Adventures By Design

So other than a few comments about typos and such, Ric and I have gotten few comments about our online teaching portfolios (at www.lamonte-bird.com if you haven’t seen them yet). I’m going to take the silence as approval, but if you do have comments we’re very interested to know what you think.

However I did get some feedback on my teaching portfolio the other day. Although it came from a respected source, it was feedback that I didn’t really agree with. The response I wrote made me think about my basic understanding of what it means to be a teacher, and I thought it worthwhile to share my thoughts with all (3) of you who read this blog.

First the comment:

Well !! I was finally able to find your and Richard’s [teaching portfolio]. Very interesting. I envy you your accomplishments in that sophisticated world of academia but as someone once said,”Give us the tools and we will finish the job.” A [teachers' college professor] of ours would always start her lesson with, “Now, take your little six year old…..” You are paid to give them the tools. To keep happy and effective, think short term. Leave the philosophy with those who have nothing concrete to work on.

And my response:

I had to think long and hard before I sent this response to you. I think I owe it to myself and to you to be intellectually honest, and not repress or hide my thoughts and opinions for any reason. So here you go:

Socrates once said that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” In the same spirit I would say that an teacher unwilling to examine herself, and her teaching practice, is not worth learning from. A teacher who doesn’t consider the implications of what she does in the classroom on a daily basis should not be given the ultimate responsibility of teaching children, who are the future of our society.

Some believe that all a teacher does is give children ‘the tools’ of reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic. While I certainly do give my students those basic skills to function in society, I also feel a compunction to give them the ability to understand, critique, and change their world. I must think carefully about who my students are, and who they are becoming, in order to give them the best possible education that I can.

To imply that philosophy is not concrete or valuable is to discard the greatest achievements that humans have made. To ignore the inner world of thought and imagination makes people out to be nothing more than automatons that need to be trained to function well (and not ask questions) in order to keep our economy and status quo stable.

I hope that you were simply playing the devil’s advocate, and that you do not truly believe what you wrote to me about teaching. I find the idea I am simply “paid to give them the tools” and that I should therefore “leave the philosophy with those who have nothing concrete to work on” soul-sapping and depressing. In the same way that Socrates chose death before silence, I would choose to stop teaching rather than stop thinking about how and why I teach.

I appreciate you sharing your point of view with me. I suppose this exchange simply shows how dramatically teacher education, and the teaching profession, have changed. I hope that you can understand and respect my point of view. From the first weeks of teachers’ college I have learned to be a philosophical and self-reflective teacher. I like and respect myself as a teacher, but believe that being critical and philosophical about my practice is the only way to improve.

A week or so ago I spoke to my friend Trent about a problem he was having with some of his students. He teaches at a school in northern BC, Canada, and many of his students come from families who don’t have a high regard for formal education. (Trent posted the following as a comment on another earlier post on intrinsic motivation, but I moved it here so we can see it.)

Hey
So I will post my ethical dilemma question here.
It basically boils down to where do I set the bar as far as what standards are achieved in the grade 9 class when I know students will quit school altogether if they fail my class.
Who do I owe a duty of care to? All students to make sure they stay in school as long as possible or the ones that actually want to graduate.
Keeping in mind that in the community I teach in students basically have their own choice as to when they quit school. I have lost 3 grade 10 students so far this year.
I think I have my answer after a great deal of thought and reflection but would definitely appreciate any and all feed back.

Hi Trent. I’ve been thinking about this since you first emailed me. It’s a tough issue that doesn’t have an easy solution; I’m not sure how to counsel you. I have had these two seemingly irreconcilable themes running around my head.

• No matter how much you try, you are not likely to change the fundamental values of the students’ community. If the community doesn’t value education, then no matter if those kids get A+’s in your class, they are still at-risk of dropping out. It seems that as long as they are not failing (but also not trying very hard) then they are willing to stay in school. If that is true, then what is the value of the diploma they will receive? And are we not wasting their time in school when they could be helping out around their families’ homes and learning ‘real world’ skills?
• Contrast that line of reasoning with this: every day they stay in school, is a day of potential learning. Who knows what they are retaining and thinking about, regardless of their grades in your class. Further, you never know when they are going to have an “a-ha!” moment, and academically flourish. So, you should err on the side of caution, and if you have to warp your standards to keep those kids in school, then so be it.

