Outside the Cave 2.0

I'm taking a second stab at blogging. Outside the Cave 2.0 can be found here. Here is a link to the new RSS feed.

NCTE Thread

What have you heard about Blogging, MySpace, Facebook, etc. that may pose problems when using these tools in your classes? What can you do to avoid these problems in your classes?

Responsible Blogging

Note: This was originally posted in a slightly different form in May 2005. I am reposting it on the front page to use with a group of students today.

Responsible Blogging Lesson Plan:

Objectives:
At end of the lesson, students will:

• Recognize the potential dangers of irresponsible blogging
• Write an "Acceptable Blog Use" policy for our class
• Be ready to begin the responsible use of blogs in our class.

Reading Materials:

• "Local Authorities are becoming concerned over teen blogging" from the Sikeston, MO Standard Democrat
• "Safety R Us" from Weblogg-ed.com
• "More on Safety" from Bud The Teacher
• "Blog Policy" from Bud The Teacher's Wiki

Lesson:

• Students will read links online
  
• Take notes on thoughts (15 minutes)
• Discussion #1 - What are some of the potential dangers of blogging discussed in these articles? Which of these concerns are legitimate? Why or why not? What other dangers are there in blogging that were not discussed in the articles? (10 minutes)
• Discussion #2 - (Students will respond as a comment on this post) What type of situations should our class blog policy cover? What are appropriate consequences for breaking the policy? (10 minutes)
• After the discussion, students will get in groups of 3-4, and come up with a list of 3 rules they feel should be included in our class blog policy. They also will have to come up with consequences (10 minutes)
• Students put rules on the board (5 minutes)
• Discussion - What rules are we missing? (This will just be brainstorming...no shooting ideas down). What rules do you disagree with? (Disagreements will be put to a majority vote) - (15 minutes)
• Follow up: I will type of the policy, and have students sign a copy of it the following class.

Help Wanted - Using Video Games in the Classroom

I remember when I first started blogging and reading other teacher blogs about two years ago, Clarence was working on a very exciting project with his students involving Sim City. I've always thought it would be both fun and productive to do something similar in my history classroom. Lucky for me, my school had some software money that needed to be spent by the end of the month or we would loose it, so I ordered a few copies of both Civilization IV and Age of Empires III. I'm planning on using them during the last month of the year with students who took the Global History Regents exam this week and did well enough to not have to worry about a retake (the rest of my students will be reviewing for the Regents Exam).

So in essences, I want to create a project using these games that also serves as a culmination of my students' two-year study of Global History. The scope of both games seems ideal for this. Right now I am imagining something where students play the game and then keep a running diary or blog of their achievements, maybe with a short story component added for the final product. These ideas are pretty abstract, for now at least.

I was just wondering if anyone out there has used these games, or others like them, in their classes and could help me out - Did it work out alright? What type of more "traditional academic" work did students produce from the experience? What road blocks, if any, did you encounter? What can I do to make this a meaningful experience for my students? Even if you have never used games like these, do you have any ideas to make this work well?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Response to "School Matter: The Bloomberg Defense"

The following is in response to this post on School Matter. Here also are links to Jim's initial post and my initial response:

Not sure if this was clear or not on my last comment, but I'm with you 90-95% of the way. I just don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and also to make sure you're making the best possible argument. Does the fact that management companies are going to be non-profit mean they won't be evil like the College Board? Of course not. But I think it's important to differentiate between the corporatization of public schooling (which is happening in NYC) and the privatization of public schooling (which, though seems to be coming down the road, isn't what is happening here now).

I have my doubts as to whether any remaining middle class parents who continue to have kids in NYC public schools will allow their kids' funds to be drained off. It has never happened before, and I don't expect it happen now in this reverse Robin Hood era.

There's a good chance you're correct here. Though Bloomberg may be addressing this with the increase in schools with admission test a la Stuyvesant. With that said, I'm not complaining that my school will be getting some of the funds that used to go elsewhere. With that said, I fear NYC Educator may be spot on with his Trojan Horse comment. The shift from allocating a certain number of staff positions to a certain dollar amount for salaries is part of what allows for this change. This is worrisome.

