"I don't eat meat," a boys explains self-righteously.

"Is it because of the cruel way they are treated?" I ask, waiting for a speech about crowded crates.

"No, I just can't justify killing anything that is capable of love."  

"Why do you feel that way?"  I ask him. "What makes you think that cows are capable of love?"

"I was standing by the canal and I saw a duck and there was a baby duck and the mom duck started to push them back in line and I just couldn't picture myself eating meat."  

"Was that love or instinct?" I asked.  

"Love means looking out for another person's interest, right?  We talked about this that day when I wasn't allowed on the field trip.  So, the mom duck, she don't have any reason to protect the ducks except for looking out for their interest."  

"Yeah, but does she do it without thinking?"

"What if that's what love means.  What if it means looking out for another person and caring for them and thinking nothing of it?"

A girl interrupts us and says, "My sister has Down Syndrome.  I'm not even sure she can always provide for anyone or look out for what they need.  I know she has a hard time thinking about lots of basic stuff.  But I'm not sure I know anyone who can love better than she does."  

The boy, being an insensitive eighth grade boy, asks, "What is this supposed to mean?" 

"Maybe love can't be defined. Maybe it's not in actions or in the mind, but it's in the heart."  

Are Americans addicted to entertainment?

Photo Credit
Flickr Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparktography/389824828/

I just finished watching an episode of Daily Show and I'm continually shocked about how much better they do at telling the news than anything else on television.  At first I used to say, "It's great they could be so profound despite being humorous."  Now, I'm beginning to wonder if they can be profound because they are so funny.  I wonder if a person has to understand issues more deeply and work harder at being analytical when creating satire or critique other media.  I also wonder if humor humanizes.  In other words, this guy on the show was a man who supported the use of torture.  However, they engaged in a heated and yet respectful dialogue.  

It's not simply a "John's a Democrat" issue. (Actually, I'm a left-leaning Libertarian, if for no other reason than for the alliteration alone)  I can't stand Michael Moore or Al Franken.  Then again, I don't find them to be funny.  Both men are like Rush Limbaugh in the pundit, insult your enemy, never critique both sides kind of way.

It makes me think of the classroom.  I used to believe that humor was a filler.  I thought it was a waste of time, but necessary only to reach a culture obsessed with entertainment.  Now, however, I realize that humor is an intregal part of help students to think analytically and creatively.

So, the following episode is the one I watched:

  

 

I rarely watch television.  I know it's super-trendy to say that, but for me it's our lack of cable and the virtual monopoly (if there are two of them does that make it an oligopoly?)  that little children have on making entertainment decisions.  Still, I catch shows in fragments.  Sometimes it's silently, when I am running on a treadmill in the gym or it's in the background at a friend's house.  

Despite my lack of expertise in all things t.v. related, I am aware that the television is the icon of our culture.  It is the language that we speak, the myths that we believe, the legends that we retell.  Oprah plays the role of sage and prophet to millions of soccer moms every day while Bill O'Reilley explains the world to middle aged men who feel disenfranchised.  The television is how most children will first learn letter recognition and where most of the elderly will find company before they die.  

I once thought that Americans took t.v. too seriously.  I remember this when everyone in the room cried as Ross ended up with Rachel in the last episode of Friends. I thought they were crazy until I realized that Friends hit people emotionally, because it was a community of grace.  No matter how quirky Phoebe seemed or how shallow Rachel acted or how nerdy Ross became, each one had a place at Central Perk.  

What if the television is the best place to learn about teaching?  I know this sounds crazy, but it seems that the television is the gateway to our collective culture.  It's where we find out stories that help us make sense out of our social expereinces.  It's where we place much of our art.  I know, I know.  It's a flawed medium, designed for entertainment and money.  Yet, it seems to me that much of our American experience is about money and entertainment.  

I'm not suggesting that teachers replace grading papers or reading books or meeting for coffee with watching t.v.  However, I do see some value in thinking while watching.  Lately I've been watching every episode of The Office.  It's made me think about music in schools, the boring-as-hell staff meetings (and why I'll cringe at the word professional), why Michael Scott needs to be a middle school teacher, why I would enjoy teaching a kid like Dwight, how a no-nonsense style of management actually causes less productivity.   

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/videocrab/116136642/

I've had a few people ask me about creating a classroom blog / website. I'm no master at it. My class doesn't win any awards. I don't speak at conferences on blogging. Idon't get a million hits per day or anything like that. However, I'm going to toss out what little I know based upon my class Social Voice website. I have five reasons that I prefer Blogger.

The Planning Phase

1. Define the purpose and audience: Who will be reading this? Why will students use this blog? How will they participate? My students first created the "social voice" concept and we ran with it. It has ended up defining so much of what we do.

2. Develop a sense of style: What will you do to create a general ethos of your site? What will your colors be? I prefer to have a custom logo / header. I use PhotoFiltre, but there are many online photo editing programs as well.

3. Figure out legal and procedural issues: What permissions do you need? What paperwork is necessary? I'd attempt ahead of time to make sure that everything is either Creative Commons or Public Domain and I'd post something on your site explaining this. Awhile ago, I wrote a blog about sites that have free photos. I also think through privacy issues and how to keep students safe.

4. Add it to Feedburner and then make sure there is a link for people to subscribe.

The Building Phase

1. Add various widgets / gadgets or other -ets: In Blogger, it's easy to add a widget from any site, given the ease of embedding HTML.

2. Change the width: I wrote a quick tutorial on how to do this in Blogger.

3. Make it multifunctional: In other words, allow your blog to work as a wiki or as a website. The easiest way to make it work as a wiki is to create a "general student" login that will allow any student to add or edit content, but not change the look and feel of the site. The easiest way to make it work as a website is to add a link area and link to either blog posts or blog labels. For example, when students click on "videos" they can see every blog post labeled as "videos."

4. Create a unique background image for your blog. Some teachers might prefer a plain look (like this blog) but I've found that students like having something with a bit more flair. I wrote a quick tutorial on how to do this in blogger.

5. Consider adding Rollover Links: Most computers run JavaScript and they load it pretty quickly. I wrote a quick tutorial on how to create Rollover Links.

6. Consider changing the width of the blog. I wrote a tutorial on how to do this.

If you have any questions about starting a class blog, please e-mail me (socialvoice@gmail.com) or post your question as a link.

When all the kids in our neighborhood memorized the words to "Beat It" and "Thriller" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," I sat in front of the record player to hear "Sweet Baby James" (before James Taylor had become the staple music for grocery stores) or "It's a Wild World" (before Cat Stevens had become a quasi-terrorist, when he was still imploring us to join peace trains). The eighties music felt too synthesized and smooth, like filtering out all the particles in a Hefeweizen. Aside from a few Police songs, I could never identify with such an artificial sound.

