Fingers Do the Walking on Teacher Appreciation Day

Tonight I had the most amazing experience.  For an hour, I got to walk in the shoes of my students by emulating their social media habit.

What?

Well, let's try it another way.

7:15
My computer froze, and upon reboot, my personal firewall locked access to Twitter.  I had 10 minutes until I was to help moderate a Twitter chat on what #teachingis (in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week).  My efforts to unlock the firewall failed.

7:28
I text my partner-in-crime to tell her that I was having internet issues.

7:30
I see a message pop up on Google Hangouts, asking from another co-leader, very nicely,  what the hold up was.

7:32
I open my Twitter app on my phone, and blindly introduce myself to the chat, tagging the chat with our #hashtag.

7:34
My computer unlocks enough to allow me to open my Google Chat script of questions and I hand-type the first question on my cell phone app.   The app also has a search feature that allows me to reply to questions.

7:44
I realize that each time I have a new question, my search window disappears.  And so more multitasking ensures.  A few spelling errors as well.

But the tweets fly, fast and furious.

8:05 We are all having a great time, and new people join our chat.
Welcoming them back knocks me out of the saved topic chat on my phone.

**EPIPHANY**

In the middle of the chat, I realize that this is how my students do most of their typing and communicating.   Most of them can knock a paper out on their phones as easily as I can type on a traditional keyboard.   I was raised on Smith and Wesson, they are part of the Samsung Galaxy or Apple-verse.  It appears to work well enough for then.

8:07  Back to the chat, and ideas are flying.  Humor and a surge of information moves the conversation and splits it several ways.

8:09 #thankateacher crosses over to #teachingis, which is a great fusion.  #thankateacher reflects the impact of the profession and #teachingis crosses over to visioning new ways to leverage the complex work that is being done.

8:30  The chat is almost done.   Everyone one looks at what we have accomplished.   I realize that a Storify is going to need to be pulled from the tweets, but I will do that in the morning.

With my computer.  Not a smart phone app.   At least for now.

And I am left with a nagging question.  What happens when we let the user decide the technology?  Perhaps what I see as a concession (yes, you can use the phone) is really a necessity (I can do it faster with my phone)

For me, I have fingers that are unaccustomed to rapid-fire texting.   At the end of the hour, my fingers felt stiff.  For others, that feeling of exhilaration and synergy may flow better from a phone than a keyboard.

But the great thing is that both of us, whoever we are, are right.  That's part of why #teachingis complex, rewarding, and worth pursuing.

photo credit: Johan Larsson via photopin cc

News Flash! Use your Teacher Skills

In the last three days, I have been reminded of a crucial thought.

I don't have to know everything.   What a great and freeing piece that is!  

I might break into Handel's chorus, but it's Lent, so I won't.


Case 1:  A close family friend is struggling with physics and has an upcoming test.   "I'm going to Kahn Academy, but I just don't get what they are saying.  Help!"

Don't you just hate it when that happens? The problem: this student lives 160 miles away, so coming over for a tutoring session was not a possibility.  He had gone to every physics class and study session and it just did not make sense.  The homework examples he had didn't match the samples from past tests.

What do you do when a kid doesn't understand a concept?
Good question.  That's why we need  teachers to reteach, differentiate, personalize.  And that is what I could offer.

First, I located some Paul Hewitt video clips.  Hands-down, when a student doesn't understand physics, it is because it lacks relevance to their personal experience.  Comics, xkcd discussions, targeted discussions all can help, but it will look different for different individuals

Second, I skyped with this student in 15 minute intervals over four days, answering specific questions.  She even identified a problem on an archived test that was missing a variable (and was later thrown out).  This is one of the best teaching moments--working to uncover misconceptions and then making a difference with some small detail that makes the light bulbs come on.

photo credit: zetson via photopin cc

Case 2:  My class is working on trusses in principles of engineering, a Project Lead The Way.   I can do trusses myself, but presenting on them makes me nervous.  I had already flipped the powerpoint, so students had it as a reference, and we had worked through the worksheet, which was confusing to them.