Sad, indeed. This is the typical neo-liberal treatment to the poverty and racism issue: ignore the real problem, provide services that only the middle class can use, and then blame the poor for not using them.

I have to admit, I was very disappointed to read this remark. Let's get fact straight again first - 86% of students at my school get free lunch - we have no middle class. The extra services we provide at Bronx Lab ARE being used by the poor and working class students who we serve. Well I am well aware of the neo-liberal argument you are critiquing here (and am with you on it), I don't think it applies. We are trying to create a culture of transformation and empowerment for our students. Of course this does nothing to address the larger societal issues creating the need for transformation - and when the revolution begins that addresses these, let me know so I can be out there fighting side by side with you for it. But I until that point, I can't see any better bet than the transformational power of education.

That Bloomberg and Klein would be falling over themselves to pander to the "empowerment" schools in order to prove their superiority should be expected, I think. That is the Marc Tucker horse they have their money on, after all. Wonder if the schools served by the remaining superintendents have the resources to honor every requst from teachers?

I don't get resources because we get extra money from the city. I get resources because my principal has the freedom to bring in outside funds, and has control over the funds we do get from the city. We actually get less than average per pupil funding from the traditional sources. Not to mention we're supposedly at 145% overcrowding, and share an old building in lousy condition with six other schools. When Bloomberg/Klein start falling over themselves to pander to us it will be one happy day.

The fact that the City, the State, and the Nation have ignored the poverty, repression, and racism that produced what "hasn't worked" does not seem reason enough to give up on the public schools for not accomplishing what no school system alone can ever accomplish, anyway. If Bloomberg's privatization plan is allowed to succeed, I am sure, Steve, that the Mayor's Office will stay busy congratulating you, your colleagues, and themselves for the new bright successes that were so recently painted as dismal failures. Something new, indeed.

You're right - weak point on my part in terms of the "why not" argument for change. That's for jumping all over it. I hope it doesn't happen again.

New Blogs I'm Reading

The blogs I subscribe to in my RSS Reader seem to follow a boom and bust cycle. There are periods where I do a lot of cleaning out as my current interests change, and then times where I find myself adding a lot of new feeds. I've been adding a lot of adding recently - mostly blogs of newly discovered classroom teachers and some voices on school reform. Some of these blogs are new, others are just new to me, but have all been worth the additional time I spend reading them as a I continue to reflect both on my own personal pedagogy and helping to build a newish school:

Teacher Blogs:

• dy/dan - Dan's been blogged about a lot recently other places, and deserves all the praise he receives. His model of skill based assessment, in particular, has me rethinking how I will approach my planning next year.
• Beyond School - I think sometimes I learn the most about myself from people in the most different situations. I've tended to stay away from international teachers since I started reading blogs, but I am glad to have been reading Clay's blog for a few weeks now. Clay teaches at an prestigious private school in S. Korea - both literally and figuratively half a world away from the Bronx - but has really been expanding my mind lately. His post on eliminating schools buildings inspired me to write what I think are the two longest comments I've ever written last week.
• It's a Hardknock Teacher's Life - Miss Profe is still in her first month of blogging, but has already developed a great, fresh voice. She's the first foreign language teacher blog I've read. I'm looking forward to much more from her.
• The 21st Century School House - Mr. Miller talks a lot about Lit Circles, of which I'm a big fan. He's another new and refreshing voice to the blogosphere.
• Understanding - Not a new blog, just new to me. I've enjoyed reading the insights of someone at a similar stage in his career, in a similar environment.

School Reform Blogs:

• Schools Matter - Thoughts on school reform from people far more experienced and intelligent than me. I wish there were more voices like this represented in the debate on schools.
• The Essential Blog - A blog from the Coalition of Essential Schools. I don't teach at a CES school, but I'd like to think I'm a Coalition Teacher. I wonder what a Coalition of Essential Teachers would look like? (Actually, probably something like this).
• Transform Education - Peter doesn't like KIPP. I don't like KIPP. Unlike me, Peter can back up his views with well thought out and executed research. He is a great voice for the transformational power of education.
  

