Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Month: October 2008

  • Carnival of Education

    My inbox has been very active of late, with submissions to this week’s Carnival of Education.

    Carnival at Annandale, Virginia made available on flickr via a CC license. Click on image to view source.
    Carnival at Annandale, Virginia made available on flickr via a CC license. Click on image to view source.

    As carnival host, I have control of the content and form of this week’s post and so I have made the decision to leave out the numerous postings I read that are either trying to sell a product/service that I felt did not have to do with education, or are providing a service that rubs me the wrong way, such as the selling of term papers ;)

    So…without further ado… except to point out that the posts are organized solely by order of reception…

    Let’s do this thing!

    — Andrew Bernardin writes about the need for scientific validity:
    Why Tests Are Essential posted at the evolving mind.

    — Rachel Rambach sings us a social story/song she wrote for one of her students:
    Marissa’s Guitar posted at Listen and Learn. She even offers to send you a copy of the story if you contact her. Great stuff!

    — Bogusia Gierus writes about the importance of not giving up as well as the lessons we learn as teachers:
    Dealing With Frustration – The Spaghetti and Marshmallow Towers posted at Nucleus Learning.

    — Scott McLeod raises my teacher’s blood pressure a touch by asking:
    Can a computer lecture better than a human? posted at Dangerously Irrelevant. There are many dimensions to this question, go take a look!

    — Lorri begins her post with this quote that echoes my own concern for the future:

    It scares me to know that I will be raising a family in a society were gangs are so prevalent and out of control. Knowing the influence that gangs have on teens and the violence, drugs and general lack of respect they have for society scares me to death. -Bree

    Dear Mr. President: American students write to our future president about what concerns them posted at the New York City Education Examiner

    — Denise offers a boatload of free math teaching resources:
    More Free Math Resources posted at Let’s Play Math!. As a first time math teacher (I usually teach English, History, and Ethics) I’ve subscribed to the site!

    — Amy Smith writes about a topic that is dear to my own heart:
    Emotional Intelligence posted at Kids Love Learning.

    — Skyler Reep tackles an interesting question when he asks whether self-directed ongoing learning will trump degree programs in the future:
    Take Control of Your Continuing Education posted at Skyler Reep’s Blog.

    — Andrea is in the thick of marking exams, but still managed to make me giggle by sharing some of the student responses, such as

    Steps in planting roses:
    … add compost, manure or soil condiments (amendments)
    … apply orgasmic mulch (organic)

    Moldy bagels posted at Andrea’s Buzzing About:.

    — Steve Spangler shares a video and a post about a special science teacher and his class:
    Don Cameron is Mad About Science posted at Steve Spangler’s Blog.

    — OKP has an existential crisis and asks, What do you think is the purpose of high school?
    Existential Crisis #1 posted at Line 46.

    — Matthew Ladner exposes something previously unknown to me – the benefits of illegal private schooling in India, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya:
    Black Market Private Schooling in the Third World posted at Jay P. Greene’s Blog. Makes me want to think of alternatives to some of our own public school crises and reminds me that it needs to take a village, not a commission or board, to raise a child.

    — Money Answer Guy asks a question I’m sure is on the mind of some parents:
    Should You Pay for Your Children’s College? posted at The Money Answer Guy.

    — Trisha Wagner also asks a parenting question, this time directed to work at home mothers:
    WAHM?s- Are your kids in daycare or at home? posted at Empowering Mom

    — As I sit here, sick at home, I run through Pat’s list of how she prepares for a substitute and compare it to mine:
    Preparing for a Substitute posted at Successful Teaching.

    — tweenteacher writes about anti-semitism in schools:
    ?Hit a Jew? Day – Oh joy. posted at tweenteacher.com.

    — Dereck and I are both INFPs. What the heck does that mean? Find out by reading his post:
    Your Comprehensive Guide to the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) Personality Test posted at I Will Not Die.

    — Americans may be interested in what Laura Varlas writes concerning who will be the next to lead the US Department of Education:
    ASCD Inservice: America’s Next Top Ed. Sec.: Sebelius? posted at ASCD Inservice.

    — Steph W. compares the process of learning how to ride a horse to the scaffolding process he goes through as a homeschooling parent:
    Horseback Riding and Writing posted at The Life Without School Community Blog.

