Stidmama

Today I confirmed that I am really not cut out to teach very young kids — at least, I need more experience with whole-class, non-specialist time, with second graders.

I enjoyed my day, but it took me a little while to “hit my stride” with giving instructions, knowing what I was going to need to point out, and how to adjust as I went along. I thought I had things pretty well wrapped up when suddenly at the end of the day I had three students in tears; and one of those in full-on meltdown mode. Which discombobulated me enough that I ended up forgetting to send some notices home. Nothing that the regular teacher won’t be able to handle, just left me feeling as if the day had been somehow off-kilter. Working hard to remember that MOST of the day, and MOST of the interactions were very pleasant and productive.

The good things: no one got physically hurt, the insults that occurred were minor, I really understood what I was doing with the reading and math work (that last one feels like a victory), and science was a blast! I accomplished almost everything in the lesson plan, too! The neighboring teacher I talked to was wonderful, and very supportive. They always are, at that school. They know that I am pedaling as fast as I can! But I did mention on the way out to the scheduling secretary that second grade is probably the youngest I should teach… I feel so much more comfortable with older students!

I also, however, confirmed that I CAN teach the younger students and even have a pretty good time doing it. Next time I am in a younger classroom, I will be better able to head off some of the issues, and more adept at dealing with what does occur.

Each day, I learn something new!

It’s a good feeling.

• That moment when the student who has been in tears realizes that they aren’t expected to know everything already.
• The point in the day when a student spontaneously smiles and says, “Thank you.”
• The teacher next door who pokes his nose in and says hello without following up with a request to borrow…
• The administrator who pokes her nose in and says “Thanks for being here,” simply because she really cares.
• The parent who sees you in the parking lot and asks if you want extra help — and then actually comes in.
• The lesson plan that works out just as planned.
• The lesson that takes an unexpected turn and teaches you as much as the children.
• The professional development course that has real, and immediately useful, suggestions.
• The morning that you wake up and realize that you look forward to taking on the day.

It’s a short list (so far) but all of these things have happened to me, either during student teaching, or as a substitute. Teaching is full of good moments. There are challenging days, and sometimes heart-breaking situations, but in general I really look forward to each day I get to teach. And I spend hours thinking about lessons I would like to teach, lessons I would re-work, and lessons I hope I never repeat.

I have just finished attending a web seminar, my usual Saturday-morning activity. Glad our power was restored in time for this! The livebinder of links for this webinar is at livebinders.com classroom20live. The actual webinar is available for playback at live.classroom20.com archives (there is a link to archives at the top of the page). It is also available on iTunes U!

I am excited by Joe Mazza’s presentation. The way this principal has integrated technology into a robust home-school program is inspiring. And to my question about what to do for the families who lack tech connections, the answer was simple and obvious: they maintain a list of those families, and EVERY communication that goes out via the web or cell network goes home to those families in hard copy. The school also has awareness of community resources that can help families become connected (cut rates for cable internet was an example).

The school district I am applying to is very rural. Cellular service is questionable, let alone smart phone access, and cable internet will be sporadic as well. Affordability of technology will be an issue for some families in this district. Some families might be able to access or afford technology but decline to use it. I want to be sure that anything I do online does not disenfranchise families!

So I am thinking about using a telephone-based call-in feature where I could leave a homework update or family notices about tests and conference times. My local school had something like this when my boys were little, and it was very helpful to me. Paper communications don’t always make it home in a timely manner! But that would be a common way for me to send information home also. Class sizes in this district will be small, so printing won’t be a huge deal. But in a larger, still rural or low-income community, cost to print might be an issue.

One of the participants in today’s webinar in the chat room mentioned Remind 101 as a tool that can both text families/students and email. This would be a good tool where cell service is reliable, and most families have cell phones. I know that just because families are in an urban location does not guarantee that they have access to computers. Even public access computers in libraries are not always available (as I mentioned in my Master’s Paper). So wherever I am, whatever I am teaching, I will have to be sure I make communications with families as broad and inclusive as possible.

I have a lot of things to think about! A different person in the chat room was insistent that online communications are not safe or secure. I think this person is unfamiliar with technologies, as many families are, and has read too many alarmist reports. However, there are some very real and important personal security issues that need to be addressed with online communications. I am going to do some research and thinking about how to convey to families (and other teachers) the knowledge they need to be able to address those concerns. For example, I understand how to disaggregate data and keep it anonymous, but I think most people don’t. I should be able to explain this better! I should also be able to talk intelligently about firewalls, restricted-access sites and communications, and what a “hacker” does – and doesn’t.

Finally, these webinars make me think about how tech can be used to support learning, both within and outside the classroom.