I once heard the back side of a Shakira cd. When her voice isn't digitally modified, it's shaky and unpredictable. It's bad, really bad, but it's also beautiful. I have an affinity for imperfect music, which is why I prefer the acoustic sound. I think Sufjan Stevens is best when he's alone, singing a "Mistress Witch" with his banjo. It's why I've always enjoyed Iron and Wine and why one of my greatest memories involved listening to Counting Crows play "Omaha" in an acoustic set. It's why I still own Eric Clapton's Unplugged cd.

Standardized education demands perfection. No glitches. No mistakes. No personality. In terms of classroom management, the idea is to ignore bad behavior and create an invisible system of control so that the room has the feel of a pop chart Top 40. It should feel smooth, organized, slightly boring but inoffensive. It should sound like the post-mixing Shakira. Everything from instruction to behavior should be uniform and standardized. The executive makes the ultimate decision, not on the merit of the art, but upon the science of the data.

When I think of leading a classroom, I want it all acoustic. I want to hear the glitches and mistakes and be authentic enough to apologize when I led us off on the wrong key. I want an honest dialogue, where I am not censoring the instruments, but rather learning to play a tune together in a relationship. Some kid might bring in the mandolin or the french horn and in the beginnign I'm thinking, "How's this going to work?" Yet, in the end, we are changed because of it. From the initial songwriting to the final product, I need collaboration. It's why I have a Student Leadership Team that helps plan lessons and I do surveys at the end of units.

When things are working best in my room, it feels real and open and harmonious without feeling mixed and dubbed and synethesized.

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26500656@N05/2602743656/

In reading a recent Time Magazine blurb, a woman wanted to nominate a former Teach for America alumni who has created highly successful charter schools (Idea Academy or something like that), where 100% of the students have gone to college.  

I believe that low-income students can succeed.  I believe that there is a culture of low expectations in many of the schools.  However, I do not believe that the issue is one of "bad teachers."  Nor do I believe that Teach for America teachers are of a higher quality than the rest of us. In fact, the entire Teach for America program annoys me for the following reasons:

1. I can see how many of the teachers could develop a sense of entitlement.  It's as if the world owes them something because they have a special status.  I know that's what would have happened to me if I'd been in the program after college; which is precisely what inner-city kids don't need. 
2. The process is selective.  Like the special charter schools that people tout as the ultimate solution, Teach for America has a rigorous search process that fails to engage everyone. Touting the fact that the cream of the crop are doing well isn't as impressive as showing me a teacher who faced adversity and is now thriving. 
3. People don't have to play by the rules.  Often, a Teach for America teacher doesn't last long as a real teacher, but is fast-tracked into leadership.  Sometimes this turns out great, but I am always skeptical of a reformer who hasn't actually worked within the system. We end up with a nut job like the angry lady that is ruining the Washington D.C. school system. It's easy to pose on camera with a broom and a stern face.  It's another thing to work for thirty years and slowly change things by being an quiet, compassionate sage.
4. It begins with a presupposition that the biggest issue plaguing education is the quality of teachers.  It feels like a punch in the gut to the work that I do.  No, it feels more like a knee to my groin by a man in a suit with a polished smile. 
5. The marketing is deceptive.  For every one Teach for America teacher who creates a great charter school or reforms a school district, there are countless ones who burn out and quit. I can't substantiate this with cold hard facts, but I'm willing to bet it's true.  
6. Teachers lose the sense of locale and the parochial nature of the neighborhoods when they are shipped around the country. If they're not careful, they become imperialists rather than humble servants.  
7. It misunderstands motivation.  Offering money and fame will not mean better teachers.  On the contrary, we end up with teacher-mercenaries who will use a child's test scores to win the War on Ignorance.  If a person is genuinely motivated by money, I want them out of the classroom and inside of an office where the worst they can do is fuck-up a spreadsheet. (I realize that many Teach for America teachers are not motivated by money, which proves that offering the carrot and stick is really just a waste of money)

I know of a teacher named Selina Alonso.  I seriously believe that she deserves her picture on a candle next to all the other santos. We'll call her Santa Selina de Maryvale. She grew up in the same city, near the same barrio where she now teaches.  If the measurement is achievement, her students beat the rest of the kids.  Yet, she doesn't care.  She's more concerned about comforting the girl who comes to her and says, "I'm pregnant.  What should I do?" or "I feel like quitting.  I can't handle the pressure."  

Ms. Alonso isn't a self-marketer.  She doesn't parade around as if she has all the right formulas to fix every ail of public education.  I doubt that Selina will ever earn the Teacher of the Year Award.  Yet, day after day, she acts as Jesus with skin, quietly serving her students with compassion and humility and, yes, even rigorous lessons about Shakespeare and Chaucer.  It makes me wonder if, instead of a Teach for America program, we might want a program that would empower students from low-SES areas to go back and teach in the same neighborhoods where they grew up. 

So, that's obviously a pretty opinionated view on Teach for America.  I recognize that it might be ungrounded, arrogant and perhaps, in the long wrong, entirely false.  Which leads me to the Survey Saturday question:

What do you think about Teach for America?

I wrote the following letter today to the person I was five years ago.  I know it's a little odd, but here it goes:

Hey John, 

This is a note to you in your first year of teaching.  On some level, you're counting down the days.  You're second-guessing what you're doing, because so much of it seems to be failing.  It's true that there are a few things you suck at.  Don't get down by the fact that you can't do paperwork.  Do you really want to be an expert in that field anyway? 

Don't get too bummed about managing a classroom either.  You'll never be a manager, but you'll grow into leadership.  Eventually, you'll be less of a hardass and you'll lead out of who you are rather than what you think people expect out of you.  You're already lightening up and using humor.  I know, I know, it feels like you're cheating by joking around and getting to know the trouble-makers and talking things through instead of writing referals. Next year, if you think through a few procedures ahead of time, be authentic, attempt to stay calm and avoid punishments and rewards, you'll find that the management takes care of itself.  It's like driving a car.  You're over-adjusting right now, but eventually it will be so normal you won't even think about it. 

I know you want to make a difference, but some kids will hate your class.  They'll hate being challenged or more likely they'll hate the subject.  They may end up liking you as a person, but there are certain people who would much rather sit in a desk and quietly solve equations than analyze how globalization is changing human interaction.  Do your best not to hold their apathy against them.  It's not that they don't care, but that they don't understand the beauty and the excitement and the mystery of history. The cool thing is that you can bring them into service projects or art or simply allow the classroom to be a haven.  You'll get to know their stories and you'll tell them yours.  

People say that you should ask a ton of questions to veteran teachers.  I'm going to tell you something different.  Talk, listen, create a dialog, but you can go your own way.  Otherwise, the landslide will bring you down.  You'll have so much advice that you'll lose your core convictions.  You'll never be the business executive or the drill sergeant or the "hang in there" kitty poster style teacher.  Teaching is your identity.  Your gift is in how transparent you are with students. Continue to be creative, authentic and willing to change. 

