Random Thoughts

It seems that Itake forever to figure things out.  Take thesis statements, for example.  Or rather, take teaching thesis statements.  I was having no luck at all getting my student to understand what I was talking about.  Then on Monday I showed them a couple videos, and suddenly a bunch of them really understood what I was talking about.

This was the first one: 

And this was the second:

At the end of these two short videos, most of my students were able to write halfway decent thesis statements.

Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

I am late getting on this topic.  I read the post on change.org when it was made,but I didn’t have time to really pay a lot of attention.  I pretty much dismissed it almost immediately.  While I don’t love phones in general, anyone who says

Cell phones baffle me.

is so far from my world that I didn’t pay a lot of attention.  But Ira’s post over at SpeEdChange made me look at the original post again.  He says:

This teacher is talking about nothing here but her own comfort and belief system. She thinks best when it is quiet. She thinks best when focused on one thing. She believes there is a specific way to study a text. And it is her job to bring these students to her beliefs.

The fact that some of us might function best in other ways, that some of us might need other structures, does not occur to her. If we would only “come to the light” – we would understand.

He encourages people to go to the original post and read the whole discussion, so I did.  It was fascinating.

The original post discusses everything from cell phone rudeness in class to the author’s belief that

By forcing them to put their phones and laptops away, I am giving them the opportunity to stop the random, jittery stimulation and instant information that surrounds them at all times, and instead turn their attention to a deep and slow understanding of one specific text, idea or question.

What strikes me most about the original post is the author’s conviction that she is right.  Maybe I am crazy, but I am seldom convinced that what I do in the classroom is “right”.  I am constantly experimenting, looking for a better way to do things.  While you may not agree with me, I do not think this makes me a “bad” teacher.  In fact, I think it is one of my strengths as a teacher.   But, of course, I may not be right.  Maybe it is a weakness.  What I am sure of is that if I continue to question my own teaching, I will discover if I am on the wrong track pretty quickly.

The discussion after the original post is even more interesting than the original post.  Both sides of the issue (and maybe a couple other angles, too!) are represented.  Ira himself posts his rules for cell phones in his classroom:

(1) Keep it out, on your desk. That way, if you’ve forgotten to silence the ring, we’re not waiting for you to find it in your backpack.

(2) If you need to talk, go outside. No big deal.

(3) Have it on all the time – we’ll be using it – polleverywhere, todaysmeet, SMS questions to people out of the classroom, sharing links, putting important notes in our calendars.

Of course the discussion that follows points out that not everyone has internet access on their phones, but basically Ira’s rules make sense to me:

1. Keep the cell phones out. It gretly increases the chance that you will remember to set the phone to silent.  I have on occasion forgotten to do that.  If I had taken it out of my bag, I would have remembered to do  it.
2. Keep the phones on.  I have no problem with that.  Like Ira, I don’t mind if a student has to leave the room to make or receive a call.  If it happened all the time, it would make me wonder if the student has a problem I need to know about or if I am somehow just not engaging him/her in class.  If my students are not engaged, I need to know it.
3. If I didn’t teach in a computer lab and if my students — even some of them — had access to the internet on their phones, I would definitely use them this way.  As it is, that is how we use the computers in front of us each and every class.

Another comment talked about it being more important to have students respect us than to like us.  I agree.  I do not have to be my students’ friend.  But I also don’t think that they will respect me because I tell them to put their cell phones away.  I earn their respect by creating a learning environment where they feel free to express their ideas, where they feel respected in every way.  Students don’t respect us because we exercise our authority but rather because we demonstrate qualities that they see as worthy of respect.  Respect doesn’t come automatically with your teaching credentials or your degree.

If students are consistently using cell phones in non-academic or non-emergency ways in class, it is time to think about what you are doing as a teacher.  If they use them to cheat on exams, maybe you need to change your exams.  If they use them to escape from the monotony of a boring class, maybe you need to try to make it not so boring.

As teachers, we are responsible for what goes on in our classes.  It is our responsibility as the professional educator to look for the causes of the problems we encounter, not merely to deal with the symptoms.

In looking for something to inspire a post this evening, I ran across one called Education, or just getting by?by Robbie Mitchell.  While the purpose of the post was to talk to other young people about the need to get an education rather than a grade, I was struck by the story he used to open the post:

Today, my Mechanics teacher had trouble getting the projector to turn on.  I always find it entertaining watching someone very intelligent, but very behind the times, attempting to wrestle technology into submission.  He essentially kept trying to press the same button over again, and I guess that must have worked eventually because after about ten minutes, we finally began class.

