Metacogitation

PBL: Project/Problem/Passion Based Learning

2011-09-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with a student today that has me thinking about the roots of motivation and how emotions affect progress. This student has been dragging along for over a year with minimal achievements, multiple excuses and a marginal lifestyle. What came to light was her underlying feeling that she has been wronged by the public school system and should not have to be working with me in the first place. So... while presenting as compliant (sort of) - her defining position was really defiance of authority. This, of course, will not wash in true PBL - because the authority is The Self! I think we cobbled together something that will get us both through this with reasonable honesty - we cut a deal. In PBL what is the balance of doing because I want to and doing because I have to? Where does the question of am I willing to do what I have to do to get what I want to have come in? PBL is messy and complicated, yes. My goal is to model the navigation with an eye toward satisfaction. My sense is the journey must include tedium, frustration, and difficulty along with the cultivation of discipline to overcome these obstacles. What cannot be overcome, I think, is an attitude of learning against our will.

Project Based Learning

2011-09-27T10:04:00.001-07:00

According to the Buck Institute for Education, Project Based Learning:

1) is organized around an open-ended Driving Question or Challenge

1) creates a need to know essential content and skills

2) requires inquiry to learn and/or create something new

3) requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration

4) allows some degree of student voice and choice

5) incorporates feedback and revision

6) results in a publicly presented product or performance

As I reflect back on my Wikispaces project, I can see that these elements are in place. Why, then, does this Challenge Project fall short of the deeper learning satisfactions I am inclined toward? Yes, I needed to learn to be more efficient. There is real value in knowing I can approach tasks from a more superficial angle and deliver only what is requested. I CAN wade through assigned tasks.... though I prefer to delve into the deep and transformational. Why? Because I prefer to invest my energies in work that gets at core issues and matters. So... for ME - the essential ingredient for transformational learning is this: does a project feel to ME like an authentic leap forward.

CP1:Queen of Content

2011-07-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Cool. 12 links up on the Wiki.

Sent out the invites. Tweaked the permissions. Received request to annotate - will do. Ship it! Granted, I was not learning from scratch as I had some familiarity with both the process and the content - but Wow! That was EASY compared to how I usually work. The HARD part was holding myself back from making it more than it needed to be. Hmmmmm. If I have set this up correctly, it should run itself pretty much. Hmmmmm. Now I have time for ANOTHER Challenge Project. This time I want to try applying the structure to deep learning. Here we go....

CP1: Use the Wheel

2011-07-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to create a wiki. What is the most efficient way to do this? What if I could find an online (free) wiki site that has done all the infrastructure work so I can focus on the content! Hey - come to think of it, I am a member of a wiki like that - I wonder if I could use Wikispaces Woohoo!!!!! This is easy breezy:) Now, criteria for what goes in. Must be trends, so must be portals as it would not be smart to have to keep updating. If I set it up right it should click along on its own. To the research...

CP1: Ask, Don't Tell

2011-07-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of getting across the project pond in a straight line - I ASKED my supervisor to define an organizational problem that needed to be solved. She did me one better and presented both a problem AND a solution as follows: PROBLEM-no way for staff to keep current with emerging technology developments in education. Create a wiki that will give staff reports on trends and developments in field of instructional technologies. OK....now - Discipline! Read the instructions and DELIVER. This does NOT require a situational analysis or a needs assessment. Focus.

Challenge Project 1: Linear, Efficient, Responsive

2011-07-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

I realized in graduate school that there are at least 2 ways to approach a course: One way is like swimming across the top of a pond and hitting the bell on the other side. Another way is to dive down deep in search of buried treasures and (hopefully) to emerge on the other side to ring the bell in time to complete the race. What would happen if I challenged myself to try a new way of learning?
This year, the staff at work has been asked to frame professional development in the context of a Challenge Project. To truly challenge myself, I decided to see if I could get better at a straight-across-the-pond style of working. To begin: Ask what problem needs to be solved. Do not assume....do not announce.... do not take on extensive research to see what patterns emerge....do not lead the conversation....just ask.

ParaPro in Virtual High School

2010-08-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

5 August 2010
Front page of the Brattleboro Reformer: Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (New Hampshire) which turns out to be Florida Virtual School (see performance analysis) by the Florida TaxWatch Center for Educational Performance and Accountability Doesn't look like we could purchase individual courses - seems to be a State and District decision. I am requiring students to check in weekly for face-to-face and print out sessions this year when enrolled in Ed2Go. It takes discipline to work on-line:)

First student e-portfolio candidate. Got her set up with gmail and a site template. This is fun! Her goal is to become a para-educator. ParaPro Test Study Guide and the ParaEducator Learning Network catalog are good resources.

