More Classroom Observations

I think I understand why computer games are viewed as a waste of time by many teachers. Today I sat next to a student who was doing a program that walked her through how to find the lowest common multiple so that she could compare fractions. The first time she went through the game she got 40%. The second time I watched and talked to her. It was very clear to me that she had no idea what lowest meant and she didn't understand that 9/12 and 3/4 were the same fraction of a whole. However, she was getting a perfect score going through the game. It was based on basketball games and had the fraction of games that two different teams had won. She needed to compare the fraction in order to figure out who had won the most games. The second time through she could tell me correctly which team would win (therefore which of the fractions was larger). She could click the right answers and enter the correct numbers, but she didn't understand any more!

Many kids are spending HOURS of time on this type of activity provided by "scientifically-based" curriculum providers who can show you (or a superintendent) data proving how student's scores improve! All games are not created equally. David Warlick today talks about the Zoombinis which is a terrific game. It is motivating, but at the same time problem solving and understanding are necessary to proceed.

Good Use of Tech in School Observed!

I am tired of trying to observe how schools are using technology when I substitute. It used to be interesting to wander the halls and notice what computers were on and where they were placed in the room. But now it is boring. I would guess that in 95% of the classrooms the computers are against the wall in a group of 4 or 5 and turned off. Students are not using them. Today even in the large computer lab the students were sitting on the floor watching a cartoon on the screen in the front of the class! But it is not fair to judge by what I see when walking by at one minute of one day. So, I will try to collect the good ideas that I see.

I was in a Special Ed classroom today. The students were all LD. Here is what they did. First the teacher guided them in writing a simple sentence and then adding to it. The first sentence was "The kids played." Then they added a word "The neighbor's kids played." and so on until they had "The neighbor's kids played kickball outside." They wrote these sentences on their own paper. All of the students have their own laptops and so then they opened the laptop and went to Word. They all knew how to get there, start a new document. They had to type the date and the name of the day of the week at the top and then they typed the four sentences. Finally, they could go to a google image search and choose a picture to put on the paper. The teacher gave them the search terms and walked around to be sure it was OK. The kids knew how to save the picture to the desktop, go to word, insert the picture, resize it, and save their work. Because of fair use I don't think there is a problem here with copyright. These pictures are only being used once on school related work and are not being put online.

I know that it is a very simple use of technology, but for these kids I think it was helping them learn many different things. Interesting.

Learning From Others

This is why I keep reading blogs. Today I read what Doug Johnson wrote about how to deal with the overwhelming pace at which new exciting technologies that MIGHT be used in education are appearing. You should check it out!

Organic Growth-An Earth Day Reflection!

Before 2000 when I was searching for a metaphor for the role that schools needed to make technology successful I thought of "coach". I was right! Right now the word I am thinking about is ORGANIC. It has been bumping around in my brain for a few years, but just today I had a lightbulb experience.

I have been frustrated that for over 15 years we have been working on integrating technology into the classroom and it is JUST NOT HAPPENING. We all know that it has to do with the need to improve professional development and support for teachers. We all know that some of it is due to the lack of funding and the emphasis on testing. However, what has been bouncing around in my head for a few years is the thought that it is because we have been going about it the wrong way.

Over 15 years ago we had this technology that could do amazing things. Some teachers were early adopters and could figure out great ways to use it in their teaching (i.e. Tom Snyder and the one computer classroom), but most did not. We tried creating labs, we tried putting them in classroom (1-5 per classroom) and we tried COWs (computers on wheels). None of these things have really changed the classroom in general. In my experience there are a percentage of teachers who run with technology and do fantastic things and others who try some great stuff, but a few years later are back to doing things the way they did before. Schools have legislated that every teacher must have a web page or that you must take your students to the lab a certain number of minutes per week, but that hasn't worked. What is happening?

One of the really important factors that we have not considered is that growth is an organic thing. It happens when the conditions are right. You cannot make a plant grow if there is no water and no light. I am thinking that we have gone about putting computers in classrooms in a way that is inorganic and it cannot make big changes. The conditions are not right.

My AHA came when I was reading The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell. Here is the quote that struck me:

"John Tu donated thirty-five computers to our class, and what a difference they make! Ms. G said we are not limited to just using them on English assignments. She is going to let us use them for projects for our other classes before and after school...Thanks to spell check now I feel like there are no limits or boundaries enclosing my ideas and feelings. Sitting in front of the monitor with my fingers on the keyboard makes me feel powerful in a way that I never have before." (pg 147-148)

There is more than that in what the student wrote, but the main idea that struck me was that technology here is being used because it makes sense, so it makes a difference and makes sense to the teacher. The conditions called for technology; it worked and actually became an invisible enabler! I think that part of improving conditions for technology to succeed in the classroom is a continued effort to help teachers understand what technology can do, even if it is just for themselves. Will technology use begin to creep into classrooms where teachers are aware and conditions are right?

