The Christmas Picture

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry is sitting on Dave's lap, and Pippin is on my lap.

Final Collaboration Reflection

In the end, it worked out well. That is not to say that there were not some bugs and glitches along the way, for there surely were. However, by the end of the unit, most of the students said that they saw a connection between English and Social Studies, so I felt good about that.

My partner Chris also liked having students who had read and understood "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God" while they were working on the First Great Awakening in Social Studies. Requiring the students to include an historical element in each chapter of the graphic novel was another way to forge the connection between English and Social Studies and the students came through with flying colors. Occasionally they needed a little assistance, but for the most part they made the connections easily and on their own.

Chris and I checked in with each other during the unit, but we were not in lockstep with each other. We both trusted that the other would be able to use and build on the schema learned in each class.

A side benefit was that I ended up collaborating with another Social Studies teacher, also named Chris. Most students who take Pre-AP English also take Pre-AP US History, but some don't. However, Chris 2 was also teaching Puritanism at the same time Chris 1 and I were, so it worked out great. He thanked me for teaching that, and said that his kids were getting some of the same benefits that the Pre-AP USH students were getting from the collaboration.

All in all, I feel it was a successful collaboration.

And so, it begins...

Dave heads into CMMC for surgery at 5:45 tomorrow morning. If you have some spare time during the day, send healing thoughts our way. Thank God that Dr. Candia is doing the surgery. He was the surgeon on call 6 years ago when Dave had his brain hemorrhage and we have complete trust and faith in that man and his skills. I'm more anxious than Dave is...he just wants to "git-r-done" in the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy.

Good News/Bad News

Here's the good news:
Yesterday I got to meet my great-nephew for the first time. His name is Luke. Isn't he cute? He was a very good baby all day, especially when you take into consideration that he was surrounded by 9 people whom he did not know...and my family can be a bit...exuberant. But I got to see him and hold him and talk to him and it was a really nice day.

Bad news?
2009: The Year of Surgery continues. This time it's Dave. He needs surgery on a herniated disc in his neck. (A piece of good news in the bad news is the surgeon who did his brain surgery during and after his stroke will be doing this surgery!) So I will be out of school for about two weeks because Dave will need someone home with him as he recovers. Someone who can drive and get him things. And that would be me.

However, we are playing around with technology and I will be Skyping into my classes to conduct discussions and check in on my students. I have set up a Skype buddy in each class, and I will be projected on the big screen via the LCD projector. Pretty darn cool, huh? My kids and I are excited about it. Even my principal thinks it's a cool idea. We'll see how it works! I'm looking forward to the experiment, but not the cause.

Student Projects!

My student projects are completed and the kids did even better than I had hoped they would! Some of the pages (like the one above by Cam, Ayla and Alex) are extraordinary. Most kids enjoyed the project and said that it helped them better understand Scarlet Letter. Most also said that they enjoyed learning how to use a new program like ComicLife. However, because of delays in getting our laptops, this unit took longer than I thought it would. I hope to be able to catch up since we have a lot more curriculum to get through!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I love Dory (from the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo). She is my role model for this year. I have a poster of her near my desk, reminding me to "just keep swimming." No matter what is going on this year, I just need to keep moving forward.

I have taken on a lot this year: I am department head, I am teaching 6 courses (for the first time in 19 years of teaching), of those courses, three are new, I am continuing my grad school work (which is frustrating because I am having trouble collecting data), and I am trying to still have a personal life and spend time with Dave and my family.

So when I feel overwhelmed (which is pretty much all the time right now), I remind myself of Dory and I "just keep swimming." Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't, but I just keep moving on.

Reading...is it really that hard?

I had my senior writing students read "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. I read this when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I didn't think twice about it, really, but the kids complained that it was hard to understand. These are all kids who are planning on going to college! I was shocked. Poe is not that difficult, and "Cask," though it does feature an unreliable narrator, is not hard to understand. I have no idea what they would do if I threw "The Yellow Wallpaper" at them, so now I am looking around for some simpler short stories.

