My favorite quote:

Again, no blame to a system that’s worked for years. The blame goes to those who remain satisfied with a system that’s worked for years. We need to hack that system.

I’ve worked under no fewer than 4 Superintendents, and I think my current one is the best I’ve ever had. Why? Because he’s the first I’ve seen that’s made some very positive changes within the system.

But he’s still within the system. Test scores are still more important than attaining real world survival skills. It’s what the School Board expects. It’s what the system expects.

The more I teach, the more I feel like I’m a passenger on a cargo ship headed for a reef, desperately trying to paddle against the ship’s own momentum. Granted, there are a lot of other people manning the oars alongside me, but we haven’t been able to turn that boat around.

At least, not yet.

And I’m still rowing.

It also meant that I was able to make a list of things that, once I eventually taught elementary, would be able to drill into my students to prevent premature baldness and graying amongst the high school art teachers.

This list included the following five things:

1. People are not sticks. (I don’t mind if a 3rd grader tries to draw a person and it doesn’t turn out, but a 3rd grader drawing a stick figure isn’t even trying.)
2. Trees are not lollipops.
3. Not every tree has to have a hole in the trunk. (Honestly, half of them draw the holes so they’re wider than the trunks!)
4. I’ve never seen a blue cloud in a white sky.
5. Sky touches ground. (A blue bar at the top is … a blue bar at the top. Not a sky.)

Granted, I didn’t cover these things in every grade and every lesson. Not all students are developmentally able to comprehend my little list, and I still have room in my curriculum to do lessons that are more fun than they are nitpicky.

But at least by the time they leave elementary school all of my students know:

1. A way to draw people that have at least enough mass to wear some clothes.
2. A way to draw trees that are more accurate depictions than a circle (or green cloud) on a stick.
3. That because it can exist on one thing does not mean it exists on everything.
4. More than one way to make cool looking skies , including sunsets, storm clouds, and more.
5. What a horizon line is.

My official curriculum is much more detailed than this, but I suppose these items are my “pet peeves,” if you will.

And this sort of got me thinking: Since I might become a technology teacher in a couple years, how will my list change? What are my technology pet peeves that I’ll feel I must cover, above and beyond the official standards?

I came up with something like this:

1. Be safe! There are ways to be safe from online predators, stalkers, identity thieves, cyberbullies, and so on. Use them.
2. Be creative! The great thing about the internet is that anyone can create content, including you!
3. Be skeptical! The bad thing about the internet is that anyone can create content, including people who mislead others. Take the things you see online with a grain of salt.
4. Be cautious! Also, what happens on the internet stays on the internet, but not in a good way. Anything digital can be copied and archived, as well as indexed for easy searching. Don’t put it online unless you want your mom, teacher, principal, significant others, and any future bosses to see it.
5. Be clear! There media (PowerPoint, website, movie, etc.) should never be more important than the message it’s used to convey. Overworked and poorly designed projects can both keep people from remembering the very things you wanted them to learn.

Well, that’s my list, at least. What’s yours?

I am a teacher.

Every time I walk into a classroom, I walk out knowing that the people in that room have learned something new. Words cannot describe the feeling of accomplishment that gives.

For a teacher, that’s incredibly addictive. It’s why we put up with low pay, budget cuts, No Child Left Behind, piles of paperwork, security checks, and much more.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways to curb addictions. The stuff I just mentioned can be more effective than methadone with getting teachers to kick the habit of enjoying their jobs, but this year I’ve noticed some tell-tale signs that I’m suffering from something worse than all of those things combined:

Burnout.

I’ve seen burned out “teachers” before. Ones that cut every corner they could (whether or not they should), gave the same lessons every year, and lived only for the weekend and summer vacation, where they could do anything other than walk into a classroom.

I don’t want to be that person. Ever.

I need a change. A change of location, a change of work environment, a change of job description, a change of something. I don’t know for certain what the change needs to be, but I do know that I can’t keep doing this.

I need a job where I can be truly inspired, do what I love to do, and get a living wage for doing it. For 8 years, that job for me has been teaching art. I’m passionate about it, the kids seem to like it, and the classroom teachers will often participate along with the students. Just a couple of weeks ago I had a 4th grade teacher tell me I’d just taught her the best lesson she’d ever seen me do.

I am a teacher.

Every time I say those words my chest swells with the feelings of pride and fraternity (or gender neutral equivalent) that are shared by firefighters, police officers, and soldiers. This is not something I want to give up.