Shot video from my Kodak EasyShare last night for the first time at the Newfane Common. The Stockwell Brothers were doing a benefit concert and I had never happened to hear their music. Thoroughly enjoyed their style of hill-country layered mix of originals and quality tributes. Now let's see if I can get the digits off the camera, onto the computer, and into this blog.

Rock Stars

2010-08-05T13:27:00.001-07:00

4 August 2010
Day one of capturing snippets in the field. First up: find software for laying down beats.
The winners:
Sonic Producer paid subscription
Digital DJ Pro free open-source

This is exciting! I have no experience with digital music making and am astounded at the complexity of recording devices available online. Ultimately, our Act 176 candidate will be headed into the studio to create the finished product with spoken poetry overlaid. We are fortunate to have facilities here in town: Sound Design

While I am waiting for my Canon ZR800 to arrive, I will see what I can do with the little clip maker in my Kodak Easyshare. It is important to get in the habit of documenting right away so that students see I am serious about e-portfolios.

The iPaid

2010-01-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

I am looking forward to seeing Apple's new gizmo and hope to have one myself. While the name iPad is a bit clunky, despite flashbacks to the IBM Thinkpad, I will probably give mine a nickname: the iPaid:)

Asgnmt 2 cont:: Acrylic Background

2009-06-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

The time has come, my lovelies, to PAINT. Let yourselves go!!! Mix color with gel medium (if you have it) and slap acrylic onto paper (prepped with Gesso -if you have it). The goal is to be messy. This was the hardest thing for me because I wanted to get it "right". There is no such thing with art journals... paint with wild abandon. Acrylics dry quickly - if you want to soften your effects - lay on or dab on paper towel before the paint sets. Now you have begun! Tip: wax paper is good for sliding between the pages before they are dry so that you can keep going. As always, would love to see what you are making.
Acrylic background from the net
Charming and useful tutorial on working with acrylics

Book recommendation: Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino

Assignment # 2 - Getting Started with Acrylics

2009-06-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Read here about gesso and acrylics

Read here about Gel Medium

Gather your materials together. You will need a flat protected surface (acrylics can stain) and water, paper towels and something to mix with. Cut-down paper cups will work in a pinch. I am using the Apple Barrel paints available from WalMart where I also found a sketch book for under 5 dollars. The Gesso I found at Michael's in Keene. Sadly, despite being one of the top small art towns in the USA, Brattleboro does not have any Golden Gel Medium and neither does Keene. So....I am stuck with the Liquitex until I get to Northampton or order online. I am using Mod Podge for glue today.

On Privacy

2009-06-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

I am told the internet and tattoos are forever. What I know is that we are each in charge of what we intentionally reveal to others and when we do so. Gluebooks and Raw Journals are, by design, personal. In a world of MySpace and Facebook I do not need to tell you that what you put online can be seen by anybody, usually. What I do feel the need to validate is the importance of respect for our multi-layered selves and the dignity of boundaries.

As you can see by your tour of online journal art, words do emerge and we will be looking at techniques for blending in language. The mother and sister in me is ruffling up some feathers today and saying, "Watch Backs" or "Cover Eggs" or well....you know how protective mothers and sisters can be:)

image courtesy of tattoo22.com

Aisling d"Art
has been on the internet for years with her journals and reflections. She addresses boundaries and how those have changed for her over the years.

All the Way In

2009-06-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

I know for sure that there are over a hundred pools you can swim in on Flickr that have examples of art journal entries. That is spectacular and amazing....and if we don't hear from you for awhile maybe we will have to send out the huskies! You can believe that we WILL leave the lights on:)

As you tour journals via cyberspace please take note of your favorite pools, sites, or videos and share them with us. In coming posts we will be bringing in techniques to add to our gluebook explorations. Had I seen the following video 6 months ago, I could have saved some time and money. Thank you Miss Kira - for an excellent set of tips on basic supplies.

Why Gluebooks?

2009-06-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

First a tour of one woman's completed journal from Youtube.

Top Ten Reasons to make Gluebooks and Raw Journals:

10) Since the world is now flat and the hot zone for economic development is the creative economy…..this course could make you very, very rich

9) The Flow state is great for your immune system

8) Finally get to feel like a Bohemian

7) Identify other feelings….and thoughts, patterns and symbols

6) Handy way to work with dreams and visions

5) A reason to open your junk mail

4) Begin to notice the details of everyday life

3) Make neat stuff to pass on to future generations and save the day with just-in-time birthday cards

2) Something to talk about at cocktail parties

1) More fun, more filling

Getting Hooked

2009-06-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

OK....now that we have had a few days to play with materials - you may be ready to show what emerged and to see what takes shape for others when exploring the gluebook. I have put 4 pieces up on a Flickr set called Gluebooks and Raw Journals. Here is the link! Cindy Flickr

You may want to make a Flickr site for your work, as well, or perhaps you would like to join the gluebooks pool on Flickr. Have a look at the cool stuff going on in there:
Gluebooks Pool

My 4th composition is shown above. It is made from some old wrapping paper, blue and green shreds of tissue and some x and y punched out letters.

