The Rest is Silence: Last Thing

What a long strange trip it's been. Much like the Intel Teach course I took, 23 Things has altered the way I look at my job. Many of the things we explored I already did; many I wanted to try and just needed prompting to do; and many that were new to me are still swirling around in my head looking for a place to land.

I plan to work on my wiki and keep it going; I want it to be a resource my alumni can use for their allusion needs; I am working on setting up a voicethread to use with my Greek Lit circles; I plan on implementing my own voicethread for missed lectures. I may not be completely tech-savvy, but my classroom will be a place of discovery for my students as we learn some of these things together.

Not sure if it is hitting my 40s or just getting into a rut of 14 years of teaching, but this course gave me a needed new perspective on many things in my classroom, including the insight that I do way too much work. We are so concerned with TAKS we forget that a true education lies beyond that realm of standardized tests. I wish now I had entered that 50,000 word novel in a month contest . . . one thing at a time, I suppose.

Would I take another online exploration course like this? Heck yeah. I love self-paced, sitting on my sofa learning experiences, and why shouldn't we be getting staff development like this if we are expecting our students to be tech savvy?

I want to re-purpose my blog; I want to create another one with more anonymity; I would like to get paid to write--I have always wanted to get paid to write, and somewhere I lost that drive and that desire when I began getting paid to teach others to write. I used to be a poet; now I find I can't even do that without analyzing the daylights out of my own writing . . .

I subscribed to Learning 2.1; there was something comforting in seeing Thing 70 on the page I found. 70 things! When will I ever get that book written? Meanwhile, my niece is a week away from Nicaragua, and here is a link to her blog. I'm wondering (hoping) she finds blogging as addicting as I do. Will that enthusiasm fade? Will it get stronger?

I have enjoyed posting comments, learning things that pissed me off, working through problems (never did get that dang Voki to work), and reading comments from colleagues.

What more can I say? I suddenly have time on my hands as I wrap this up. A fresh 6 weeks; a journey to voicethread; and business, but not as usual.

Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (Hamlet V.ii).

Homework Revisited, Dang Filter!: Thing 23

The beauties of a home network are nigh unfathomable--everywhere and anywhere I wanted to go, I went without risking my employment status.

The one thing I didn't get around to doing was loading a widget into this blog; I thought I would save that for my off period at school, thinking I would have to break the filter barrier again.

But I didn't. You can get to Ning free of Puritan guilt that might strike you when overriding the filter. I was shocked and slightly amused. Perhaps I could find a use for a Ning, like that tutoring thing I mentioned previously. But wouldn't it be even better if I made kids take care of it? Maybe even offer rewards of some sort for being available for tutoring online. Or maybe it could be used for peer editing since I still haven't figured that out on the moodle site. Heck, I haven't figured out how to help them upload their essays into the lovely folders we created there. But someday I will.

So the one thing I spent the most time searching for on Ning was voice threading. Who knew this would be so helpful? After spending way too much time again, I think I might be able to create this for my literary circles--I just need to narrow down the focus a bit. And after a visit from Tonya, who brought me microphones for when I start this endeavor, she emailed me a tutorial link and suggested that we (my students and I) explore this together. Is it lazy, evil, or pure genius then that what began to dawn on me was "why do I have to come up with a focus--make them do it."

I haven't decided yet--maybe it's all three: a lazy evil genius. Doesn't matter, I'm starting to really think I am going to like this project because instead of them doing steps I lay out for them, they will blaze their own trail (with guidance, of course) through Greek literature's most powerful women.

Maybe it will work, maybe not; but I think we will all learn something trying.

Homework Because of the Filter: Thing 22

I knew this one was going to be a problem from the get-go. Not that I don't know how to use Facebook--I have a site; I have a picture on it; I visit it.

The problem was here was a post that I couldn't explore at school because of the filter system.

I thought about going and overriding, but then the fear of the dreaded "we know where you've been and what you've been doing" record stopped me. That and the idea that I would have to override every single freaking page. Who has time for that?