    — I love that Carol Richtsmeier writes about the things you should never learn to do so you won’t have to do them! I never learned how to work those diaper things. You see, my nephew’s visit last summer coincided with a nasty tummy problem…
    Scanners, Mowing Lawns & Things You Just Shouldn’t Learn How To Do posted at Bellringers.

    — Oldandrew writes about the “Special Needs Racket” and student responsibility:
    The Blameless. Part 3: The Afflicted posted at Scenes From The Battleground.

    — Nancy Flanagan writes, ‘We all lose when kids perceive politics and voting as dirty and dangerous’ in this commentary on children’s perception of the voting process:
    One Vote Samba posted at Teacher in a Strange Land.

    — Matthew Needleman reviews the K12 Online conference and is ‘…in awe of the thinking, planning, and creating that has gone into creating the K12 Online presentations’:
    K12 Online: Week One Review posted at Creating Lifelong Learners.

  • Golden shovels and crayons

    Look at the beautiful shovel!
    Look at the beautiful shovel!

    Have I ever mentioned how much I love Michael Doyle? His science class must be one of the funnest places to be for a student.

    I’ve been writing forever on my wariness of technology as the golden egg, about how digital literacy is but a means to an end, not the doorway to a utopic state of education.

    And Michael sums it all up better than I ever have.

    Here you go, from The Cost of Tools by Michael Doyle.

    I love toolboxes, I have several in my basement. If you want to make me happy, buy me a toolbox for my birthday, loaded with tools.

    If you want to disappoint me, however, buy me a gold-plated heavy duty shovel and expect me to use it on my next project, no matter what that project is.

    and….

    The best teachers I know can squeeze their lessons into just about any new technology thrown down from on high. The best teachers I know can teach the same lessons just as well using a crayon on the back of a paper towel.

  • Reporting out and Following up

    I slept a lot yesterday. We shut down our section of the school where I work because 3 of the 4 teachers are sick (including me) as well as a number of the students. I had planned to spend the day correcting at home, but I’m one of the sickies and ended up spending most of the day asleep. Just being. Not a bad thing.


    Its good to just be sometimes. Image posted by me on flickr. Click it to view source.
    It's good to just be sometimes. Image posted by me on flickr. Click it to view source.


    But now I’m up early, so I have time to think while I post about some things I’ve been meaning to post about and follow up on some others.

    Blogher Boston

    Last Friday I got in my little car after work and sped drove down the 132, then the 30, then the 15, I-97, 11, 2, 78, I-89, I-93, I-95…. to Burlington, Massachusetts, 20 minutes away from Boston. I arrived at 10 to a big comfy bed, room service, and a remote control. Nice. (I have no tv at home, so it was a treat :) )

    I had no idea what to expect from BlogHer Boston as I walked into the conference hall the following morning. A few months ago I had signed up for it, thinking it would be nice to connect with other bloggers. I had a great day. For real. It was hot.

    Unfortunately the Internet connection was slightly wonky at the hotel, very slow. So instead of using Dabbleboard, my latest favourite note-taking tool, or live-blogging, I used labyrinth, a mind-mapping software that I have on my computer, to take notes during the day. (This is unfortunate because, since then, I have both upgraded my system to ubuntu 8.10 (beta) and reinstalled 8.04 (the beta is still buggy, big-time). Before re-installing I archived my home folder and saved it on the LG pen/memory stick/lazer pointer I got at the conference. All good, right? The unfortunate part is that the ‘create archive’ function seems to be one of the buggy features. It won’t open. Hence – all is lost.) Luckily my mind is still somewhat intact, so here are my personal memories of the day:

    1 – Great food and stuff – I ate like un puerco, un porc, a pig. And I got all kinds of fun stuff – comfy slippers from Shine,  a retractable mouse from LG,  baby thermometers from Playtex, chocolate from Megan at A Girl Must Shop… and more…

    2 – Hanging out with Liz Henry in the morning and trying to crack the problem code in my blog. I’m going to quote her since she already wrote about it and I’m starting to feel lazy,

    Hacked with leadingfromtheheart.org a long time on her wordpress recent posts plugin. We modified the plugin code that she’d already modified. We broke it, she re-installed it, then we ignored the plugin and went for fixing the styles of the stuff that the plugin spits out:

    li, h3, ul, and a

    . The mysterious space before the recent posts turned out to be a top margin on

    h3

    that was 3em, not 3px. Whoops! I showed her how, if you view source on someone else’s blog, you can search on “css” and find the link to their style sheet, and then paste it into the address bar to see their whole style sheet in the browser. So, for example, I used my spying skills to find her stylesheet: https://leadingfromtheheart.org/wp-content/themes/unstandard/style.css . Anyway, she’s a good hacker and has an amazing, amazing blog about teaching high school. Give it a read.

