Mr Bass Online

Just before Thanksgiving I attended the NCTE Annual Convention in New York City and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I was able to spend time with my friends Greg, Michael and Louann and met many other amazing people. I saw Angie and JoAnne, colleagues from my previous district and sat down for a drink with my new colleague Melissa and my new friend Carol, I mean Deb. I also got to see a little more about the inner workings of the NCTE board. Overall it was a great trip.

A few days ago Greg VanNest posted his quarterly blog entry in which he outlined some goals for himself for the upcoming year. He did the same thing last year and, I believe, completed each of his goals. After reading his blog entry, I began to think back over my time at the convention prompting this post.

One of the most interesting things about the convention was the fact that I was looking at it and experiencing it through a different lens. The biggest difference is that, technically, I’m not an English teacher. Sure, I’ll always be an English teacher, but my focus has moved to professional development and helping teachers use technology in the classroom. I’m not saying that I didn’t take away some ideas or that I didn’t enjoy being immersed in the English teacher culture again, but it was definitely a different experience.

Now for a little rant… I’ve been attending this conference for the last 4 years and I’ve seen, essentially, the same presentations for the last 4 years. I have been leaning towards the technology sessions and trying to see what others are doing with their classes, but so many are just teachers doing a web 2.0 101 presentation in which they explain what blogs, wikis and podcasts are. I know that this has a place in conferences and that there are still a lot of people that don’t know where to find these technologies. I also understand that many teachers haven’t been exposed to this yet, but I’d like to see a little more than, “This is a blog. This is a wiki.” How about some relevance as to how it works in a classroom and how someone might use a blog or wiki in their class? I think it’s time for us to move beyond the basic “click here” training and create relevance. I don’t think that it’s enough to show what you’ve done in your classroom. Why was that technology the best tool for a particular project? What kinds of objectives does this meet?

Maybe I’m just being cranky, but I see that same problem with a lot of the professional development that goes on in k-12 schools. In my position I do a lot of “click here” training to show people how to use a program. However, I’m a little dismayed that there isn’t more reasoning behind the instruction. I try to add that in, but I also have a curriculum to follow so that all who take that class have a common experience. Therein lies my struggle, yes I want to help teachers explore the technology and I want to teach them how to use it. However, there are all kinds of online tutorials that will show them where to click. Obviously there is something about face to face instruction that appeals to many. I’d just like to see those of us who facilitate development activities (whether at a conference or in a “training” session) to give participants something more than they would get from an online, how-to video. I may be over generalizing, but I think that it’s a question that needs to be asked.

One of the things I do in addition to raising twins and helping teachers is online writing tutoring for Smarthinking.com.  This company provides a service in which college and high school students can submit papers and request help to improve their writing.  It’s not a proofreading service, but prides itself on helping students become better writers by addressing errors in writing and concentrating on techniques that will help those students become better writers, not just pass that paper. Because of the nature of the company and the fact that most of the virtual tutors are educators, plagiarism is a big concern for us.

Although I’m not in the classroom anymore, I still think like an English teacher and through my role in Smarthinking, I still spend time each week thinking about and critiquing writing.  This morning I finally picked up an article that I have been meaning to read for about three weeks.  The article is entitled “My Year as a High School Student” by Deborah Waldron and was published in Educational Leadership in March 2006.  In this article, she outlines a few observations that she had in the year that she reentered the classroom as a student.  The one that I found most interesting, and the one that I tried really hard to address in my classroom was “Reinforce ethics and clarify plagiarism.”

We, as educators, expect students to already know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.  In my initial years teaching, I assumed that my students knew that taking someone else’s work was wrong.  I don’t know why I thought they knew this, but I was sure that their previous English teachers had been through this and that they just knew it.  I think this is especially true of teachers in other subjects.  We as English teachers are expected to go over this, but I as she mentioned in the article, she was in a science class and the class didn’t go over it, they were expected to know it.  “Use APA style, and cite your sources.  If you plagiarize, you will be given a zero.” are words that so many teachers have uttered, but did they explain what, why and how? Maybe, maybe not.

Regardless, in the age of the Internet and digital information, plagiarism has become significantly easier.  How do we help students become responsible digital citizens?  One of the places it starts is in our classrooms.  Making the assumption that students already know about citing sources, even at the college level, is a myth.  At Smarthinking and in the classroom we deal with this regularly, let’s stop making assumptions.

Last spring at the Midwest Educational Technology Conference, I attended a session in which Hall Davidson, of Discovery Educators Network, spoke about using Google Earth in the classroom. At that time I was unable to use this tool because my former district blocked Google Earth in the district. (I guess they weren’t really interested in engaging students with technology.) Because I was unable to use it, I kind of filed it away in the depths of my brain. Last week this memory was brought back to the forefront by a podcast entitled The Savvy Technologist. I don’t remember what the context was, but I seem to remember something about how the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum had created a layers file for Google Earth entitled “The Crisis in Darfur.” In one of my schools there was a student movement to assist the people in Darfur and raise awareness to the community and student population.

I remembered Hall Davidson’s session and approached one of the social studies teachers to see about an application of this kind for his class. Long story short-er, we’re going to create a layers file that he will use with his students as they study the Spanish-American War. This is new ground for me being a former English teacher, but I look forward to the challenges that present themselves as we work through the creation of this file.

In a related incident…

As I was exploring the Google Earth possibilities for Social Studies, I ran across Google Lit Trips. There are a collection of Google Earth layers files on this site that can be used as supplementary materials for English classes. Part of the English curriculum in my new district is the book Night by Elie Wiesel and on this site there just happened to be a file that traces his route as described in the book from deportation to liberation. It was a fascinating journey that was particularly meaningful to me after hearing Wiesel speak at the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference last year. After showing a few of the English teachers, Google Earth has been “discovered” by the school and is being considered for a variety of different applications. Teachers are excited about the possibilities that this program offers. I just wish I could have used it when I was in the classroom.

This link will take you to Bud Hunt’s website where he has posted the presentation that we did with Greg at NCTE in November.

Enjoy

I just finished a presentation at the NCTE annual convention with Bud Hunt and Greg VanNest entitled “The Compleatly Connected Teacher: Blogs and Related Technology for the 21st Century Teacher.”

View our site and join the conversation.

Here I sit in Nashville, Tennessee at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention. Last night was our opening banquet and we were to hear Elie Wiesel, author of Night, a glimpse into one man’s experience as a Holocaust survivor. Unfortunately, Elie’s flight was canceled so he was unable to attend. What a disappointment.
Ever the flexible teachers, the NCTE organizers had him call in to speak with us and broadcast his voice throughout the banquet room. Due to his thick accent and the amplification of the phone call, he was difficult to understand. However, the experience was still a worthwhile one for me.

After his call, the were some readings from Night and reactions to these sections by various NCTE representatives. During these readings, I began to think about my children and my hopes and dreams for them. In one section of the book, Elie’s father tells him that he wished he would have gone with his mother when they got to the concentration camp.

“His (father’s) voice was very sad. I understood that he did not wish to see what they would do to me. He did not wish to see his only son go up in flames.”

I haven’t read this book since becoming a father almost three years ago; it now means something different to me. So much has changed in these last three years, but I think the most dramatic thing is the deeper impact that these types of topics have on me. It disturbs me to consider how I would feel in these situations and that’s how I look at everything now… what would I do if I were in that situation? Maybe I should, but I don’t think about it. I actually purposefully avoid topics that will force me to consider these feelings. It may not be healthy, but I can’t bear to think about my children in that type of situation.

Funny enough, it’s affected my teaching as well. I now put myself in parent’s shoes as I plan my lessons. I ask myself if this is what I would want for my son or daughter. Am I the kind of teacher that I would want for my own children? If I say yes… continue with lesson. If I say no… what needs to be changed?

Elie Wiesel has seen some horrendous things, things that I will never truly understand. But one thing he has done is made me a better father through his words.

Thank you Mr. Wiesel, from me and my children.

I stumbled across the Grammar Girl podcast on itunes a couple of weeks ago and after listening to a couple of episodes I decided it was time to share.

http://grammar.qdnow.com/

I love CyberEnglish.

On one of the listservs that I’m on there has been a lot of talk recently on the subject of CyberEnglish. I heard about CyberEnglish last November at the annual NCTE conference which I’ve talked about in previous posts. However, the conversation on the “Talkies” listserv started me thinking about publishing student work in an online world.

In my implementation of CyberEnglish I have tried to give my students as much freedom with their work as possible because I wanted to make it authentic. I want them to publish, not for me, but for a wider audience. I want them to be read by others as well as reading others work. They all keep blogs and we have delved into the world of writing HTML from scratch to make their websites to showcase their work.

So many of my colleagues look at the things that I do in class in awe and tell me that they wish they were technically able to do something similar. Others simply scoff at my classes and tell me that what I’m doing isn’t really teaching. All opinions aside, I love my classes and have found that my students are working harder and producing more than they ever did in my “normal” classes. As far as I’m concerned CyberEnglish is a success. While this is only my second semester implementing it, my students have been more engaged in and produced better work than previously.

If you’re interested in seeing any of the work my scholars have created, feel free to visit my site.