Right now your biggest fear is being found out.  You feel like somewhat of a fraud.  You worry about whether people will think you are capable.  Then you feel crushed when your students create articles for an online social studies magazine and no one on staff seems to care.  Embrace the solitude, as painful as that might be.  Be a covert sage working silently against the system of standardization.  Don't worry so much about the invisible "them."  In the end, you will have to be accountable to your students alone.  

So, go get a cup of coffee.  Set down the papers.  Give your wife a kiss and remember that, though you teach out of your life, teaching is not your life.  Though you teach out of who you are, your career doesn't define you.  You can't teach holistically if you aren't living holisitcally yourself.  Go rent a movie, cuddle up to Christy on the couch and eat some God forsaken microwave popcorn and spice it up with some lime and Tapatio sauce. 

You're doing okay, man.  You're going to make it over the long haul.  Just don't miss the process in your obsession with the outcome.

-John

in Skinner's mind we were all lab rats in need of boxes to tell us where to go

Beyond Freedom and Dignity reads like a creepy dystopia; a satirical piece on the educational system of the Cold War era.  Instead, it is B.F. Skinner's vision for humanity.  Here, there is no reason for freedom and no cause for deep human emotion.  No love.  No hope.  No conflict.  Through a complex system of punishments and rewards, people behave orderly and society runs smoothly.  

The closest I've ever been to this utopian vision is Disneyland.  Skinner was right about external behavior.  People act nice in Disneyland.  Yet, it's simply that: acting.  Below the surface there is the subtle conflict boiling to a near rage.  People murmer about the asshole who just cut in line.  Kids whine to their parents about wanting an overpriced advertisement for a global corporation.  Everyone tries their best to pretend.  They want to believe this place is magical, but it's an illusion.

I sat through another Thursday professional development where I learned how to create a lesson plan.  Apparently my college courses and five years of teaching aren't enough.  I learned, for the second week, that my objectives are all wrong.  I write, "Differentiate between various career philosophies given case studies," and they tell me, "This is not an observable behavior."  I tell the lady, "I can see how accurate they are by reading their graphic organizer.  However, I don't believe learning is a behavior at all.  It is a cognitive process.  What I get on paper is only a shady, grayscale version of the process going on in a student's mind."  

She hands us a paper showing the formula all teachers should follow.  Anticipitory set, then direct instruction, then guided practice, then independent practice.  There is another column that reads, "I do, we do, you do."  My teaching doesn't fit into tight formulas or single-day lessons.  When students work on a three week research project, I don't feel the need for a great "attention-getter" each day.  I won't go into a cycle of "I do, we do, you do," because I am more concerned with a cycle of, "you question, you explore, you engage, you express."  

Learning is not something that is "done."  It's not a behavior to be mastered, like learning to keep one's elbows off the table.  A glimpse at the Thursday meeting proves that Skinner was right. Focussing on the externals turns it all into a mechanical process that will eventually strip away both freedom and dignity.  I don't ever want to go beyond either. 

B.F. Skinner wrote 

a girl in my first hour wrote the play and some students finger painted this poster

It is a deeply human need to know and be known, to love and be loved, to speak and to listen.  It's also a deeply human need to create and to plan and to design.  What happens to me, sometimes, is that I get into one of the two modes and it strikes me off balance.  I get really into "teaching as a relationship" and I don't work as hard at helping students create meaningful projects.  Other times, I get wrapped up in projects and miss the people.  

One of my favorite of the old sages is Nehemiah.  He understood the whole project/people mystery.  He mobilized a city of oppressed people in creating a wall that would help contain community.  Nehemiah had a practical mind and an idealistic vision. I get all of this.  The man was a great administrator and project planner.  However, he hit a point where the poorest people came to him to discuss the injustice of high-interest loans.  (Think Old Testament Check Cashing Stores) He listens to this, changes his own lifestyle and then confronts the wealthy and powerful. 

It strikes me that he was approachable, despite being successful.  I'm also struck by the fact that he is ready to risk the entire project for the benefit of the poor.  Seriously, the man had cajones. 

I mention all of this, because I'm starting to slip into Project Mode.  Yesterday, while filming our satirical "movie" Nacho Libro (a superhero who fights against illiteracy with the power of onamonapea) I failed to laugh when we made mistakes.  The class was having a blast, but I was focussed on the end result.  When students were painting the Secretary's Day gift baskets, I felt excited by how beautiful they looked and missed the sense of satisfaction on the students' faces.  I often rail against the system, because it turns people into products, yet I can see how easily someone slips into this mindset when they forget about the people/projects mystery. 

So, now we're gearing up for a play that one of the students wrote called "Vanishing Voice."  Students have worked on memorizing lines and will come in before and after school to practice.  I'm nervous and a little scared and I'm finding it difficult to focus on the people and not the finished product.   

I glance back at the students who are "not supposed to go" to the field trip. Most of the sixteen boys are listening to music players. A few are engaged in calm conversation and two of them are playing "That's Not Right," a game where people look at signs on the road to see if any of them have innuendo. (I never said they were angels).

Throughout the field trip, this particular group behaves well. They ask insightful, intelligent questions. Many of them take notes. A few times it gets a little awkward, "Will my criminal record get in the way of scholarships?" a boy asks. The woman doesn't seem entirely prepared for the question, but she answers it well.

People told me that our team should have kept the trouble-makers behind. However, when I read their reflections, I feel justified by the decision. I read one, "This is a wake-up call for me. I'm not sure if anyone believes me, but I think I can get good grades. I already do community service. Maybe I have a chance."

What if field trips weren't dealt out as rewards and punishments? What if they were, instead, opportunities to learn? What if some of the best behaved kids are the ones who thrive in freedom as opposed to the militaristic environment of school?

Photo Credit
Flickr Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_dauphin/234028212/

I'm touring ASU with a group of fifteen students.  They have me with three of the high-level honors students, four with "potential" and eight of the trouble-makers.  Our group is all-boys.  In theory, this should have meant they were wild, but without the need to impress girls, they settle down. My group rises to the expectations and asks insightful questions during the presentation about college.  

At one point, though, they start to slip and talk a little louder as we cross a hallway.  

"What did I tell you about volume?" I ask them.  

"Length times width times heighth," a kid shoots back.  

This is just one of the reasons I love teaching middle school. 

Most teachers I know have now set up either a class blog or a class website.  Often, they complain that parents are less likely to comment or view the site than they had expected.  Other times, they are dissapointed at the student apathy.  While I understand their sentiments, I am not surprised by either the student or the parent reactions.  A class blog tends to be teacher-centered.  Perhaps a better option would be to set up a class social network.  

I have set up a Ning site for my students.  I can customize the social network so that students post blogs, comment on the forum, add pictures and leave comments on one another's pages.  Given the fact that, even in low-income areas, students tend to use either Facebook or Myspace, I find that the social network is a real viable option.  I can keep it on private, so that only my students are welcome and yet it remains the "language" of the current generation.  