    It was so much fun to take some time to just examine code with someone else. Something I’d like to do more of.


    3- Attending some great sessions around making the most of our blogs, being part of a community of women who blog, and dealing with information overload. Beth Kanter’s talk on the last subject was fantastic. I wish I had my notes, but luckily she created a wiki-page … so go to it –> Managing Information Overload and Building Your Blog Community. The slide-show is great.


    4 – Meeting some fabulous people. Lizbdavis and JessieNYC were the only two edubloggers I met at the shindig. They rock. Jessie blogs with her students at university as well as for Racism Review and Liz blogs at The Power of Educational Technology. Sherrypardy is another hot blogger I met in Boston. She writes at SherryPardy.com as well as for a living, and she also happens to be the mother of 3-year old twins named Sara and Max. I happen to be the aunt of 2-year old twins named….Sarah and Max! I met many inspirational people throughout the day, though these three, along with Liz Henry, are sticking in my mind past the event.


    5 – The closing session. The day was such a rich exploration of community and conversation. I was quite disappointed to discover that there was no formal closure. The final session was an information session, not a community closure. The fact that it was a full community session, with no other option beside leaving, took away from the value it had as a session as well as from the day. We had begun the day by starting conversations (we had taken about 30 minutes to line up 2-by-2 and introduce each other for 2 minutes, then move on down the line), a meaningful end of the day could have been to put some closure to the conversations that had occurred during the day in a way that set up how to continue them in the future.

    6 – The reception! Luckily, I was able to do that a little bit for myself at the reception. Even more fabulous food and an open bar! I plopped myself down at a small table with a mountain of different cheeses and a glass or two of red wine and chatted with Sherry, Liz D., Liz H., and a few other people. I gleaned some stickers from the stack Liz H. pulled out of her bag and was teased by Liz D. about being Canadeean and using google.ca ;)

    School Research

    Some of you know I began the PhD program in educational technology at Concordia University in January of 08. I’ve got a long way to go before completing, however am starting to think about my research focus and will be submitting a proposal in the near future. My thoughts have been cloudy around this. I knew I wanted to explore learning in a systemic way – organizational learning, group learning, individual learning, and I know I want to look at what works already. There is so much reinventing the wheel in education and I definitely don’t want to do that. But I haven’t sat down and put it into words yet. Until this morning, when I read Jan Smith‘s post Leap and the Net will Appear

    .

    I have decided my action research question will focus on the circumstances and beliefs that lead to student engagement in learning. I really want to use blogging or digital storytelling as the lens through which to explore engagement. I also want to build my own skills in integrating technology so I can help my colleagues do the same.

    And that led me to formulate a comment that rings true to my own passion about learning.

    Your research focus is interesting. I plan on looking at something similar on a systemic level. (I’m a PhD student in educational technology) I’m interested in the circumstances and beliefs that lead to engagement in learning on an organizational level as well as in the classroom, and how each impact the other. And you know what? This is the first time I’ve been able to concisely put into words what I want to research. Thanks!

    In other words – how does organizational learning/action impact teacher and student and how does teacher and student learning/action impact the organization? And this can be extended to the outer areas of the system as well –> school board, government… Obviously still needs to be pounded out some, but I have a start.

    Following Up

    My friend Jenn, from How do you still love teaching? has begun her own blog, Jennyjukebox, and in reading her posts I remember that it is not just because she is in her first few years as a teacher that teaching is hard. It is difficult and exhausting always because we do difficult, exhausting work with children.

    I’m also realizing that, even though I’ve been teaching for about 12 years, it’s my first time in this particular program, with this team of teachers and with this group of kids. It’s a steep learning curve and it can be exhausting. On top of striving for excellence with these kids I’m also teaching new courses and getting used to a new school culture – it’s a lot of work! (my comment to her post Recharged).

    It is the most meaningful work I can think of doing (for me – not the most meaningful for everyone). It my soul purpose.