This is not something I’m going to give up, either.

I will not leave the classroom, but I will most likely be leaving my current classrooms after the 2008-2009 school year. That gives me one year to explore my options, whether it be a change of employer, job description, or schools.

I’ll be weighing all of my options, and while that could include leaving the classroom that will be a last resort. I’d much rather have an art position in a single elementary school or a tech teaching position in an elementary or middle school.

I’ve been putting out feelers, and it seems if I want to stay with my present employer, teach technology, and earn a living wage, middle school is the youngest age bracket there is. I have not yet looked into other employers, but I will be if for no other reason than to compare and contrast.

There’s a lot about the year after next that is totally up in the air. As I start to get a handle on what I want to do and what I can do, I’ll let you know.

In any case, here’s a quick rundown on my opinions concerning Flickr’s decision to host videos:

• Flickr’s video hosting is to most online videos as Twitter is to most blog posts.
• 90 seconds is very short.
• If you edit well, 90 seconds can be enough. (Remember, most commercials are 60 seconds or less.)
• The first time I tried to cut one of my ramblings down to a minute and a half, it wasn’t easy.
• I say in the video that I cut 10 minutes of footage out to make it fit. I was exaggerating.
• It wasn’t more than 8 minutes. Honest.
• Still, editing out everything except the core points took much longer than I thought it would.
• Flickr Video ≠ YouTube
• Flickr Video = Neat little toy
• You can supposedly embed the videos as easily as the photos.
• “Supposedly,” because copy/pasting the provided HTML code did nothing but place a blank, black box in this blog entry.

Herrera said the violence could have been prevented if the school had enforced its cell phone ban.

I think this quote points at the wrong issue. Yes, the student used her cell phone to call her mom into the school and solve her issues with violence, but she could have also told her mom once she got home from school. The cell phone only sped up the process.

I see 2, maybe 3 issues here - none of which are centered on cell phones.

1. The mom in this story has some serious anger management issues. I mean, come on - attacking someone and yelling profanities in front of kids? Way to be a role model there. Your “Mom of the Year” nomination is a sure thing.
2. Behavior issues with the daughter. Repeatedly interrupting the class? Calling someone on a cell phone in class? Not exactly gold star behavior.
3. Classroom Management issues with the teacher(?) I add this as a “maybe” because the information on how this teacher conducts her class is not present. I’ve no idea what strategies she used. Perhaps she tried various methods to diffuse the situation and calm the daughter (and later, the mom) down. Perhaps the methods she tried did nothing, perhaps they made things worse. Goodness knows I’ve been teaching long enough to see all three of those outcomes happen to me - although not nearly to this extreme.

Is it too much to ask that a news story portraying an all-around-bad situation not have anything in it that blames the technology along with (or instead of, in some cases) the people using it?

Hm, perhaps I should break out my old digital video camera again? I’ve been focusing on text and audio so much of late…

To be honest, I was inspired to record this (or at least the third part of the podcast) after finding out that there’s more than one DEN member that plays Warcraft. We have edu-groups on Facebook, Second Life, and almost everywhere else, so why not Warcraft? (Or any other online environment you happen to like.)

Comments, of course, are welcome.

This is the audio from my presentation at this year’s MICCA conference. Forgive me if I keep things brief as I’m quite wiped by the experience of these past two days.

• A pdf version of my PowerPoint, including a special bonus slide at the end, is available here.
• Yes, I really do mention David Warlick that often. It’s only because he does so much to help educators.
• As I explain in the intro, I was able to use Audacity to remove the background noise but not the slight echo. It annoyed me at first but I got used to it … I think.
• I may be wrong about the new version of Audacity having LAME built in, but like I say in the podcast I do prefer iTunes for encoding my mp3 files.
• I also over planned, and had very little time to do practical demonstrations. Perhaps next time I’ll focus on one tool? We’ll see.
• I’ve said this a lot, but the wiki is still here. Edits are still encouraged.
• I’m tired. Goodnight.

He’s going over the history of open source, starting with IBM. Some of this I knew, most of it I didn’t.

Just took the presenter’s (Matt Burkhardt’s) picture, and got a nice reaction from him in the process.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, his presentation was created in OpenOffice using a computer running Linux. Sweet.

Still going through the history lessons, but now we’re getting to things I remember, rather than having just learne about. Ah, nostalgia.

