To err is human!

I have students in some of my courses blog and find it a great reflective tool for them - we both learn a lot. Saying that, I am not very good at blogging myself. I started strong when this blog was created for a course in my doctoral program, but have certainly not been consistent. I will post more about the blogging assignment in a later post though. I often find ideas I have had have been expressed so well by others, or some other reason, usually procrastination, keeps me from posting. I hope to change that a bit, this particular post I was going to write about one year ago. At the end of last May, ManACE (Manitoba Association for Computing Educators - a group of educators I belong to) held our annual general meeting. To add a twist we had a number of people present short narratives of times in our careers that we screwed up (read: f***ed up) and what we learned as a result. I was one of those presenters and I thought I would share that story here.

So this story goes way back, back to my first student teaching experience. I have learned a lot in my long career as an educator. If I retire when I hope to, it will be 43 years in classrooms, including grades K to 12 and post-secondary. 

35 mm film projector
Photo by Noom Peerapong on Unsplash

This lesson came early in my career, and was an important one for a not yet certified teacher. This took place in my first student teaching session, in November of 1977  (yes, 1977 - Star Wars: A New Hope Came to theatres, the Apple II just came out, the Concorde flew its first commercial flight, the space shuttle had its first test flight, Voyagers 1 and 2 launched, and Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister) this was a lesson I learned early that carried throughout my career. I was young - 22 years old - and pretty shy, introverted, and lacking self-confidence.

 I just finished my first term of teacher education, at that time a 1-year program, I knew how to use a 35 mm film projector and how to use an overhead projector - properly! I planned my lessons carefully, so I was set, or so I thought.

Time came for my first-ever lesson, it was grade 11 chemistry, and it went …  badly.  I was nervous beyond belief and totally f***** up, I was very embarrassed and disappointed with myself, so much so that I was ready to quit then and there.

Luckily, I had a great, caring, cooperating teacher.  He took me aside and settled me down. He offered support and encouragement, with a touch of firmness, and gave me some great advice. Don't be afraid to apologize and admit you screwed up, learn and grow from your mistakes. So I did just that. The next day, I talked to the class and apologized to my students, explaining my nervousness and suggested we just start again. The kids were very accepting, and they too were very supportive - another life lesson, ‘kids’ (teenagers) are generally great people if you treat them with respect. I restarted my lesson, which I had spent a lot of time planning with great demonstrations and so on, this time it went pretty well and I never looked back for the rest of that placement.

 So, the lessons learned:

 The main one is that teachers are human, we all make mistakes and screw up, it is important to realize this. We make the point often to our students, that we learn from mistakes and that is how we grow and learn. We try to get that message across to students, so we also need to learn to own up to our own mistakes, use them to model that it happens to everyone and it is okay to be vulnerable and admit those errors to our students, no matter their age.

 This experience also illustrates (as a teacher educator it is even more clear) the power of being a good mentor to students and beginning teachers. Without the support and guidance of that cooperating teacher long ago, I might have quit the profession and I believe that I have had a positive impact on many students as a classroom teacher, coach, school administrator, and now, as a teacher educator. So if we show patience and offer support our students may just stay on the path that makes the world a better place. 

Of course, as mentioned, over 42+ years I have made many mistakes. I have learned a lot and I've grown a lot - as a professional and as person. This lesson occurred early in my career and it's something I never forgotten. In future posts I will try to share some of the other things I have learned over my career. 

Teaching about Teaching Science

Our moon - photo by ME!

Way back, my first degree was in science - I then taught science in grades 8-12 for many years. Over time, my main interest turned to educational technology and I moved on in my career. As my role changed to administration and then into teacher education, my interest (passion?) for science faded, but was always in the background. A few events in the past few years and some reminiscing brought my interest in science back to the forefront. This past term I taught a Science Methods course. While I admit I was a bit rusty on some details, it was enjoyable. I concentrated on teaching process - inquiry, design - I have witnessed too many science courses taught as 'read the chapter and answer questions' - that is not science. When I return from sabbatical I will be moving into teaching science methods (as well as my main area of ed tech) - while I have some work to do to get back up to speed and planning my program, I am looking forward to the challenge with excitement. During my sabbatical I will do some gathering of resources and planning for this new adventure.

Video in the Classroom (part 1?)