At first, I felt frustrated because I loved the lizards but I could not think what to do with them. When I just let myself slide them around different ways to see what pleased me - suddenly BAM - there it was.

Then I thought they looked like fish that needed feeding so I went to tear apart some paper to look like fish food when it occurred to me they could eat their words....no, letters xyz....no XY..... next I knew the X and Ys were splashing onto the page.

When I looked again I could see that the lizards were really spermatozoa and the x and y (of course) were chromosomes!!! Pretty sexy and cute at the same time! I love this piece! I HAVE been listening to a lot of science podcasting lately:)

Assignment 1: Loosening Up with Paper, Glue and Random Snippets

2009-05-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

Step 1:
To begin, keep it simple. Any basic glue (like Elmers or a gluestick) will work and whatever you have around for paper is fine. For this first exercise - collect your paper and glue and set these someplace where you will remember you put them and near a surface where you can work later in the day. Tables are good, but a flat book near the couch will work also.

Step 2: Wander about in your day noticing random snippets of stuff that pops up in your path. You may want to bring an envelope with you to collect this ephemera or you can just stuff it in your pocket or purse. Just notice what catches your eye or you feel drawn to.

Step 3:
Dump your stash out where you can see your treasures and give yourself no more than 20 minutes to glue whatever pleases you to whatever paper you like in any fashion at all.

TaDa!!!!! - You are on your way to a marvelous adventure.....

Keep going!!! See if you can make at least 3 pages over the next few days or a week. Give yourself a chance to get into your own groove. Notice what happens when you take time out to play. Later on we will get into seeing what others do and using techniques and paints and so forth.....but for now - relax, have fun, stick with it and get ready for some surprises!

Gluebooks Defined

2009-05-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

The Urban Dictionary defines gluebooks this way:

"Generally the term refers to a series of collages that is built up over time (normally on a regular, ongoing basis) and typically involves modern ephemera. Gluebooks are often of mixed media and difficult to generalize because each artist's style is different, but they almost always involve some kind of gluing, hence the name."

What's it for?

"A gluebook is for loosening up, for bypassing your inner critic and building a quick body of work without stress, for expressing raw emotion without having to explain or justify it, for "gesture drawing" without drawing. A gluebook can be used as a "practice run" for future projects (such as altered book pages) or as a kind of "sketchbook" (with or without sketching) to just play with shapes, forms, colors. It can be used as an art journal (with or without art or journaling). You can draw into it, write, paint or cut up the pages. What emerges from a gluebook as you play is sometimes enigmatic and sometimes revealing. There are no rules to a gluebook except the ones you establish for your own."

Off to the glueing boards then, shall we?

Teacher Introduction (Moodle Art Course)

2009-05-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Gluebooks and Raw Journals - an experiment in the sparking of creativity through quick assemblage.

My name is Cindy Holden and I have worked in Adult Basic and Secondary Education since 1995. These days I am especially interested in how and why students engage with learning and self-transformation. I am convinced that relationships, imagination, and emotions play a profoundly important part in learner persistence and since I have recently discovered art journals myself, I decided to see if my students would find this creative process as energizing as I do.

I am happy to have your company on this adventure. So....hang on loosely - but don't let go (as we used to say in the 70s. Let's rock and roll:)
Cindy

5) Off to a Bad Start: A Look at Factors Contributing to School Failure in Grade 9

2008-08-31T18:42:00.001-07:00

The Graduation Crisis We Know and What Can be Done About ItShort class periods and moving from subject to subject and room to room lead to fragmented days where teachers relate more to groups than to people. (McCoy 1998) Despite the assessment technologies and sophisticated data systems available in our times, the personal achievement data that could be so valuable to inform instruction is not being used in most classrooms. (Lachat 2001) There is evidence that the least competent teachers are the most likely to be assigned to freshmen (Donegan 2008).