Linked in uses software from the 80s.

Roundabout story that lead to a tale of “crowdsourcing,” or having many people help a little bit to achieve an amazing goal.

More and more stories … hoping for some software choices soon.

Ask and ye shall receive. Mozilla… Red Hat… MySQL… Trolltech… and more. Now he’s going through project names quite fast. This is a broad overview.

Ubuntu Linux.

“Software as a Service” It’s not important what’s important on your hard drive, it matters what’s online. “Thin clients,” I’ve heard them called.

Answering questions from the audience - good questions.

I was a few minutes late coming to Will Richardson’s last session of the day, which I’ve (sort of) seen before. I say “sort of” because like any good presenter he revises his presentations to keep them current. Last year, Ustream.tv didn’t exist - or at least most people hadn’t heard of it. His wiki handout, the same address as last year, has likewise been updated.

Heh, he’s showcasing the Cog Dog himself.

Now discussing screencasts. There are a few free ways to do that, including Jing. Jing is very easy to use, but saves everything in a format that I’ve yet to figure out how to edit. People have suggested using Zamzar.com, but not even tat wonder of file conversion can help me.

Went to his Ustream chat room to ask for links to resources. Very cool.

(Went up t osay “hi” afterwards, and once again Mr. Richardson recognized me. My ego knows no bounds.)

But every now and then, I find a glaring exception.  The DEN, usually, is one.  FableVision is another.  We’re a good way into their presentation so far and they’ve barely even mentioned a product that they sell.  (I think I caught a few references, but they weren’t shameless plugs like I make.)  Rather, they’re talking about using a child’s interests to help them get excited about learning.  It started with a story about the twin brother of one of the founders getting in trouble in math class because he was drawing in class.

As you might imagine, I loved the story.

Raffle time.  Think I’ll end this post here and stop by their booth later.

Now, they’re talking about games in education.  Not much research supporting their importance, but a lot of anecdotal stories and Maryland is apparently at the forefront of the research supporting the idea of good games getting kids into learning.

Ok, now they’re talking about a product, although it’s not being released yet.  I think they spent enough time making the case for keeping the students’ interest to spend some time talking about their bread-and-butter.  (But that’s just my opinion.)

Labyrinth is a math game (mostly) for middle school students that uses a lot of comic book style storytelling to get the kids interested. It’s being privately beta tested at the moment, but the ThinkPort.org booth in the hallway was offering a way to sign up for a chance to try it out.

There are no instructions, leaving the kids to figure out the mechanics.  Makes me think of MYST, a game series that sucked away countless hours of my life in college.

There’s even a way for students to communicate with each other using the “Tasty Pet Communicator ” (the name fits the plot, trust me), although according to the ThinkPort booth there are enough admin rights for teachers to make that communication safe.

“The people who learn the most from educational software are the people who make educational software.”  He told us that quote was a secret.  Gee, I hope no one blogs it…

That was a segway to talking about Scratch and other programs that help students make their own games - products that FableVision doesn’t make.  Encouraging students to compete against them in game development, or trying to encourage students to become future FableVision employees?  You decide.

I didn’t blog from any sessions yesterday, as I spent the entire time showing people just how easy podcasting can be at the podcasting booth. As such, I missed all of yesterday’s sessions.

Don’t take this as a complaint, however. I would have loved to see all the cool things that were going on, but I also loved talking with the many cool people who stopped by to learn about a topic which I’m truly passionate about. I remembered several of them from last year, and was pleased to find that they remembered me, as well.

Granted, my extroverted nature makes me stand out in a crowd. Oh, well.

My goal was twofold - first, I wanted to show as many people I could that podcasting was not as scary or difficult that some people seem to think (including that darn “but don’t I need an iPod?” question). The other goal was to get as many people as possible to call in to the Gcast account I set up for MICCA and let us know what they thought of the conference or podcasting in general.

That 2nd part was … not as successful as I would have liked. At least I can promote it again during my presentation today.

More to follow.

Multi User Virtual Environment - the great-great-grandchild of the old Multi User Dungeons (or MUDs) that I used to play in college.

“We never say ‘fun,’ we always say ‘engaging.’”

Tapped In

Elluminate

“Second life: It’s like The Sims but not a game.”

A lot of info on 2nd life. I’ve podcasted my opinion on SL before, and my opinion hasn’t really changed. It’s nice, but I can think of other educational online environments that use less bandwidth and do the same thing.