Teacher Performance Pay

The article linked above is extremely important. I have never thought that "merit pay" for teachers was a good thing. I know really terrific teachers that look like really poor teachers because they have changed schools from the high socio-economic area of town to the low socio-economic area. I would HATE for teachers pay to be based on student test scores. That would be like Dentist's pay being based on how many cavities their patients have. However, there are some teachers out there that should not be in the classroom. There are also others who work above and beyond to help their students learn. I can see that there should be some form of performance compensation to encourage great teachers.

This article is written by Betsy Rogers who was teacher of the year in Alabama and has a fascinating blog. She links to the report and urges teachers to read it and get involved in the debate.

Changes in How I Interact with Text!

This morning I am reading an article in Reading Today that I just received (an IRA publication). I just realized that I am interacting differently with this text because of blogging. I actually think that what I think about the article matters and that it would be good to communicate about this. I used to think authors were the total authority and I shouldn't respond. hmmm...

[This is not a blog about teaching reading, so I hesitate to add this, but just to clarify what I was thinking: This particular article is talking about creating magazine covers as a way for students to summarize what they are learning about from a text book. My thought was that it might be more helpful to start with JUST text because I think that starting with an illustrated textbook might limit what many students try to do.]

Who is Reading This?

I have been amazed recently at how many hits my blog has been getting. I put a cluster map up and at first I was getting maybe 5-7 hits a day, but for the last month or so it has been over 100 every day!


I decided to sign up for Google Analytics to see if I could figure anything out. Here is the graph that informed me about what was happening. I found out that most of my visits are new visitors and that they are coming from images.google.com or images.google.ca! Lots of them are coming to the post about the brain which has a wonderful brain image which I got from Wikipedia.

It is disappointing to realize that most people are not coming to my blog to read my interesting thoughts. At the same time it is extremely interesting how prevalent the Google Image search is. Way too many students who want a picture of something are just going directly to Google Images, typing in what they are looking for and then copying it without thinking that there may be copyrighted images on that page. I try really hard to be careful about copyright, but it really takes effort and I know that most kids in schools do not want to spend the time and effort it takes to read the small print and find out if an image is in the public domain.

What will happen to copyright in the next generation?

Planning Summer Project

I am beginning to plan a project for this summer during the month of July which I have done twice before. I am lucky to have the opportunity to travel to Greece and stay at an archaeological site with my husband while he does research. Here are the sites of past projects:

October 2005 in this blog
Edublogs-June 2006

I am especially looking for schools in the southern hemisphere who will still have school in July. I will be traveling for three weeks to Corinth, Greece and be visiting Olympia, Sparta, Nemea and Isthmea. These are all sites of ancient games. Olympia is the best known as the beginning of the Olympic games which happen every 4 years, but the other four had similar games. This summer we are also going to Vienna, Austria for a conference that my husband is participating in during the last week of July.

I am hoping to have classrooms (or individuals) who follow along with me as I travel. Each day I will write and post pictures. What I will write about will depend upon what questions and comments I receive to the blog in the days before. You can see examples of this in the past projects. I write about everyday modern Greek life, about history, and about the issues of using technology in different countries. (see the Cybercafe in New Corinth) Last year we traveled to Turkey also, so I wrote about that! Since I am with expert archaeologists I have opportunities to go inside museums and talk to experts and often learn inside things that you might not learn from just visiting an archaeological site. I also try to visit with local people or the local schools. I do have some contacts with students and teachers there, so if there is interest in connecting with them I can try to do that.

There is a lot of flexibility in this project, so let me know what you are interested in and what will fit into your curriculum and I can rearrange the topics to help you out. Ultimately I think it would be extremely cool if there were connections made here between schools in the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere who are both interested and working on Greece. You never know what might happen! If you are interested you can email me at janicef[at]jfriesen[dot]net. I hope to hear from you!

Teaching in Middle School-failing schools

Just this morning in Edutopia I read this article by a Middle School teacher who wrote under a pseudonym. It is SO MUCH like my experience yesterday If this is happening in Middle Schools all over the country what is going to happen to these kids!!??

Doing Research with Amazon.com

Last night I had a very interesting experience. I was remembering a book that I read that had made a big impression on me. I could remember what it was about, why it made an impression; but I could not remember who wrote it or what the title was.

I looked through my old blogs to see if I had mentioned it. I looked through my files. I tried searching Google with a bunch of search terms describing my impressions of the book (technology, schools, visit, journalist), but I was having no success.

Then I thought of Amazon. I thought maybe if I did the same search in Amazon books I would find it. No luck... It brought up a bunch of books, but not the one I was looking for.

