October 2

It Has Been A While

Well, I haven’t blogged since 2012. In the past 9 years I have moved between schools and grades. Built strong teams and friendships, suffered loss and hardship. Through it all I have tried to maintain a focus on my students. Recently that has become harder.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) came to power on April 16/2019. Since then, the government has tried to systematically destroy an education system that was ranked in the top 10 in the world.  They have been spreading misinformation and gaslighting the public about the “failures” of the education system and how “political” the current curriculum is. What they fail to mention is that it was the Progressive Conservative government that brought the current curriculum in back in 1991!

I do not deny that the Alberta Curriculum needs to change to reflect the world we live in now and to prepare our children for a future we don’t have a clear vision of. What I disagree with is that the proposed curriculum will do neither of these things! It is like the creators of this proposed curriculum never left the 1950s! Also, they have no ability to scope and sequence knowledge appropriate to the age of the students! To add the cherry on top of the shit sundae, the proposed curriculum focuses almost exclusively on knowledge, ignoring skills (almost) completely! Now I know that knowledge is important, but in a world where we have access to more knowledge than anyone in history, wouldn’t it be better to teach the skills of how to find information that is reliable and accurate? In a world where people are changing jobs and careers rapidly, wouldn’t it be better to learn about how to learn new things quickly and thoroughly? Even if you are going to train people in the trades you have to teach them the skills of working with the tools and the people around them! These are the things that the new curriculum should be focused on! Memorizing old European history is not going to be helpful in the workplace. I don’t see a lot of employers demanding knowledge of Charlemagne as a necessary part of their employees skill set!

I guess what I am trying to say is, please get involved in your child’s education. Demand the government involve all stakeholders in the curriculum design process. That includes experts in curriculum design, teachers, professors of education, students, and parents! Join up with organizations like SOS Alberta. Write to your MLA, the Minister of Education, and the Premier. Let them know that what is happening with education is unacceptable! These are the people who have allowed the COVID 19 situation to explode in our collective faces by declaring the pandemic over and the province open for ever for the “best summer ever!” If their handling of the public health system has you worried, why would you think they will do any better with the education system.

Please, stand up and support the students, parents, and educators in our province. Tell the government that their handling of this file is unacceptable and they need to start over!

 

October 30

A New Year, New Students, and a New School

Well it has been another whirlwind start to the year! I moved from the high school to the middle school in the middle of construction. None of the grade 8 rooms were really ready for the beginning of school so decorating and all that stuff didn’t happen very much. It is neat but somewhat boring! Our double room is still not finished, there is only a temporary wall in the back of the room and it is way smaller than it is going to be when actually finished. This is cramping my (and my colleagues) style! We are making due with the physical limitations of our space but it will be nice to have it actually finished. The time line for completion is Christmas this year, but I think it is more likely for about a week after never!

This has had a profound effect on the students. This is the first year that grade 8 has stayed at the middle school, so they have a chip on their shoulder about that. The noise and disruption of the construction is setting them off. The fact that their new classrooms are actually in a wing of the High School that has, on paper, been transferred to the middle school but in reality looks like it is still part of the High School is causing more disruption.  Needless to say, the student’s have been a handful to try to keep focussed so far this year. The grade eight team, along with the administrators in the school, have had to go to extreme lengths to try and reign in the grade eight students. We appear to be making progress but it is incremental.

What are some ways that you have used to try to refocus and reign in your “out of this world” classes? We are looking for help and ideas, because we are running out of our own. Lend us a hand and feel good about helping other teachers to keep (or regain :)) their sanity!

January 9

Why am I so lazy this year?

Why is it that I am so lazy this year? I have been building my personal learning network for the past couple of years. Working on integrating technology into my classroom. Working on having a more passion based learning style in my class. Working on Masters courses. Working on new curriculum and teaching new classes. Wow, that is a bunch of working! But now, this year, I am feeling tired. I find it hard just to get all the work done I need to get done to teach my classes. Doing extra learning outside of the classroom is to tiring to think about. Now that I was actually starting to make headway, begin to perceive the seismic shift that is coming in education, I am loosing my motivation to prepare myself and others for it. Why?

Maybe I am just burnt out. After years of struggling with administrations that were not (in my opinion) student centered, focused on improving student achievement, and/or looking at ways that technology is going to change education, I am tired. Now that my school district has chosen not to participate in the second year of PLP, and our technology commitee has let things slide at the school, I don’t  have the drive to push forward.

I wrote a blog last year about the revolution in education. In that article I mentioned that I am an old revolutionary from way back. I have been trying to change the world since I was 14 years old. There is little to show for it. The world is way different now than then, so maybe there are things to show for it, but the progress is incremental and it is tiring.

Maybe I just need some time to refresh and regenerate before I get back at it. If you have any words of wisdom or encouragement I would love to hear them.

November 10

Questioning and Genius

I was reading a quick blog about the 12 genius questions here http://12most.com/2011/11/07/12-genius-questions-world/ It made me think about some of the assumptions that we hold as a society and that I personally hold.

I think that one of the basic assumptions that we hold is that smart people know lots of stuff.

Is that assumption true?

The more I think about it the more I think it is not. Smart, intelligent, bright, and or genius people are people that know how to find out things! This means not that they know stuff already, but that they know how to ask questions in order to discover something. This implies curiosity. Who is more curious than young children? Does that mean that young children are the smartest people in our society? This is certainly a view of the world that is unconventional.

If we agree that curiosity and questioning are skills that demonstrate inteligence, what happens to kids when they are in school? It doesn’t take long for students to learn that correct answers are valued and that asking quesstions and being curious lead to incorrect answers and negative attention. They stop being curious and asking questions? Are we making kids dumber in school? Can we instead value the questions they ask and teach them how to discover the correct answer? Is this not the way to teach people to become smarter?

The old saying is that if you give a man a fish he is hungry in a day but if you teach a man to fish he will feed himself for a lifetime. If we extend that metaphor to the classroom, then we should be teaching students how to question and discover the correct answer. Teaching them the answer is like giving them a fish.

November 10

The New Year

All of us who are teachers know that new year’s day is actually the first day of September. It is a time of new beginnings, planning for the future, shopping for new clothes, and reflection on what happened in the last school year and how we can improve for the new one. We make resolutions to change the way we do things. We start out with optimism that the new year will be a “good” one.

This year I have hope that things in our school will change for the better. We have a new principal and he appears to have a vision of what he wants our school to be. He envisions us as the best high school in our division. He has high expectations of the students and the staff. If we are not living up to those expectations, then he will have those difficult conversations with us to make sure we are on board with the program (or there will be trouble). I believe that this is exactly what the school needs at this point, as do many others. What I don’t think people are ready for is to have the discussions with our principal when he has questions about how we are doing things now. Everyone sees the need for him to talk to someone else, but are mostly blind to our own weaknesses and shortcomings. Herein lies the problem! Everyone applauds the idea of change for the better until it affects them directly; then they get defensive. How do we maintain an open mind in order to be open to the ideas of change that we may need to embrace? How do we stop ourselves from becoming defensive and entrenched in our present viewpoints?

I think that I am very open to feedback and integrating it so that it improves my teaching. I think that I am not going to have a problem with that, but isn’t that what we all think? What happens if a person or group of people feel threatened by change and become a road block to what everyone else sees as improvement? How do we deal with that? What happens if I am one of those people?

As you can see, a new year brings hope, and fear. I feel the hope, but am anxious about many things. Here is hoping that this new year brings better learning to the students, better learning and teaching to me, and an improved culture to our building!

February 6

Viva La Revolución

Recent ly I have been reading through a bunch of posts and blogs on the PLP Ning site. A reoccuring theme in these discussions is; Why would anyone not want to make changes to not only how they teach but to the whole system of educaton? This is my response to that line of thinking.

Why are some people reluctant to changing education in the ways that we think it should be changed?!? You’re kidding right? We are advocating nothing less than a wholesale revolution in education. We are saying that the system that everyone, living and dead, since the industrial revolution has been educated in and has been enshrined in our culture as a basic right, is not only broken, but irreparably broken. We are advocating a complete paradigm shift in how we “do” education in our culture. We are doing this at a time when politically, we are in the midst of a conservative resurgence. It’s like walking into a meeting of the tea party and announcing that capitalism is a failure and we are now going to implement a communist economic system!

 

We are the revolutionaries. We are the radicals. We are the people who are persecuted for our beliefs in this scenario. We need to keep in mind that most other people have not even started to think about how the changing landscape of information processing will affect them let alone the structures of our society. Of those people who do feel the ground shifting beneath them, there are at least as many who want to resist the change and hang on to their old familiar institutions to preserve the traditions and heritage of the culture as there are who want to change them.