Another Perspective on the Bloomberg/Klein Reform Efforts

I have tried to stay clear of education policy issues in this blog. However, I feel the need to post an opposing voice to a recent post from Jim Horn at Schools Matter attacking the recent announcements by NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein regarding various reform initiatives they are taking. I generally agree with what Jim has to say - he is a powerful voice for radical education, but I think he is missing some of the radical potential of these initiatives. (Originally submitted as a comment on Schools Matter):

I've been reading your blog for a couple months now and usually appreciate and am with you on most things. I think you're a little quick to jump the gun here though.

First - the facts. The "private management companies" will be non-profits. This isn't a KBR situation. Also, Bloomberg announced this is his his State of the City address the previous day (though didn't go into all the details).

Second - I think the revolutionary part of what Bloomberg/Klein are doing has been lost - the Fair Student Funding Initiative. This means a school like mine in the Bronx that serves the students who need the most will be seeing more money at the expense of schools that tend to serve the Middle Class and Upper Class in nicer part of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

Third - yes, Empowerment Schools can outsource services to other companies. But Empowerment Schools can also partner with community organizations and receive funds that are unavailable to most schools. I teach in an Empowerment School, and we get somewhere in the range of 25%-50% of our total budget from our partner organization - FEGS. Among other things, this allows us to increase our support staff (we have a full time college placement specialist, just like the top private schools) and we can provide a comprehensive after school program. Not to mention the fact that literally every request I have made for classroom materials - from technology to books to curricular materials - I have received.

Are there flaws with the Tucker model of education reform? Of course, and you've highlighted a lot of them. But with that said, there are a lot of benefits, which I am seeing first hand (and believe me, we are not a KIPP like school - I'd like to think people like Paulo Freire and Myles Horton would be proud of most of what they saw at Bronx Lab).

Maybe I am being a little naive here - but I always come back to the fact that the Bronx has something like a 30% graduation rate. What has been done in the past hasn't worked. Isn't it worth trying something new?

Update: In the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should add that my wife works in the Press Department of the NYC Department of Education.

Learning from Mistakes

This really should be a permanent series of this blog - mainly so I remember these past mistakes and don't repeat them (and if others can benefit, all the greater).

I almost titled this piece "The World Isn't Flat", but that might have had the effect of demeaning my students through comparison with others, and I promised myself when I started this that I would never post anything negative about my students. I think people will be able to make their own conclusion on the flatness questions, though.

But anyways - the mistake: Today was scheduled to be my big "How to evaluate information on the Internet" lesson - one that I feel is probably the most important one I teach each year for reasons that are obvious to those who frequent the edublogs. It's the first lesson I've got the chance to teach for a third time, so I'm finally feeling pretty good about it - both in terms of my delivery, my ability to help the students understand its importance, and the learning that results from it. It's the lesson I always use to kick off the first research project of the year. But the problem is that the lesson is meant to be a case of "unlearning". It assumes certain habits amongst students that I'm trying to unteach. In this case I assume that students, when looking for information online, just go to Google or Yahoo! and type something in and start clicking on search results. Even more basic, it assumes that students have a clue as to what to type into a search box to get results. I don't mean meaningful results. I mean any results.

However, in many, if not most, cases in my first period class, there weren't habits to be unlearned. For many, this was probably the first time students were asked to do historical research online. The first class of this unit (which I haphazardly put together for the subsequent periods in the day) is about where to begin the search. I shouldn't have been unteaching anything. I should have simply started with how to go a good search, and then tomorrow, added in the part about evaluating the information we find.

Visiting Beacon - What We Can Learn from Beacon's Senior Year

(This post may not make sense to those who have not been part of the planning process at BLS for our inaugural senior year next fall. This conversation can be observed at our 12th Grade Experience Blog).

I had the chance to observe both a senior English class and a senior History class. I talked briefly to about a dozen students about their senior experiences, and in depth to a young man named Dan for a good fifteen minutes. Thanks to him for that time and the insight he gave. First the good news: When I asked Dan what is the one thing he wished he could change about his senior year, it is that he had started earlier really thinking about the college (in his junior year). The fact that BLS juniors are taking a college course seems to address this very issue. Now onto some random thoughts and observations:

• Seniors at Beacon have options for both senior History and English classes. Dan said this was probably the best part of senior year. I think we have already decided against this for our core, but something to keep in mind as we design the seminar option.
• Seniors at Beacon have a lot of free time built into their schedules (Dan has 14 hours free each week second semester, though I believe that includes lunch). Right now, the tentative plan is for Bronx Lab students to have 12 periods of the core, and 11 period of "Seminar". Maybe 2-4 of those "seminar" periods should officially be some sort of study hall (this of course could be more structured for some students). I think this could have a few benefits for our students: a) it will scaffold the transition to college where they have TONS of free time; b) it allows for some flexibility in teaching loads; c) it gives our students a tangible reward for making it to senior year; and d) it would give students the opportunity to spend time with teachers from whom they need/want extra help. (This time can always be claimed for field trips as well).
• Students said senior year at Beacon is not significantly different from their first three years, and this isn't a bad thing. We're designing a senior year significantly different from 9th-11th grade at BLS. I'm not insinuating we should rethink the path we're going for 12th grade, but rather that maybe some of the great things we're trying to implement for 12th grade should trickle down to the earlier grades.
• Seniors seem to have lots of leadership opportunities in Beacon's clubs and sports teams. I talked about extra-curricular activities in general in a previous post, but I think we need to give our seniors opportunities to be leaders for the school.
• Students at Beacon are allowed to leave the building. I don't know if this is even an option given the shared space and scanning at Evander, but should we consider giving seniors open campus privileges as another tangible reward for making it to senior year.
  

Visiting Beacon - What I Can Bring Back to My Classroom

I actually saw a lot of stuff going on that I was or am already doing, which was kind of nice to see. The project I mentioned in the last post was very similar to one I did with my students earlier in the year. In observing a senior 20th Century American History research seminar on Social History, I spent a lot of time talking to students about how they came up a good research topic. Most of them said it was based on the general survey of the relevant history they had done before choosing an independent research topic. This is the same structure I am using with my students at the moment as they conduct a research project for National History Day. But of course, there was much to be learned from what I saw that I want to bring to my students:

• I am most definitely a teacher of students first, and my subject second. I am certain this is a good thing. However, I also think it is very important to a) be knowledgeable about your subject and b) be passionate about it. Not that I didn't already know this, but in both Global classes I observed today I saw teachers way more knowledgeable about Global History than I am. I also saw teachers clearly passionate about teaching Global - a passion, I have to admit, I do not share. I need more knowledge (which I know will come over time) and I need to find more aspects of non-US / non-20th-century history I am passionate about if I am going to continue teaching Global in the long term.
• Granted this was for a senior research class, but one of the things mandated as part of the research paper was that they conduct an Oral History (or interview an expert) as part of the research. Of the dozen or so students I had a chance to talk to, the ones most into their topics were the ones with a personal connection (a young woman researching the marginalization of women in the Black Panthers who had an aunt in the Panthers, a guy researching the history of public housing who lives in public housing). However, the next set of students most excited about their projects were the ones who had already conducted their Oral History. I also think anytime students can interact with adults outside of the typical power relationship structures of parent/teacher/boss is a great thing. I'd love to find a way to help my students get more of these experiences.
• Also, the aforementioned desire for books and visual art could fit in here as well.
  

Visiting Beacon - What I Liked School Wide

School wide, three things stick out that I'd love to see more of at BLS:

• There is student art work everywhere. Now we at Bronx Lab have hallways filled with work from art classes. However, what blew me away about Beacon is that every class room I went to was covered with content-related, student produced visual art. Sure, I typically have student work up on my walls, but it is almost entirely text-based (which is representative of the work I assign). Not only is this beautiful to look at, but it is indicative of a strong integration of the visual (and from the sounds of it, also performing) arts into the academic curriculum. I don't know how to do this. I need to do this.
• I got the chance to talk to a handful of seniors about their experiences at Beacon. For all of them, they talked first, and most, about their experiences in clubs and sports. I have a VERY bad habit of forgetting that my class is only one of six my students takes, and that even if I taught all six, I would still only occupy a very small portion of what my students saw as the important part of their lives. In terms of the school portion of many students' lives, it is the after-school club and athletic portion that is most important to them, and probably in a good many cases, the most worthwhile portion as well. I know looking back on my high school experience, the most rewarding, engaging, and memorable experiences I had were all related to the time I spent working on our student newspaper, particularly when I was Editor-in-Chief. I am wondering how we can provide more of these opportunities to our students. I am well aware one of the trade-offs involved with a small school is that it limits the variety of extracurriculars we can offer. However, I feel that our limited after school resources are geared almost entirely to what we call Electives. These resemble classes more than a typical extracurricular. For one thing, our electives at BLS are almost all teacher run. Clubs tend to be student run and teacher sponsored. Are we providing our students with the after school experiences they want? How can we get closer to what our students would be excited to do, like the students at Beacon?
• All three history classrooms I spent time in were filled with course-relevant non-fiction books. I WANT! I WANT!! I WANT!!! One 10th grade class I observed saw students researching major 20th Century figures who opposed imperialism. This is nearly identical to a project I tried to do at the beginning of my year. The difference is the Beacon students were able to conduct real research using a variety of sources in their classroom on a person of their choosing. In our case, students read about an assigned person (since I had to prepare materials in advance) using the one or two sources I provided for them. I think it's a very safe conclusion that the students at Beacon were far more engaged in their work. Having a decent mini-history library at my disposal would open up a ton of possibilities and really transform the experience of my students. And I don't think I have it in me to write about the differences in our libraries. It is simply injustice. Beacon's library has at least three times as many resources as the library we share with everyone else at Evander Childs (Bronx Lab is a small school in a much larger building), yet we have three times as many students.
  

Visiting Beacon

I was scheduled to take a little road trip today down to Philadelphia to visit Chris' SLA with my principal. And while unfortunately that trip had to be rescheduled, since I already had my classes set for me not to be there and the sub had already been called, my principal sent me down to visit the Beacon School on the Upper West Side to learn what I could from observing their social studies classes, and also paying special attention to their 12th Grade classes, as we at Bronx Lab are in the process of planning our first 12th Grade Experience for next year.

Not that I didn't know this walking in, but the first thing I noticed is that Beacon is a different world from Bronx Lab. Bronx Lab is 98% Black and Latino, with 86% of our students getting free lunch and 47% of our entering 9th graders reading at grade level; Beacon is 53% White and Asian, with only 24% getting free lunch and 70% of their entering 9th graders reading at grade level (statistics from insideschools.org). Add that onto the fact that one has to go through an extensive interview process to even be accepted to Beacon, they have their own building, have been around ten years longer than we have, and have most of their students exempted from the history and science Regents exams, and some might think that there is little to be learned for a teacher in my situation from a place like Beacon. But from all I have previously heard, and saw today, Beacon is a different world not just from Bronx Lab, but from most other high schools as well. It is a special place - the type of place that, as a left-learning-middle-class-white-guy, I would dream of sending my kids (if I ever have any).

My principal sent me with three questions:

1. What do I like about Beacon school-wide that we could bring to Bronx Lab?
2. What do I like about Beacon that I want to bring into my classroom?
3. What can we learn from their senior year?
   

For the sake of readability, I'm going to address these questions in three separate blog entries.

New Year's Resolution: Do Less, Better

Over my (way too short) break, I thought a lot about what I learned in my first 4 months at BLS. This isn't my first year teaching, but in many ways it has felt like more of a first year than my actual first year did. I find myself working harder than I ever have before wearing more hats than I had in previous teaching jobs. I knew this coming in, but I didn't really understand just how many different ways I'd be pulled.

I came to a relatively new school (we're in our third year) because I wanted to chance to be a part of building something permanent that will serve our community. I was eager for the chance to be a part of creating something new and getting opportunities for leadership that I never would have had at a larger school. And I bit off more than I could chew.