Time for a new resource.  Again, it is not possible to know everything.

Admitting that led me to the web, where I found a fabulous resource on youtube.  I'm much more likely to use youtube videos than professional production, mostly because the teachers who do make them are well-organized and the pedagogy for doing things seems more in line with my beliefs of how a student can learn.  This, for example, had the students working along with the teacher to do a problem..  Now, I did not require students to do work with this video.  They could use the worksheet, or keep working with the powerpoint.  It was a matter of choice....their choice.





Teacher skills:  flexibility, adaptability, working with others, respecting students, honoring the potential of all students to learn, making sure there is more than ONE right way, and understanding where to find resources that can help.

Fountain of all knowledge? Omnipotent?  Not even worth worrying about..

Hey, Outliers, Leave My Kids Alone

I was really frustrated to read about the 'Battle Over the Science Standards' in the Des Moines Register today.  Just as annoying was the fact that KWWL  and KCRG picked up the AP as a debate for local control.  I smelled something that didn't ring true.  A simple Google vanity search and 10 seconds later, I had my answer.  Jill Jennings, the 'concerned parent' in the Register article, was a member of the task force that approved the NGSS standards; she also seems to be the outlier that doesn't believe in science or the science standards.  She said so, pretty clearly, back last September on one of Shane Vander Hart's conservative blog sites, when she paid homage to ignorance about climate change and advocated for Intelligent Design over evolution  in the classroom. Another home school parent is also quoted in the article.  This poorly-fabricated debate is an attempt to the sabotage the science standards by a very vocal minority.

If a small minority is unhappy with the NGSS, or the Iowa Core, or health class mandates, it is already possible for them to homeschool their children as a citizen of Iowa.  In fact, the people who have been part of the Iowa NICHE scored record victories in the legislature last year.  They can now homeschool their children in, among other things, driver's education, and they have an organization that will grant you a high school diploma as well, at least if you profess Christ as your Savior.  This group has fought repeatedly against the Common Core.  Fine. I'll respect a parent's right to be the primary educator for his or her child. Do what is  right for your kid.  But not adopting the NGSS, based on scientific practice, is the wrong choice for my children.  I'd appreciate it if the minority would respect that.

Jerrid Kruse brings up good points in the Register article, as does Jessica Goherty.  The NGSS will change what we know and do about science.  And because there are minimum grade-level expectations for K-8, and high school expectations some schools will finally address the fact that they have a very limited science curriculum in elementary. That would no longer be possible with the NGSS and would address a gap in student education in Iowa.  

Iowa stakeholders have some self-education to do as well.  For one thing, the  NGSS is written to address the 'minimum' requirements that all students should know and be able to do. They are not written as peak-of-the-mountain goals, but rather as performance expectations that the majority of students should be able to perform on an assessment, and they are focused on what kids can do.  This is a paradigm shift in language and it will take some time to unpack the ideas.  For almost a generation, we have spoke of standards as a catalog of ideas, rather than a set of expectations.  That changes with the NGSS.

The idea that this is not 'local control' is total red herring in the articles, by the way.  The Iowa Core does not tell people what materials to use, nor is it an about what happens in the classroom like day-by-day reading from a script. Local control addresses textbook purchases.  The Iowa Core is, however, about the basic content ideas that should be covered in a school's enacted curriculum, regardless of district.   This means that local control is focused on teaching materials and teaching strategies.  Adopting the NGSS will not change this mechanism, but will continue as part of the Iowa Core.

Whether we adopt the NGSS is a debate is moot in the eyes of the STEM/STEAM/STEMx community, as the NGSS standards were written with STEM in mind and the Framework for the Science standards is already in place.  As long as we allocate resources to helping our students become successful users of science, engineering, technology and math, we are already using the the NGSS framework by default.  We are asking students to become comfortable with data, with looking for trends and patterns. It means we teach them to become critical thinkers and problem-solvers.  That goes beyond the inquiry present in the current Iowa Core to an even more focused processes of design and experimentation and reflection.  Adoption of the NGSS makes our students better able to compete in a global market.