From the social network, I link our Google documents, Twitter account, Goodreads, class wiki, class blogs (as well as student blog feeds on the Google reader) and other accounts.   Picture a concept map with lines pointing everywhere.  What I now find is that students will post questions about homework, add links to social studies videos and generally take their education off-campus in a way that does not seem geeky to them.  

I realize that social networks are not for everyone.  Honestly, I do not use them often in class, because I'd rather have them use other technology tools (their blogger, concept maps, Google Docs, etc.).  However, the social network has proven to be a powerful tool for "meeting together" outside of the classroom confines of time and space.

By the way, if you have another social networking site that you use with students, could you post it here?  I'm always open to new ideas. 

At first glance, the metal creature seems innocuous, even cutesy.  He's a Wall-E character transplanted on the side of the highway, a boxy metallic head peering out at the traffic.  Next he's shooting lightening or red lazers into the unsuspecting glances of motorists; snatching the image in real-time, digitizing humanity for the sole purpose of increasing tax revenue in a state that expanded too quickly and built without ever asking why.  

I've grown to hate photo radar.  Yesterday, the lights blinded me for a moment as a car passed me at sixty five miles an hour.  I was driving the speed limit not out of duty or even concern, but because I knew this was a prime location to spy on motorists.  Photo radar is supposed to make us safer, but it misses the bigger picture of law enforcement.  It standardizes police work through the values of efficiency and uniformity.  There's no conversation.  No warning.  No concept of context.  The result is that motorists grow angry, which in turn leads to even more aggressive driving.  

I get an e-mail on Friday saying we're having a PLC audit.  A faceless bureaucrat wants to know what we are doing twice a week by viewing my agendas and meeting notes.  Through the values of efficiency and conformity, I am supposed to send the standardized agenda as well as the common assessments and the data.  There's no conversation.  No warning.  No concept of context.  Visit my room if you want to see how the meetings go. Talk to me.  Just don't convince yourself that I'm doing things well if it looks good on a spreadsheet.  

Phoenix has some awful drivers. They cause accidents.  They weave through traffic.  They tailgate.  None of this can be caught on camera.  Good drivers go five or ten over the speed limit.  We know context.  We know that rules don't make people behave.  They make people want to disobey.  Micromanaging and spying can potentially turn a good driver into an angry driver.  Angry drivers cause accidents.  

Phoenix has some awful teachers.  They hand out mindless packets.  They scream at students.  They make empty threats and bully students and then say things behind their backs in the staff lounge.  Good teachers don't always follow the rules.  They know that some procedures are pointless.  What scares me is that micromanaging and spying will potentially turn good teachers into angry teachers and angry teachers make school feel like a prison.

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/btindrelunas/2479368325/

In reading Fahrenheit 451, a student suggested that the robotic dog was a symbol of how machines are being humanized and humans are being mechanized.  That's not the exact terminology he used, but it's the basic gist.  So, I posed the question, "Is it true that humans are becoming more like machines and machines more like humans?"  I copied and pasted five random answers that students gave me and posted it on our Social Pulse blog. The post title is Becoming Robots?

This gave me hope for our next generation. People call them selfish and say they are the "Me Generation."  They claim that they're addicted to technology and that they don't think as well.  I see a group of critical thinkers who are skeptical about technology; who are excited about its possibilities and yet worried about its power.   

The following are things I do not want to do by the time I die:

1. Attend a meeting on fe-nemic fo-ne-mic phonemic awareness
2. Watch a full game of professional golf on television
3. Have a root canal with no medication
4. Read another book by James Joyce 
5. Pay to watch a movie with emo vampires, explosions or three-dimensional cartoons
6. Go to jail
7. Work in a job where the customer is "always right" simply because he holds the immediate capital in the moment thereby giving him some type of higher moral authority
8. Visit France (unless we are invading it) 
9. Listen to a speaker who reads directly from the PowerPoint (I will attend the meeting, but I probably won't be listening)

Too much theory makes a mind constipated, filled with ideas but unable to think; intellectual, but not smart. It transforms a person into a Cliff Claven (on Cheers) prototype.

On the other hand, all action and no theory turns a person into a shallow activist; the type who throws out slogans and rushes quickly but never bothers to ask why. They work hard, communicate easily but rarely think about deeper issues. Think Rachel on Friends.

Yesterday, during our staff development meeting, they described how objectives need to be "observable behaviors." I so badly wanted to have a discussion about this. Is learning an observable behavior or a cognitive process? Should all students learn the same thing in the same class period? If students vary with prior knowledge, isn't it a bit absurd to have universal learning objectives for an entire class? Instead, teachers seemed to fall into the activist mindset of "give me something practical that I can use and don't waste my time on theory."

It seems that theory gets such a bad reputation, because teachers have experienced it in such a bad way; namely, through streaming PowerPoint presentations with a droning voice - a professional development speaker with the personality of Cliff Claven. The following are some ways that schools could shift in how they use theory:

• Make it practical: Don't do "theory first, practice later." Instead, integrate the practical ideas with the educational theory.
  
• Don't isolate theories: In other words, let teachers see the natural connections between each theory. Let them see the controversies, the disagreements and yet see the layers of overlap between theories.
• When teaching theory, model the theory and engage teachers in critical thinking. I won't learn Critical Pedagogy by reading a slide on a presentation. I'll learn it by experiencing it and having a conversation about it.
  
• Avoid the jargon: There's a reason teachers play buzzword bingo. What if we presented theory in a way that used analogy, metaphor and narrative? I realize that teachers need precision of language, but we could humanize the words and allow teachers to connect to it
  

Does faith in religion cause people to lose their faith in humanity?

Please be patient as I finish posting everything here.

Download this as a .zip file

Materials

• Computers - 1-1 ratio (or close to this)
• Video Camera or iPod (for multimedia portion)
  

Standards

Lessons
Day One: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Two: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Three: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Four: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Five: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Six: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Seven: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Eight: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Nine: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Ten: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Eleven: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Twelve: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Thirteen: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Fourteen: Blog - Wiki - Google Document
Day Fifteen: Blog - Wiki - Google Document

I'm co-writing an article about the culture of fear created by NCLB and what it does to collaboration in professional development.  I've been surprised how much I like doing research and writing in the formal, academic tone.  It forces me to use precision in language.  

The whole thing has me thinking about a route that teachers rarely take in fighting against No Child Left Behind.  Political winds will change constantly.  Movements die out.  Old ideas constantly get revarnished in the newest edu-propaganda.  Yet, I'm realizing that behind the scenes, within the research side of education, there is a subtle influence.  You write an article and it's quoted in a textbook and it becomes part of a dialogue in a conference.  Eventually, when the political winds shift away from radical traditionalism, there are "facts" to back up the critique against things like NCLB.  

I realize this sounds insane, but what if teachers were more active in the research side of education?  I know that we're too busy.  I know that we're not all good students.  But given all the ridiculous meetings we have to go to, wouldn't it be more empowering if teachers could engage in a human, action-based research?  