All teachers at my school are both classroom teachers and advisers. So I had my 12 new advisees and my four sections of Global History II. I decided to create a Global curriculum from scratch (reinventing the wheel). My first trimester teaching load left me with some extra time obligations to the school, so I also became one of the technology people at the school. Eager to demonstrate the great potential uses of Web 2.0, I tried to start some sort of pilot of blogging in advisory. While the initial idea of doing this with two other teachers fizzled out, I still began it with 3 of my advisees (1 of which has yet to post 2 months later). I also began exploring implementation of moodle and elgg into our school. As the first Trimester moved on, it was clear 3 days of Global was not going to get our students ready for the NY Regents exam in June. So we added an extra period a week, moving my teaching load above a typical full load. And though I was off the tech team officially, I still had/have people coming to me for help. Around the same time, the 3 Social Studies teachers at my school decided we weren't benefiting from the Humanities Department meetings, so the 3 of use started running our own weekly Social Studies Meetings (in the 1 free period we all have off). And I also jumped at the chance to join the committee planning our schools Twelfth Grade Experience for next year (and soon set up a blog for that). Meanwhile, back in my history class, I am preparing my students to participate in the National History Day contest, part of which will mean holding a first ever History Day Fair at BLS in February. In order to support the research, I'm giving all my students e-mail accounts through the newly registered bronxlabstudents.org, which means piloting a major new initiative and worrying about worst case scenarios on that front. And oh yeah, I have a lesson to teach Monday morning...

I do too much. And by doing too much, I'm not doing anything that well. Which is why my resolution for 2007 is to do less, but do it better. I need to do less in my global class, but do it better (I have over-planned every unit so far this year). I need to do less outside the classroom, but do it better (12th Grade Experience, or bust). I need to do less with technology, but do it better (I think blogging in advisory has to go, though good quick uses in class has a place - check out my students' blogs from our recently completed unit).

I loved Dan's post about his Important Ratio #1 (Worth of Instructional Decision = Instructional Value / Minutes Expended). It's a great post, and an even better discussion of it in the comments. The philosophy major in me thinks of this less as a ratio, than as a philosophical set of questions:

1. By making this time commitment to Activity A (instructionally, professionally, personally), what activity B ( and C, etc.) am I not spending time on?
   
2. Is the time not being spent of activities B of lesser value than the value added by committing time to Activity A?
3. Do I have the time and energy to sustain activities A & B?
4. Will doing activity B better be less valuable than doing activities A & B with less than a full effort?

Conclusion: Unless the answer to questions 2-4 are all "Yes", activity A is not worth doing.

So here's to a year of doing much, much less, but hopefully doing something exceptionally well. Happy 2007 to all!

Great Student Quotes

My students are beginning a project where they take on the identify of a historical figure and create a blog for that person (sometime next week there should be a few different versions of Leonardo Da Vinci's Blog floating around). As a warm up Friday, I asked my students which teacher most reminded them of their historical figure and why. Some of these are too funny and thoughtful not to share:

• _____ is a person who reminds me of John Locke. John Locke was a philosopher and _____ talks and acts like a philosopher. _____ has a deeper meaning to any question. If you say "Oh, I'm going to get food," _____ would start talking about what that would do to your body in 5 years.
• The BLS staff member who most reminds me of their person we are doing our project on [Marie Antoinette] is probably _____ just because she's young and pretty.
• _____ reminds me the most of Issac Newton because he got long hair and he is light skinned.
• _____ reminds me of Napoleon because he's mean and tries to take over everything.
• _____ reminds me of Napoleon because he's always changing the rules.
• _____ because he talks a lot and Galileo sounds like a man who loves to talk about what he does like _____.
• _____ and Mary [Wollstonecraft] because they both like to voice their opinion and want to be treated as equal.
• _____ reminds me of him. Issac Newton was a rebel always getting in fights with other people like rivals.
• The BLS staff member that reminds me of Issac Newton is _____ because _____ and Issac both studied science and they're both brilliant.
• My person is Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the BLS staff member that reminds me of him is _____. _____ has influenced me in the way that I think and that has helped me quite much. Just as my person has influenced many, _____ have influenced me so much more than anyone I've met.
• I would say _____ reminds me of John Locke because _____ is trying to change the school into the best high school preparing every student for college with the best teachers. John Locke made a change focusing on equality of human rights.

The Things That Make it Worthwhile

For a week that could have been a low point in my teaching career due to the stress of a new schedule, an expanded teaching load, new class sections (same students, new arrangements), teaching in a new room, not to mention getting grades done and having parent-teacher conferences -- my students came through time and time again this week. Some thoughts:

- Monday, ten of my students stayed after school with me to help me move all teacherly belongings down the hall to my new room. They took all the graded work I had from the end of the previous Trimester and filed them according to our new section groupings. Because of them, we didn't miss a beat in the classroom. I honestly have no idea how I would have gotten through the week without them.

- Sections take on a life of their own, often with some less than desirable habits. With the new sections groups, I saw students from sections that had better habits ensuring that the students from sections not always as pleasant or productive did not continue to have a negative impact on the class. Many of my students stood up and took control of their classmates, laying the groundwork for a successful new beginning.

- Though I dread parent-teacher conferences every year, I left them this year refreshed. They filled me with hope. Either I spent 5-10 minutes praising wonderful students, or I had genuine problem-solving conversations with parents and/or students who genuinely wanted to see improvement in their children or selves. So much of my time and energy feels like it is spent on managing problems, that it was wonderfully invigorating to be able to take some time and focus on the positive. Most of my students due much that deserves praise, and it was wonderful to be able to focus on that for awhile.

Finding Time, Finding a Voice

Just finished up my first trimester of teaching in the Bronx Lab School. I'd like to think I've made some progress -- though I'm only really sure that I've made progress recognizing how much progress I have to make to be the teacher I want to be. I know this is the biggest challenge I've ever faced, and I know that in order to serve my students I need to be much, MUCH better than I am now.

Extra time, unfortunately, seems to have disappeared from my life. I wish I took more time to stop, think, reflect, and write; but it doesn't often happen and I can't imagine it will get any better with the start of the second trimester. My day to day technology responsibilities are officially ending as I will be seeing my students one extra day per week in order to gear up for the New York State Global History Regents Exam in June. I'm glad my mind can be in one place more often, but with four extra hours of class per week, I can't imagine time becoming more available.

I feel like I've posted a half dozen times right now about not being sure what role this blog plays in my teaching. I know I want to model for students (and hopefully, eventually, for other staff members), but I have no idea what that looks like. I'm not sure where I find the voice to keep this going on a consistent basis. I'd be curious if anyone has any recommendations for other teachers/administrators who are blogging without a focus on the intersection of technology and pedagogy (which is already done so well by so many others). Inspiration is always helpful. I am thankful for Chris and Doug each time I see a new post in my Google Reader account to remind me how valuable of a tool this can be.

To end on a more optimistic note, a few of my advisies just published their first pieces on their reading blogs. I want to give them a chance to find their voice (and the spell check tool) before sharing their writing with the world, but I am happy to share the link to My Reading Blog , which should hopefully have student comments on it within the week.

Also, this week, I am eager to be starting a mini-project with my history students inspired by BionicTeacher. My students will be putting together a brief page My Space-like page (unfortunately not actually on My Space, which is blocked even from our administrative computers by the NYC DOE, though no similar services are blocked) for a Renaissance, Reformation, or Enlightenment figure. I'll post to these when they're live in a couple weeks.

BLS Featured in Washington Post

Very interesting and balanced article in the Washington Post today about DC's consideration of the NYC model of mayoral control of schools. I'm certainly benefiting from Bloomberg and Klein's two biggest policy initiatives (small schools, and the autonomy given by the Empowerment Zone), though I would like to see more information and data on the seemingly valid criticisms raised in the article in regards to the overcrowding of schools before wholeheartedly putting my hat in the Bloomberg cheering section.

But of course the real reason I'm posting this is because my school is featured in a very positive light in the article. I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Nakamura and welcoming him as a guest in my classroom and was very happy to see his positive portrayal of BLS.

Proposal - Blogging in Advisory

Since I won't be blogging as part of my Global History course, we're started having some conversations about where it makes sense to integrate Blogging into our curriculum. Until we have time to set up/test/teach some sort of Moodle and/or Elgg on a school wide basis (which realistically, may not be until the start of the next school year), we are looking for smaller environments to establish a prototype which (in theory) can be copied by other teachers.

I mean this post to serve as a first draft of my thinking in terms of the proposal I will bring to our staff along with Chris, our Tech Team leader who will be joining me in this endeavor.