4) Off to a Bad Start: A Look at Factors Contributing to School Failure in Grade 9

2008-08-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

The Graduation Crisis We Know and What Can be Done About It

Most of these impressionable young people are entering school systems unprepared to support them. Designed for life in an earlier era , structured like factories for a previous generation expected to follow orders and spit out products, traditional high schools are ill-equipped to educate today’s young person who must learn to think critically, creatively and collaboratively in a global environment.(Harvey 2004) The typical large American High School is departmentalized rather than interdisciplinary, driven by hours of attendance rather than multiple measures of competence, and impersonal rather than individualized. (Lachat 2001)

3) Off to a Bad Start: A Look at Factors Contributing to School Failure in Grade 9

2008-08-31T14:16:00.001-07:00

The Graduation Crisis We Know and What Can be Done About It

To be an adolescent is to be in flux. . Research using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows that the teenage brain is still under construction, particularly when it comes to the ability to plan and to control impulses. (Blakemore 2006). These youth are 3 to 4 times more likely to die than other children beyond infancy, generally through accidents. (Powell 2006) Awash in a sea of hormones and self-consciousness, freshmen are in the middle of a dramatic physical, cognitive and social growth spurt. Puberty is hard work. Complicating the situation for many is an underdeveloped set of academic skills, especially in math and reading, which rises to the level of a plague in some parts of the United States. (Kemple 2004) Then there is high school.

2) Off to a Bad Start: A Look at Factors Contributing to School Failure in Grade 9

2008-08-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Every year, a fresh-faced batch of adolescents arrives in public high schools and every year so many fail to progress to grade 10 that a term has been coined for the phenomenon: “the ninth grade bulge” (NHSC 2007). These retainees are significantly more likely than their promoted peers to drop or be pushed out of high school before graduation. While this first year bottleneck is apparent in most public schools, in some troubled communities nearly 40% of freshmen fail to make it through 9th grade in one year, and of these only 10-15% go on to graduate. (Balfanz 2006) Who are these young people being held back in the beginning of their high school careers and what are the factors which contribute to their malaise? This paper is a first look at research done on these adolescents, their schools, and the implications of the quality of their education for our society.

1) Off to a Bad Start: A Look at Factors Contributing to School Failure in Grade 9

2008-08-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine a world where gangly, undeveloped humans are fed into a machine designed to produce workers for a world that no longer exists and you might get a sense of what confronts the failing American teenager. Graduating from high school on time is a piece of the American dream, yet 1/3 of our nation’s youth currently fail to achieve this goal and in some communities nearly half the beginning cohort walk away empty handed. (Barton 2005) In a flattened world, where prosperity so often hinges on the ability to compete in a knowledge economy, we are paving the way to a permanent underclass in our country if we continue to neglect the education of so many of our youth. (Friedman 2005)

Craving Plaid

2008-08-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

When the leaves begin to turn and the air begins to cool my mind turns to "school" and this year I plunked down some cash and brought my body along. I enrolled in an online class on Research and Writing through Excelsior College America's first virtual university. My instructor is Valerie Fox, PhD. Although my classmates are stuck in a little box and I cannot drag them out for beers at McNeil's when we have all gone bleary-eyed over citations, they are an interesting lot - including soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since my boyfriend is off in Bogota on assignment and he is asking me when I am going to write something for 2008, I thought I would float out some pieces of my first little paper. I cannot promise you that this will be entertaining, but I can assure you that my head is a little bigger because of all the growing my brain has done. On to the post....

High Speed Comes Home for the Holidays

2007-12-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

It's a Christmas miracle. Within a year of my last grumpy post bemoaning the fate of young Vermonters trapped in the dark ages of dial-up, morning has broken, the old and the young have met in the middle and the great optic circle of life means Johnny can study online after all.

I'll admit it, this is stunning, especially for the Northeast Kingdom where huge loops of cable have laid the skeleton (thanks to the Northlink Project) making way for our young men from Great Auk to take to the rooftops like Santa and his reindeer and finish the job of delvering this most impressive gift of high speed internet access.

Here in Southern Vermont, Verizon has come through with dsl to Wardsboro, my home town. Now my mother can send and receive photos and video from her grandchildren. Now my students are no longer educationally disadvantaged by geography. Now my faith in the goodness of man and technology is restored and you have given me something to write home about. Thank you.

Teacher on Tap

2007-04-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got a cell phone. It came with a randomly generated -yet super cool- number fit for a secret agent. My little friend glows cheerily in the night - and I am happy.

Young people thrive on invisible rays. As a drop-out recovery specialist with Vermont's Act 176 I am in the eye of a hurricane of exploding educational options thanks to cyberspace. Working through the Windham Regional Career Center - one source alone - Ed2Go - offers a dizzying array of 6 week courses that leverage my effectiveness exponentially. I am fast becoming an educational broker - and loving every nanosecond of it. Why we do not use these courses for our students still enrolled in school, I cannot say.

Ubiquito.us

2007-02-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

Throughout Vermont, adult basic educators are being asked to share with management our views on the opportunities and obstacles for our field as seen from the operating core. This space is available to those who want an easy way to add their perspective (anonymously or not). If you would like to post your contributions as a guest blogger - I welcome your insights. My thoughts are informed by my work with young adults, but I imagine these ideas have potential across the lifespan.