Am I wrong though? I am questioning a few things.
First, is the writing of Poe that obtuse? Perhaps I need an objective viewpoint on this.
Secondly, shouldn't I be challenging these kids with more difficult readings, since they will soon be faced with far more trying assignments in college?
I would really love some feedback!

Blogs and Senior Writing

I've just been inspired to have my senior writing students create blogs which would be used much like an online journal. I'll have them use the blogs for free-writes and also for quick write topics that I give them. I'll keep a few "starter topics" on hand for kids who "don't know what to write about." I just have to wait until they all get their computers, but that should be soon. Since I only have 9 kids in that class, it should be easy to keep on top of the blogging. Now I need a blog grading rubric! Anyone know of one?

Today, I love technology!

Finally, success! I have a very small Mythology class (only 5 kids) and three of them were absent today. Fortunately, I had just finished setting up their wikispace (with Amity's help) and I had a project ready to roll. Both of the students in the class had their laptops (hurrah!) and they were able to sign on to the wiki and get to work. And it went great! Both of them were totally engaged with looking up their gods and goddesses and putting information on the wiki. Now, if only my sophomores would get their laptops...

Here's a link to their wiki. Reminder that it's a work in progress!

Tech-frustration

So, I go to show my wordle today to my sophomores and what happens? The applet won't load. I can see other wordles, but I can't show mine. I try to quickly make a new one. Same problem. I use Safari instead of Firefox. Same problem. So, like any good teacher, I had to drop that idea and go quickly to something different. Something non-technology based.

Also, our students don't have their laptops yet and probably won't until October. That's not too far away, but much of what I want to do, I can't do, because I don't have the technology. This also has a bearing on my grad school project, since much of it was developed with using technology in mind.

I know it will get better eventually. My problem is I want eventually to be RIGHT NOW!

What I did on my summer vacation...

These are some of the many YA Lit books I read this summer. What an enjoyable course! Basically, I got to sit around on my couch reading all summer. And what better way to spend a mostly rainy summer? I was introduced to the concept of booktalks and my final project was a unit plan (planned with UbD!) for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I simply can't wait to teach this during this coming school year!

Because it's funny and I had to....

see more dog and puppy pictures

So will our students start using this as an excuse now?

A legacy

Dave and I have no children. That was a choice and we do not regret it. However, I have about 75 to 100 "kids" a year. Many of them are trying at times, but I love working with them. Some of them, though, become very special to me.

A case in point is the young woman in the picture above. I had her in one or another of my classes for four years. I directed her in plays. We became close. So close that she once inadvertently called me "mama." I loved that.

She became an English teacher, and just this week got her Master's degree (with honors) from the City College of New York. She wrote the following to me after I sent her my congratulations and told her how proud I was of her. "Thank You Ms. Doughty! I had an amazing time :) And thanks for being the best English teacher ever and inspiring me to be a pretty darn good one myself :)"

That's a pretty good legacy, if I do say so myself.

The Leadership Role

I don't often think of myself as a leader. In fact, I generally prefer to be the "power behind the throne" as it were. If I lived in the past, I might be a court adviser, but I would never be the ruler. So I find myself in an odd position when it comes to the leadership role.

I prefer to lead by example. I do not want to push change on people, but when I see an option for using technology to "work smarter," I mention it. For example, our family and consumer sciences teacher was doing a unit called "From Steer to Steak." She had typed out and photocopied a collection of links for students to use while researching this subject. I happened to run into her in the teacher's room and I asked her about it. I said, "You know, you could put all these links on a wikispace and then the student's could just sign on and click the links." She was immediately intrigued and we made a date for me to come down and show her how to set up a wikispace. Some teachers have been receptive to this, others have not.

In addition, I have found that, come the fall, I will be the Department Head for the English Department at MVHS. I'm a little nervous. I know that I will be able to keep things organized and on track for the most part. I love to plan and organize. However, I will now be in the vanguard, no hiding behind others. It's a little nervewracking for me. But this is another examle of "working smarter." I love our current department head, but he will be the first one to admit that he is a bit...scattered. I love to organize and plan, so I think that I will be able to do a better job about keeping the department informed about what I call "administrivia." I also want to keep pushing technology. During this course, I have found so many wonderful sites that help teachers "work smarter, not harder." I hope my department members may find them useful.

Stage 3--Collaboration

I met with Chris to discuss stage 3 and I showed him all of my stage 3 work. He was impressed with the variety of assessments that I was planning on using. Much of our conversation centered around trying to access all varieties of learning styles in one assessment.

I explained what Dr. Grace had said about the different learning styles and I also mentioned how I found myself thinking more creatively about assessments when I had to utilize and incorporate all the different learning styles in a single assessment piece.

Chris is more of a lecture/Socratic seminar kind of guy, but he also devises many activities and assessments that contain different projects that the students can choose. We spent some time discussing this and I emphasized that this student choice was a great thing as students could play to their strengths and choose projects that were of interest to them.

We also discussed the fact that, when given choice, many students tend to still choose the traditional paper and pencil (or in this day and age, word processing) kind of assessments. I gave him an example of my recent Lord of the Flies assessment. Students could choose to have their assessment be an essay, poster, PowerPoint, iMovie or other product. However, 99% chose to do a traditional essay. We talked about why that might be, and how we might encourage our students to think outside the box.

I left the templates for Chris, after I explained how to use them. We worked together on filling out the first one, and he, when he had some more free time, was going to work on the rest. This is a very busy time of year for Chris, since he is also, in addition to his many other duties, Senior class advisor. I did not want to overburden him.

TPCK Chapter 12--TPCK in in-service education: Assisting experienced teachers' "planned improvisations"

I'm a sucker for a good extended metaphor, so I enjoyed this chapter in which teaching was compared to playing jazz. It is so accurate, especially for older experienced teachers. So much of what I do is second nature that I hardly have to think about it. I found this to be very true when I was planning for being out for two weeks after my surgery. "How hard could it be," asked my kids, when I mentioned my struggles. "OK," I said, "imagine that I told you to get up go to your car and drive home right now. You could do it almost automatically, right? Now imagine that you have to give a total stranger directions for doing the same thing. You have to walk them through every step: how to get out of the building, how to find your car in the parking lot, how to turn it on, and explicit direction on how to get to your house. Not so easy, is it?"

This is what teaching is like, second nature. We get relaxed, comfortable. Complacent, perhaps. We don't like change because change asks us to do more, to do things differently, to try, to stretch, to grow. And growing is sometimes painful. So we build barriers and say we have no time! We have no resources! We don't know how! And I get frustrated with people like that. If teaching is about learning, shouldn't we model a willingness to learn and try new things? What would any one of us do if our students used any of the excuses that we try to use? Would we buy it? Probably not. But it works for teachers sometimes.

I liked that part of this chapter that mentioned that "adults need to know why they should learn something, and how, if at all, it will benefit them directly" (p.267). Perhaps it is different for me because I teach high school, but I know that my kids feel this way. They really want to know why they are learning things and how it will benefit them. Incorporating 21rst century skills into the curriculum will not only excite them, it will provide an answer to those questions of "Why do we have to do this?" and "Why do we have to read this" or the more dreaded "Do I need to know this?" and "Will this be on the test?"

I also liked the part of the chapter that talked about "developing a taxonomy of TPCK-related activity types" (p. 263). This may be what some teachers need in order to start exploring TPCK. It's always easier when you have a template or framework given to you, rather than having to re-invent the wheel. We should go back to our schools and implement our projects next year. Then we should present them to the entire staff at our respective buildings. We may be able to inspire some of our colleagues to try "just one thing" related to technology. We need to take away the barriers that are currently used as excuses and challenge everyone to grow.

TPCK Chapter 11--Guiding preservice teachers in developing TPCK

There were many things I appreciated about this chapter. I liked all the little quotes sprinkled throughout the pages, and I really enjoyed reading about the case studies and the examples included in the chapter. Although I am not in the business of educating preservice teachers often, I do occasionally have student teachers, and much of this information will be kept in mind for when I have a student teacher in my classroom.

I took exception to one statement though. The author says, "Tomorrow's teachers must be prepared to rethink, unlearn and relearn, change, revise and adapt" (p 225). Call me crazy, but also call me fairly certain that all teachers need to be able to do this! After all, that is one of the best tools in our toolboxes. The ability to be flexible and adapt to changes. We have all, I am sure, had the experience of going in to the classroom with one lesson prepared and planned and having to revise and adapt that lesson as we taught it more than once. That is the essence of teaching...learning what your students need and changing your lesson so that you meet those needs.

I was also immediately aware, when reading this chapter, that the chapter could conceivably have been written about our class, EDU 583. After all, is that not what we are doing? Are we not planning lessons, incorporating technology, using backward design? We are doing all of these things. Even though we are not preservice teachers, we have varying degrees of skill and ease with technology. This course and the course that will follow in the fall, are preparing us to start thinking more and more like digital natives.

How I spent my April 15...

Where was I April 15?
Proudly watching my nephew graduate from the Connecticut State Trooper Academy. He is now one of Connecticut's Finest! The ceremony was three hours long, but worth every minute. He was also in the Rifle Drill Squad, so that was a total thrill to see.

TPCK Chapter 5: TPCK: educating world language teachers

This chapter was not particularly applicable to me at this stage although I did enjoy thinking about language development. My kids are working on vocabulary building and, although they are sophomores and seniors in high school, they have little skill in pronunciation and word usage. This leads to rather humorous moments when we are going over them in class. Therefore, some of the interesting possibilities of using tech in the classroom come about.

I liked the idea of using a podcast to pronounce the words! This would be very helpful for my students. They would not feel as insecure or self-conscious when going over the words in class. I am sure that there are numerous other technologies available. I feel that I really must try to tap into that next year.

TPCK Chapter 8--Placing the magic in the classroom TPCK in arts education

Was it just me, or was this chapter begging to be published online? There were so many wonderful links embedded in this chapter that I wanted to just stop and play with all of them. I wanted to read and click and read more and click more so I could see all the great opportunities the author was talking about. I thought this chapter was fantastic; there was so much content to explore.

I am pleased to say that in our school we have four of the five arts areas covered. We offer wonderful art courses and a thriving theatre program (which I taught for 13 years). We have a first rate music program and even have our own recording studio, thanks to winning the NESCOM competition two years in a row. We have a burgeoning technology program. My friend and colleague Jeff Bailey teaches broadcasting and video production and next year is thinking of expanding his offerings. Truly, the arts are alive and well at MVHS. The only area that we are lacking in (as a school) is dance, but there are multiple dance studios in our area, and the kids take advantage of them.

I also enjoyed the emphasis on incorporating the arts into our classrooms. I do a fair amount of this. When I used to teach freshmen, art was an inderdisciplinary strand that I taught in conjunction with English. It was fun teaching the kids about the three periods of Greek art, and I loved learning new things. Now I try to incorporate art and music when I teach poetry. This reinforces my opinion that literature cannot be studied in isolation. The reader needs to understand the history and culture of the period in order to truly understand the work. This, of course, means more reading, more studying...but I find it endlessly fascinating.

This year, I tried using multi-genre papers in my classes. As a result, many kids utilized skills that I did not know they had. I got many pieces of artwork and some pieces of music. No one has tried dance yet, but I bet it would be really great to see that.

I loved this chapter. It seemed to me to be the perfect blend of useful links and ideas and helpful guidance for how to incorporate TPCK in our classrooms.

TPCK Chapter 7: Perhaps a matter of imagination TPCK in mathematics education

OK, I am not a "math person." I admit it. I have, in fact, a bit of math phobia. I find that I am intimidated by it. So I went into this chapter with a bit of trepidation. Would I understand it or get anything out of it?

I am happy to report that I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I found the writing to be of very high quality, which is always pleasing to me. I loved the description of mathematics as the "discipline that helped mankind build pyramids, navigate oceans and send rockets into space" (p. 150). Math has always been a bit of a mystery to me (in fact, I adore this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip that calls math a religion), but the author's love of and reverence for his subject resonates through this chapter. It's almost enough to make me begin to like math. Gulp.

Dave (who is the resident math genius in our household) and I engaged in a discussion about fractals as I was reading the chapter. He mentioned that before the advent of computers and technology, computing fractals was nearly impossible and could take decades. Now, technology has opened up this (and many other) areas in mathematics. Again, the rapid changes in technology and the impact technology has on different subject areas is evident. Our world is rapidly changing, whether we want it to or not. We must not be afraid to embrace those changes.

One thing that I have found in many other chapters is the notion that their discipline (whatever it is) is the most complex subject out there. Not so in the math chapter. The author readily admits that all disciplines are complex and have their own quirks. All disciplines need to incorporate technology in different ways. However, in listing what qualities teachers and programs need in order to utilize TPCK, all you need to do is replace mathematics with English, or science or any other discipline in order to get a good idea of what is needed for successful integration.

I was also interested in the discussion of the National Council of Mathematics Standards. I think that I will be spending some time on the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) website in order to investigate their standards and recent publications. Do they have any information about the impact of technology on teaching English? I need to find out.

TPCK Chapter 9: Science, technology and teaching: The topic-specific challenges of TPCK in science

Sometimes I describe reading these chapters as "looking for the pony." In other words, I'm trying to find the sometimes buried gem of information that I can use in my classroom. I am sorry to say that for me, there was no pony in this chapter.

I tried, I really did, but this chapter seemed to be very wishy-washy and non-committal in tone in regard to utilizing technology in the classroom. Much of this was repetitive as well, echoing the first two chapters of this book. I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to read that "teachers need to know how to teach" (p. 201). We do?!?!? Why was I never told this before?

Ahem...sorry about that. But I really could find nothing in this chapter that I can bring into my classroom. This chapter told me things that I already know: technology is constantly changing, people are afraid of change, technology is often "messy" and may not work well on the first try, not every teacher has the same materials with which to work. We all need to make choices about what to use in our classrooms in regard to technology. We all need to decide what works best for us in light of what is available to us. This chapter seemed to say, "Yes, you should use technology, but we really can't tell you what you should use or how you should use it. That's up to you."

The next chapter I am going to read is about math TPCK. I'm not a math person, but I hope that I will be able to find the pony in that chapter.

TPCK Chapter 3--TPCK in K-6 literacy education: It's not that elementary!

I read this chapter with great interest because our school has been on the AYP "naughty" list for several years. Therefore, in the past few years we have begun a real push for literacy education. We have a consultant who has been working with our staff to teach us various literacy strategies, but she is rather "old school" and (can you believe it?) resistant to technology. On her last visit with us, she was teaching us about using storyboarding as a literacy strategy. When I mentioned that there are several digital storyboarding sites available online, she was uninterested. I was appalled. There is a wealth of digital literacy strategies online just waiting to be used! Why reinvent the wheel? I was once told a good teacher is a good thief...take what works and use it in your classroom.

So I was glad to read in this chapter all about the various websites and programs that can help with literacy techniques. I was already a fan of ReadWriteThink, but this chapter gave me some other websites and links to explore. I may have been most excited about finding National Standards and performance indicators for technology. In our district, we must align all of our rubrics with either State or National Standards. Our State ELA standards really don't deal much with technology, so in order to grade any work with technology I need these standards. I have now downloaded them and now I can make up rubrics with which to grade technology use by my students! Hurrah!

I enjoyed reading the examples of how TPCK could be used in various classrooms. I like the idea that technology does not have to be a burden. So many of my colleagues feel that technology "takes too much time" (and sometimes it does) but I think that technology if used well can save you time in the long run. This reminds me of the link that I found urging all of us to "do just one thing" related to technology in our classrooms.

Lastly, I enjoyed thinking about my student teachers. I have had three student teachers and none of them really emphasized technology in thier student teaching with me. When next I have a student teacher, I think that will change. I want to help encourage the use of technology in the classroom. Hopefully, I will get some great tech tips from the student teacher as well.

TPCK Chapter 10--The role of TPCK in physical education

I was interested in this chapter not so much because I love phys. ed. (obviously I don't), but because I wanted to see just how technology fit in with PE. When I think of PE, I think of athletes. And when I think technology, I generally think of geeks (in a good way! I'm a geek, after all. I love geeks.) Athletes and geeks generally do not go together. I am guilty of thinking of PE only as "gym" class, learning sports and games. I am also guilty of thinking that technology does not apply to that. But this chapter, and changing my outlook on just what technology is, has changed that impression.

So when I read about using heart monitors and databases as ways of using TPCK in PE class, it made sense. I sympathize with the idea of the cost of the equipment and the lack of budget money. I get that, we have similar problems in all areas of the school, however gym equipment is very expensive. One of the new pieces of technology being used in our school (and in our home, for that matter) is the Wii Fit. From personal experience, I can tell you that the Wii Fit is an amazing tool for for exercise and motivation. We often refer to our Wii Fit as "Wii-habilitation."

You see, about 5 years ago, Dave (my significant other) suffered a stroke due to uncontrolled high blood pressure. He has made a remarkable recovery, and much of that can be attributed to the Wii Fit. One of the things most affected by the stroke was his balance. Through using the Wii Fit he has gotten stronger, fitter and has improved his sense of balance significantly. The Wii Fit is used much like physical therapy. The difference? It's fun. Dave and I both love it, and we look forward to using it. How many people look forward to physical therapy? Not many. The Wii and Wii Fit are also being used for senior citizens as a way of getting them up and moving while having fun. This is something people of all ages can participate in and enjoy.

I think that video game programs like Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution have a place in the PE classroom. No, they are not "traditional" sports. But they get kids up and moving, they are motivated and they are having fun. They are becoming "fit" without even knowing it. I think that technology is going to have a profound impact on PE especially with the development of motion capture video. As that becomes less expensive and more common, I would expect to see that turn up in PE classes to help students get immediate feedback about their bodies and skills.

I did take issue with the idea that PE in unique in that it using building blocks and then proceeds to more complex skills as the grade levels increase. That is also the case with English, math, and most other disciplines. After all, you can't write an essay until you can write a sentence or paragraph, can you? But other than this, I found the chapter interesting.

Reflection on Stage One--Integrated Unit

It's difficult to find time to meet with a partner, especially a partner in a different discipline. I have had grad school, illness, family obligations, professional obligations and home life. He is the Social Studies department head, the President of our Educators' Association, a devoted dad and a great teacher.

In addition, I felt a bit like I was imposing. Now don't get me wrong, Chris wants to work with me, but all of the work I am doing is for my grad school class, not his. I do not like to burden him with additional work when he has so much on his plate already.

We finally were able to carve out some time to talk about our upcoming unit. Chris and I are very excited to work together. We hope to come together for a few more units during the next school year. The basis of our discussion was about Stage 1 and Stage 2. We talked about essential questions and how to frame the unit.

One of the most debated topics was that of "coverage." In our UbD book, the authors really seem to emphasize that we should not get hung up on coverage But Chris still feels that it is vitally important. Therefore, we talked about coverage and uncovering for quite a bit. I do not think that I changed his mind, but I at least gave him something to think about. He feels the pressure form our district to "get through" all the material. It's hard, I think, especially for a Social Studies teacher, to break away from this mentality. It's hard for me too! We shared these frustrations with each other.

I was able to share the student sample that I had worked on and Chris was impressed. I really want him to be involved in grading the sample I will need his historical expertise. He was very willing to help me grade and to give the students feedback about the historical applications.

We have another meeting planned in which we are going to talk about Stage 3. Here's hoping that it will go as well as our first discussion did!

TPCK Chapter 6: Toward democracy Social Studies and TPCK

Since social studies is the discipline that I am integrating with in my unit, I chose to read the social studies section next. I was interested in the author's assertion that social studies is not a cohesive area of study, but rather several interrelated areas of study. I think that sometimes I tend to equate social studies with history, but in reality it is so much more.

Of particular interest to me in the chapter was the notion that media literacy is the domain of the social studies. It seems to me, as an English teacher, that evaluating websites tends to fall into the domain of English Language Arts. I know that when I am teaching my research paper unit, I need to instruct many students how to evaluate a website based on "authority, currency, coverage, accuracy and objectivity" (http://www.studygs.net/evaluate.htm). While I disagree with the notion that anything is solely the domain of one particular discipline, I believe that having social studies teachers reinforce (and perhaps introduce) the idea of evaluating websites would be both valuable and profitable for my students.