    I took my Jewish holidays, and will be making up the time on the weekend by attending different school events. I still do not feel comfortable with how the school board is dealing with religious observance. Though feel less queasy having found out that none of the holidays are paid days for anyone. The school board does, however, organize the 200 working days for teachers around the Christian holidays. Only non-Christians have to come in on the weekend or do extra work after school or emergency substitution to ‘pay’ for their holidays. Our collective agreement is up for renegotiation in 2 years. If I am still with this school board I will definitely be making my voice heard on this matter. To be honest, the school board’s track record with dealing with individual needs (not only mine in this case) makes me question whether I will still be there, but that is another post.

    I’ve re-designed tracyrosen.com a bit. I’m liking this new design much better than the old one. It uses the DePo Clean theme, which is a JOY to modify. I have never had such ease in modifying a template. For real. I also created a blog for my Grade 11 class using the same theme. Lovely. Clean. Simple.

    I have a few more things to follow up, but that will have to be in another post. This is one long story already and I need to start thinking about preparing food for someone I care about this evening so I’m going to say good bye for now.

    Have a wonderful day,
    Tracy

  • What do I know about poverty? Blog Action Day.

    Thankfully, very little.

    I have never had to worry about feeding my loved ones and my self.

    I have never had to worry about water to wash my dishes, my clothes, my dog when he gets skunked.
    Water to drink.

    [audio:http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/IndiefeedHipHop/~5/308194366/indiefeed_knaan_washitdown.mp3]
    K’naan – Wash it Down on indiefeed hiphop

    I do know that I have seen children try to learn without food in their stomachs. And I know one child who missed school for a week one January because he had no boots to help him get to school through over a foot of snow and -30 temperatures. And another child who missed weeks at a time last year – when I found out she wasn’t skipping but had no winter jacket I sent her work home with her and lent her my ski jacket for the balance of the season.

    These are the ones I know about. How many other children and their families in my area of the world are living in poverty amongst our riches? How many families around the world are living in poverty amongst our riches?

    I am embarrassed for our plastic-bottle-filled with natural spring/vitamin/fiji/organic/limeessence/evian/polandsprings/perrier/sanpellegrino/sanmateo/sierraspring/volvic drinking selves when I hear K’naan sing:

    My people drum on water,
    drink on water,
    live on water,
    die for water.

    And I know that the water that comes out of our taps is clean.

    I wonder how we got so far out of touch from the needs of others.

    And I wonder again how many people in my own community are hungry and cold without my knowing it, while we pay for water.

    And then I wonder …
    how many community organizations like Sun Youth in Montreal could benefit if we diverted the billion dollar water-bottling industry towards their food and clothing programs?

    Or what could happen if the people in my city opted to donate 2$/day towards these programs instead of buying their bottle of water?

    1,620,693 (Montreal’s population in 2006) x 2$ = $3,241,386 A DAY.

    Now that’s some math that has amazing potential.


    Click Sun Youth’s image to make a donation :)

    Click the Blog Action Day image to find out more about Blog Action Day: On Poverty.

  • 24 hours in the life of me…Oh, and BlogHer 08

    I’m off to Blogher o8 – The Reach Out Tour in Boston. I’ll be leaving after work – luckily it is a PED day today so I won’t be too exhausted for the 5+ hr drive once the day is done.

    I’m a bit relieved to not have a Friday this week, after last Friday’s….activities :)

    This is what 24hrs can look like sometimes:

    Underwater dust storm. Thats what the day felt like. Image by Karen Glaser (click image for source)
    Underwater 'dust storm'. That's what the day felt like. Image by Karen Glaser (click image for source)

    2-4:30 – Thursday
    Conversations with a student we suspect of being high. Denials. Silence. Caring. Silence. He runs out. Returns. Tells the truth – he gets high every single day. More conversation. He agrees to talk to Dad. He goes home. We decide that, even though he has made a breakthrough – we can not let him back into the program. He’s broken one of the absolute rules – no drugs or alcohol on you or in your system.
    Sigh.

    6-9:30ish
    HPT – Human Performance Technology. I had a test. An hour and a half of application of knowledge to different situations and a bit of definition of terms. Test was conducted on a mac, which I (yeah, I know…) have never used before. I couldn’t right-click, I couldn’t format…frustrating. Test was followed by regular class time.

    7:00 Friday morning
    Back at school. Happy to know that it is a) Friday and b) Day 6, which means the students have Phys Ed first thing, so I can ease into the day. Kids come in at 7:45, they get changed and head off to gym. I walk around with my list of To-Dos….