 

Do not doubt that we are in for a long and difficult struggle to change our education system. We will have to convince not only a majority of our collegues, but also parents, and politicians before any real, meaningful, lasting , institutional change happens. That does not mean however, that we cannot individually make positive changes in our classrooms and schools at a grass roots level to more accuratly reflect and teach about the world our students live in.

 

Take it from an old radical, change is hard, and it is hardest on the ones who want the change the most. It is, however, worth it and in the end one or two of us will be remembered as visionaries.

December 19

I don’t always agree with Sheryl, but…

I don’t always agree with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, but I really enjoyed this post of her blog and thought I should share it with you. I know that I don’t have many followers yet, but the ones I do have I want to address you personally. So read through Sheryl’s post and pay special attention to the post she includes from Wendy. I’ll join you again at the end.

 

DO IT YOURSELF (DIY) PD from Powerful Learning Practice, LLC by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Cross-Posted

Phone rings. It’s Saturday, why are they calling me so early? The dogs decide it is time to get up and start my day anyway. I am up, coffee, walk outside, shiver and decide I will come up to the office and learn something.

I open my email and there is a message from Seth Godin. It reads…

[You’re getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin’s blog.]

What are you working on?

If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer? I hope so. If not, you’re wasting away. No matter what your job is, no matter where you work, there’s a way to create a project (on your own, on weekends if necessary), where the excitement is palpable, where something that might make a difference is right around the corner. Hurry, go do that.

I make a mental note of what I am working on and ask myself if I am excited. I decide I am and wonder are those I care about online also excited at the work they are doing.

I consider tweeting the post and instead go to the next email. I find a Google Alert – Shout– a link to a new environmental studies w/Smithsonian site , I tweet that. As I tweet, I glance at a tweeted post shared by @wfryer which is in the view window of my “all friends” in TweetDeck. It says, “Vimeo Video School: 800+ free tutorials – sweet for @storychasers :-) http://ow.ly/3rg96″ I bookmark it and leave the page open so I can share it with my connected learning communities that are part of  PLP. We just sent them Flip cameras and I think it might help them think through their use.

Another Google Alert for connected learning communities, a term I coined to describe the 3-pronged approach we take to community in PLP. It takes me to Kim Cofino’s blog and I read a few posts about how she is changing learning at her school. I reflect upon how she could answer Seth’s question above with excitement. You can feel the excitement in her post.

I come back to email and there is an RSS subscribed message that takes me to the PLPblog. I skim the first two posts by Lani Ritter-Hall and Alec Couros and settle in on one written by Susan Carter-Morgan entitled This Still Has Me Thinking which takes me to a Zotero group created by Wendy Drexler. After scanning the research items I ask myself two questions. 1) Why had I never heard of her research group in here before? 2) How can I join too? So I try to join the group and scan the page left to right–right to left– searching for the “join” button. I am a big fan of Zoteroso this frustrates me and I try the register button. Ugh! Now I have two loginsand accounts with Zotero- that isn’t what I wanted to do. I keep the page open thinking I will try harder later. (Realizing failure is part of the DIY learning experience- it helps me to retain what I learn by having to struggle through it. )

Back to email. A message entitled, “Serendipity” – ok, I am intrigued. I open it and it is from Wendy Darga, a PLP participant last year. She describes a short DIY PD experience of her own…

Hi Sheryl,
Hope this finds you well and ready for the holidays.  Just this afternoon, Katie and I were discussing how we should share our work with you.  I logged into the FB page to grab your email and found your all-call for what PLPeeps are working on.  As an aside, I also saw your “Rant” post last week and could not agree more!!!
Katie, Rachel, Frank, Sandy and I have been busy implementing the project we developed last year during our PLP experience in the Ontario International Cohort.  Our project was to develop a Ning for our faculty.  We are excited by our progress, our learning and the response of our staff.
The attached document reflects our thoughts about the process and our project.   We wrote it as a short article/blog post.  Please feel free to post it!Have a wonderful, restful holiday, Wendy
Wendy Darga
Hart Middle School
Rochester Community Schools