I'm not suggesting we don white lab coats and start throwing around words like "data" and "standard deviation."  Instead, I'm suggesting that teachers could be the ones on the front lines of qualitative research and publishing in scholarly journals.  

Sometimes windpower is not such a great thing

I'm posting this a day early.  It began as a comment on another teacher's blog and now I'm expanding it.

Today the kids were edgy. In my seventh hour, they were constantly engaged in side conversations.  A few kids asked innapropriate questions.  It was more than that, though. They were fidgity, nearly jumping out of their seats.  

As the students left for the busses, teachers tried to explain it with "the assembly" this morning or blame it on administration or talk about a lack of accountability.  I blamed myself.  Being an introvert, I internalized it, allowing it to spiral into self-doubt that eventually had me questioning my vocation as a teacher.  I then moved to a more practical route and mentally changed my lesson plan.  Finally, I changed my mind.  

Geography  - Land - Space - Seasons

My Theory:
1. It's spring
2. It was crazy windy today

Even in a technocratic society, a middle school teacher can prove what other people miss. We are tied to our geography. We are the product of our land. Kids, like the rest of us, follow the patterns of the seasons.  Gray skies and frantic winds affect their behavior.  It's a great modern myth that we can transcend it all.  It was the idea of the scientific revolution, the myth that we could explore the whole universe and capture it in a seven-step process.  It was the notion of the telegraph, that we could deliver soundbytes at the speed of . . . well, the speed of telegraph.  And it's the idea that the internet and iPhones and other gimmicky gadgets can remove the land and trade it in for ones and zeroes.  

But I invite any of the great thinkers who promise a digital utopia to visit my one honor's class on a cloudy, windy afternoon and tell me that we are not ruled by our geography.  

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveman_92223/3186143355/

I'm convinced that the Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble" album is the most suitable soundtrack for gray skies and quasi-violent winds.  By the time I reach "Jolene," I feel the crush of the world through a solitary man who sounds like he just gargled razor blades.  As the clouds settle down and the album stops, I play "Oh Brother Where Art Thou."  

I don't particularly enjoy bluegrass, but the song "Down to the River to Pray" has one of the most beautiful harmonies around and right now, I'm aching for beauty as I drive through suburban banality.  "You Are My Sunshine" instantly transports me to childhood and I begin to see my mom as more human, more scared about how to raise a child, than I ever have before.  It makes me think about Dwight on The Office busting out the acoustic guitar and singing, "Take Me Home, Country Road," and I think of my dad playing the guitar when he let his hair grow out, before he traded it in for a bigger paycheck and a set of golf clubs.

I realize that some people who read this will be lost by the last two paragraph.  It's not that it's too heady, but that not everyone shares the same collective music experience.  But for those who have heard Ray LaMontagne or watched The Office or listen to bluegrass, there is a cultural kinship we now experience.  

Socrates believed that, if a man wanted to influene the minds of a nation, he should avoid philosophy and choose music.  The Greeks were onto something with the notion of sirens.  If there is such thing as a cultural universals, collective music has to be one.  (It's why I am willing to endure poorly written praise songs at church each Sunday despite lyrics like, "meeting heaven with a wet sloppy kiss.") In recent times, Gardner suggested that music is one of the multiple intelligences.  Researchers prove that it can increase learning in math and science.  Books such as Music with the Brain in Mind offer geeky explanations for the universal need for rhythm and lyric.

Still, my school is a musical vacuum. True, kids can play intruments in band and sing in choir.  Yet, it's a segregated experience.  Music is absent in math and science and conspicuously silent in a class termed "language arts." It's easy to find a history class that goes through the Harlem Renaissance without jazz and the sixties without counter-culture rock.  

Sometimes I wish I had the courage to be Andy Dufresne and stop our prison yard for five minutes, playing an opera record . . . or perhaps some Sufjan Stevens or Ray LaMontagne or, if I'm feeling really rebellious Pink Floyd.  

I want to mention ahead of time that this is not meant as a be-all, end-all list.  I just recently started a Delicious account and I'm adding tons of links.  I'd love to learn more about sites out there that have been helpful.  So, the following list is basically an idea of links to sites that I would go to if I were in my first or second year of teaching.  (Or in my case, my fifth)

Making Your Job Easier

• Engrade: It's been my favorite online gradebook
• Google Reader: I know there are other readers out there and perhaps they're better, but I keep the Reader widget on my iGoogle and it's helped me to follow different blogs
• Google Calendar: I love the fact that I can share calendars with friends. I wish this was around when I first started. 
• Google Tasks: The only thing that has ever helped me stay on task.  I actually wrote a blog about this tool.
• Internet Archive: The user interface is lame, but it's the best place to store podcasts
• PBS: Their education section has tons of stuff.  It's one of the few sites I go to in order to find ideas
• TeacherTube: Many districts block YouTube, but allow teachers to post and find videos on TeacherTube

Tools for Students to Use 

• Mindomo: We use this for concept maps and mindmaps
• Google Docs: Great for shared Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations
• Zoho: A great alternative to Google Docs.  It's a kind-of all-in-one place deal.   
• Blogger: Many districts block this, but allow edublogs.  However, to me, nothing beats blogger in terms of flexibility, coding, shared authors, and other features I need
• Flickr Creative Commons (a great tool for teachers, too): We use it all the time for website and presentations.  One irritating thing is when people post deliberately copywritten material on it.
• PBWiki: Some people love wikispaces or Googlesites, but PBWiki just seems to capture the wiki experience best for my students
• Ning: It's easy to set up a social network for my own class.  The kids seem to intuitively understand it. I know of other teachers who prefer SocialGo
• Google Notebook: We use this constantly for research.  It lets kids write notes and save websites. 
• Delicious: I was reluctant to let students use this, because it seemed pointless with Google Notebook.  However, as they started to share links with each other, I saw the benefit of this simple tool.  Next year, I'm going to try out Diigo
• Google Books: We use this to access and read many of the public domain classics

Connecting to Teachers

• Teacherlingo: It's like a staff lounge without the angry rants
• Classroom 2.0: A great site for anyone trying to connect and learn about technology

Helpful Blogs

• Middle School Teacher: A great mix of personal thoughts, ideas about education reform and practical tips
• Betty's Blog: She's level-headed and yet passionate and full of both personal and practical wisdom
• Cornerstone: Tons of practical ideas with a slightly cutesy perspective
• It's Not All Flowers and Sausages: A blog filled with wit and humor, but often containing some sharp analysis of the system
• Brazen Teacher: I connect well with this blog, because the author is as anti-standardization as I am, but she explains it in a much more creative style 
• Science Teacher: One of the smartest bloggers around, a scientist with the soul of a poet
• Cal Teacher Blog: Mr. Bibo is a man with wisdom, conviction and practical ideas. The blog has some real thought-provoking posts
• Clif's Notes: If I needed one blog to keep me up to date on technology, it would be this.  It's like having a tech guru on my laptop all the time
• Reach for More / Aspira a Mas: One of the few teaching blogs out there with a Latina perspective
• The Power of Educational Technology: A little less practical than Clif's Notes, but constantly thought-provoking
• The Doc is In: He seems to blog about everything, but with a distinct mix of both authority and humility
• Countdown to Teachhub: I wish I had this site when I was first starting out.  I felt like i constantly needed some practical tips and this site offers them. One of my favorite features is the YouTube writing prompts. 
• In the Trenches: It's the kind of blog that I read when teaching feels a little lonely.  