    8:15
    We notice a girl sitting in the hallway looking morose. Collin asks why she isn’t at gym, she starts to cry. They go into the den to talk.

    8:30 – 9:00
    I hear loud crying. Go into the hallway, a 2nd girl is sitting cross-legged on the floor, weeping. The den is being used, so we go into the lunchroom, where we have a couch. Other girls were ganging up on her in dodge ball (man, I hate dodge ball). She then goes on to tell me her story – of girl drama, cliques, allegiances, friendships that come and go, how she doesn’t care that she is a loner sometimes (you sure about that?). We talk some more, she goes back to the gym.

    9:15
    The gym class comes back 15 mins early. Got one item on the long To-Do list done…

    9:30
    Morning break. The drama and tears between girls continues, accelerates. There are many discussions in the den that continue throughout the day. Some try to deal with things by themselves in the bathroom. Meanly. So I cough a lot outside of the bathroom door and send girls on their way.

    9:45
    History study hall. I set the kids to work on old history tests and try to get my presentation finished – the one I wanted to do during my morning prep period. I’m cranky because the kids are edgy after the morning’s activities and I need a silent room. Takes longer than usual to get them settled. I type up to the end of the period, but the other class still isn’t released. 5 minutes later I go to check.

    10:45 – 11:30
    A girl (different one) has passed out in Science class – that is why they were late. She is out for a good 10 minutes. She stood up and fell down, hitting her head. The nurse is called. She finally comes to and we find out she has taken too many Robaxicet for her back pain. We bring her to the hospital, Collin waits until her parents meet them there. I’m with both grade 11 classes in the lunchroom. (Good thing I finished that presentation, eh?) Students are a combination of worried for their classmate and worried that they will lose some of their lunch break. It’s like herding cats keeping them in there until Collin, the girl, and her boyfriend leave for the hospital. I run to the cafeteria to get some food, come back up and sit for a few moments.

    11:45
    I hear keening. Seriously. Loud peels of uncontrollable wailing. It’s yet another girl. One who gets very anxious. She is shaking, has a hard time catching her breath. Shaking, crying. I go to the den with her, ask the girls who are there discussing morning events to use my classroom. She keeps repeating ‘It’s so hard’. Shaking. Another girl comes in with me, they are cousins. I ask girl 1 to hold my hands, to squeeze them hard. Girl 2 is stroking her hair. She shakes even more. She asks for her mother. Wailing. 15 minutes of keening. I am close to tears myself. Girl 2 is holding her close. Has her arms wrapped around girl 1. Tears streaking mascara down her face. I am struck by her kindness, by her non-judgmental offer of solace. The room’s air is thick, full of tears. I leave to ask Walter to call her mother. He looks concerned about me. I grab a stress ball, go back in. Her mother refuses to come, says she needs to calm herself down. Meanwhile, yet another girl (girl 3, let’s call her) works her way through her own bout of panic. She manages to calm herself down with the help of Sharon, our technician for the day (Marie was out…). I leave girl 2 with girl 1. They are holding each other and rocking, getting calm. I go out and try to get some more food in. Girl 1 comes out, Walter offers her a hug. The wailing starts again. This time I send girl 3 in to the den with her. She knows about panic attacks. She brings a paper bag to help with the breathing.

    12:10
    We start afternoon classes a few minutes late. I have a math test planned and decide to give it. I figure the students have not had anything they expected yet that day and they needed something they expected. Girl 1 comes in to class 10 minutes later. Girl 3 has calmed her down. She writes the test. The room is quiet. Students are working diligently. I’m glad I decided to give the test.

    2:15 – 3:30
    The day is done. We find out that girl 1’s doctor was supposed to call us to let us know what to do in event of panic attack. Oh well. We also learn of a teacher, a friend of ours, who is upset, torn, because she is getting married at Christmas time and the school board has taken back their offer of an extra 3 days leave before the holidays. We plan our next week. We talk, de-brief. We go for a beer.

    So, yeah. 24 hrs can seem much longer at times….

    It’ll be good to re-charge at a conference. Meeting with people who share my interests and goals, being reminded of the power of community, always manages to energize me. Plus, 2 nights at a hotel can’t hurt. I think I’ll treat myself to some room service when I arrive this evening.