I read the attachment and think hmmm- I ought to share that out for others to read. I then argue with myself that if I am going to take the time to post I really need to be synthesizing the learning that took place at #TEDWOMEN (a learning journey I was part of recently) and I decide, no, I will honor this team and their hard work  first. I have the whole Christmas break to write about #tedwomen.Action Research

That is how we learn in the 21st Century. We teach others by transparently sharing what we are learning ourselves. That is what I am doing here and that is what Wendy has done in her letter to me. As I read her post I considered how the action research project we do as part of the professional development experience in PLP is often the first time many of the educators we work with have truly collaborated together on a self directed change initiative. It feels good to know that if someone asked Wendy and her team Seth’s question- What are you working on? Not only will they be able to answer with excitement, but in some small way I was part of the answer. And that makes all the time and energy invested in transparent learning — worth it.

Wendy’s post:

Dragging Them Kicking and Screaming?

Katie Allen, Wendy Darga, Rachel Guinn

Hart Middle School, Rochester Community Schools

Are you in charge of planning something new for your staff? Or do you desire to make some changes in your school and you are contemplating how to get everyone on board? Of course, we all understand that you cannot make everyone happy all of the time. However, when it comes to teaching and learning, aren’t we supposed to do just that? That is, educate and engage all of our students?

When our students are of the adult variety it becomes a significantly daunting task. Unless there is pressure from administration, or firmly stated requirements for an initiative, it can be down-right difficult to move the masses.

We call ourselves the Nerdy Netbookers.  We are a group of committed middle school educators who have diverse roles and experiences who have decided, through an experience with PLP, to build an online collaborative communication tool using a Ning.

The need to devise something non-threatening was a given, but we also were in need of an initiative that had that pervasive pull to encourage staff to realize the benefits of engaging in the site.  A critical aspect of the process was certainly to spend time educating and building a rationale for why this tech tool would be a sound investment of time and energy. We realized so often these “hot” trends are just that; trends.  No one in education has the time or energy to bother learning something that will become obsolete in weeks. At the end of the day, people still want to know what is in it for them, or how might this make their lives easier?  And that was certainly not our goal- we were in it for the long haul.

Our destination was professional learning; Ning was our vehicle.  We consciously prepared and planned to roll out the Ning with our “cant’s and wont’s” in mind.  We reallystruggled with and debated about how to handle those staff members who we knew would throw roadblocks in the process, that is either roadblocks that would evolve from lack of comprehension and confidence or a reaction of defiance or lack of interest.  Either way, we were bound to make certain all staff would benefit from the site because our ultimate goal was to move the entire group forward not simply using, but engaging in Web 2.0 tools.  It was a noble and desirable outcome.  We expected we would transform into building heroes for creating this experience for everyone to learn and grow collectively! Ultimately, the staff would hoist us up on their shoulders and beg us for more!

While we have not been carried around the building, we have achieved success.  Our usage stats are admirable, and we have devised a myriad of virtual experiences. People are positively engaged and implementing the Ning.  We conducted our first virtual staff meeting, plans are underway for bringing in experts for further professional development, and we have even started a social book club for interested staff.  We Nerdy Netbookers have benefited from the experience as well.

One of our biggest epiphanies was to form a 180-degree change in our thinking regarding our kickers and screamers.  We started this project committed to move 100% of our staff forward in using and understanding the power of collaborating virtually because our underlying goal was to persuade our staff to embrace the power of technology as a tool for formulating their own learning.

After three months of working with our staff and the site, we have come to the conclusion that those kickers and screamers can kick and scream all they like.  We haven’t abandoned them and we will not ignore them or leave them out of the loop, but we have decided that moving the critical masses is the most important step. Those lagging behind will have the ability to catch up, if that is what they desire, but we will not be forcibly prodding them on from behind.  To invest our limited time and energy in the small minority is a major distraction from our goal. Our capital is better spent developing the experiences that cultivate the conversation among those who wish to participate.  As this tool becomes embedded in our culture, it will become increasingly more complicated to resist. When they realize what they’re missing, we’ll welcome them with open arms.

So– What are you working on? I’d love for you to respond in the comments with the answer. Include links so I can learn with/from you.

 

Whoa. What am I working on now? How about not going insane with all of my everyday stuff? I’m working on that!