On Thursday, Nov 28, I attended an event put on by Andy McKiel (@amckiel) and Dean Shareski (@shareski) in Winnipeg. I used the occasion to attend to have a bit of fun and to also visit a few friends and my advisor. I have made much use of video in my previous career as a high school teacher, I co-designed and co-taught a course on video production and was involved in an amazing project that involved all of our grade 12 students in writing, acting, producing and premiering (to the entire community) a movie. This was one among other projects that helped my school earn mention in Maclean's and on the Apple web site. I think I will describe the project in another part to this post sometime. I also have and continue to use video in many forms in my teaching. I believe it to be a powerful medium to tell a story or share learning, addressing many of the senses & our emotions.

Dean and Andy's evening was an enjoyable evening & an interesting, interactive presentation that got the audience involved - not to mention the cool ('er warm) Discovery Ed toque I was given. I had a few reasons to attend - first and foremost was the company of fellow educators. I make a conscious effort to maintain connections with educators involved in public schools (and in ed tech). I don't want to become one of those dreaded teacher educators who is out of touch with schools. The session was also timely in that I only just finished a section of my ICT in Education course about digital storytelling - and using video in particular. It was fun to think about how I might use the videos if I was still teaching high school vs how I would (will) use them in my teaching now. The format of the evening was also an idea I will probably borrow. The videos were presented in pairs representing a theme, such as 'courage'. We then used polleverywhere to vote on which we would be able to use in our classroom. At the end, we picked our top three vids. In between much great discussion was had. One of the top 3 (I think it was number 1 overall) was 'The Time We Have' embedded below.Overall an enjoyable evening. The vids Andy & Dean chose are on this google doc: http://shareski.ca/y/3fg . On my google site I use to support my courses, I have this page of resources related to video.

SHARE(ski) Lives Up to His Name

For the past few years, I have been working to develop my course titled Internet for Educators. This is an optional course for students in their final term of an after degree B.Ed. degree. My goal is to create an engaging, up-to-date course based on constructivist principles. Shortly after I began my work in the faculty of education at BU three and a half years ago, I became acquainted with the work of Alec Couros and Dean Shareski at the University of Regina, about a 4-hour drive west of Brandon. Since that time I am pleased to count these two educators as friends. They have jokingly called themselves “lazy professors”, since they often had various educators present to their classes. I have since “borrowed” this approach. For the past few years I have been fortunate to enlist several excellent educators to present their insights and experiences to my students (this post talks about the speakers who helped out last year). The students keep a blog in which they make sense of the presentation topic and how it would apply to their own teaching and learning. This has proven to be very successful, as evidenced by the reflective thinking of the students as they explore these ideas.

This term my 1st guest was none other than Dean Shareski from Moose Jaw, SK. Dean is known far and wide for his views on sharing as an important part of teaching. Dean spoke to my class (and to a colleague’s class who joined us) via Skype. He presented his ideas about sharing and transparency and how it can benefit not just the individual, but others as well. He provided many examples to illustrate. Dean certainly lived up to his credo, giving up over an hour of his time to share his ideas with student teachers from another Province. It was gratifying to see the effect this talk had on my students. Not only did they speak and write glowingly of the presentation, many have taken Dean’s advice and have been working to increase their online presence in order to share their own work.

I personally try to actively promote and model the same attributes. When others, like Dean any other guests I have lined up to present, are so willing to share their expertise, it can only help to promote this culture of openness, respect, and sharing. If you have not heard Dean speak about his passion, I would suggest you watch the video of his K to 12 online conference keynote below.

Better late than never? Has education entered the 21st Century?

by Mike Nantais & Jackie Kirk ( originally posted on ICTology, imported in September/15)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcleod/3053321118/

How long will we talk about preparing students for the 21st Century? The 21st century is a decade old. There has been much written about 21st century skills, 21st century learning and 21st century standards but we are coasting into the last few months of 2010. Has education entered the modern age? The unfortunate truth is, however, that for the most part, we have not. We all too often rely on standardized testing and outdated modes of teaching. Thankfully there are growing pockets of change and innovation, yet it seems that clinging to tradition is the norm. We are not just talking about using 'traditional' methods, like lecture or ‘drill and kill’, indeed, a good lecture has value - one just needs to watch some TED talks to see that. Still, this should not be the main method of teaching - we should be using methods of inquiry, problem based learning, critical reflection and collaboration, among others.

Digital technology offers many opportunities to change existing pedagogy. It also has some limitations and risks,  however, a critical and knowledgeable educator can mitigate those risks by choosing what, how and when to use technology to enhance learning. We must be vigilant in promoting and modeling these strategies.

Technology is all around us. Students walk in to our classrooms with laptops and cell phones that offer incredible possibilities. We, as teachers, need to set aside our fears and tap into the opportunities that are inherent in the multitude of devices that are carried in their pockets and knapsacks. It’s time to see past the “no cell phone” policy to a classroom where learning is enhanced through the purposeful engagement of personal technologies and where web resources are available to individual students to access during all parts of our lessons. We must continue to pressure school officials to look forward - to allow the use of the technologies and the Internet and to educate students about their appropriate and ethical use - not hide in the sand and hope it all goes away ... because it is not going to go away.

Week #9: Education as Commodity & Other Things

First off, this is the link to my presentation tonight on Anderson's "Towards a Theory of Online Learning": Click here!

I am swamped in marking, so this will be brief!

First off, I want to explore the idea of theory, which was touched on in the chapter I presented. Educational theorizing is often frowned upon by teachers (I know, I was/am one) as not grounded in the reality of the classroom. I agree with Anderson, however, that good theory allows us to think about the big picture and use the ideas to reflect on our own practice. On the other hand, as Anderson pointed out, a theory can also blind us if we subscribe to one ‘pet’ view without question. Going back to the previous weeks presentations/articles, although I did not necessarily subscribe to the views given, I think it is still important to listen to and consider alternate theories and ideas. For example, take the The Computer Delusion by Oppenheimer. While I do believe that technology can offer much to improve education, his anecdotes (although it is interesting how he uses these stories to support his view, yet decries them as poor research earlier in the article) illustrate how NOT to use computers in the classroom. Likewise, Kirschner’s article argues that discovery learning is not advisable. Although I do not think his description of inquiry learning is the model promoted for classroom use, it does remind us of the importance of scaffolding- or guidance - in teaching, all elements of good practice. I guess my point is that arguments that prompt us to question and consider our practice critically are important to our growth as educators. Learning and teaching are messy, they are not easily reduced to theory since they are human endeavors, and humans vary, what works in one situation may not in another. Theory gives us a starting point, ideas to consider and test in the reality of our practice.

Before I move on to my next topic, I recently was watching a few video episodes of Search Engine (from TVO) with Jesse Brown. Take a look at the episodes called “The Luddite” (just funny!), and the ones about saving newspapers (related to Ben’s post a while back about changing media) and about the Internet making us dumber. The videos are funny, but make some good points for consideration.

Now, to finish, I will turn to the some of the ideas Ben presented about the move to education as commodity in the move to corporate globalization. This idea, in particular, was of interest. There has been a distinct trend, especially in the U.S. towards treating education as a business. In some cases, there is a call to have Business Administrators run schools so they are efficient producers. Students are treated like products, throw out the bad ones, churn out good little future workers. We want them to think, but not too much, after all, they might question the status quo! I do not disagree that one of the jobs of a school is to prepare students to become meaningfully employed and enjoy a good standard of living, however, many of the jobs today’s students will enjoy do not exist. There are many other reasons for education as well, like the ability to think creatively and critically, to be ethical, good citizens, to respect other people and viewpoints, to appreciate other ways of thinking and the list goes on. Many of these skills would also be important for employment, but life is more than a job. (As an aside, I came across this wiki recently where the topic of what education is for, is discussed – interesting and something I think all teachers need to think about – why are we doing what we do, teaching what we teach?). Increasingly we see the influence of business, the call for ‘accountability’ – while not a bad thing, is always based on standards set by organizations with a heavy corporate influence and tested by an external, standardized test, that more often than not reduces learning to rote procedures and knowledge. Now corporations might not all be evil, no doubt some wonderful people head up corporations, but their main goal is profit – sometimes at the expense of people and the environment – thus, we need to resist the corporatization of schools – or at least bend them to our will! On that note … I will close up my Apple computer (one of many Apple products, I own), go see if my Toyota is still in one piece and… ) enough of a rant for now and so much for brief!