Background:
All our students participate in an Advisory class. Each teacher is responsible for 12-15 students, who they stay with throughout the students' four years at our school. The class meets 40 minutes, four times per week. Advisory is a very dynamic class that wears a lot of different hats. The two most relevant aspects of Advisory for this proposal are Silent Reading and Letter Writing. Two days per week students (and Adviser) participate in Silent Reading, where students spend the Advisory period silently reading a book of their choice. Letter Writing is a two step process. Once per month, I write each of my students a letter. The letter contains three parts: 1) an update on what has been going on in my life the past month (personally and professionally), 2) a summery of what I have read in the past month (analyzing/explaining plot, characters, and themes), and 3) response and questions regarding the students' previous letter to me. The students then write me one letter per month, following the same format.

Proposal:
Ideally, I would like to switch the whole letter writing process from a traditional hand-written letter to blogs. There are two limitations that prevent this from happening. First, computers are charging during the advisory period (and we would not have enough for all advisories anyway). Second, we do not want to loose the privacy and intimacy of the personal parts of the letters (where students often disclose very important personal information). Therefore, Chris and I have developed the following plan to pilot a blogging program in our advisories (I have a 9th grade advisory; Chris has an 11th grade advisory; hopefully a 10th grade advisory will join us).

• At least 2-4 students from each of our advisories will participate.
• Once the initial group of students are set up, this will be offered to the remaining students in participating advisories.
• Participating students will stay after school once a week (though perhaps only once every two weeks will be necessary) in order to have computer access and for Chris and I to help these students get their blogs started.
• Students will learn about blogging safety and the importance of anonymity as part of their blogging setup.
  
• All involved advisers and students will keep a "Reading Blog" which will replace the reading portion of the monthly letter. Their blog posts will consist of what was formerly Part 2 of the Monthley Letters. Part 3 will be replaced by comments left on blogs (adviser comments on students' blogs; students comment on adviser's blog initially, and eventually other students' blogs).
• Students will continue to write the personal part of the monthly letter directly to their adviser. However, the student will now have the option to submit this portion through e-mail.
• Initially, students will be required to publish one blog post and one comment per month, though will be encouraged to do more.
• Blog posts will be assessed by the same criteria that letters are assessed (which differs from advisory to advisory, and in some cases, from student to student)
  
• While non-blogging students are writing their letters in Advisory Class, blogging students will either read silently or write a paper draft of their blog posts.

Questions that need to be addressed:

• Is this open to any adviser who wants to participate? (Chris and I will not have the time to support additional advisories, so if it is open, how and when do other advisers get the necessary training to participate?)
• What is our school's policy on teachers' anonymity, or lack there of, online? (My first and last name are on this Blog - Is it okay for me also to be using the school's name? I will be setting up a separate blog to use for my reading - since students will be posting there [and I will likely be linking to student work] to I need to refrain from using the school's name and/or my last name to protect students?)
• What issues are I forgetting here?
  

In the interest of modeling the type of conversation that blogging makes possible, I have posted this here in order to get feedback from my coworkers and anyone else who has any advice to give. As always, all comments, questions, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Outside [The Cave] 2.0

I upgraded to Blogger Beta the other day, and because of this, am still working out some kinks (my old comments are gone, for one). Hopefully this will all sort itself out shortly. Apologies to anyone who got 25 or so odd posts from me in their reader the other day.

New Job, New Roles

(I actually wrote this about a month ago, but never got around to publishing it)

In my last post, I talked about how I wasn't sure where this blog would fit into my teaching this year. That question as answered for me last week when I found that, since I am three classes short of a full load, I would be part of our school's tech team, with one of my main responsibilities being to help teachers integrate technology into their pedagogy and practice. So even though time constrains will keep me from usingblogs in my Global History 10 classes, I plan on keeping this going to set an example that I will (hopefully) get other teachers to follow. That is of course, once I get all out computers and new Smart Boards working (the joys of being at a young, small school).

With that added motivation and responsibility, I am excited to joining the community of Teacher Bloggers. I am eager to look at what others are doing to hopefully borrow some best practices to share with my staff. Thankfully, I have a supportive principal on this front. Funny story actually - when we first started talking about my new role he mentioned a friend of his who used to teach in the City and is opening a small school in Philli. When I responded, "Chris Lehmann, right? He writes one of my favorite blogs", I knew I would have a supporter on our school's path to Tech 2.0. (Though with that said now my principal talks about the wonderful ways Chris isusing tech at his school and is expecting me to do similar work here - which, at least at this moment, is far beyond the constraints of my time and knowledge).