something to do when laying on the couch and staring at the ceiling. To the rescue: wireless internet and a laptop.

Most of what I do with my laptop has to do with...you guessed....work. On it I can make up my dayplan, email my sub, mark emailed assignments, and enter marks all done between naps and creative staring at the wall. My sub is email literate and we've emailed back and forth during class time. I've even made up two quizzes and a new social studies major assignment. I'm not to the point Eldon G. was where he was teaching from Edmodo, but the possibility is there. I could see myself teaching from my laptop connected continuously to my ever-becoming-techno-literate sub!!! (She's great! Always up for a new challenge).

It scares me to think how much like one of the techno-humans of Wall-E I've become.

Am I a digital teacher? Am I stupid or am I addicted to my job?

At our I-SITS meeting, Donna showed a video of a first year "digital teacher". The young woman in question was very definite in her opinions of her teaching methods and why they were the right ones for kids of the "digital generation". I found her presence irritating and arrogant and in response my back went up. Whatever she was saying might have been true, but I didn't want to listen to it.

On reflection, I wonder about my reaction to her. Is it that she is young, beautiful, and a recent graduate of UBC. (I checked her web page). Is it her definite "know-it-all attitude" that implies to my aging ears that she knows a whole lot more about effective teaching than I do. (I've been at it 29 years and I'm a graduate of the U of S Masters in Educational Communications program albeit 10 11 years ago.) In her defense, someone else has edited her talk, and perhaps presented her as being more forceful and know-it-all than she appears on the video.

I love being part of the I-SITS committee. I love the spirited debate, the thirst for knowledge, the camaraderie of educators that rejuvenates me and helps sustain me when I spend most of my weekend prepping "digital" lessons and marking. Right now, I'm trying to imagine this teacher or someone like her on this committee. Would she have anything to learn from us? Would she have the patience to teach us something or share with us her not-so-successful experiments in the classroom? I hope so. The video presentation doesn't leave me hopeful.

As I said, I've been teaching somewhere around 29 years. I'm still "prepping my face off". I feel guilty if I use the same lesson and lesson plan more than once without revising and enriching it. Somewhere in all of this, my "real life" continues to suffer? Am I stupid, inefficient or addicted to my job? I don't know. I still love to teach and prep lessons. I'd also really like a "life."

A plea to those of partisan politics; Please teach me something I didn't know.

Here we go again. Another Canadian election is happening possibly as soon as this fall. The last one wasn't supposed to happen because Prime Minister Harper and his ruling Conservatives had passed a law mandating Canadian elections be held once every four years. Hmm....the last election was against the law and almost no Canadians wanted to have it. This possible coming election is equally as popular as the last one.

South of the border there is a never-ending stream of partisan politics Republicans versus Democrats. Right now, the rhetoric concerns universal health care. We Canadians - at least many of us - look smugly and condescendingly upon Americans for their "pay-per-use" healthcare. Is healthcare in Canada truly as good as we think it is? Are there any reasoned and calm Republicans out there who can explain to Canadians why publicly-funded healthcare is not what we think it is?

Could everybody please stop with the mud-slinging and scare tactics? When you persist, I tune you out.

I am pleading with people of all political persuasions to please teach me something I don't already know. Provide me with facts and figures and the results of reputable studies. Treat me like I am a world citizen hungry for knowledge to help me make my own mind up about economics, politics, and social good. I'm not stupid. I want to be informed.

The somewhat open, social, and highly connected wedding.

As my FaceBook and Flickr friends know, my oldest step-daughter, Jennifer, was married last week at her mother's country residence. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, the wedding party stunning, the location breathtaking, and the weather perfect. How did Web 2.0 have, and not have, a role in the wedding.

First, my step-daughter keeps a blog. The official announcement of the relationship happened sometime in March of 2008. We were treated to pictures and stories about their shared adventures in the Caribbean and at the Medical University of the Americas.

We did meet Brandon, then the "significant other" at Christmastime of 2008. It was a face-t0-face visit and turkey dinner at our house.

Officially the wedding announcement didn't happen until invitations were sent out. An official wedding site was created, and prospective guests had the option of confirming or declining their presence on the website. The gift registry was on Amazon.com.

The "bride-to-be" kept us updated on her blog. Upon returning to Saskatchewan to study fot her US medical licensing exam, Mondays were reserved for wedding plans. She updated her blog faithfully.

The bride and groom had arranged photographers from Edmonton to pictorially document the wedding and the wedding rehearsal. People like me, the evil-wicked-stepmother, had a field day taking digital photos (I snapped over 200).

Interestingly enough, no one "officially" videotaped the wedding. I'm thinking that photographs are moments in time from the point of view of the photographer. We can use the images to pique our own memories and feelings of the event. I'm not sure a video could evoke being there in the same way. Unless one could be there, physically. for the event, I think photos are the next best thing.

The bride and groom took off the next day so the bride could start her clinical rotations in Oklahoma city. We the family, check her blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts regularly. After the wedding, guests have been uploading images to the group Flickr site.

Life goes on. Some of it gets shared via Web 2.0.

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!!!