I’m curious how your colleagues feel about this. Your admin? How about other resource people (counselor, nurse, constable, social worker, etc)? They have had to confront their version of this issue, and I’m curious what their perspective is.

Here are some of the options I see and their advantages and disadvantages. However, I’m reminded of one of my favorite (Jewish) proverbs: If you have only two alternatives, then choose the third. I’m sure there are hundreds of other options that aren’t included in this list.

option 1:
maintain high standards for the class

advantages:
you maintain your high expectations
you maintain your integrity

disadvantages:
some of your students will fail and drop out

option 2:
maintain high standards for everyone, make the at-risk students stretch themselves, and if they still fail, change the standard for them so they’ll pass

advantages:
you maintain your high expectations
your at-risk students may try harder

disadvantages:
your integrity is under question
your admin may get on your case
unless all of their teachers do the same until they graduate, the at-risk students are still at risk of failing other classes and dropping out

option 3:
maintain high standards for everyone, meet with the at-risk students and their folks, tell them that they are in danger of failing, and suggest an academic contract (they do X and they pass)

advantages:
you maintain your high expectations
you maintain your integrity
your at-risk students may try harder
empowers students’ sense of responsibility and invites them to take part in their own education

disadvantages:
necessitates enough of a “buy-in” from the students that they will actually try
unless all of their teachers do the same until they graduate, the at-risk students are still at risk of failing other classes and dropping out

option 4:
lower the standards in your class

advantages:
those at-risk students will pass your class
everyone’s scores will go up

disadvantages:
your integrity is under question
your class becomes downgraded, less challenging, less meaningful
your admin may get on your case
unless all of their teachers do the same until they graduate, the at-risk students are still at risk of failing other classes and dropping out

option 5:
lower the standards for only those at-risk students

advantages:
those at-risk students will pass your class
the rest of the class is still challenged

disadvantages:
your integrity is under question
your admin may get on your case
unless all of their teachers do the same until they graduate, the at-risk students are still at risk of failing other classes and dropping out

Looking at this list, I’d publicly maintain my high standards for the whole class, but privately offer them a contract that challenges them while recognizing their underdeveloped academic abilities (option 3). If at the end of the semester those at-risk students are (mildly) failing, I’d talk to them and see if I should fudge their scores so they pass (option 5).

From your recent post, you mentioned that “I have my answer after a great deal of thought and reflection”. Great! So… ?

I know there are several teachers who occasionally browse my blog. Please weigh in on this question and tell us what you think. Like Trent said, any and all feedback is welcomed.

Richard

Yesterday I received this email from my friend and colleague Mike Hopaluk:

Hey there,

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.
Question: did you pay the extra to have the ads turned off on your
class wikispace?
Ben and I are going to have the kids all have their own blogs next
year and I am looking around to find the best one for our purposes.
Any suggestion would be met with respect and bountiful ‘thank you”s.

Peace out

-Mike

Hi Mike. Thanks for asking me about this. I’m really excited to see what you and Ben do next year. I’ll provide you with advice based on my experiences with wikispaces with my grade fours this year. As you can see, I’ve taken your question as a great topic for a post on how to use wikis and blogs in the classroom.

Ok, the first thing to think about is how you are going to use your blogs and a wiki. I’d suggest using your student blogs as you have used your class message board: for all the day-to-day notices you want your students to share with their class. Remember, a blog is a timeline and changes daily (hourly), but there is only one author of each post. This is point-to-many, although with comments readers can reply and share their thoughts. A wiki is the opposite: use a wiki for collaboration as you explore projects as a class. This is many-to-many, and as people can all change the page, there are multiple authors, and little individual ownership of ideas. In my experience, while you use your blog everyday, your wiki will follow the ebbs and flows of the class and have periods of frenetic activity followed by dormancy.