Any thoughts? Any site suggestions?

Right now we're reading Farenheit 451 in my seventh hour.  When I first read it, I thought it was about censorship.  Then I thought it was about literacy and what happens when books are replaced by television (Marshall McLuhan's concept that the medium is the message) and now I'm realizing it's all about entertainment and what it does with ideas.  

So, we were discussing the issue of the religion of entertainment.  I told them you could find a culture's religion by looking for its heroes, by finding the focal point in its huts, by searching for the talest building, by finding the location of its largest gathering and my looking for the people who tell others what to wear.  They all thought I was crazy and maybe I am.  Too many anthropology courses we'll screw a man up.  So, we used this criteria on history and then applied it to our current times.  The fact that they all too readily agreed that we follow a god of amusement confirmed by suspicion that we all follow a god of amusement.  And then a girl pulled me aside.

 I was having a discussion about how to decorate our doors (a somewhat pointless schoolwide contest to get kids excited about reading) when a student interrupted me, "I just can't believe this. They have it all wrong. I know we're addicted to entertainment. I know it's all about pleasure without happiness. I get it. But the minute they start burning books people will want to read. If society wants to destroy reading, they'll give people prizes instead."

"Maybe pizza coupons," I answered.  "Or perhaps AR points."

It gave me hope that the Digital generation will be the Digital rebels.  Maybe we'll reward kids for logging in hours at the t.v. or sending out more texts and they'll rebel with books and poetry and paint-covered canvases. 

What if the best time to write lesson plans is actually during a staff in-service? What if the best time to hold a conference with a student is during bell work?  What if a teacher's time is better spent doing a project with students after school than running an after-school detention?  I ask these questions as I consider my first two years of teaching.  I spent hours at school but accomplished less.  To some degree, I realize that this is the natural process of learning to take certain shortcuts and becoming faster at basic paperwork.  However, another part of it has to do with the way I chose to spend my time. 

I was a man driving around a new town with no map, no directions and no sense of the best places to go.  I was meandering through the roads only to hit a constant barrage of traffic cones.  I felt a strong need to make little pit stops, only to realize that these tiny moments wasted time and gas and left me frustrated. Moreover, I was like the teenage driver who stops and revs my image, hoping people will admire me when they actually see me as brash and annoying.  

I won't pretend I've got a magical map now.  I also admit that sheer effeciency isn't the ideal either.  If my metaphor is that of a driver, I am more likely now to carpool than I was in the beginning.  However, I do feel like I've learned how to drive a better route and get to where I need to go faster.  

The following is a list of time-wasters that I've learned to avoid:

• Committees: It's like deliberately choosing to drive in the "pack" - same group think, same waste of time
  
• E-mail: Checking it constantly is like deliberately trying to find the red lights.  I'm better off reading it twice a day
• Gossip: It's basically like gawking at a car accident and leading to more rubber necking
• Copy Machine: I've learned to avoid rush hour by making copies on Thursdays at five o'clock.  It's nearly empty and I'm left with the company of a humming machine and an incessant flickering flourescent light
• Staff Meeting: People say it's rude to grade papers during a staff meeting.  I think it's rude to take up a teacher's time to read meaningless PowerPoint presentations.  Grading papers duirng a staff meeting is basically taking a detour, a shortcut that will actually accomplish something. 
• Check-mark Grading: It's the equivalent of weaving.  I'm better off grading fewer papers and inputting less grades.  
• Discipline Meetings: It's pretty much asking for road-rage.  Grab a kid, shame him in front of his parents, tell him his a failure and then expect it to work?  

I can drive backwards with a kid by setting up paperwork to fail him, meetings to shame him and detentions that he won't attend.  Or, I could spend that time getting to know him, hearing his story and giving him opportunities to use his skills for the benefit of the community. The route might be slow and it might be rocky terrain, but at least it's moving forward. It just seems to be pointless to deliberately drive into a dead-end with a kid.

To go back to my own journey, I switched my grading to assessing (huge difference), made an effort to use my preps for real work and use wasted time to get to know students.  So, now I use bell work as a time to conference.  I use the time before school (the twenty minutes required by contract time) to make videos and podcasts.  We do art-based service projects at lunch and larger projects an hour after school.  Last year, when we had two preps, we met as a team only once a week and used the other team meetings to tutor students in reading and writing.  I learned to delegate certain tasks to students (organizing and cleaning, for example) so that I could spend more time being a teacher.  

I'm not suggesting that every teacher copy me.  However, one thing that worked for me was writing down my basic weekly schedule and ask, "Is this really helping students live better?"  If the answer was no, the next question was, "How can I do this faster or get rid of it entirely?" Sometimes the answer was surprising.  Chatting with a colleague led to great lesson plans.  Printing out weekly progress reports made little difference.  Yet, the longer I learned the terrain, the better I became at finding the best routes.

So, the lingering question that I'm curious about is, "What are some time-wasters you see in education and what can teachers do to get past these barriers?"

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/k2d2vaca/703476356/ 

What about that wad of paper on the ground? Yep, it's personal.

When I first began teaching, I had a difficult time with classroom management. Well-intentioned teachers would explain to me, "It's not personal." Often, this advice was accompanied by "you just need to develop a thicker skin." In other words, desensitize yourself to the pain and insecurities attached to having students throw papers, talk when I'm talking and saying sarcastic comments.

On some level, I see what they meant. Students often don't intend to be hurtful. Many times, they carry heavy baggage from home or they're irritated with another student or they're going through an awful junior high break up, learning that seventh grade love will not last forever. Still, I wonder if we do children a disservice when we "focus on the behaviors" and ignore the relational side.

What if it is personal? What if a child misbehaves because he is bored and he is a little angry with the teacher for making class boring? What if a child throws a paper because the teacher has not earned the child's respect? What if a child means nothing by acting out? It might not "seem" personal, but the reality is that kids need to learn that their actions have the capability to hurt people.

For me (and I cannot apply this to all people) the answer is not to deny it, put on a tough-guy mask and plow through as if nothing is happening. Nor does it work to simply focus on the behavior and offer a reward or punishment. The best solution is to start a dialogue about why we act the way we do. This way, students have the chance to speak openly and the teacher gets a peak at what is going on behind the scenes. Furtheremore, this establishes trust and gets students to think in a way that is more sympathetic to others.

