Featured Blog: quoteflections

I stumbled across quoteflections after the author left a few comments on this blog.  I quickly felt a conflicting sense of intrigue in what he wrote and remorse in the fact that I hadn't discovered the blog sooner.  The tagline for quoteflections is "a regular eclectic mindfix" which sums it up well.

At times, Paul Cornies engages in personal story-telling or shares a philosophical thought through metaphor.  Other times, he finds random, interesting information online and presents the information in a witty, interesting, well-presented format.  Bottom line: he's a thinker without getting condescending, a bit of a poet without making it inaccessible and a geek in all the best ways possible.

Some blogs are filled with buzz and glitter and a loud "please adore me" tone.  This blog is a meandering walk through the wilderness, quietly saying, "I've got some ideas if you want to listen.  Or talk. Or post a comment."  It's humble.  And though I don't know Paul C, he is one of my favorite "blog commenters" because his comments are typically insightful and respectful.

five random thoughts

My friend Dan used to do this - bullet point updates.  So here are some random thoughts:

• When I asked Joel what he wanted for breakfast, he said, "Candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup." 
• I have a student named Brandy in first hour and Mandy in second hour.  Guess what seventies songs are stuck in my head all afternoon.  
• I have a reputation as being a "funny teacher," which feels really odd. (It's better than my first year, when I was an angry teacher). Growing up, people always told me I was so serious and so I internalized the idea that I have a really lame sense of humor. 
• I have an amazing wife.  Last night when Micah couldn't fall asleep she sang hymns and it was beautiful.
• I love teaching.  Sometimes when I'm gone from the gig for awhile, I forget that.  But coming back to it this week, I felt that sense that I'm doing something that I love, able to be who I am and perhaps even making a difference.  

Bonus: a link to Miracle Whip's response to Colbert

a short rant about what districts block

Newsflash: YouTube can be used for education.  So can Blogger and GoogleDocs and e-mail.  Blocking a site for classroom management reasons is essentially like taking away pencils because kids snap them in half and throw them or banning paper, because kids pass notes.

(Incidentally, my district is actually pretty good in this category.  But we run into huge problems when I have students try and collaborate with kids across the country or across town)

the power of dance

I don't dance. I'm not comfortable with anything publicly expressive that goes below the neckline. I get the power of dance on a very cerebral level. I can talk about dance from an anthropological perspective. I've seen some ballets and interpretive dance (which on some level, I'll never get).

So, a kid hands me a poem and asks if he can turn it into a multimedia poem. It turned out blurry on YouTube, but it looks great on iMovie (yes, I do partake of the iCandy once in awhile). It's a bit too "poppy" for real dance snobs, but it was his voice and I thought I'd post it with the question:

What if dance is more powerful than schools give it credit for?

iCrack

Intoxicated drivers are eleven times as likely to cause a car accident as sober drivers.  People who text while driving are twenty three times as likely as those who aren't texting.  I'm not surprised. I've had awkward conversations with people who bust out cell phones while driving and it might as well be an intervention with a drunk.  Except, there's no vomit and slurred speech, so I'm the one who comes across as delusional.

Marx claimed that religion is the opiate of masses.  Perhaps he's right, but I'd add this caviat. Technology and amusement are our religion.  I'm not even sure it's an opiate.  Perhaps it's a psychedellic drug, causing people to hallucinate and believe that what is inside their screen is "real." Or maybe it's more like meth, pulling people into a frenetic, ultra-tweet world where they lose their ability to reason slowly. Or maybe it's just a slight pot buzz and everyone thinks things are so much funnier and more profound and deeper when delivered in digital.

It's a drug, though. Like all other drugs, it has side effects - sometimes ones we can't predict.  I turned off my "Google Follower" option on the side of my blog, because it became important to me that I would have fifty.  Seriously, I never could have predicted that.  I know, I know, technology can make life easier and improve one's living.  So can aspirin and coffee and beer - all of which have their place in one's life.

What concerns me is this: although I see alcohol as valuable but dangerous, I am too quick to grow intoxicated on technology without realizing it.  While I wouldn't hand a two year old a bottle of gin, I let him watch a short video on YouTube.  While parents would never allow unrestricted access to the medicine cabinet, many feel that it's totally fine to leave a laptop in a child's bedroom.