Teaching and communicating through technology: There is tremendous curriculum available to us on the web. Assistive technologies and universal design are revolutionizing education for students with disabilities. Cell phones, instant messaging, and old fashioned email make it possible for students to stay connected despite moving about. I haven't uploaded a teaching video yet - but wow, Mom - this stuff is totally cool.

Promotion of Open Source: I will leave the development of this strand to Grant Seelgen - who has a lot to offer. I will say that if this is an idea that works in developing countries - why would it not be an idea that would work with low-income families in the US? Free and legal software - including operating systems, an opportunity to tinker around with computers like a backyard mechanic...what is not to like? We (adult education) could offer workshops on the technology and scaffold community at the same time. We could model by using these tools ourselves:)

Embedded partnerships: as adult literacy has merged into one system in Vermont there has been an understandable movement toward formality. Coincidentally, I see a need for us to be as flexible and entrepreneurial as possible to make ourselves useful - especially to high schools as they struggle with reform. No easy answers on this one - but if we pay too much attention to the internal environment we lose perspective on the opportunities all around us. We need to make sure we are not a culture where nobody can say yes but everybody can say no.

Invisible Rays Save Little Town from Extinction

2007-01-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

Will someone please explain to me why we do not all have wireless internet already. How can this be? Have you heard about Great Auk Wireless? How is it that these young men can plop antennas around town and wireless a neighborhood for $250 a household but we can't figure out how to get the job done statewide until 2010? Seems to me like a reasonable price to cure a learning disability. I am wondering why, with this band of brothers in our fold, we haven't solved this problem by now.

Great Auk is a spin-off (I think) of Optima which was started by Josh Garza - a (then) late teen/ early twenties graduate of Leland and Gray Union High School (my alma mater) in the hills of Southern Vermont. I grew up in Wardsboro and raised my daughter there. When she was 15 we left dial-up and moved 28 miles south to Brattleboro where we make our phone calls over VOIP for pete's sake. My family back in the old country is still on dial up. We can't even send them the videos my daughter is making and uploading to YouTube.

Has moving made a difference in my daughter's education? She is finishing up her high school career at the Center for Digital Arts. She is shooting for post-secondary education in commercial graphics but also starting to look into the field of diagnostic imaging (medical). Had we stayed in the house where she was born would there have been a way to get here from there? Not a chance.

My vote for the number one opportunity we have to make a difference in adult basic and secondary education in Vermont? Push for wall to wall wireless throughout the state and leave no teen behind. We could start by partnering with our youth such as the young men of Great Auk for our technology needs and let the old men who can't see the children through the trees retire to easier pastures.

Quantum Leap Frogging

2007-01-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

I was talking with Grant Seelgen from TechCorps the other day about digital divisions. Grant got onto the concept of leapfrogging - especially the hop from dial up to wireless. This concept of starting from behind and coming out ahead tickles me no end - especially in a world moving so fast that playing catch up seems impossible.

This week I was coincidentally asked to reflect on the opportunities and obstacles I see for adult basic and secondary education in Vermont. A big subject - even for a small state and surely the beginning of a long conversation. I am thinking first of youth, technology, and the need for those of us from the old world to make soup and keep the fires burning for our young born into the new world.

My current work with 16-21 year olds in a drop-out recovery program has me integrating communications technologies as a given. These refreshing young people swim about cyberspace like dolphins on dopamine. How patient they are with me, the Babushka, as I toddle onto gmail, Pandora, and Second Life.

Clarence Fisher, winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching in Canada, speaks to this need to meet the students where they live. Here is what Clarence has to say about Educational Leapfrogging. A good conversation starter while I finish sketching out some specific ideas on the back of a napkin.

The Sum of Parts +

2006-03-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

The time has come to end our pedagogy class and move forward to our capstones. This last course-related blog is meant to reflect on what has changed in me since early January when we began.

Looking back on what I said I hoped to accomplish, I see that the expansion of my teaching repetoire was my goal. Have I achieved expansion? Yes - and equally so, contraction.

Today I know how to design a course - from a needs assessment through overarching questions and lesson structure to final evaluations. Now that I have a handle on this process, I must use it to exercize restraint. A course is the solution to a problem and all parts must work together to that end. Herein lies the discipline that leads to mastery.

Today I speak with Skype and wander with wikis and marvel over Moodle. The tools in my electronic wizardry box multiply daily and given the rapid pace of technology development I can expect to be trendy until my lights go out. This morning I was looking down at my house from an online satellite feed. Amazing. The power of technology is truly impressive and mind expanding. At this rate, I'll be wearing a headcam by next Tuesday and cataloging footage of my every waking hour.