Getting a wiki
If you want an education-related wiki, you can get one for free with no ads from Wikispaces. Wikispaces is bringing wikis to the education crowd, and so are giving away 100,000 subscriptions. There are other wiki services out there, but when I was deciding where to go, Wikispaces seemed like it was the easiest and most student-friendly. Plus, Wikispaces has a great community of teachers doing the same kinds of things that you are doing, and they openly collaborate to solve each others problems. Friendly, knowledgeable, and fun, it was like a virtual IT staffroom.

All the kids will need logins and passwords. Either they can sign up themselves (not recommended), or you can submit a list of your students’ login names, passwords, and email addresses. If (when) students forget their login or password, Wikispaces can automatically send them an email to help them. Including the email addresses is optional, but I will require it when I do this again. As many of my grade fours didn’t have an email address, I signed them up without emails. This created a huge headache for the rest of the year, as whenever they forgot their login or password, I had to email the support staff at Wikispaces who would then reset the password and email me back. Those folks are busy, and that took a week or more sometimes.

Getting a Blog
Just like with wikis, there are numerous blog services. I used Blogspot a couple years ago and found it easy to use, but not very flexible. I’d stay away, especially now that I know what WordPress has to offer. Wordpress is easy to use, yet robust blogging software. It has lots of themes (push a button and instantly change the entire appearance of your blog), and plugins and widgets (think: tiny programs that extend what WordPress does: for example, calendars, maps, Flickr).

You can get a WordPress blog for free from Edublogs.org. They are an education-specific blogging service that uses WorPress Multiuser (WPMU). I haven’t used this site because until a few months ago, I didn’t know they existed. But they seem to do for blogging what Wikispaces does for wikis, and I’d suggest giving them a shot.

One more thing: using any hosted site is a trade-off between convenience and flexibility. You will only be able to control certain things about your blog, and many features may not be available to you. This may be enough for you, however remember that if you ever get frustrated that your blog doesn’t have some feature you want, you also have the option to have create your own WordPress blog. There are many hosting companies that will charge on $7-10/month to host your blog, giving you complete control over your blog(s) and what it does. You also are the person responsible when things go wrong. I wouldn’t recommend this option unless you find a need for something more than Edublogs can provide, but keep it in mind.

Using your Blog + Wiki
How you use your student blogs and wiki will be an evolving question as your class becomes more familiar with them. Obviously you should provide a link from one to the other, but you can also dynamically join them together using RSS feeds. Basically, an RSS feed is a way to monitor when a webpage (i.e. wiki or blog) changes. Both wikispaces and edublogs support RSS, which means that your students could embed their blog’s feed into a wiki, and the wiki’s feed into their blogs. Here’s one suggestion: make a homepage on your wiki that acts as a directory to all the projects you have going on the wiki. Add to this a section that shows the latest RSS feeds from your student blogs; think of it as display of the class’s current events. Now on the blogs, do the opposite. Make a section that shows the “most recent changes” of the wiki.

I hope this helps you. Good luck with this new adventure, and let’s keep in touch and help each other.

Richard

PS: If you are interested, I’ve got a list of all the special things you can embed in a wiki. Look here for a list of some of the things you can do.

Our professional teaching portfolio is now finished! Let the job offers stream in. We’ve been working on this for what feels like years, but finally it is finished. Check out the cool photo of Gin and I in Osaka, Japan.

Ok, ok, it isn’t really finished: there is still a whole page on lesson plans that we’re still working on, and a few reference letters that need to be added. But other than that, it’s finished. And besides, portfolios are supposed to be living documents, right?

Any thoughts?

My good friend Trent has been teaching in northern Canada for a couple years now. He’s been teaching middle school social studies, among other things. The school’s rural and many of its attendants are conservative farmers who don’t always have a strong appreciation for formal education.

In a reply to one of my posts Trent asked me for my thoughts on this question: