The Berlin Wall

This morning on my drive to work I heard an interesting broadcast about a recreation of the Berlin Wall done at Utah Valley University. I couldn't find the archive of it, but UVU's Website has a description of the event. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years.

http://uvu.edu/blogs/newsroom/2009/11/09/uvu-high-school-students-to-reenact-tearing-down-of-berlin-wall/

Need a Recharge! Take a walk!

This is one of the most fascinating things I have heard all week! I especially like the concept of actually embedding the technology into a cell phone. Or, what about my netbook?

NaBloPoMo Day 11: Live Video Web Conferencing in a face to face class?

Ok, so one of my assignments at work has been to develop an online course about a tool we provide for doing live Video Web Conferencing. I have been uncertain as to how exactly your average classroom teacher would use this. Two things have changed my vision on it.

I was with the State Technology Specialist last Friday and he said to me: "You guys (meaning me and my colleagues) shouldn't be teaching Word Processing. You should be on the cutting edge."

I realize that developing a course on collaborating via web conferencing would definitely be more cutting edge than teaching Word Processing.

Secondly, and this came today. One of the folks involved in using the software and a real advocate for the software invited me to watch her train a teacher on the software. The teacher was using some of my friends materials and she conducted a couple of authentic review type questions. She used the software the way I have seen people use a clicker system. She asked questions. Allowed kids to chat about their ideas for an answer and then submit an answer. One of the major things I noticed was that all the kids were engaged and working. But yet again, I don't think technology inherently made it engaging. It was good quality content. But all in all It was terrific! The kids were engaged and we had a great time. I really think I can see where to use this better now.

NABLOPOMO Day 5: Teachers

Ok, I figured out a norm I need to share with teachers. When I teach from now on. I am going to tell all the teachers they aren't allowed to denigrate themselves or belittle themselves. I have watched teachers who are in all ways completely competent belittle themselves when it comes to their level of expertise on a computer program.

Why do teachers adults behave in ways that they would never allow in students? I would never let a student just choose not to learn something or try or opt out. I wouldn't let them sit back and coast, or if I do allow that kind of behavior when working with adults why don't I allow it with teachers?

There's room for a lot there, but anyway! No more bad mouthing ourselves. We are learning! We are learners! We are competent and capable!

Resistance to the Revolution

Why don't schools change? Why do we keep doing the same things over and over even when research, experience, common sense and personal feelings dictate otherwise? This quote gives me som fodder for the rant cannon:

However, they also believed that the use of cooperative learning would increase student off-task behaviour and take up too much class time. It was found that the concern for off-task behaviour was a bigger predictor of a teacher’s intention to use cooperative learning. Although the authors did not draw this conclusion, it seems that this conception of teachers as needing control over student behaviour is a conservative force that makes many curricular innovations difficult.

I was reading an article with my wife that had the above quote in it. It seems to state that the teachers nne for control is one of the greates obstacles to innovation in the classroom. Well...DUH! When so much about the system discourages teachers from losing control. There are all of the legal and litigious reasons that a teacher needs to keep control of his or her students. When administrators come in and are concerned that kids are in their seats and 'on-task'. When parents wonder 'what are my kids learning' not 'are my kids enjoying learning. Then no, teachers aren't going to try something new. It's frustrating but true that so much of the system reinforces ( literally re-enforces) the teacher as authority and in charge. It takes so much effort to truly switch to a new way of doing things and to create an atmosphere in class that values safety and respect without me as the teacher having to be the one in control. I felt like I had this my last few years of teaching, but I still got the message from folks who came in to see my class that my students were out of control this was because they weren't in their seats all doing the same thing. Each student was engaged in the work they needed to be doing at the time.

That's why there is so much resistance to the revolution!

Citation Nod:

Castro, Paloma, Lies Sercu, and Maria del Carmen Méndez García "Integrating language-and-culture teaching: an investigation of Spanish teachers' perceptions of the objectives of foreign language education." Intercultural Education 15.1 (2004): 91-104. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.