As a leader, the burden of responsible use of these capacities weighs heavily. In the excited flush of new discoveries it is inevitable that trampling will occur. I know too much to be silent when it comes to copyright, confidentiality, and the value of privacy to deep learning and the cultivation of civility. I know too much, to quote Dear Abby, to go snooping for information I won't ethically be able to use.

Marlboro is a quality institution with an excellent reputation. With each class I take I feel a stronger connection to doing her proud. I am profoundly aware of how few people on this earth have the opportunity to access graduate school. I know that I am privileged to be here and I know it is true that to those who much is given, much is expected.

My teaching has changed. I am demanding greater focus, precision, and coordination from myself. I am expecting a deeper committment to learning from my students knowing that I have grown in my capacity to support them.

Expansion and contraction - our very lives depend on the rhythms of it as we breathe. It is what our muscles must do to build strength and maintain flexibility. As an emerging education and technology leader, my role is expanding and I step up knowing I will often need to define the shifting limits of what is realistic and the enduring values of what is right.

Terra Incognita

2006-03-27T12:21:00.001-08:00

Frontier life is rough and wild. The stars burn brighter, the cold cuts deeper, and meat tastes better when you kill it yourself and roast it over an open flame. I used to wonder why computer techies plastered the covers of their manuals with pictures of beasts. Under the covers, a seemingly indecipherable code appeared tame enough to the uninitiated. Why were they wearing loud tropical shirts and growing their hair long or spiking it up to the jagged edge of fashion?

The construction of a new dimension is a dangerous business. Ask Napster. Ask Bill. Ask Christopher Columbus. Usually, pioneers do a thing because they can. Sometimes they know not what they do, and often they know not where they are. This is part of what makes innovation so thrilling. Take a mountain...plant a flag..

What does this have to do with education? As teachers, we are models. How we handle issues of respect for copyright, confidentiality, and privacy establishes classroom culture. It is a jungle out there - full of zombies and hackers and bears - but there can also be secured, private enclaves with conditions right for growing exotic blooms - if we protect them. We need to ask ourselves if the use of a particular technology advances our understanding or undermines it. There are no easy answers to this, especially when we are under the sway of a cool new wizardry. As teachers, we may not be the ones inventing the new toys, but we can step forward and ask the right questions.

Thirty Years to a Bigger Vocabulary

2006-03-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am always assuring students that new pathways are being burned in their brains when they study. As a graduate student, I find vocabulary especially challenging - so I am putting this grey list where I can find it.
Maybe my Mom will get something out of it, too. When told I was studying pedagogy (the art and science of teaching) she wondered if I had switched to criminal justice.

Epistemology: The branch of philosophy that deals with knowledge
Ergonagy: The development of the ability to work
Heutagogy: The study of self determined learning
Metacognition: Thinking about thinking
Metacogitation: Cindy’s Blog
Heuristic: Gaining knowledge through intelligent guess work
Algorithm: Use of a formula or formal process.

A Riddle

2006-03-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

What unites when apart and separates when together?

American Masters

2006-03-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

Marlboro College is known for the cultivation of community. This week I am cogitating on my randomly assigned membership in a real life cohort called Jury Duty. Windham County has a low population in relation to our crime rate, so most of us get summoned into court one way or the other. This was my second trial of the season and I was dreading it. It turned out to be a most excellent tutorial in the school of life.

As synchronicity would have it, this week's readings at school involve collaborative learning. I like this snippet from Teaching for Understanding with Technology (2005) Jossey-Bass:
"Collaborative learning is particularly valuable when it takes place within a community of learners who share common concerns and feel bound by shared norms and committments, even if the members of the community may differ dramatically in their opinions and backgrounds."

And differ we did. Thirteen people thrown up the vacuum tube of life by the hand of chance -unlikely winners in a communities of purpose lottery. I think they sent the sheriff looking for number fourteen. Most of us were losing money on the deal, and though there is usually one person chirpy for their first shot at American Government in Action, we had not a single virgin. There was no mistaking our shared committment as we held up our right hands and affirmed our sobriety. There was no mistaking our dramatic differences as we began our deliberations.

According to Wikipedia, Consensus decision-making is intended to deemphasize the role of factions or parties and promote the expression of individual voices. In a criminal court there is no such thing as majority rule. If we were going to be successful, we were going to have to listen to each other. If we were going to make decisions we could live with, we were going to have to be honest.

Our leadership was good. We proceeded gently with one another. Vulnerabilites were exposed; safety was established; perspectives formed, focused, and eventually fit into a whole.Our verdict was reached through diversity and delivered in unity. I believe our jury disbanded richer and deeper than we had arrived.

