Blogush

Last week I started to get involved in the “Day-in-a-Sentence” post over at Kevin’s Meandering Mind. This week he challenged everyone to use a comic to represent their “day-in-a-sentence.” Mine ended up focusing not on a entire day, but about a two minute period of time that kind of overshadowed everything else I did. Click on the comic to enlarge and read.

There is always someone in my local peanut gallery that brings up the fact that maybe we should not attempt to prepare everyone to be a scientist, historian, entrepreneur, or computer guru.  “You know, some kids are just going to grow up and be stuck working in a video game store.”  Hmmm… My daughter was using the computer today to research what she should buy with her Game Stop gift certificate and I noticed there was an opening for a manger at one of the stores.  Am I preparing my kids to work at a video store as well as find a cure for cancer?  I think so.

Essential Job Skills/Abilities for Game Stop Manager(partial list)

• Ability to work alone and move throughout store unassisted, for extended periods of time (up to 12 hours per day).
• Possess strong customer service skills, including clear verbal and written communication skills.
• Possess basic mathematical skills, alphabetical skills, and working knowledge of computerized cash register and POS system.
• Ability to read and interpret documents.
• Exhibit team building and team leadership qualities. Ability to work in a fast-paced, rapidly changing, diverse work environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.
• Ability to meet individual sales, shrink, and special program goals.

I have been working on a grant (still in rough draft form) to make my class a 1:1 laptop room(due this week!). I am really questioning some of my writing, and especially my choice of laptops(at this point Macbooks). They would be used for blogging, podcasting, working our our wiki, streaming video, video conferencing, making movies, that sort of stuff. I have a few questions that I am hoping someone could help me with. Some might overlap.

If you had $16,000 and twenty-five kids what kind of laptops would you buy?

Buy “bigger” laptops and make the class a 1:2, or buy smaller ones(Asus or Mini Note) and make the class a 1:1?

Buy or lease?

Get more laptops with the basic warranty, or buy fewer and buy the extended warranty?

Thank you so much for any opinions and help!

Did you know that Ethiopian imports to the United States have risen by 100% this year to over $8 million?

I just found a charge for $1900 on my credit card for plane tickets on Ethiopian Airlines.  Yes they do exist — a huge 32 plane fleet.  I had to call the credit card company and felt a bit funny because my wife is not home and was unable to ask her about it.  I hope she was not planning on running away to Ethiopia.  The agent did ask me if I was sure…well I am not positive.  Maybe it was my kids.

The most valuable thing I do each year is to have my kids fill out an evaluation on me (actually 1st at the mid-point, and once at the end of the year).  The results have been amazing.  In order for it to be most effective your kids have to trust that you will listen to them.  I feel like repeating that sentence again but I won’t.  I reflected on my evaluation for last year on one of my crazy podcasts last year(the one in which I almost get hit by the dumptruck). It includes the evolution of my evaluation and how it is introduced, collected, etc.  I have included it below, the formatting will be screwed up but you can get the gist of what I ask.  Next to each question is a box for them to check off.  The choices are Excellent, Very Good, Good, Average, Fair, Miserable.  There is a link at the bottom to the actual form.

Name(optional – you might want to wait until the end to decide : ))______

Class_________________

In one word describe the teacher______________________________

In one word describe the class________________________________

1  Teacher created an environment that was positive 2  Teacher created an environment safe for risk taking 3  Teacher created an environment that allowed for personal initiative 4  Teacher created an environment that allowed success for all students 5  Teacher created an environment that led to meaningful discussion 6  Teacher created an environment for independent student growth 7  Teacher created an environment with appropriate structure 8  Teacher created an environment that motivated me 9  Teacher gave students the attention they needed 10 Teacher’s ability to respect individual student needs 11 Teacher’s ability to respond to student’s questions 12 Teacher’s knowledge of the subject 13 Teacher’s enthusiasm 14 Teacher’s preparation for class 15 Teacher’s relationship with class 16 Teacher appeared honestly interested in helping students 17 Teacher’s ability to listen 18 Teacher’s ability to keep class interesting 19 Teacher graded assignments fairly

Below, PLEASE write down any comments you have concerning the above statements.  Especially any comment below average.

Use the space on the back of this paper to freely express your feelings about the course and teacher.  Please be as detailed and specific as you would like but do limit your words to what is truthful, respectful, and most of all useful to future students.  Minimum number of words is thirty-five, maximum is 1000.  You can write freely, or use the above chart as a guide.  This is the most valuable part of the evaluation and I cannot stress enough how carefully your words will be read and listened to! This is your chance to make a change for future students.  All I ask is that you be honest.

evaluation07.doc

For the second time in my career…I think I might have stopped believing in a kid.  Stopped believing that I can make a difference, stopped believing that at any moment he might turn it around, stopped believing that even though I haven’t gotten through to him, someday, someone will.  26 days left.  I almost made it.  When it comes right down to it, I haven’t just stopped believing in him–I have given up…and that sucks.