Then my husband, the university professor, suggested that I look for a book that was similar to the one I was looking for and check the part below the book blurb that says "other books like this one". VOILA!! There it was! I had just about given up. Who would have thought of Amazon as a search tool?

(I put the book in my wish list, so I could always remember what it was... and someday I might buy it -again-. The book was

The Technology Fix: The Promise and Reality of Computers in Our Schools

by William D. Pflaum (Author) It is about the authors experience of taking a year off and visiting lots of schools to see how technology has changed the way that teaching and learning happens there. He reports what I have seen. There are pockets of change, but most technology is not used or poorly used. He also gives recommendations which are not stellar. The most interesting thing about the book is his nationwide observations. There are also some good reviews on the website.)

Why Teachers may be Leaving the Profession-and a call for help!

I am having a very strange day. I am subbing in a middle school that has significant problems. The behavior of the students in many of the classes makes it impossible to get much learning done. At the same time I have a really long break and I am reading my Tech Learning Magazine, reading blogs from my bloglines account, and looking at lessons on My eCoach. The thing is, all of what I am reading seems totally separate from what I am experiencing. How do you teach and assess when the students spend HUGE amounts of time and energy trying to derail everything that you do? This morning I could not do ANYTHING productive with the class because I spent the whole time fussing with people who were out of their seats, talking loudly to each other, not in the right seats (they took the rolling chairs from the computers), eating candy. I brought extra lessons and ideas for managing a math class, but all of it went on deaf ears. Either the students were extremely quiet and ignoring what was going on or they were rude and disruptive.

I wonder how many inner city middle schools are like the one that I am subbing in today? It seems like the ones I have been in feel like prisons where the teachers (and uniformed security guards) are in charge or chaos where the students are basically in charge and hurting only themselves in the long run.

I would love to have some input from anyone who works in an innercity situation and has some insight about working with these kids.

Technology in Schools

A few days ago I was at a wedding and met someone new. She is the librarian (media specialist) of a small private K-12 school. She told me about her school's experience with technology and it made me realize that things REALLY have changed for schools. They cannot get by without having some technical expertise.

She said that about 5 years ago they got rid of the system that they were using where parents could phone in to get their student's homework assignments. They moved to doing it all online. However, when there online connection went down for about a month last year they were in bad shape. All email was interrupted and they had really come to depend on it. This year they instituted an online grading system where parents could log in to see their children's grades. There were lots of glitches and the teachers are not comfortable with it. They have a server, but not a person to manage it or a person to support the teachers as they make this change. Interesting... Now a school cannot function without technology, but they have not yet realized the need for support. It is where most schools find themselves today.

my My Space

Do you know how many Middle School and High School students have a My Space? I have been shocked recently that whenever I am subbing in Middle School and bring up the topic a bunch of the students actually do have a My Space that they are very proud of. When I tell them that I have one (although it is mostly empty), they are amazed. Before talking about it I could not connect with them, but after that we have something in common.

Last week at a meeting for tutors with Literacy Austin I learned that Literacy Austin has a My Space. When I signed up to be their friend I learned that the public library, a bookstore called Book People, many non-profits, etc... have a My Space that they use to communicate.

I checked just now and My Space says that you have to be 14 to sign up, but I am thinking that many of the students I have talked to are not yet 14! It is a wild place, so I don't encourage anyone, but I think that as a teacher it is really important to know what they are experiencing online. (For example I just found out that you can easily do a search for single women age of whatever age you specified and anyone who put that into their profile appears. Some of them are not very nice.)

As I work on my My Space I am also listening to a podcast of Erin Gruwell and one of the Freedom Writers, Maria. I think the main thing I take from their whole experience is that to reach kids you need to connect. That thought keeps rolling around in my mind as I try out My Space and meet kids whose lives are SO different than mine.

Cybercompliment Day

Last weekend there was a lot of well-placed concern about Cyberbullying, but this week Jennfer Waggoner from Technospud suggested that bloggers spend some effort on cybercompliments. I think that is a great idea. I have learned SO much from reading blogs and I really do appreciate the time that many people have taken to write them and also to read and comment to my blog.

First I need to send out some positive appreciation to David Warlick. Several years ago at a conference in winter in San Francisco (I remember the rain), he talked with huge enthusiasm about blogs and RSS feeds. That was probably what pushed me into trying blogging out. Then there is Wil Richardson who put up a video on his blog with teachers talking about how they used blogs. I keep reading him because I always learn SO much. Then there is Doug Johnson at the Blue Skunk Blog. I appreciate his sense of humor and the fact that he focuses his blog on educational issues that are so important. I always feel smarter and am smiling after reading his blog. I appreciate Liz from I Speak of Dreams although there is NO way I can keep up with her prolific writing. She posts interesting articles with lots of links and she even reads and comments on my blog! (amazing!) Then there are tons of other people who I read now and then and consider cyber-friends... most of whom I have not met face to face (of those mentioned above I have only really met David Warlick). Jennifer Wagoner, Carolyn Foote, Mark Ahlness, Andy Carvin, the Eides from the Eide Neurolearning Blog, Kathy Sierra from Creating Passionate Users. There are others... too many to mention, that I have learned from and read now and then. Thanks!