For example, when a child throws paper in class (which is rare when a lesson is engaging, procedures are clear and instruction is differentiated), I will walk over quietly and ask what happened. I'll even preface it with, "I'm not writing a referral. I want to know what this was all about." I'll use statements like, "It feels distracting to others when you throw papers and it gets me really frustrated. It makes me feel like a student doesn't care." Usually, when we get it to this relational, human level, the student will apologize or will share what's really going on.

Again, the idea is not "don't take it personally," but to handle the personal side with dignity. Instead of addressing behavior, a teacher has the opportunity to model forgiveness and compassion and to walk the ever-difficult paradox of being accepting of students while being firm in discipline. I'm not advocating a long Dr. Phil moment or a classroom where I wear a cardigan and play the guitar to the tune of Kumbaya. Instead, I'm suggesting that I engage students in a coversation about what it means to be respectful toward others.

This relational approach works two ways, however. I have apologized publicly for punishing an entire class or for yelling or for moments when I got the class off-topic. I used to believe that being vulnerable would make me an easy target. Now I realize it helps me to earn trust and respect.

When I first began teaching, I viewed it entirely as an art.  I railed against formal lesson plans, Blackboard Configurations and measurable goals.  It jarred me to see mission statements or hear the word "data" or listen to a diatribe about shirts and ties or clean desks or whatever else people called professional. I had little faith in science, because, well science was why we could split an atom and destroy an entire civilization from the view of a sterilized, antiseptic office.  

While I never came around to the "professional side" of it. I still despise the dress code requirements (I'd teach better in denim) or the mission statements or the term "the business of education."  Yet, I have grown to love the science of teaching.  After doing some research with my Capstone Project, I am finding the process relevant.  Science can be exploration and data can be qualitative information.  I love the creative side of developing a hypothesis and the community of a peer-review process.  

I'm realizing that there is an artistic side to science.  It's intuitive and creative.  Yet, there is a science in all art; a theory to learn, a craft to master.  Both require some structure and allow for some creativity.  Perhaps all art is science and all science is art.  Maybe the distinction is a false barrier created by modernists who needed a world that fit into spreadsheets.  

So, it leads me to the Survey Saturday question:

Is teaching an art or science?

My friend Dierdre wrote a quote on her Twitter:

Robert Stakes "When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative."

I'll add my twist:

When the politician steals the soup and sells the restaurant to a multinational corporation, that's NCLB.

Photo Credit:

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nettsu/2583828612/ 

I just recently read a blog post about someone whose eyes were opened after building homes in Mexico.  I really appreciated the style and tone, because it wasn't all condemning or self-righteouss and it didn't reek of the "Those poor people are worse than we Americans" that I used to hear sometimes from missionaries.  

It got me thinking about a hero of mine, Job.  Some people say the book is fictional, that it's an allegory free of the space and time and cultural restraints.  While I do think it's a story with universal application, I tend to think Job was a real man.  Call me romantic.  What I love about the Job story is his honesty and passion, his realistic take on suffering and the comfort from which he can ask questions.  It's interesting to watch the theoretical conversation that develops about whether suffering was his fault.  Still, my favorite part of the book occurs in the middle of the book, when he mentions how badly he misses God and he defends his actions by talking about how he defended the cause of the poor.  

It's more than that, though. Job loved the poor and knew the poor.  Fighting for social justice has its place and Job cites that.  Yet, he ways "eyes to the blind and feet to the lame."  He held their hands, sat with them to hear their stories and valued them when others thought they were throw-aways.  My guess is that Job would be a badass middle school teacher.  He'd know the losers and the freaks and the geeks and he'd listen to them, free of the social hierarchy.  

It made me think about people in the Bible who have shaped my teaching style:

• Nehemiah - He reminds me that relationships and programs both matter.   His story also reminds me that it's possible to care about people you haven't met yet
• Joshua - I love the mentor story that develops between Moses and Joshua.  To me, that's what should happen in all education.  
• Paul - I agree with his notion that a person must live what he preaches.  Plus, I just like him.  He's raw and offensive and yet he's got this tender side.  And, as a teacher, he does a great job of contextualizing his message to the culture.
• John - I know he's a disciple, not a teacher.  But the term "disciple" in Greek means teacher.  I love how he can be simple and complex at the same time, how he can be personal and theoretical and how often he uses symbolism and metaphor.  
• Barnabas - In a staff lounge that can feel like Survivor, it's cool to see someone who constantly encourages, not out of manipulation or "rewards" but because he knows that people are dying for encouraging words.  I want to be like that.
• Solomon (or whoever wrote Ecclesiastes - I've heard arguments on both sides for its authorship) - I can't even begin to describe how much that book shaped my own teaching approach

Sometimes I forget how offensive all of this is to people.  Tell someone that I don't believe in a list of good and bad kids and I'll get laughed out of the teacher's lounge.   Tell a person that I believe Paul knows more than Marzano and I'll be called irrelevant.  Mention the fact that the Ecclesiastes is the ultimate guide to classroom management and I'm viewed as crazy.  

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://morguefile.com/archive/display/532186

My favorite history book of all time is Modris Eksteins' Walking Since Daybreak.  It is sharp in its analysis, but creative in its style.  Ekestins uses metaphor and poetic flair while analyzing statistics and deconstructing popular myths.  It is a narrative with multiple threads, telling the story of his own family, the story of Latvia in the middle ages and offering a critical analysis of Eastern Europe in its current identity crisis.  

I mention this, because it seems that there are various camps within social studies education who advocate their cause dogmatically.  "Kids need practical skills, a back-to-basics examination of the facts."  Others argue, "Let them be creative.  After all, we're seeing the rise of the creative class in the New Economy."  Still others say, "It needs to be analytical.  They need to read difficult texts and think critically as a result."  

When I read Walking Since Daybreak, I remember the broad, integrative aspect of a human mind.  We create various compartments and emphasize one over the other, when students need them all.  I want my students to think well about life.  This means they will explore philosophical ideas and theory. They will think analytically with sharp precision.  Yet, they will also create and explore and find the human connections.  Still, I also want them to gain some practical skills that are necessary for life.  Although I need them to construct learning based upon prior knowledge, sometimes I will need to present facts for them to remember and access in the future. 

I have a tendency to make loud pronouncements with bold, dogmatic declaratives.  I spin metaphors and claim that they are "as is."  Yet, to my core, I realize that nearly every approach has its place in studying history (aside from a photocopied packet or section reviews).  I am reminded of one of my favorite sages of the past who claimed that there was a time and a place for everything under Heaven.  

Though it might be sacrilige, I'd add, "A time analyze and a time to memorize, a time to create and a time to deconstruct, a time for narrative and a time for metannarrative."  Okay, maybe I should stop and leave that to the original sage.