I mention all of this, because today my students will choose a metaphor of technology.  I rarely get preachy, but I just might slip today and try and pull an intervention.  I just might present my evidence about why technology is a drug.  I'll sound like the insane main character of Brave New World and my students just might write me off as crazy, but for the duration of the dialogue, they just might be sober.

photo credit - my slide of the story's photostream on flickr creative commons

staff as a family

We gather around the firewood in the midst of an urban enclave, pretending subconciously that we are cave dwellers or mountain people or anything other than inhabitants of cookie-cutter housing.   It's an awkward assembly of couples.  We range in age, from mid-twenties to fifties.  We range in income from a meager teacher salary to the guy who writes and licenses succesful tunes.  It's eclectic and diverse, but we're united in our faith and in our desire to live it out authentically.

On certain nights, we laugh and play and on other evenings it can feel almost like a painfully deep twelve-step program without the steps or the program. We're drawn to each other.  Call it a herding instinct.  We're drawn to the fire like bugs and light bulb.  At times we irritate each other.  At times we embrace one another.

The process is slow and organic.  It's a lot of fire and food and hanging out at the park.  It's a few beers and some casserole. It's a lot of story-telling and re-story-telling until we get closer to transparent so people can see that we're opaque. I still can't call them "family," but "close relatives" might be a decent term.

I go back to school today and I'm excited.  Yet, as much as I enjoy this new place, it still doesn't feel like family.  It still doesn't feel like "distant relatives" for that matter.  One would think that, given our united belief about the power of education and our shared values about caring for students, community would occur.

But it doesn't.  Perhaps it will someday. But I'm skeptical.  We don't share our lives when we're in the staff lounge.  We're scared, all of us, at least a little.  We're professional.  Those things make it hard to be transparent, much less vulnerable.  Most of us view work as a place to "go to" rather than a community where we can be ourselves. We have no times of meeting at the park or sharing a pint or sitting around a camp fire.   Our conversations exist beneath flickering flourescent lights.

For all of our talk about being a professional learning community, we are not yet a community - and I am doubtful that mission statements or code of ethics (however effective they may be) can be the building blocks of creating community.

Yet, despite this reality, a vague sense of family grows. I felt sad this morning, anticipating a certain letdown and disconnection between my life and my job.  Instead, students waved and asked about our baby.  Staff members engaged in small talk.  We laugh.  We talk.  So,  there is a subtle sense that we are distant relatives and that, over time, we might become family. 
 

photo credit - flickr creative commons - cuttlefish's photostream

a new blog

I sent this out on Twitter and got a few responses. I am currently working on a blog that I would love to have as a "group blog."  Right now the name is Just Teaching, but I am open to other ideas.  The concept is teachers who teach with social justice in mind.  I think social justice gets a really bad rap - as if those of us who keep a critical perspective somehow have lower standards when, in fact, we have high standards.

I also thought of other concepts for the blog - for example a "sustainable education."  I don't know.  We can play around with what the blog would look like.

I posted the first article to the blog if you want to check it out. Please leave a comment or e-mail me at socialvoice@gmail.com if you are interested.

Incidentally, the style matches this blog, but I would like to get feedback from blog contributors as far as what the blog could look like.

what should be free?

Why do we have places where any resident can access print information for free and even sit down and browse the internet and check-out CDs, yet we still charge people if they want to see art?

photo credit - flickr creative commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/3982036617/in/photostream/

it's not about saving the world

I once made a "movie" with my students about a superhero who tries to save the world and ends up realizing that it's about loving people, not saving the world; that the biggest mask was his alter-ego; that working alone leads to burn-out.  I didn't realize until that summer it was a story about me.

I turned the skeleton plot into a short (very short) video.

Friday Featured Blogger: Science Teacher

Teacher's aren't supposed to have favorites.  Bloggers shouldn't do that, either.  It's why I have never been into the whole blogging awards deal.  To me, the benefit of a blog is the democratic sharing of information.  It's the notion of public space, of open airwaves.

I still have a favorite, though.  It's Doyle, the Science Teacher.  His post tonight reminds me why I get so annoyed with Christians and yet it forces me to examine as well why I am part of the hypocrites that annoy him.  I attempt to explain the unexplainable.  I believe some crazy things, like the death and resurrection of Christ and the concept of grace and an afterlife and I have a hunch that if I wrote a spiritual book it very well might make him angry.