… as all of this transpired, more and more students in the class decided that this ten minute wait was too long and decided to leave.  By the time he finally figured out how to use the projector, I’d say half the class was already gone….

The way that the writer talks about this professor and his struggle with the projector, I don’t think it was an unusual occurrence.  Maybe it isn’t always the same professor, but it seems like there are may be a number of professors at his school for whom technology is a challenge.

When I first read this, I thought, “How can someone not know how to run a projector?”  But then it morphed into, “Well, we have all experienced technical glitches.  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”  And, at least, he was attempting to use some sort of technology in class.  We can hope that it was an excellent presentation once the projector started working.

So I have to ask myself, what would I have done?  Would I have done any better? What could I or anyone else do to minimize the frequency of those kinds of situations?

Well, the first step, I think, is to practice.  Practice a lot.  Be sure you know how to use the equipment.  Write down all the steps to follow if you have to — and then follow them!  I almost aways write everything down because that is how I learn.  But I also refer to my notes until the task is automatic.  And even then, I make sure I know where those notes are in case I need them.

The second thing, and maybe the most important, is to ask for help when you need it.  Ask a colleague before class.  But if it happens during class, don’t be afraid to ask students. It shown much more intelligence to admit when you don’t know how to do something than to pretend that you do when everyone can see you don’t.

These seem like basic ideas that I would never have thought to blog about if I hadn’t read Robbie’s post.  It’s good to see things from the other side of the room once in a while!

I found a great, really simple, almost free tip for relieving stress over at Between Classes.  She says to have a picture of something or some pace you really love and put it on the wall in your classroom.  It is your own little happy place that can be right there when you need it most.  For those of us who don’t have our own classrooms to decorate, she tells the story of a colleague who had a picture of his cat inside his grade book for the same purpose.

Sometimes you need to step back just a moment from what is going on in class.  These are great ideas for that, I think.

My friend Angie shared an assignment she did in college.  The professor asked them to

“create something that showed your journey as a reader”

and she wrote 12 little books about her literacy journey.  She then personalized this even more by placing the books in a box made to look like a grandfather clock – creating another connection with her reading history.

I love this idea!  I can’t yet see exactly how I would have students do something similar, but I know it will come to me.

Thanks, Angie!

Bill Boyd over at The Literacy Advisor has an interesting post on Reading in the Digital Age.  In it he says:

In other words, while as language and literacy teachers we have always felt uncomfortable about separating listening and talking, preferring to think of them as part and parcel of the same interactive process, it may be that moving into the age of the internet, and particularly with the advent of Web 2.0, we will have to think of reading and writing, not as two discrete activities, one active and the other passive, but as two elements of the same creative process.

His first comment, about reading and writing not being discrete activities, is maybe not such a new idea.  But when he goes on to talk about reading, it gets interesting.  He continues:

Not only that, but the development of reading itself takes on a whole new, non-linear meaning, as the learner moves back and forth through the text, flicking from one text to another making connections, or interacts with several texts simultaneously.

I agree, of course.  Anyone who has followed links back three or four  “generations” knows all too well how easy it is to get lost in reading.  But I wonder why Bill didn’t talk about writing also not being linear.  If I am writing a post with links, I am having to move backwards and forwards and sideways to complete my post.

Bill also links to a video by Michael Wesch, The Machine is Us/ing Us.  It is definitely worth the four minutes it takes to watch it – and whole lot more.

I am working now on designing a course for summer in which students will do all their work on a blog.  It will involve them looking at a lot of images in addition to a bunch of text.   It is going to be heavy on connections and linking.  I think it has potential.  At this point in the process, I always think a course is going to be great.  And sometimes it is.

One thing I need to really concentrate on is trying to help my students think about what they are  reading and seeing.  That kind of critical thinking is a part of digital literacy, as far as I am concerned.  It is a very difficult task for my students, though.  Part of it is a language issue.  Another part is cultural.   Yet another part is attitudinal; they don’t see a need to exert themselves. So fat this year I have not been very successful in getting students to do this.

That takes me back to Marian’s post about Stephen Downes’ video on personal learning networks.  She said,

One issue that I have not resolved, though is that all of this only works for the very motivated learner. … But what about that learner who isn’t so motivated, who has some learning challenges, for whom school was more of a misery than a joy? Those people, and there are many in adult education, may not experience the personal learning network concept the same way.

Literacy for these people may not be what it is for me, either.  It may still be linear.   How can I help them move to a kind of digital litercy?   How can I help to motivate them?