It has been fun thinking about each of these people and how much I have learned from them. It has also been easy to create links because of RSS feeds and because they are all in my Bloglines account.

Education in China

For many years I have heard that even though here in the United States our math and science scores are not as high as in Asian countries it is OK because we have something completely different in our system of education. It is hard to define, but it has to do with open-minded thinking, individualism, creativity. I have heard it said that people from other countries want to come to the United States for college and grad school because they value that quality and do not find it in their own education systems.

Well, on Sunday there was a fascinating article in this week's New York Times Magazine entitled "Can China Re-Educate Its Education System". In this article a Chinese student at Harvard, Tang Meijie, is profiled as an example of something that is happening in Chinese education. She has begun a summer program (Hsylc) that helps Chinese students to loosen up and think more creatively and openly. It is worth reading the whole article, but I will pull out a few quotes that compare Chinese and US education systems.

[in China] "Effort rather than ability is considered the key to achievement — and among the most important expressions of filial piety is studying diligently (a word I heard a lot). “If there is no dark and dogged will, there will be no shining accomplishment; if there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement” goes an old saying, invoked as soon as school starts — a far cry from the Western progressive interest in encouraging curiosity and play in the early years."

"Yet in the process, some prominent government officials have grown concerned that too many students have become the sort of stressed-out, test-acing drone who fails to acquire the skills — creativity, flexibility, initiative, leadership — said to be necessary in the global marketplace... [students] arrive at college exhausted and emerge from it unenlightened — just when the country urgently needs a talented elite of innovators, the word of the hour. A recent report from the McKinsey consulting firm, “China’s Looming Talent Shortage,” pinpointed the alarming consequences of the country’s so-called “stuffed duck” tradition of dry and outdated knowledge transfer: graduates lacking “the cultural fit,” language skills and practical experience with teamwork and projects that multinational employers in a global era are looking for."

And finally, this quote:

"Even as American educators seek to emulate Asian pedagogy — a test-centered ethos and a rigorous focus on math, science and engineering — Chinese educators are trying to blend a Western emphasis on critical thinking, versatility and leadership into their own traditions."

This seems SO true to me. We are attempting to be something we are not. We will not succeed in the type of education that we are attempting until we raise our children differently, expecting them to memorize facts and achieve because of parental obligation. The US is moving to a more centralized system while China is decentralizing.

When I finished reading the article a thought came to mind which I have heard in other contexts. Watch out!

Ann Richards School Registration

I am proud to have volunteered to help out at the first event of a new school here in Austin. It is the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. Last Saturday was the registration of the first class of students that will be attending the school. It is the fulfillment of a dream of Ann Richards who was a well-known and liked governor of Texas.

I am excited about this school for many reasons. It is part of the Austin Independent School District. I like the fact that it is a public school, not a private school, not a charter school, but a school within the public school district. It is an all girls school (as implied by the title). From my observation last Saturday it is also a very integrated school ethnically. The students come from all over Austin. I hope to write more about it as time goes on.

One Last Cyberbullying Statement

I would like to encourage anyone interested in this topic to read what Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke had to say in their own words. What a great thing that this topic has created such discussion and indignation about treatment of others in blogs! The issue is not over, but I know that at least I have decided that my response in the future will be to speak out and not allow statements that are hurtful to be left unchallenged.

More on Cyberbullying

Liz at I Speak of Dreams has an extensive post on cyberbullying. She left a comment on my posting which I quote here, but I encourage you to go and see her whole post.

I'm working on a long and didactic post on how to regard cyberbullying (for example, the age--chronological and mental-- of the actors in the drama; the positive and negative roles of verbal aggression; the negative and positive functions of anonymity, and so on).

In the meantime, your readers may wish to visit and/or join the social network Stop Cyberbullying. Beth Kantor's BlogHer post about Stop Cyberbullying might also be useful.

As far as Kathy Sierra's experiences go, the best post I've read so far is by a research librarian, Dorothea Salo, who posts at Caveat Lector.

I would also encourage your readers not to demonize the individuals that Kathy named. For a good reason why not to demonize said individuals, please go read Ronni Bennett's response.

I've decided that the best way to refer to the adult situation best known by what Kathy Sierra posted as l'affaire MeanKids / UncleBobism.

Your readers might also get a broader view by reading this post by David Weinberger.