I also believe that if we lived in the same town, we'd have a pint.  I'd order a hefe and he'd probably go Guinness. I'll forgive him for being wrong on his choice of beer, but I doubt he'd get over the fact that I don't like clams.

I guess those differences are a part of why I enjoy his blog so much.  It's why I am a small-d democrat and a small-r republican.  I believe in front porches and yards without fences and a commons where people live out that paradox of unity and diversity. It's why we need smart, respectful dialogue and there's probably not a blogger around who does both as well as him. 

Doyle's blog is smart (the guy is more intelligent than me), often witty, typically meandering but he blindsides the reader with a post that gets to the point.  It's conversational without being trite.  It's deep without being arrogant.  It's humble without over-the-top self-deprecation.  It's relevant because he doesn't try too hard to be relevant.

Doyle writes some insightful criticism on the current educational system and his Luddite rants are always a joy. Still, his best posts are on life and the mystery that surrounds us. Though we depart on the topic of religion, we share a common ground with Tolstoy.  We both find grace in gardening.  We just interpret it a little differently.

idiot at the top

The State Department has announced that teacher contracts will not be due by May 15th any longer.  In addition, districts no longer need to consider seniority, but will focus on "achievement" (read test scores).

I respect Tom Horne.  After all, the guy was a classroom teacher before . . . Oh wait, he wasn't a classroom teacher.  He's never taught.

Okay, but I respect the guy.  He was a principal and understands . . . Oh, it turns out he wasn't an administrator at all.

No, but I still respect the guy.  He was a school board member who led a low-SES, largely minority student population.  Oops, got that wrong as well.  It turns out he was superintendent of the wealthiest, highest achieving district in the state.  He has no experience with minorities, ELL students or students in poverty.

Well, perhaps he has executive experience? Nope.  Maybe  he worked a blue-collar job and understands the difficulty of living in a down economy? Wrong again.  Tom Horne was a wealthy lawyer who became passionate about "fixing" Arizona's educational system and eventually marketed his way into the state legislature.  At least he attended a public university?  No, he's a Harvard graduate who was born into privilege.

At least Arizona hasn't dropped in our educational rankings?  Wrong again.  If we're judging by the standards he uses to judge teachers, we've moved from 48th in the nation to 50th. So, while he has certainly earned the years in tenure, lets hope the voters base their decision next time on achievement levels.

Incidentally, Vermont, which kicks Arizona's ass in achievement, is led by a former middle school teacher who attended (gasp!) a public university. I don't live in Vermont and I don't know what it is like there, but I have a hunch their approach might be a little different from our state. 

picture taken from http://cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/hornedebate.jpg

what if we changed the language?

I would love to see schools change their approach to language, not in the way it is taught, but in the way it is modeled.  I see teachers freak out about the f-word, when there are other areas of language within the school that can be more damaging.

The Superfluous: Abbreviations

Get rid of Abbreviations.  We aren't writing text messages.  We can use full words. The two words that teachers need to avoid abbreviating entirely are cumulative and assessments.  And for the love of God, could we avoid abbreviating the two of them together?

The Annoying: Acronyms

Acronyms are LAME, as in Language Attempting Meaning Excessively.  For my part, I've had fun re-arranging the acronyms.  Kids don't do a RAFT before a writing assignment.  We use FART. (Yep, I can drop down to their level) Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with the ones that have no meaning.  An IEP is great.  A SMART goal is not.

The Trite: Buzzwords

I have no problem with using academic terminology.  Sometimes a teacher wants to discuss standard deviation of a quantitative assessment or argue about why tests that are re-normed aren't criterion-referenced at all. What I can't take are the varnished words, where they take something bad and make it sound pretty.  Don't tell me a standardized test is "common." Don't call a committee a "team."  Buzzwords breed resentment.  They reek of slick marketing to the extent that Buzzword Bingo has gone completely viral nationwide.

The Dangerous: Implied Metaphors

I've written about this often, but there is an implied metaphor in all school environments.  Often it is a business or Internet or factory metaphor.  Schools should explore the language they are using for the implied metaphor and then ask if that's really the best metaphor.  This is perhaps the most dangerous area of language.  If I can understand that the implicit metaphor is a business / economic one, I can either pick it apart or I could take the metaphor and present the notion of sustainability over short-term achievement.

an unexplored area of bias

Recently I wanted students to examine if they could identify a fictional story on a website.  I used one "neutral" website with true information.  I then created two articles, one that was true and one that was false.  In the first website, I created a very "professional" looking website modeled after government and corporate websites.  These included real pictures, a fading, logos, etc.  The second one included clip art pictures and simple HTML.  I rotated it so that the first class had the "false" information in the professional style and the second class had the "false" information in the unprofessional style.