Although mentioned only briefly in this chapter, plagiarism is a great concern of mine, and of many other teachers that I know. All I can say is that Google can be your friend. There have been many times in the past where I have run a sentence or two through Google and have quickly found the page from which students plagiarized. This only takes a few minutes and can really reinforce the idea of academic integrity.

I also enjoyed the part of the chapter that talked about how technology connects students to the "real world." I could immediately see uses for this in an English Language Arts classroom. One of the things that quickly popped into my mind was a possible email correspondence or virtual chat with an author. I am considering adding a new young adult novel to my Pre-AP sophomore English class next year. Wouldn't it be cool to have the kids set up a wikispace or a blog about her book and to have her correspond with and interact with them? Even a simple email from an author could change kids' perceptions about the relevancy of this piece of literature in their lives. I know that I have always been thrilled when I got a letter or email from a favorite author of mine (I've written to several and almost all have responded personally to me) and my dad treasures a handwritten note he got from Tony Hillerman. Taking it a step further, what if the actual author critiqued your essay about his/her book? Of course, this might be too much to ask, but it could be possible and it's exciting to consider.

All in all, I think I found more exciting and immediately useful ideas in this chapter than I did in the chapter on English...I'm glad I read it!

TPCK-Chapter 4--Leveraging the development of English TPCK within the deictic nature of literacy

In reading chapter 4, I was struck by one important facet of TPCK: the need to integrate it clearly into all aspects of teaching. It is not just enough to use technology in your classroom, you must use technology to support learning in your content area. This task becomes even larger when you take into account the number of constraints that most teachers face.

Here is a real life example of something that happened to me just this week. I wanted my AP Literature students to start playing around with our wikispace. I had learned about wikis this summer and I wanted to start using them in my classroom, but wikis (and other personal pages) are blocked by our school’s net nanny, Bess. At the beginning of the year, I contacted our tech coordinator and he graciously agreed to allow access to the wiki. However, when it came time to start using it, my students could not post! It took the tech coordinator and me an entire class period (about 80 minutes) in order to work out the problem. I persevered, because I really wanted to use the wiki, but I did feel like giving up and going back to the “old” and more easily available ways of doing things. I can see why some teachers just “don’t want the hassle” because it was very frustrating for the kids and me.

Our school says that it values technology, and they show it in ways like giving us one to one laptops. However, in many other ways (most notably our incredibly restrictive AUP) they are not supportive of teachers and students really using technology, or stretching the boundaries of how technology can be used (in other words, going beyond functional fixedness). Obviously this is a problem that must be addressed in our school before we can truly even think about using E-TPCK. If we do not have full access to the scope of the technology that is available, how can we use it effectively in our classrooms? We can’t! It is maddening to be asked to use technology and to start thinking about new ways to integrate technology and then find out that we are not allowed to use tech in the way that we want and/or need to.

The information about the pre-service training was very interesting. In many ways, I felt that what the Ed-U-Tech program is doing in Minnesota is much like what UMF is trying to do with our MS Ed cohorts here in Maine. The one obvious difference is that we are in-service teachers, rather than pre-service. Again though, the emphasis is on training and using technology. This is a wonderful idea, but our districts must learn to trust teachers (and students) to use these tools as they are meant to be used in the classroom. Otherwise, we will be constantly be hampered from fully using E-TPCK.

While linking from site to site after James and Charmaine's presentations, I found this marvelous site, with cyber-guides for all kinds of literature. These pages also contain links to rubrics, graphic organizers and other activities. One of the best things about this site? It is broken down by grade levels! This site will work for elementary, middle and high school levels.

Another amazing site, EDSITEment, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides lesson plans and websites that are geared for all grade levels. I am looking forward to using one of these lessons this week with my AP Literature students.