I realize that Middle School often seems to be the zone where teachers give up using "learning centers." Indeed, the term conjures up images of pasted macaroni, coloring books and worksheets.  However, the notion of moving around various workspaces can have a place in social studies.  I use the learning center concept on a more long-term basis.  

Here's how it works:

Each learning center lasts one week and students rotate around a total of eight centers over the course of the quarter.  This way, every child has a chance to participate in every learning center.  I attempt to hit the social studies standards that are often neglected, including service, current events and research skills. 

Description of Each Learning Center

Expanding Voice: Creative Writing Center

Materials: Computers (optional), old-style paper (optional - some students like to blend poetry with visuals)

Rationale: On a personal level, creativity is a part of what it means to be human.  It's how we express ourselves and yet it is often not a part of traditional social studies classes.  On a practical level, it helps students to improve in the voice area of the six traits and it helps develop a necessary skill for the New Economy.  

Description: Students write poetry or short stories.  I give them various writing prompts or let them choose one independently. 

Blended Media: Multimedia Center

Materials: Good computers, video, mp3 player

Rationale: This one is all about the planning and creating of videos and podcasts as well as presentations (some kids do audio powerpoints)

Description: Students plan the podcasts or videos, record them and then have a chance to mix / edit them

Reading Region: A Non-fiction Reading Center

Materials: A couch (I know that this might seem strange, but when kids are a little less excited about reading, the couch becomes a comfortable zone for them), some mid-level lighting, a stack of magazines connected to social studies

Rationale: Reading is crucial, especially when students struggle with non-fiction.  Here is there opportunity to read in an environment where there is more comfort and autonomy.

Description: Students read a particular article and it usually takes a few days.  They also use graphic organizers to make sense out of it.  Finally, they write a summary and a short analysis of it. In many cases, they will take the article summary and expand it into a full-scale 5 paragraph article.

My Voice: A Persuasive and Expository Writing Center

Materials: Computers (optional)

Rationale: Students need time to go through the entire writing process and this is their chance. It will help them for the larger tests, but more importantly, it will help them develop into better writers.

Description: Students do a pre-write, an outline, a rough draft and an edit of the rough draft.

Social Solutions:  A Critical Thinking Center

Materials: The Conflict Sheet

Rationale: Students engage in thinking from various perspectives.  They have to be able to argue two sides to an issue and then create a potential solution.  This is a smaller, modified version of a Problem-based Learning, which mirrors what many students will use some day in the workplace.

Description: Students read about the conflict, view it from multiple perspectives and then offer their solution in both a written and a podcast format.

Literacy 2.0: Interactive Blogging and Wiki Center

Materials: Computers (I use refurbished computers here)

Rationale: Students can use Web 2.0 tools as they are truly designed

Description: Students create questions for the discussion zone, moderate discussions in the social network, edit the wiki articles and post comments on various blogs

The Art Collective: Art and Advocacy Center

Materials: Depends on the project

Rationale: Art is a critical ingredient missing from so much of what students experiene in a typical school day. 

Description: Students participate in collective art projects and have the option to use materials to create their own art projects.  We strive to use as much re-used or recycled products as possible.

Primary Detectives: Primary Source Exploration Center

Materials: I have old primary sources (letters from the 1800's, postcards from the early 1900's)

Rationale: I want students to grasp the reality that history is about interpreting primary sources and trying to make sense out of them. 

Description: I give students a stack of primary sources that they can analyze.

I did a Wordle combining my two blogs and this is what I found:

I thought it was cool that "students" and "read" were top words.  So was "best."  Any time, I can have something in the superlative, I'm doing okay.

This began as a response on my friend Quinn's blog.

Christy once told me the number of hours a person spends in a lifetime ironing, folding socks, folding sheets. She asked me, "When you are on your death bed, do you want to have those hours back? Do you want to say to yourself, 'I ironed well' or 'I lived well?'"

It was a no brainer for me. We don't iron our clothes or fold our socks and I don't regret this decision. So, I am making a list of things I don't do, because I see them as a waste of time:

1. Folding socks or sheets, ironing, sorting out the colors before I wash the clothes
2. Messing with a watch, a cell phone or anything that could easily be lost
3. Following professional sports. Life is already complicated and confusing. Why add the drama of living vicariously through men in tights?
   
4. Joining committees at school. I wish I could have the hours back that I lost my first few years of teaching.
   
5. Mowing the yard every week. When I look back to my own childhood, I say, "I wish my dad had made more time for playing catch" rather than "I wish our lawn had been more pristine."
   
6. Going to Happy Hour. It's almost always not happy. I'd rather get to know teachers one-on-one over coffee or a pint.
   
7. Making the bed. I hate feeling "tucked-in" and I don't see the point in un-making a bed every night.
   
8. Washing the car. It's a hunk of metal. Besides, it's what's on the inside that counts, right?
9. Seating charts. Kids can choose where to sit just fine.
   
10. Drinking bottled water. It just feels like a waste of time to hunt down plastic bottles and then later having to find a recycle bin so I can feel real smug about being "green."
    

I realize that there are things about my life people would see as a waste of time: cooking meals, praying, reading books, running. I realize it's all relative.

Hey, I have written a few blog posts on my other blog that might interest some of my non-teacher friends and some of the people who regularly read this one:

• The Island of Misfit Toys
  
• The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread
  

Also, I got a real kick out of one of my student's blog post on our Social Voice Blog.  It's entitled, "Bailing Out the World" and it was a real cool connection he made between our globalization unit and the bailout.  

It's the best thing since sliced bread.  A bit cliche, but true on the surface; that is, if "best" simply means more efficient, more convenient and more marketable.  However, to anyone who actually kneads the dough, lets it rise, bakes it and then slices through the hearty hunk of happiness, pre-sliced bread loses its claim to the superlative.  

I'm losing my ability to write.  I can tip-tap on the keyboard for hours, but my hand cramps up when I take a paper to pen.  I'm faster and more efficient on the computer.  This blog will take me five, ten minutes tops, to write.  I can click the ABC icon and instantly become a semi-decent speller.  I used to write in a journal.  Each page became a blend of prose and poetry, sketches and doodles.  I couldn't "do" anything with the text, aside from storing it in stacks of spiral notebooks at the top of a closet.  My online words become ones and zeroes, forever archived in a place that never gathers dust.  Sometimes, though, I feel that I've lost something.  

I have an MP3 player that can store 1,000 songs but sometimes I wish I still had a record player and could feel the vinyl on my hands as I set up the "Hotel California" album.  I read student work instantaneously, but sometimes I miss the mistakes I could read when it was hand-written. (Indeed, I'm grading papers, real papers for the first time in ages and I feel like I'm seeing a side to students that had been lost).  

I'm not opposed to MP3 players or to hulu.com or to blogs and wikis and Pandora and Twitter. I love the efficiency, the ease, the quick connections, the instant amusement.  I believe in using many of those tools within the classroom. However, I am skeptical when anyone makes the claim that the Digital Age is the best thing since sliced bread.  

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennajones/294068096/