Who else is going?

 

I can't remember where I read it but I have been thinking about a story I read a few years ago.

I thought it was in the book Nothing Like it inThe World but a search didn't return anything for me, maybe you can find it.
Anyway, the story goes like this -
Mid 1800's and trains are new to the west. The railroad just came through the town but not everyone has seen a locomotive yet.
A cowboy/rancher/homesteader goes to check out the hub bub and spots a train off in the distance. Yet he stands on the tracks....

and quickly becomes prairie roadkill.
Remember at the time nothing else moved near as fast as a train, the poor cowboy had no reference to
gauge how much time he had to move. The schema he was working with didn't fit the changing landscape. 
And he became prairie roadkill as a result.

Why am I thinking about this?
I (see, meet, talk to, work with - pick one) people all the time who are 21st century cowboys.
They see the train (educational technology, internet, social media, on line learning - again, pick one) coming but they stay on the tracks.
Waiting to get hit (run over?) even though we can see it coming!

I am wondering if it is like the cowboy in the story? The change is so fast and they have nothing to reference so they are unable to process events.
I would love to take this post and make it a conversation - please comment or send a tweet my way!

--

I get it, really.

But I don't get it. 

I have noticed something recently. 

I teach. It's part of me. It is what I love to do. The teaching profession would be perfect if we could get rid of the paperwork and just teach; even with the pay scale. 

It is also a privilege to teach.

It is an honor to teach.  

And, for me at least, it is so much fun. 

I work (haha, remember how much fun teaching is?) for several institutions.

Often I get asked "What are you doing later/tonight?"

A typical response from me is "I get to teach at ____"

Here comes the part I do not get. 

Often the response is a grin and knowing head nod. A "Oh, yeah - good for you." 

Sometimes with a wink. 

I get that as a teacher the thought of going and teaching another 4 hour class can be overwhelming. 

I also get sarcasm (ask around, really, I get it). 

But I honestly mean that I feel lucky that I get to go and teach more. It gives me energy. It makes me feel good. I am honored. 

And I worry a little. 

Because usually those people are other teachers with the knowing grin. 

And I wonder...

Do you not realize who blessed we are?

How lucky we are to get to teach?  

I feel like I need to make the most of every chance I get. Every single time I get to help someone learn is like magic. 

Words really do matter. A lot. 

I am lucky that I get to teach. 

And I mean it when I say "I get to teach at the university"

Or "I get to teach a class at X School District"

It is because teaching is a privilege. 

So when I tell people "I get to teach"

I mean it, because words matter. 

But also

Maybe

Because teaching is ~

The...

best...

fun...

ever. 

Don't ever forget that. 

I keep coming back to this post. 

I cannot get enough of it. It could be a current version of "Digital Natives" by Prensky but I do not think so. I think this more of attempting to communicate differences rather than explain behavior. 

As a teacher some sections really stand out ~

"We do not have to remember unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can look them up within seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in everything, because we know where to find people who specialise in what we ourselves do not know, and whom we can trust." 

This is stated so simply and yet it is something that so many people in education do not understand. And many that do "get it" would argue some of the implications and definitions. 

 

I am also drawn to this ~

"...even a trip to the other side of Europe with a short sightseeing of another city on the way can be organised in two hours. Consequently, being the users of the state, we are increasingly annoyed by its archaic interface. We do not understand why tax act takes several forms to complete, the main of which has more than a hundred questions."

I run into this often. If you are not looking at your practices and seeing where they can be streamlined, making use of the multitude of free or dirt cheap tools that can make things easier ofr your "customers" (whoever and whatever that is) then you can rest assured you will not have to worry about them too much longer. 

One last point that has been sticking with me ~

"We do not feel a religious respect for 'institutions of democracy' in their current form, we do not believe in their axiomatic role"

I see this being misunderstode often (and kids usually end up losing). I actually think the kids who feel this way understand and "get" respect a lot more than us older folks. The way I see this is respect is something earned not blindly given. 

With that in mind this post, more than most, makes me hopeful.

These crazy kids might be on to something. 

It started simply enough this morning. A friend and respected teacher shared this article with a myself and few other teacher types. Basically the article is about the message sent to students by how you distribute points across assignments and activities. If you assign  ton of points to tests and only a handful of points to discussion you are teaching the students that factual knowledge is what matters most in the class and discussion takes a back seat.

At this point I need to ackowledge the Joe Bower arguement.  I totally agree - in a perfect world we would not have grades or points. Unfortunately, ours is not a perfect world so I am looking for ways to make my little corner a little brighter.

Another prefessor type I have tremendous respect for replied to the email with this -

 

I’ve often thought that we should grade our students like they grade medical students: everything that we value would not have a fixed value toward the entire total, but rather a minimum bar value set.  So you must get at least X number of points within each category, or you fail.  The grand total suggests a grade, but only if you’ve hit the minimum in each category.  The way most of us grade now, students can completely miss the mark in any one area and still pass the overall course.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday at EdCampOCLA I got to lead a discussion titled "Leave your tech at the door - Learning NOT tools" and loved it!

First off I need to say I totally got the idea from @wmchamberlain  with permission. 

We had a great discussion and were joined via hangout by @Dowbiggin  and @jamestsanders.

It was a little strange that everyone in the room had a laptop ot iDevice, we were joined via Hangout and live on Ustream but there was solid concenses that overall teachers need to reflect on the quality of a lesson rather than just using a shiny, 2.0 tool. 

There was talk of lessons that should be able to stand alone with technology. The tech part should be enhancement or engagment. 

The comment was made that actually the tech needs to be baked into lessons rather than another layer or done seperately by going to the computer lab. 

We duscussed making sure the evaluation was based on the content rather than a tool. 

@dgrice brought up the idea of the tool shouldn't even matter - give learners a choice in how to demonstrate mastery. 

Overall, I think the take away was, even though we were a pretty tech savvy group, teachers need to focau on teaching - solid lesson plans are what matters. 

Which makes me wonder how much progess us ed techers are making? 

I seem to remeber having these discussions "It's about the learning not the technology" years ago. 

This quote ~ 

'Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs, now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is as far as he knows the only way of coming downstairs, but somewhere he feels there is another way, if only he could stop for a moment and think of it.' A A Milne 

Caught my attention among the many great qoutes on the Leading and Learning site. 

 

 Especially the line "It is as far as he knows the only way...." 

I wonder how much of what we do during the school day is because as far as we know it is the only way to do it?

Even though we are bouncing our head on each stair step along the way?

 

 

Image from: http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_19470778