No one is saying that any set of standards are perfect.  No set of expectations ever is, as the needs of society, and curriculum expectations, are constantly changing.  But what we can say is that these standards are focused on big ideas.  The NGSS will work with the already-established math and English/Language Arts standards in the Iowa Core to help teachers become more relevant in the content they teach and more rigorous in their approach.  Our students deserve that change.

As a science teacher and parent, I want my children to understand data.  I want them to experiment and design, and to see science as a process of claim-evidence-reason. I'd like them to see its connections to history, world religion, literature. I want my children to have critical thinking skills and compete globally, which I believe NGSS will help them to do.

It's not about religion. The fact that I'm a progressive Christian means that I can feel comfortable with science AND with religion, but even if I wasn't religious, my religion shouldn't be forced on to anyone else in America.  Galileo, who believed that science and faith were not incompatible, shifted our world from faith alone to the beginnings of the data-driven science sphere.  Let's continue that journey with the NGSS.

Picture is public domain; meme source: http://aviewfromtheright.com/2013/05/05/can-you-accept-revealed-wisdom-and-still-be-scientific/

Talk to your legislator.   Please, let them know that science and STEM  is too important to the future of Iowa to hang back and put another brick in the fear wall.

Marcia Powell teaches science at West Delaware and Iowa Learning Online.  She is a member of the NSTA, a 20+ year science educator and an Iowa PAEMST finalist.  She also looks for resources that align to the NGSS science standards as part of the NGSS Curator project.  She serves on the regional NE Iowa STEM Hub.

The Power of Positive New Year's Reflection

It's there a lot on my Twitter feed.

And that's great.  Really.   It's a nicer environment for my classroom when we all get along.  But it has the possibility of creating a culture of yes-people who answer with the right words but really aren't empowered or inspired to do the things discussed.

 Thinking positively doesn't always change things.  We learn best when we are challenged, when we are uncomfortable, and when we have to construct new meanings in our world. Occasionally on Twitter, that doesn't seem to ring true.  I appreciate it when people challenge the status quo.

We need to re-examine our twitter feeds and our ideas about educational transformation as part of our New Year's resolutions and rethink.  We need to look towards student-centered, teacher-inspired ideas that can help us change from the bottom-up at the same time that we are focused on top-down policies and programs.

Where are you going to do that this year?  How are you going to seek out the new ideas, and find those people who challenge your thinking?  Perhaps you can join the NSTA Learning Center, the community at the Teaching Channel or the Collaboratory at the Center for Teaching Quality, and perhaps some people in your own building that have viewpoints different from your own.  We become richer as we expand our horizons.


So for this year, I'm learning more about being positive:

1. I'm positive I'm going to act in the best interests of students.
2. I'm positive that I will try to do this with humility and kindness.
3. I'm positive I'm going to go beyond what is easiest to what is right.
4. I'm positive that I will ask for a seat at the educational table as an equal.  My skill set may be different than yours, but we are both educators.  Our experiences, together, will make a difference for kids.
5. I'm positive that I would rather make mistakes and learn rather than sit back and wait for change to happen.
6. I'm positive that there are a million ideas out there and there are many pathways to transform classrooms.  One-way is the wrong-way, but all ways should inspire students.
7. I'm positive that I need to believe in all of our abilities to effect change, from the brightest of superintendents to the least-motivated of my students.
8. I'm positive that students need school to become relevant.
9. I'm positive that students who are at-risk need just as much care and attention as those students who get it easily and are ready to move on.  I need to plan for both types of them in my course, and they may accept different pathways.
10. I'm positive that this will not be an easy journey, but it will be worth it.

What are you positive about this year?  I'd love to hear it.