Next, I asked students to identify the bias in all three websites and then determine which website was false.  Despite identifying the bias in the text itself, students were still duped by the persuasion of visuals. The results turned out exactly how I had predicted.  In both classes, the 95% of the students identified the "unprofessional" site as the one containing false information.

We had a great dialogue based upon the following questions:

1. What does this say about how images and style manipulate what we think?
2. How does power and money influence the persuasive methods online?
3. How does font style affect how people view information?  How do colors manipulate how people view accuracy?
4. Does identifying the bias in a text necessarily mean that we are able to determine accuracy? Or
4. How could we modify this?

Students offered interesting information on modifying the experiment.  For example, some said we should compare online information versus text.  Others suggested we should change the region.  For example, would students believe something in London, England over, say, Jackson, Mississippi?  Another student suggested we change the language.  Still, another suggested we change the author's last name.  Would the author's ethnicity make a difference?

I seriously considered modifying this, doing some research and repeating it and then submitting it to a journal.  However, I have a hunch that researchers have probably explored these issues of bias before.  Still, it was a really interesting activity for students to realize that they are manipulated by subtle issues of imagery and its connection to status, prestige and wealth.

postmodern McDonald's

About six months ago, they razed an older McDonald's near our neighborhood.  In Phoenix, the term "old" can be applied to any building over twenty years.  My guess is they had built the plastic wonderland in the early eighties.  A few weeks later, they posted a sign reading "Coming Soon: McDonald's."

The new McDonald's is deliberately urban post-modern in its facade, with the use of chrome and the inclusion of certain natural elements, the balance of simplicity with unusual angles and form for the sake of form. It's essentially a standing paradox and perhaps its even built with a wink, recognizing the pastiche and kitsch nature of creating something postmodern for the sake of selling something so unapolagetically corporate.

Still, it has me thinking about education reform.  It seems to me that there is a real movement to raze the current educational system and create something 21st century.  At McDonald's, I can access global information via flatscreen t.v. In a twenty-first century school, I can access a flat world through global information.  At the postmodern McDonald's, I have a new aesthetic that feels trendy.  In a twenty-first century school, I get oodles of iCandy with pretty icons and cute names.

So, the menu isn't much different.  The factory food remains.  The workers still receive a sub-par wage. The system is still broken and the McWorld continues to dominate.  It just looks progressive, because the chrome is still shiny.  I fear the same holds true with most of the glimmering promises of twenty-first century educational reform.

If you want a new model for the twenty-first century, there's a hamburger joint around the corner.  The ingredients are fresh, the scene is local.  It's the only place I know of that has Cholula and Tapatio sauce at each table.  The workers earn a decent pay.  It doesn't look postmodern, but it embodies the best of true postmodernism - a reconnection with community, a recovery of what we lost, a sense of connection with the local ecology (and I use that term loosely).

photo taken from -  http://maricopa360.com/?cat=15 - and, while this is not the one I am referring to, it looks pretty darn close

searching for what was lost

I'm a history geek.  I admit it.  Call me a member of AHEM (Arts, History, English, Music). 

Our initial public educational system was an extension of a civic institution where we would develop literate, educated, democratic citizens.  True, there were awful aspects (corporal punishment for one) but the ideal involved democracy.  The implied metaphor was that learning was a natural process (influenced by Rosseau) or a blank slate (Locke). The major influences were:

• The Enlightenment and the clockwork universe (hence the desks in rows, the birth of textbooks, etc.)  and the belief in the scientific method of exploration
  
• Democratic movements, especially the local democracy (the town hall) - the need for critical thinkers as citizens
  
• The printing press and the rise of literacy / need for literacy training - the need for a literate population
  
• Classical Humanism - we believed education could help people learn to live well
  

Around the turn of the last century, we switched models.  This time, the metaphor changed from a natural to a mechanical process; from agrarian to industrial. The driving forces were:

• The German modernist system forged by a nihilistic, technocratic, militaristic worldview of Bismark.  It's the same philosophy that led to fascism. We had to create obedient soldiers.
  