So I was going to wait to do this one when I was at home, figuring it would be easier; but then I thought "oh what the heck; I'll just override. This experience alone made me smile evilly. One of the threats the district gives is that if you override facebook you could face "change in employment status". Is that some kind of politically correct way of saying "fired" or terminated" or "canned"?--not to be confused with "caned" which wasn't a district punishment, but maybe should be . . .

So I did it anyway--took my employment status into my own hands, inhaled (just air), and overrode. (Dramatic music here). I explored some of my friends pages--especially former students. They still ask me questions about their essays, and facebook is actually an easier forum to do this than email. I decided to become a fan of Dilbert as our school system gets closer and closer to the business world model (see earlier post for my feelings on that, if you dare!). Somewhere on that page a woman comments that she gets more like Alice everyday, and I think I do too.

I guess as educators we need to know how easy communication between our students can be. I think this could also be a time to teach the old internet tact lesson. I noticed that some people can't communicate without four letter words. Of course I couldn't have written this sentence or the last without four letter words. HAHAHAHAHA! I like the wall to wall communication feature as it allows me to communicate with just one person instead of posting to the world. I find it annoying that some people have to update their lives--like we care--"Jane is going to bake a cake and then slit her wrists."

An educational application? I'm not sure. As you can't access this without risking termination here, I think it would be nearly useless. On the other hand, I guess you could do some kind of class help page, sort of like an on-line tutoring. But then you would have to keep up with that.

I'll have to let this stew awhile--and I may have more time on my hands if I get red-carded by the district . . .

As Time Goes By: Thing 21

Oh the joy of a calendar--another place you can mark off events as you accomplish them and then realize your life is passing you by as you do. I suppose it is a bittersweet thing . . .

While I was working on the calendar I realized how cool this would actually be for kids on that first day of each 6 weeks. If everyone had a Google account (and by now my GT kids do), and if everyone had access to a computer (which they should any day now), we could fill this sucker out together with all the important dates for assignments, etc. And then, the excuse of "I didn't know it was due" dies a horrid, bloody death. Sigh.

But maybe because people are trying to enter grades, or maybe because it is just early in the day, or maybe just because the school servers are old and over used, the calendar program was really slow. At one point, it just locked up completely. But that's okay; I had time. Now on the first day of the 6 weeks, I might not have time or patience to go through that. But I think it would be cool. I'm all for anything that throws responsibility back on the students. Of course, I would need to know when all my stuff was going to be due and what we were doing, but I'm getting better at that as the years go by.

The other thing I decided to explore was Google Books because I wasn't sure what it was exactly. The first thing I did was type in Lord of the Flies. Why? Because this book is still under copyright, I assume, because none of the book companies we are adopting from have it as a title to adopt. And yet there it was on Google Books--full text. Now it did say limited time or something, but then as I kept looking, lo and behold! They had all kinds of versions of LotF, including one that was a casebook. My first thought was "research". I only have one edition of LotF, but some of the other editions have introductions by Bloom or other scholars, and now kids could actually see these copies and learn information that might be pertinent to their research paper. So I went back to see if they had Arden editions for Shakespeare. These are expensive, but have excellent introductions--and they were there. I think I will be using this feature for my students when it comes to research. I can't expect them to buy the Arden Shakespeare, but they have access to the information through this Google feature.

Let me just go post that to my calendar. . .

Choices, Choices: Thing 7B

What a few weeks it has been in the world and in the space that is my reader. I have, however, developed a pretty good routine of checking it quite often, and even emailing some of the stories to people I think would enjoy them--like the 9 decapitated bodies story I sent to NinjaMickey (hope that didn't stir up some Nam flashbacks).

My problem now is what to do with this Dilbert cartoon I found that still cracks me up everytime I see it. It is like a gift, just waiting for me at the end of the day to remind me to be happy. If you are a fan of Dilbert, you know that Alice has an issue with her "fist of death" that quite often reaches out and punches her more clueless co-workers--and mostly her boss--at random times. Sometimes she is pictured just clenching her own wrist trying to control it. I love those moments as I feel that I have a fist of death that I barely keep a lid on sometimes.