I am always trying to wrap my head around how to integrate tech into instruction without losing the developmentally appropriate tasks of non-tech activities. I think students of ALL ages benefit from using physical crayons, paints, scissors, glue… I think students of ALL ages need to know how indexing systems work in physical texts, how to ask a question and hold it in their minds longer than the time it takes to click a link, how to communicate face to face. I think students of all ages also benefit from being able to move quickly past a stumbling block by using online resources, to communicate with teachers or project team members outside of school time, to be able to publish their original work to websites where classmates and far-flung friends and family can view and comment! So when I think about the home-family connection, I think about things like posting student work to a class website that parents can access (with a password) and comment on. I think about a web-based chat room where parents can ask questions or suggest things and I can respond so all the parents can be part of the conversation (emails don’t allow this!). I think about giving students the tools to post notes from class so peers can benefit from the group process — who noticed what? Why would that be important? I think about an online class calendar and notification system so that my students can see what I have taught as well as what is coming up (projects, tests, special guests).

So much to think about, to be excited about.

I hope I get a classroom of my own soon so I can start working on this!

I have added two pages, both are in the sidebar to the right.

Under "About" is a Page that reads My Online Resume. No surprise, but it has the basic text of the resume I walked in to a local district last week. I am going to add in some of the additional activities and training sessions I have attended in the last 7 months as well as some of my hobbies and skills — those would go on a second page, if I were to hand it in.

In the "Papers" section is my Master’s Paper. Titled, Access to Opportunity it is a cursory exploration of some of the issues surrounding technology literacy in schools. While the writing process was artificial and disorganized, I think there is information in this paper that could help other teachers who are also struggling with either how to articulate the need to take instructional time to support student use of technology, or how to understand the variances in capacity between students.

I will probably be spending time this coming summer organizing and re-arranging pages, to make it easier to navigate what is rapidly becoming a catch-all site. I might break out some of the functions again, and start maintaining separate sites for my professional teacher activities, storytelling and arts, and my random but hopefully fascinating observations on life in general…

• you couldn’t access information about products, trends, people or news on the internet?
• you couldn’t direct others to interesting information you found on the internet?
• you were liable for legal penalties if you direct someone to a site that had pirated content — even if you didn’t know it was pirated?
• your work, created with another’s permission to use and make derivative works, suddenly became retroactively illegal?

This is the a short list of some of my concerns with the SOPA legislation that is being discussed in Washington, D.C. – it is based in part on complaints that there are many websites that are illegally posting and streaming content that is copyrighted. Which may be true. However, the legislation that is being discussed would also catch people who are inadvertently including materials that may be copyrighted.

For example, I took a short video this morning showing the walls of my son’s bedroom, including the many movie and book posters he has collected through the years. As written, this legislation might make this small, innocent video illegal. Even things that are wholly my own work could, potentially, find their way to being charged as not legal, or disallowed from some websites even with my permission to use!

Search engines might be reluctant to link to any but the most well-researched, and most well-connected websites, rendering small operations like my own tiny business (currently on hiatus) all-but invisible online.

I urge people who value freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of communication, to think carefully about two things:

1. Contact your legislators to express concern over the potential to erode the average person’s online freedoms in the name of protecting personal and corporate copyrights. When law-abiding, honest people find their rights restricted in an attempt to stop piracy, it is shameful. Laws should be written to punish and deter criminals, not regular people!
2. Don’t knowingly use, promote or provide pirated content. This includes music, movies, books and other materials that clearly have a creator/owner who expects payment for use. If people paid for legitimately sourced content, legislation like this would not be sought after!

Remember, laws should be written to protect and support people. People should not be afraid of, nor un-necessarily restricted by, laws. Let’s keep the balance in favor of people, and avoid legislation that will increase lawsuits against innocent folks.

Tom tells me there is a plug-in to do this. I will be offline for a day.

Stop SOPA!

Don’t inhibit the ability and right of people to collaborate and communicate!

At the end of the day, I am not sure if my small protest made any difference. Not by itself. But perhaps, in conjunction with others who made small protests, alongside bigger protesters like Wikipedia and Google… maybe we can make enough of a difference.

This is a good time to dedicate ourselves to making the world a better place. Rather than focusing on self-centered goals at this time for resolutions (lose weight, clean out the garage, exercise more), why not choose one specific project that will help many people?

For example, this is an election year. If you are eligible to vote but aren’t registered, register! If you find yourself feeling powerless, assert your power: write to your elected officials, volunteer in a campaign (whether for a politician or a cause, you can help spread the word about something you are passionate about, even from behind the scenes and even if you are not eligible to vote), attend rallies and opportunities to meet the candidates. Do you attend your school district’s board meetings? Some things they do are mundane, others affect how the school interacts with the community. Do you know who your school board members are? Or your public (utility-port-library…) district’s board members? Do you know what budget or project issues they are discussing?