• The social engineering movement in America. With this, there is the main philosophy of nativism and the desire to assimilate immigrants quickly. (Social engineering eventually morphed into behaviorism) We had to create obedient citizens. 
  
• The Guilded Age and the factory system.  Think child labor and sweat shops in the name of Progress. We had to create ideal workers. 
• Modernism
  

 We are currently undergoing newer shifts.  The driving forces are:

• Globalization and the death of the nation-state - we need to create global consumers
  
• Post-industrialization and the New Economy - we need to develop global workers
  
• The Information Age and the rise of newer technology - we need to encourage digital citizenship
  
• Post-modernism (though the better parts of this philosophy rarely make it into the "new pedagogy" conversations since the post-modern critique has too many elements of classical education to it)
  

I know I am being overly simple here.  Bullets are dangerous, in person or on a blog.  However, I'm noticing that we've shifted from garden metaphors to machine metaphors to digital metaphors. Wow, no secret there.  I won't exactly get an invitation to TED for that one.

Still, I'm watching people get super-excited about the newer model that's replacing the old one. I can see why.  Google is so much sexier than Skinner and Apple keeps passing out iCandy, which sure beats to freebies at McGraw Hill.  Still, I'm concerned that we're still missing what we lost: our authenticity, our democracy, the local politic.  Really, we're still missing our humanity in the current system and I'm not so sure we need to look toward the Flat Earth Society to give it back to us.

(Credit: Both the terms AHEM and Flat Earth Society are shamelessly stolen from Doyle the Science Teacher)

Photo Credit -auburnxc's photostream on flickr creative commons

the power of education

saving me from trendy hipsterhood

I recently ran into a trendy hipster the other day when I was at the hospital cafeteria.  He asked me about teaching and I shared a few stories.  When I mentioned the murals being painted over, we talked about Banksy and the concept of creative destruction and destructive creation.  Our conversation shifted to Sufjan Stevens and whether or not the Top 40 pop appeal of Owl City is a good thing and I got real passionate in my anger at Ray LaMontagne for selling his songs to an insurance company.  Before he left, he made a comment on the processed cafeteria food and we ended up talking about gardening.

As I left, I had a lingering sense that I could easily become that guy.  I mean, I could very easily end up being that trendy hipster prototype and as cool as that might be, it will never be a reality for the following reasons:

• My lack of ability to fit into tight pants and my overall lack of style
  
• My brother, who is smart and unpretentious and reminds me that intelligence is not in any way tide to indie music
  
• The fact that I live in a suburb where they rhyme their traffic warnings
• The Folgers coffee that I drink with milk and sugar instead of going for a soy latte
  
• The number of times we've eaten a dinner out of a box
• My students, who are unimpressed if I know who Banksy is or if I have any album from The Neutral Milk Hotel
• I listen to NPR instead of Democracy Now
  
• The fact that I still follow the 49ers.  If a trendy hipster is allowed any sport, it's baseball, because that's so vintage and old-school, like vinyl. 
• The fact that, no matter how much I might like indie music, my favorite band will always be Counting Crows
• I haven't been to a concert in ages
  
• I use Linux instead of Mac 

the banksy photograph was taken from flickr creative commons

Friday Featured Blogger: Matthew Koslowski (Literature and Legacy)

Sometimes a blog can look pretentious when in fact a blogger is simply being transparent. In a culture of anti-intellectualism, we sort-of expect smart bloggers to use folksy language and quote pop culture references.  Matthew Koslowski probably won't tie in truth to the viewing of an episode of The Office. Instead, he'll use a quasi-bohemian novel as a motif.  He rarely uses pictures or videos.

If I were to describe his blog, I would compare it to a literary journal online.  It is intelligent, well-written and well-researched.  I appreciate the fact that he does not try and tell me how to teach.  No formulas. No keys.  No steps.

I would also describe the blog as humble, but not in the way people tend to think of a humble blog.  His language is rich and complicated.  He makes no effort to drop down his register and use slang. Yet, in the content, he is willing to be vulnerable. In his post today, admit one of the quintessential issues that his (is it mine too?) generation faces: the overinflated ego and obsession with self-esteem.  Rather than offer a long-winded theoretical explanation, he tells a personal story.

video: marathons and sprints

the dangers of Etch-A-Sketch

don't look too hard, it's not meant to be the least bit serious