Tonight, I am holding in my heart the jury yet to convene. Court TV has already rolled in the trucks and staked out a position next to the courthouse in anticipation of a two week murder trial that starts Monday. In the midst of a media circus and a theatrical parade I hope another band of Vermonters can reach deep into our American treasury and bring back a wise decision.

The Academic Bill of Rights

2006-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

Why do I teach? It's complicated. I won't pretend to be altruistic. I think part of it is that I want to know. Knowing is powerful. Knowing shapes my identity. Knowing gives me life.

I like the model of learning that shows 4 phases:

1) unconscious/incompetent
2) conscious/incompetent
3) conscious/competent
4) unconscious/incompetent

The first is unconscious and incompetent:I don't know, but I'm not aware of it. Phase 2: I don't know but I am acutely aware of it. This is uncomfortable and propels me to phase 3: Working at it. This is the slogging through and the birthing of concepts and the beginning to know (competent) but exerting lots of effort and investing lots of time. Phase 4 is mastery where I "get" it and it is as though I have always known.I am unconscious and competent. This is a metamorphic process and I get deep satisfaction from it.

That accounts for the learning part, but what about the teaching? When I am thinking,writing,learning, generally making meaning - or at least posing some essential questions and wrestling around with them- I am in my element. Teaching happens in that same zone plus performance plus management plus service.

So, as a teacher I get to work in the "know zone" which is my favorite dimension. When I teach other phenomena emerge - not all the time, but enough to keep me coming back. In my work in adult basic education,some of these are: the healing of old wounds, intense and productiveworking relationships,a sense of expertise, fun, cognitive/skill development, identification, agape,a sense of working toward my potential and yes - a feeling that I have made the world a better place.

This "making the world a better place" doesn't get me in trouble when it comes to teaching long division to a student from Ghana and taking delight in my sense that he will teach others who will teach others and my influence will span the globe and the generations. Math is, after all, a power tool:) and I am possessed by a vivid imagination.

Teaching can be intoxicating. What if I am teaching social studies? What if I have political passions that I want to see span the globe and the generations (or more likely just see win the next election)? How easy is it for me to get drunk on my good intentions?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. What if I am teaching literature and I want to provoke my students out of their stupor? Is rolling out my latest edgy discovery designed to hit my student's zone of proximal development or make me feel like a sexy revolutionary?

Teachers have power and authority whether we want to own that or not. I think today's focus on learner centered instruction is an opportunity to look at professional practice and what malpractice might look like. Malpractice is not just incompetence. It can also be abuse of power through attempts at indoctrination or "shock and awe tactics" in the classroom.

I hope I have not been guilty of gross malpractice, though I am sure I have gotten caught up in myself and rambled on with my personal opinions eating up time that could have been more productive for the student. Restraint comes with maturity. I do know what it feels like to be the recipient of educational malpractice.

I also know what it is like to be the parent of a child who is stuck in a classroom with a teacher so full of himself and his own politics he cannot see her and her need to get a basic education. There are times when I should have directly confronted this on her behalf,choosing instead to coach her from the sidelines and telling myself this would build her skills in repelling future assaults on her intelligence but completely forgetting about the power differential she found herself in.

A good education focuses on the needs of the student - activating their background knowledge and building from there. A good education is concerned with skill building for the student, regardless of where critical thinking may lead them.

A good teacher is secure and responsible enough to create a classroom that can support the development of any student assigned to their care. A good teacher is also concerned with civil discourse and the conditions under which it flourishes. A good teacher is aware that their way of seeing the world is not the only way and not necessarily the RIGHT way. A good teacher does not abuse her power and does not tolerate the abuse of power by her colleagues.

The Academic Bill of Rights is being introduced into legislatures across the country. I am sad that we need this, but I must admit I know we do.

Intentional Mediocrity

2006-02-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

It still translates from the French as inferiority, but among young people all over the world mediocrity is being touted as hip. Is this neo post modernism or is it really ok to be average? What about low average? Barely passing? I am reminded of the old joke: What do you call someone who graduates at the bottom of the class from medical school? Answer: Doctor.

Mediocrity originally meant halfway up a craggy mountain. In today's world is halfway up the mountain affordable real estate with reasonable neighbors and a balanced lifestyle, or are we seeing a cynical backlash against a rhetoric of excellence without systems designed to develop it? Is it time to define and acknowledge acceptable, competent and good?

on mediocrity: "It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late" Products for disaffected students. See also Humiliation, Pressure, Quality, Risks, and Underachievement.
visual arts this is mediocre?
"we put the integrity into internet"
from Germany
gamespot a 5.7 out of 10 is mediocre
blog "a non stop riot of mediocre events"
blog "striving towards mediocrity"
An Academic in America an Article by Thomas H. Benton titled Principled Mediocrity (really well written) in which he wonders why we sacrifice the good for the excellent.