Obviously, no one person can keep track of everything or participate in everything. But every person can keep track of something, and participate in some way, whether eligible to vote or not. Not everyone can attend rallies, not everyone can write letters, not everyone can run for office. But everyone can be creative and realistic about volunteering time and talents!

In the United States, while corporations are adept at purchasing face time and favors with politicians, the people still have a great deal of influence, if they choose to wield it.

A democracy functions best when all the people make their wishes, dreams and needs known.

I have friends who volunteer at the food bank, who volunteer in schools, as firefighters, for political causes… each one of these people makes a difference in the lives of many others in the community. And in the process, their work expresses their values.

How will you choose to occupy your time in the new year?

How will you express your values in the world?

How will your life this year make things better for other people?

I am thinking over my possibilities. I will definitely continue volunteering at my local school as I have time and energy… is there one more thing I can add? I lack monetary security that would let me donate money to organizations and causes I believe in. Perhaps I can use my writing ability more productively to support them. I always vote, but I think this year I will write to one of my elected officials on a cause I am passionate about (education!). I also hope to have a productive garden this summer, and to donate some of the foods we grow to the local food bank. I want to be more consistent in keeping in touch with some of my friends who aren’t in the same spheres as my daily life. Keeping my resolutions to a reasonable list is the hardest part. But I think I will stop there so I don’t feel overwhelmed.

…to post my extreme dissatisfaction with the United States House of Representatives for leaving all of us working people in the lurch, wondering if we will have enough left over to make ends meet in the new year. THEY have gone on vacation, secure in the knowledge that their transportation to and from work and home is paid for (by tax payers), that their health insurance (paid for by tax payers) is ready to go if they get a boo-boo while skiing on vacation, that their homes are not under foreclosure, their refrigerators have enough food, their winter jackets are warm and their hearths are cozy.

Not so for us, the tax payers. We pay them to do a job, and they have not done it. We pay them to monitor, adjust and rethink the infrastructures that allow us to benefit from OUR hard work. But WE, the tax payers, the WORKERS are seeing our real incomes erode, whether from job loss, cutbacks in hours, increases in costs to work (transportation being an important one), increases in the cost of food, clothing and medicine. Increases in the necessities.

Granted, the intended temporary decrease in payroll tax places a greater burden on the social security system in the future. But at this point in time, raising that back to the original amount creates a current, real, measurable, and potentially devastating hardship for those of us who are close to the edge. And those who are already having to put off buying groceries, or pay the light bill, or wait to seek medical care? It will hit them, too.

The less money we have in our pockets for the necessities, the less we have (obviously) for luxuries. Let’s face it: Right now, our economy depends in great measure, on people having money and time to spend on luxuries — movies, dinner out, consumable goods, leisure activities and supplies.

So the House of Representatives thinks they have earned a vacation?

Let’s give them one next November. Let’s give them a nice, long, extended vacation where they will have time to search for a new job. Maybe if they feel the pinch of insecurity they will have more compassion for those of us who are already searching for jobs, or feeling insecure in our jobs, or employed but wondering how to afford the increased costs when income is stagnant or declining.

UPDATE: December 27, 2011

So the House pulled its head out of its posterior long enough to pass the two-month extension that the Senate had already passed. Before going on vacation. What chutzpah! So now we have two more months of congressional ineptitude and posturing to contend with while people who are more interested in campaigning to keep their seats try to figure out how to squeeze the citizenry of the United States even dryer.

Here’s an NPR story on what’s going on Congress Really is as Bad as You Think.

I’d wish us all a happy new year in a few days, but I just don’t feel that optimistic.

NaNoWriMo has not been working out for me. I have been distracted by real life, and real life has not been a lot of fun. SO…. halfway through the month I will try to get more written, but it’s not looking hopeful. Meantime, I was prompted to write a short intro for a teaching website, and this is what I wrote:

I became a certified teacher after my own children were almost grown and gone. I have loved working with learners all my life, from the time I helped in a reading group at a library when I was ten, through high school and college when I tutored my peers, to homeschooling and volunteering in classrooms when I became a parent. My certifications include Elementary Education, Middle School Humanities (social studies and language arts grades 4-9), and Reading (all grades). In addition, I am fascinated by science and mathematics, and devour new information in those areas. I love learning! I have a large yard with a garden (fruit trees, flowers and fabulous veggies), a family that includes my spouse of over 20 years, two children, and a dog.

I am going to try for a novel again this year. I have managed to miss the last couple of years — last year I think I got all the way up to 700 words (unofficially)!

I have a working title of “The Seventh Billion” — we’ll see where the writing takes me. The last time I finished a novel (several years ago) the theme was post-apocalyptic, having to do with climate change.

I think out my dark thoughts in writing. Or my worried thoughts. Topical or timely, or … ?