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: February 2014

  • Be sad. Be angry.

    The other night, while so much of the world was busy counting medals a man was not convicted of murder for killing a 17-yr old boy who was listening to loud music in his car with his friends in front of a convenience store in Florida.

    That boy could have been any one of my students.
    Jordan Davis could have been my son. He could have been yours.

    What angers me so much was that this was not a tragic accident.

    His 47 year old killer shot 10 shots at a parked car because he felt threatened by the boys who were listening to loud “thug” music inside.

    What?

    Yeah. And a jury could not reach a verdict. They could not unanimously decide that when a white man shoots a black teenaged boy that it is murder.

    What?

    Think about this and be angry. And be sad. (If you are a teacher or in any other position of influence, I hope you do more than just think)

    Be Angry. Be Sad. The sadness keeps us human and connected. The anger may drive that sadness to do something.

    (Just don’t play any loud music on that drive. Especially not if you are a young man of colour.)

  • The magic of data: but how do we get there?

    Nurturing the human piece. Therein lies the magical rub.

    The following are some lines to reflect on from: Experts: Here’s how to turn data into achievement by Dennis Pierce

    “Data is about infusing classrooms with information that changes the trajectory of learning,”

    “…struggled to get teachers on board with using data to inform instruction. “How can we overcome this fear?”

    Changing the culture of a school system requires “a nurturance of teacher leadership,” Edwards said. He added: “If you can lift, you can push—but you have to lift first.”

    …such fears are a natural reaction to the use of student data “as a political device to hold people accountable” for doing their jobs.

    “We need to change the conversation from data as a hammer to data as a flashlight,” or a tool that can be used “to shine a light on what’s working” in schools.

    Data in itself is just…data. It’s how it is used and trusted that can make it magical.

    Finding data is pretty easy. Collating it as well. But once we get it, how do we make sure it used to make things better for our students and teachers?

    The how brings us back to our core – the human element.

    Why do we care about the data we collect about our schools, our teachers, and our learners?

    (by the way – I love this line from the article –> If you can lift, you can push. But you have to lift first.)

  • Why blog? (and it’s not about making learning fun.)

    http://americanhell.com/index.php/75-but-why-didnt-you-tell-me/
    Comic from American Hell, 2007.

    Blogging is not about making journaling fun for students.
    It’s not about trying to find a reason for students to spell correctly.
    It’s not even about connecting them to global others.

    I can think of no more horrible an exercise than forcing all of the students in my class to create a blog for the sake of writing online what could be written in a journal. For the sake of trying to trick them into writing with the flashy, shiny technology as if they won’t know that really all they are doing is writing on a computer (I did it about 5 or 10 years ago, so I know of what I speak).

    If blogging is a something (and I think it is) then it’s about having a passion to share. It’s about loving something so much you want to write, talk, show – create – about it. It’s about having a story to tell. It’s about having a voice.

    Inherent in my job as a teacher is showing my students to their voice. For some, blogging could be a good vehicle for that trip.

    The secret for me is to get them to that voice in a way that makes sense for them.