Finally, Education World suggests that blogging can be done by students in kindergarten! I thought about my technology conversations with my team mates Stacey and Christine while reading this. Hopefully as our access to blogs and wikis opens up, we will be able to use some of these strategies in our classrooms. Perhaps these hints will be helpful.

Here is a story about how technology impacts students with disabilities such as autism. It also talks about how Hewlett Packard really stepped up to the plate to help this school.

TPACK Chapter 2--Bridging Digital and Cultural Divides

One of the things that I understand now is why we took History, Philosophy and Ethics and Research Methods before taking this course. While reading this chapter, I found I needed that background knowledge.
In this chapter, a real challenge for me was the use of the acronym “TMI.” I know that the chapter explained it as “technology mediated instruction” however every time the authors used the acronym, I thought “too much information.” I literally had to look up what TMI meant every few pages.
Leaving that aside for a minute, I was very interested in the digital divide conversation. I had of course heard of the term before, but I only knew it as what the authors describe as the “first” digital divide: the haves and the have-nots. We have tried to solve part of the first divide in our district. I am blessed to be able to teach in a school that has one to one laptops. However, there is an interesting attitude at our school. Many students don’t like the laptops! They don’t like carrying them around all the time (they’re heavy!) and they also think that they are old. They complain that they can’t do enough with them. There are also many complaints about the ‘Net Nanny, Bess, that our school employs. The students feel that it is too restrictive and in many cases it is. For example, a student would be blocked from many sites if he/she were researching breast cancer. I don’t know how to solve this, but it is interesting to note.
I had not considered the other two digital divides: “access to achievement enhancing TMI” (p. 39) and “ access to cultural sensitive technological pedagogy” (p. 43). Both of these digital divides were interesting. I should hope that I don’t use technology as a reward. I hate being held back when I am exploring new technology, so I don’t think I do that to my students, especially when the next direction is something like “hit enter” but I will be more aware of it in the future.
I also enjoyed the discussion of teaching as an “ill-structured ‘wicked’ problem” (p. 55). Teaching is amorphous and ever changing. That is one of the things I like best about it! It is never the same, day-to-day and year-to-year. I have three sophomore classes on B days. The same lesson could look very different in each one of those classes. I am interested in hearing more about how the context to TPCK can help me to teach these lessons more effectively. There is so much to do! How do we do everything that is asked of us? This is the most important question that I need answered.

All Quotes from The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators edited by the AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology.

TPACK Chapter 1--Introducing TPCK

Technology is growing and changing at increasing rates of speed each year. Look at how quickly an iPod or computer goes out of date or becomes obsolete. Contrast that with the relative stasis of the canon of English literature. No wonder then that many teachers, when looking at technology, think, “It’s somebody else’s problem.” Many times, we don’t like to change, because change is hard. Change is work and sometimes change is frightening. And technology is change.
But the truth is that we use technology every day, from the minute we get up until we go to sleep. Many of these innovative technologies are no longer new or exciting to us; therefore we discount them as technology. But a pencil is technology. Just as much as the computer and word processor were revolutionary, so too was the printing press and the clock. One of the discussions that I found most interesting in this chapter was the nature of analog and digital technology.
So we use technology every day. So what? So what if what I use is a pencil while the technology that my colleague embraces is a SmartBoard. They are both technology. The “so what” is that our students are so much better at it than teachers (for the most part) are. Many of them have, after all, never even seen or heard of a typewriter, and discount writing with pens and pencils as “old school.” They cannot remember a time when they did not have the luxury of a computer. And they like learning things on (and about) computers; therefore they are more engaged in learning when it involves digital technology.
How does this impact me? I believe that it reinforces what I already knew. I knew that kids like and respond well to technology and that we should continue to try to incorporate technology into our lessons. The challenge is finding the time to “do it all” as they say. Much like “supermoms” teachers have to be all things to all students…and that’s hard.
But while it is hard, it is also exciting. The heart of teaching is the love of learning. If we as teachers are not open and willing to embrace new experiences and technology, then we lose the very essence of what makes us teachers. We should love to learn. Therefore, although it can be frightening to be asked to do so much with (sometimes) so little, we need to take up the challenge. I, for one, am looking forward to it.