Last weekend I was lurking in another Twitter chat. This time it was #CAedchat, a weekly chat that happens Sunday nights at 8:00 PM. Many educators I highly respect participate in it. This particular evening the topic was gaming in the classroom, something I have no experience in, so I didn’t have a lot to say. So I lurked.
I really don’t get the whole gaming in the classroom thing. I had Oregon Trail in my first computer lab. Then there was Sim City. I didn’t get it then, and I still don’t get it. I am not trying to be critical here of those who do use games. But I think when someone asks me why I am using a tool in the classroom I need to be able to give a good reason why I am using that tool. With games I can’t do that. But I know its just me.
On Tuesday our school was doing state testing. I had some of the kids who did not have a test to take, so we had some time. One said to me “Mr. Hall you should get Minecraft up in here.” So I gave him a challenge: convince me why, from an educational perspective, I need to put Minecraft in my class. The next three hours my room was busy with students doing research on the topic. Kids were debating which points were most important and which would not convince me. They had notes. They argued over who should make the case. They found an unblocked way to run Minecraft to give me a demo. They were engaged.
At the same time I turned to Twitter to find someone who could convince me. It started a whole new dynamic with my students trying to find things before I found them on Twitter. It was a lot of fun, and the kids made some strong arguments, but it was Stephen Elford ( @eduelfie ) chiming in from Victoria, Australia who won the argument.
Once I figure out how to pay for it mine will be among the classrooms using Minecraft for students to create things. Give me a few weeks.
Category: Twitter
The Restroom Pass.
I was lurking this past weekend in a Twitter conversation about restroom passes in schools.
@davidtedu I don’t use passes, never have. But I don’t care if other teachers want to. I just don’t want the paperwork.— Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) April 28, 2013
It is a fairly common pet peeve among teachers. We all have the correct restroom policy, and everyone else is wrong. We all know that kids use “I have to go to the restroom” as code for “I am bored and need to get out of here” or “I need to call someone.” Rarely does it mean “I have to pee.” But still we give passes.
I teach high school. Up until this year I would tell the kids “if you have your big boy pants on you don’t need to go to the restroom. I have never had a high school student wet their pants.” Well, this year it happened. Someone wet their pants. I had to get a new policy. So I started paying closer attention.
Mine is a small high school, with about 250 kids. But there is only one restroom for each gender. During the passing period the restrooms are really full of kids; they are changing clothes for PE and making phone calls. They have to change in the restroom, it is required. So there are 15 to 20 kids in a three stall restroom changing for PE. It is crowded. Then their are the phone kids. The restroom is the only place kids are “allowed” to use their phones, or at least it is the only place they can openly use their phone without risk of confiscation. So what do you do if you have to, you know, pee? You go during class, because thats the only real option.
So THATS what good teaching looks like.
This year I have been spending one day a week at an elementary school as part of my administrative credential program. At first I was a bit apprehensive; I am a high school teacher, I have no interest or knowledge in the k-8 world. I have found the experience to be very interesting. I am learning a lot about elementary schools, and I am learning a lot about younger students. It turns out that they are not so scary after all.
Last week a math teacher asked me if I would please come by her room and observe her lesson because she wanted to hear my feedback. So this week the Principal and I dropped by the room for an observation. I realized that in 18 years of teaching I had never sat in another teachers classroom to specifically look at teaching, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was stunned. Not only had I never seen teaching like that, I had never even imagined this level of good teaching! I had a hard time taking notes because I was so fascinated with how she was managing the class. Strategy after strategy being employed without so much as a moments pause. It was like the whole hour was perfectly planned, scripted, and rehearsed. I had never seen such a thing.
I left the school that day not feeling very good about myself. In comparing my teaching with what I had seen in the math classroom I could only come to one conclusion; I suck. I consider myself a very reflective teacher. I think about how every lesson goes, and how I can improve the lesson next time. I do a lot of professional development, almost all of it on my own dime. I go to conferences and workshops, I use Twitter and G+, and yes, I read blogs. So how is it I could go this long without ever seeing really really good teaching?
When I started teaching (yes, it was actually in the last century) the profession was really one of individuals. We went in our rooms and closed the door. We did not have high standards for our performance. My first Principal told me on my very first day in the classroom “If no one bleeds you are doing good.” We did not collaborate, and we NEVER acknowledged that another teacher was better than oneself. In the last few years we have started to collaborate and we have some levels of accountability. But we don’t have a system of identifying really good teachers, and learning from them. Until this week I didn’t realize we needed one.
Fall CUE 2011
I was very fortunate to attend Fall CUE this year. Well, I attended half of Fall CUE. My wife and I headed over on Friday after school, missing the first day. It wasn’t too difficult to convince my wife that we should go. “Want to go to Napa Valley for a weekend” was all the convincing it took.
I was worried that only attending one day would not be worth the time and money (I was attending on my own dime.) I need not have worried. The biggest problems I faced was in deciding which sessions to attend. Every time slot had two or three sessions that seemed to be designed specifically for me.
All of the sessions I attended were worthy of giving up a Saturday for, but the highlight of the day for me was a session led by Michael Niehoff and Jon Corippo of Minarets High School. They started off by telling the audience that we all needed to have at least two electronic devices out and use them during the session. Then they told us that we were expected to talk among ourselves during the session and be noisy. I think we met their expectations.
The part that really knocked over my cheese cart was the discussion about the use of social media in the classroom. Now I use a lot of social media outside of the classroom. I am on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, and probably a few more I can’t think of right now. But I have always kept a fine line, I don’t accept friend requests until a student graduates. I am not keeping anything from them, but I think there are a few things about my students I do not want to know. Having them in my social networks opens some doors that I am not sure I want open.
Jon said I was afraid of Facebook. I think he is right. But I am thinking about it.
wmarkhall 