How many classes, or what percentage, utilize 2.0 tools in their classroom everyday, or as needed, as part of the fabric of the class and not an add-on for a special project. Here is a neat video called “We Think” I found from Bonnie K’s blog:

I do.  Even when they haven’t contributed in two weeks.  Even when they are a pain in my butt.  Even when they are rude.  Even when they tell you that they don’t care.  Everyone tries their best.  Maybe their best is not what you expect, but it is the best they can do in that moment.  Sorry…I am just getting tired of listening to people complain about their kids not working to their potential, or being bored, or not listening, or not remembering something, or failing, or (fill in blank).  There have been sooooo many days in the last year that I came in and did not do a perfect job as a teacher.  There are days I would have given myself a “B” and days when I would have given me an “F.”  But no one did.  I could come in and cruise through a day without any one questioning me, checking my lesson plans, or grading me when I was down.   Even on the days I would have gotten an “F” I was doing my best under the circumstances.  Instead I am known for my “A” days.  Everyone seems to ignore the “F” days.  But when a kid has a crappy week there goes 10% of their grade for the quarter.  I have a crappy month and there is still the same amount in my paycheck each week.  I don’t know…think I am starting to whine, starting to ramble…what’s going on with these last two posts…someone finish this post for me…

Everything that my students have done this year has been for an audience somewhere in the United States. How cool is that! But the last project we did left me a little intimidated. I had one class that wrote songs about the Oregon Trail and recorded them. It wasn’t our culminating project for the unit but something they did as they were doing some initial research about the trail-the songs were basically serving as their notes. The writing ended up being rushed, the recording ended up being rushed, getting 25 kids who fear talking in class to believe they can sing a song was so tough, but we managed to finish it in the last minutes before vacation. It was a very tough for this particular class. I was supposed to put the Mp3s onto a CD and ship them off to an elementary school. After listening to them I realized that we should have taken more time with the writing, the recording, song selection, I could have done a better job, we had problems I never saw coming, etc…. I wanted to put them on our site but was worried that a person listening to them would…well…think a little less of us since the songs were…well…a bit sloppy. The problem is, if these songs weren’t suppose to go to the other class I would have been extremely proud of this class. This was really difficult for them – and did you ever try to get a group of 8th graders to write and sing songs and then record them live? Yikes…talk about intimidated. So I started to write a post about how sometimes I am worried that people who look around the web and see all these fantastic multi-school collaborative projects that are just incredible, would just throw a passing glance at my kids work because side-by-side without knowing their background it’s not as impressive…and I hate to say it…but I wonder if I am not worried about their reputation, but mine. Then I started thinking about all the other content teachers at just your average little school that are in the same boat–or all the teachers in those schools that are just thinking about starting and looking for schools to partner with. How do you compete with these college prep school tech classes?(I know…don’t take me literally) I decided one of my goals next year would be to invite a class to collaborate with us that has never done anything on line and might be a little intimidated about starting. So I started writing a post and I ended up rhyming the first four lines by accident which turned into a crazy out-of-control poem. So here it is in all its glory. I don’t know if it makes my point, and I know I leave myself open for criticism with a couple of lines. But what the heck-let’s rock on.
**In order for the last line to make sense you have to know that our class’ nickname is Collaboration Nation.**

When you see my student’s work
On our blogs or on our wiki,
Do you see the students home life,
Do you see their IEPs.

Do you see past their mistakes
Or the pressures of their neighborhood,
Do you even realize
That their three sentence paragraphs should be considered very good.

I worry that when people see some of my kids stuff online,
They will compare us to other schools,
All that work from prep private schools
And full time tech classes is pretty cool.

Can you see through their off key singing,
And their stuttering podcasts,
That they have showed the world,
That learning can be a blast.

They have exceeded my expectations
Using podcasts, blogs, and wikis,
They have established a world-wide audience
from Australia to Missouri.

But some days I really do hesitate
to send out what they create
I wonder if people on the receiving end
Will only focus on their shortcomings…and forget what they did is really great.

I am very proud of what they accomplished,
They worked darn hard all through this year.
They sent their work across the country,
And overcame many of their fears.

And so when you see student work online
And you think it really sucks
Often times those are kids coming from places
That don’t get all the breaks and have all the luck.

I guess this lousy poem
Is just a way for me to whine and vent,
A reminder that even though we focus on the biggest and brightest of the 2.0 classrooms,
We shouldn’t forget to write about and invite into our classrooms all the rest.

So if you are reading this and thinking
About starting a path in 2.0 collaboration
Please don’t feel intimidated
Give us a ring, because you are always welcome, in Collaboration Nation.

The one person who is responsible for 50% of who I am as a teacher, someone I consider a dear mentor, a colleague to whom I go to with the tough questions that I can’t answer did something to me yesterday. He had the nerve to ask me for advice. Now I no longer know my role in this relationship, and I was so intimidated to give him an answer. Life was easier when he had all the answers and I had all the questions.

If you are comfortable…I am curious if you consider yourself a mentor, a mentee, or just hanging around in bewtween. Can you be a mentor without a mentee? Is mentee a word? Are most mentors blind to the fact that they are mentors? I think I want to be a mentor when I grow up.