Seriously though, I have to say that the post by Wendy sounds very familiar. In our school my PLPers are thinking of working on a project that may turn out to be similar. We had a similar discussion at a meeting last week. It seems that we all have teachers that we feel need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, or even the 20th if you listen to some of my colleagues. We always seem to focus our attention on those people, rather than the people woare willing to move forward and learn new things. I agree that we need to be looking at moving the willing and creating a critical mass of people who are learning. It is like the kid walking up the teeter toter. We are still on the downhill side. As we walk up the teeter toter it will start to balance on the middle. We continue moving forward and all of a sudden boom! we are running downhill. Now we just have to do it with a whole bunch of teachers. As more and more of us climb up past the middle of the teeter toter it will eventually tip over to the other side. Then even those people who are hanging on to the opposite handle will be able to see the way down to were the rest of us are.

To my PLP colleagues, can we please focus on the people who are willing rather than those who are not? I am so tired of talking about the roadblocks and the negative energy that they create. Let’s focus on the positive. Invite those that are willing to join us and have some fun! The more fun, the more people will join us. Don’t join the dark side, shine in the light!

Those are my thoughts way to early on a Sunday morning six days before Christmas.

Mr. Dale

October 25

Squid Eye and Fierce Conversations

I am currently working on a leadership course within my school division and we have been reading the book Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott. Here is what I have added to our discussion on Squid Eye and Fierce Conversations.

Ok, I need to have a fierce conversation with everyone, because I think we are missing the point on squid eye a bit here. These everyday activities that we are discussing as using and exercising our squid eye are really the things we do to be “good teachers”. Is this squid eye? I don’t think so. Detecting when one of my students is misbehaving or not acting truthfully does not get to the point of squid eye for me. Squid eye is about the bigger things; the things that exist without our even thinking about them or questioning them. These are things that are so ingrained in our lives that we take them for granted. They surround us in the culture of the workplace, the home, and the society without us noticing them. They are the walls that hold us in our boxes without us realizing they are there. (Wow, this is getting existential!)

Let me give you an example of using squid eye on our own profession. How do you teach someone to read? Some time ago we used basal readers. With this method about 70% of people learned how to read and 30% did not. As teachers we thought that wasn’t good enough and we came up with another way; phonics. Guess what happened. About 70% of people learned how to read and 30% did not. Ok then what to try next…. how about whole language. This time only about 60% of people learned how to read and 40% did not. So what did we do then as a profession? Did we do some scientific studies to determine how best to teach children (or adults) to read? No we did not. We sort of mashed up the three less than successful methods we have been using for the last 50 years and said to individual teachers, hey you figure it out.

Meanwhile in another profession, namely Linguistics, linguists were studying how people actually learned how to read. They punctured the myths of reading as set out by the teaching profession and proceeded to develop a system of instruction that works for between 85% to 95% of learners depending on the published scientific studies! They call the system Phonemic Awareness and it not only can teach more people to read than we ever could, it can also teach them to spell more accurately. Why is it  we don’t teach our reading teachers how to used this method?

That is Squid Eye. We say we want Kids to learn to read and yet we do not use the only scientifically studied method developed to do the job. Instead we stick with the old and familiar. Identifying this contradiction is Squid Eye. Talking about it is a Fierce Conversation.

Dealing with the everyday issues that confront us when dealing with administrators, parents, students, and colleagues may indeed be using some level of Squid Eye but I think of these things as setting off my B.S. detector. Many people notice these things as they happen around us, Squid Eye is for those things that most people don’t notice. Once you have detected the “Big Thing” with Squid Eye, then you have to have the Fierce Conversation because most others won’t agree with you. You will have to convince them that there is a “Big Thing” that needs to be addressed.

Thanks, I feel better having gotten that off my chest. I hope I haven’t confronted anyone too strongly and feel free to push back. This is, after all, a Fierce Conversation.

October 8

Whoa, there is a whole lot of stuff out there

So, I have started following 4 0r 5 people who are talking about the use of social media and technology in schools and I am already overwhelmed. I could spend my entire day just reading about the ideas people are presenting and writing about. I haven’t even gotten to the commenting and writing myself. This could be a full time job in itself! I am going to have to set some personal guide lines around how much time I spend on a daily basis reading and commenting so that my students (you know, those people I actually work for) get to have their work marked and the odd prepared lesson!

October 1

RSS

I’ve just signed myself up for some RSS feeds. I have experimented with Google reader and it seems great, but when am I going to get time to read all these important things that all these people are writing? I already don’t have enough time in the day so when do I do this?