Scaffolding Success

2006-02-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

The struggle between anticipation and disappointment was playing out in my teacher's face. I wanted to help her, but the answer wouldn't come. She kept asking us how we thought we were doing in our course and how we knew. We mumbled. Some of us took up philosophical positions. One of us tried flattery - but in the the end she had to say it, "What about the rubrics?"

We had seen them in the beginning; there was one for every deliverable. Many hours and much thoughtful effort had gone into constructing these guidelines. How could we have lost sight of them? Why do humans so often bumble ahead on instinct forgetting to read the instructions?

In Elaine's advanced pedagogy class a quality blog shows critical thinking, the development of ideas, self-awareness and enough postings to support habits of same. Now if I can just get her to make me a rubric for marriage:)

Which way do we go, George?

2006-02-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

What does it mean when 3 out of 4 teachers surveyed report feeling discombobulated? O.k., it was my survey and there were only 5 of us and one went off on another subject entirely - but I have to admit - I was surprised to find out how common is my malaise.

Not that we agree on what the problem is. From where I teach, I see layers of management with conflicting visions. Others complain of mission shift, lack of coordinated curriculum and inadequate professional development. Are we just feeling safe enough to grouse or is there a widespread leadership crisis in American education?

Is education, by nature, highly ambiguous? I hope so, because I can't imagine the legal system, medicine, or the military functioning is such disarray.
Wanted: Leadership. Apply locally, think globally.

You get what they need.

2006-01-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have heard it said that educational administration is where people go when they can't get elected to public office. It shouldn't surprise me, then, that I sometimes feel like a foot soldier with six officers yelling at each other over my head. When I think of it this way, my amusement tempers my frustration with the political battleground my work has become.

Because I work in adult basic education, I was hired ten years ago with no formal experience or training and told I would "figure it out". This liberating philosophy has led to innovations but failed to prepare me to navigate the toughest part of my job - the politics. When the political and personal agendas of individuals clash, and leadership is weak, irrationality reigns.

As a teacher, I need to have my boots on the ground. My connection with students is direct and my responsibilities to them immediate. At Marlboro, I am learning to conduct needs assessments, situational analysis, and course design. I am confident these skills will make me more effective in service to students, and I feel these disciplines will support me in setting boundaries and clarifying communication with management.

On needs assessment:
"any systematic approach to setting priorities for future action" (Witkin,B -1984 Assessing Needs in Educational and Social Programs. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass . ix)

You can't always get what you want.

2006-01-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

"needs assessments involve identifying and justifying gaps in results, and placing the gaps in prioritized order for attention" (Kaufman, R -1985 July/August Needs assessment, needs analysis, objectives and evaluation. Performance & Instruction, 24,21

"usually, it's best to create instruction around a particular audience, rather than designing content and then searching for an audience" (IEEE Website in pdf format from outside readings p.8)

Confessions of a Dilettante:
OK - I get it. "Needs Assessment" and "Situational Analysis" are more than phase one of instructional design - they are square one of a discipline to develop if I intend to become a polished professional. I did not always see it this way.

Teaching for me started very early. My mother had dyslexia, but I came wired for words- so clever woman that she was - she put me to work. I was her "go to" person and branched out from there to other relatives (ghost writer for love letters to Viet Nam at age 10). Though I must have started out as a direct responder to an expressed need - I quickly developed an infatuation with knowledge for its own sake and a proclivity for flights of academic fancy. Give me a trend and I would follow it to see where it led.

There is nothing inherently wrong (immoral) with designing instructional experiences for my own entertainment. If I am going to involve other people, however, I have learned the hard way that what I want and what they need are not an automatic match. I learned this after being introduced to multiple intelligence theory. Wholeheartedly I embraced it and many many hours of late night inventing later I emerged with a creation called "Planet Grad". Hopefully I can find a piece of it to bring to the Grad Center on Saturday. The Grad stood for Graduation - meaning High School.

Planet Grad was chock full of integrated curriculum and full spectrum experiences that included music and movement and a theme. I loved it. A lot. It turns out that adult basic education students don't like survey courses. Nobody wanted to go on this magic carpet ride with me. Could I have shopped my course around to another audience? Maybe. Will I pull it out of storage and try it out on my grandchildren one day? Almost certainly:)

So... if I am to be successful - the design process must be focused on the client. Anything else is probably performance art. I will try to have faith that exercizing restraint and discipline will not suck the delight from my bones. I know this is true, but I think there may still be a bit of temper tantrum that got repressed down there.