On another note, I had to comment on a series of articles and podcasts from NPR dealing with one of Madoff's buddies being found dead of a heart attack at the bottom of his pool. Really? How convenient. I wonder . . .

And finally, as if the Dilbert cartoon didn't crack me up, I found this tidbit: Man shoots himself while pulling his gun up into his deer stand. I tried to link it, but NPR says the page is missing, so sadly, I couldn't read the whole story. But really, why would anyone think tying a deer rifle to a rope and hauling up to your stand was a good idea? He only shot himself in the hand, so he didn't qualify for a Darwin award, but I wonder how good a hunter he is if he is that clueless about gun safety. So instead, NPR gave me some other stories I could read about other missing things like the page I was looking for including Amelia Earheart, Jimmy Hoffa, 18 minutes of Watergate tapes, and luggage. This little side trip made me very happy too; what a good idea it was.

That's all for now; happy reading.

Easy as Pie: Thing 20

How nice that the week I get way too many essays to grade, the Thing involved is one I am already a big fan of and use quite often. What I learned to love most about Google docs is the instant accessability. No more lost thumb drives, no more just saving the short cut and not the document--the kids who utilize this tool find that the worst thing that happens sometimes is the font they picked ends up not being readable by the laptop used to present. With the overhead projector finally installed, the teacher computer will become the route they use, so hopefully that problem will disappear. No, I won't hold my breath, but I will cross my fingers.

Thinking back to when I first started using this and first introduced it to my students, I remember that the toughest thing, as always, was getting everyone logged into the server and then creating a google account. Some kids' emails were filtered, so I had to open them up, and some kids' passwords didn't work, etc. The usual garbage that one deals with when dealing with the school network and the school laptops. I also remember the painful amount of time it took to type in all the invitation emails, and then checking to see which invites went through and which didn't. I learned at some point that those with invites should just forward them to those who didn't receive them. The new gaggle email makes this process a little easier, but there is always at least one chucklehead who can't log in--and inevitably it is because they didn't type in their email properly.

What I learned from these exercises was to just be ready for chaos. The more prepared I am mentally for a disaster, the smaller said disaster appears when it occurs--and it will occur, trust me.

Last year during the American Literature strand, we studied the archetype of the cowboy and how that archetype changed through the decades. Kids were 1) invited to collaborate on a spread sheet to put all their knowledge about the cowboy in one place. Then they set off researching their assigned decades to see how film portrayed their cowboy. After all that, they 2) put together a powerpoint on their decade, working on the same project from different computers and at different times. Some of these students went on to 3) type the inevitable essay that goes with these projects on Google's word processor, and then their essays magically showed up at the exact time they needed them in class.

I didn't need to be sold on this feature of Google; once again, it is a tool that makes life easier for my students and myself; it also does away with many of the cyber excuses that come attached to any project.

Needs Must Have: Thing 19

There is a verb structure in Japanese that literally translates to "it will not do if I do not [verb]", so when you translate it into regular conversation, it amounts to "I must [verb]. That is how I feel about voicethread--it will not do if I do not have this.

My journey, at first, was confusing--I like the structure of the Venn Diagram heart thing with the kids on the side with their voices popping up in word bubbles, but the Industrial Revolution one doesn't have this feature--it is one guy, and his picture is unable to be seen. I really like the first one--but the more I looked, the more ideas started popping into my head, including, of all the boring things on earth, must have lectures. With so many kids in so many organizations, inevitably someone is out on those days we discuss as a class or I just yammer about something that will really help them with the upcoming assignment.

I want to use this; I need to figure out how to do this and what to do it on. My 3rd 6 weeks in the GT class usually involves some kind of techno driven unit done in literary circles. This year, it's Greeks, and more specifically, Greek women who are stubborn / strong / scary--think Medea, Klytemnestra, and Antigone. It will not do if i do not have . . . arinakereba arimasen. . .