There was an interesting article today on Inside Higher Ed by Elizabeth Redden.  It is a report on an interview with Mark Bauerlein of Emory University.  He talks about the huge demands made on languages and literature professors to publish — too often at the expense of their students. He says:

“The incentives are obvious. If you’re a professor whose future depends on the amount of pages you produce, then all those hours you spend talking to freshmen about their majors, about their ideas, about their summer reading … really paying attention to these wayward 18-year-olds who are fresh out of high school, you’re hurting yourself”

I am lucky to work in an institution that truly values teaching.  Yes, professors have to publish and perform service.  But teaching is equally, if not more, important.  And yet, too many of us don’t take time for those students.  Or we say they don’t really want help anyway.

It isn’t always easy to create an environment in the classroom that encourages students to come see us outside of class.  But for the struggling student, help outside of class is critical.  So we have to try to eliminate the barriers between ourselves and our students.  We don’t have to try to be their friends, but we must be their teachers.

And, more importantly, we have to be there and truly be available to students when we say we will be.  Office hours don’t mean you are on campus… somewhere.  We have to welcome them, listen to them, take them seriously.  We have to be willing to find yet one more way to explain the grammar point we have already explained fifteen different ways.  It is hard work sometimes, but most things worthwhile are.

Bauerline has written a paper called Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own.  You might want to check it out.

I started my day, as I often do, reading the new post on Assorted Stuff.  This one was on the idea of microlectures in a college course. I read it with interest because it was about a college here in New Mexico.  Tim seemed to be a little skeptical, asking

If the concepts and themes contained in your lecture can be compressed down to only three minutes, was there any value in the original full-length presentation to begin with?

I decided to follow the link and see where it took me. Tim got the link from Sean. Sean was intrigued by the whole idea.  He said:

I found this article very interesting as it really seems to push the limits and ideas of ways to present material in an educational setting.

Sean got the link from Thomas. He definitely gave the most complete report on the concept.  He wrote:

With educators seeking more active learning environments, the microlecture format seemingly offers great potential. Not only will the process allow students greater ownership of their learning, the more open-ended nature of the follow-up materials should provide greater time variation opportunities for students who may need such time.

He went on to outline the steps in the process of creating such a microlecture.

This seems to be a very interesting idea.

First of all, I have to say that the idea is intended for online learning.  Those kinds of very brief explanations would seem very appropriate in that environment.  People who put a 50 or 75 minute lecture up for an online course don’t get the difference between f2f and online learning.

But I also wonder if it isn’t appropriate for face to face classes, as well.   Not that I think all lectures should be reduced to a minute or two — even though I have sat through some that could have been reduced to that!  But wouldn’t that be a great way to remind students of the main points of the lecture in class, to give them a reminder before they begin to do an assignment based on that lecture?  It would seem more helpful than a copy of the presentation that was used as part of the lecture.  It would, of course, be more work.  But these microlectures are so compact that they could be used from semester to semester, I would think — even if the big lecture changed.

For second language learners, this would be a great help.  They would know that they got the main idea of a lecture by watching the microlecture. The idea could possibly also be used in an ESL class to help teach notetaking.  Have students take notes on a full length lecture and then use the microlecture to verify whether or not they got the main points correct.  It could work.  It might also help them understand the layout of the lecture by comparing the two.  Of course, that would require access to both full-leength and microlectures to do.  That might not be easy.

Anyway, the original article was from the Chronicle of Higher Education. An actual microlecture can be found here.

I can’t seem to find who posted the link, but I ended up at Teach Paperless yesterday.  It is an entire blog devoted to not using paper in the classroom.  He has a lot of interesting ideas as well as facts and figures.  If you are even remotely interested in what it might be costing your district to make all those copies and distribute them, not to mention the additional paper the students bring into the classroom, this blog is worth a read.

I have written about this before.  I use almost no paper in my classroom.  This semester, most everything is on the blog or wiki.  Last semester it was on WebCT.  Teaching this way is so much easier than lugging around stacks of papers. My students do have a composition book that they use to take notes in and do work in class, but one composition book will last them the whole year, probably.  (At least the less prolific writers!).  I am not opposed to paper and certainly do not forbid my students to print things out, but I prefer to do it all online. So do my students!

In a post called Why Do I Hate Paper, the blogger at Teach paperless says,

It’s not paper I’m against.

I’m against the static idea of knowledge that paper so often represents.

That’s not where the future is.

That post is a great place to start if you want to check out his blog!