… I have no willpower at all.

Here’s my assessment of what’s going on so far.

+Only took 7 minutes to realize that the horrible beeping noise I was hearing at 4AM this morning was my alarm going off. That’s not much earlier than my usual wake-up time, but it usually takes longer for me to get out of my more primitive “ART GUY SMASH SNOOZE BUTTON!” stage of regaining consciousness.

+Found a good parking spot in a garage right next to the conference hall.

-After trying two other parking lots.

-And it’ll cost almost $30. Ouch.

-When I got here Registration had no list with my name on it.

-Nor did they know where the podcasting booth was.

+A few minutes later they got their computers up and were able to answer both questions.

+Kathy Schrock signed in right next to me.

+She recognized me.

-This boosted my already overinflated ego.

+The wifi for the conference is working.

-For now.

So all things considered, I’d say I’m off to a good start. There are a few obstacles, but most of them are either already resolved or will be soon.

More to follow…

Technorati Tags: MICCA08

The books I ramble on about in this episode are Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom and Kidcast: Creative Podcasting Activities.

I was a bit hesitant when I got an email from the publisher asking if I wanted to give these books away at my presentation, mostly because I’d like to think I have some level of integrity and I don’t want to look like I’m stooping low to hawk anything that comes by.

When the books showed up, I opened up the first one to give it a read-through.  I have to say, the only thing I didn’t like about them was the fact that they have those plastic ring bindings.  Other than that, I’d say they answer 90% of the questions I get asked about podcasting.  I wouldn’t recommend the Podcasting in the Classroom book to someone who’s been podcasting for a year or more, but if you’re just getting started I’d say it’s definitely worth it to have one of these.

As for the activities book … I didn’t read that one, mostly because I was unsure if I should take the shrink wrap off of it or not.  These are door prizes for people who will be attending my session, after all.

…

Does this make me a sell-out?

I would feel like I’m treading water here, but with over a day’s worth of audio (not even counting the video, mind you…), It’s more like I’m in way over my head.

[Insert a few paragraphs where I whine a bit more, here. I wrote them, then deleted them in a moment of temporary sanity.]

As I see it there are three reasons why I have this problem:

1. Some people are releasing daily content and others seem to have turned podcasting into a full time job. And alas, practice makes perfect. The daily episodes I listen to are very, very good.
2. Believe it or not, I have a life outside of the edu-blogo-podcasto-sphere. I know, I know, even I find that comment to be suspicious. But still, not every activity allows me to listen to podcasts while I’m doing it. Teaching, reading, and sleeping are among these activities. (And I’m too old to cut back any more on my sleep.)
3. We moved back in August, cutting over 15 minutes off of my commute. That half an hour (counting the round trip) of prime podcast listening time every school day adds up pretty fast.

I’m not the only one who’s had this problem, either. Steve Dembo and Doug Belshaw went so far as to wipe their RSS feeds clean and start over. I don’t think I’m ready to go that far, as I’m too attached to the ones to which I’m still subscribed. (Note: My Bloglines.com account has zero unread blog posts, and no, I didn’t just click “Mark All Read.”)

I’m sure there’s a solution to this, but I’m not going to come up with it this late on a school night. I guess I’ll sleep on it.

Maybe it’s because I like making simple puppets, or perhaps it’s because I like combining photos with other things. Perhaps it’s because I just like playing with toys.

You know what? I think it’s all of the above.

But here’s a question for you - if you wanted to make one of these, whose head would you use? A personal hero? Family member? Your own? Let me know with a comment to this post. I’m curious.

(Oh, and I’m still waiting for someone to find the lie. Do you have a guess?)

I’ll be presenting a session at MICCA called “Podcasting Tips and Tricks.” As I’ve done before (*cough* Edublogging 101 *cough*), I’ve created a wiki rather than print out a bunch of dead tree copies. I think I have it fleshed out enough for a 45 minute presentation, but it could always use more work - that’s where you come in.

If you’re someone who’s learned something while creating podcasts, or even if you just know of a good resource or how-to guide, why not go over to my wiki and add it in? Even if you do nothing more than add a link to someone else’s wiki on podcasting, it’ll still be a big help.

Technorati Tags: MICCA08

More on the inspiration later, but first two things: Yesterday on a whim (since it has nothing to do with my usual ed/tech/art ramblings) I posted a blog entry that included 20 things about myself … but one of them was a lie.  I invited readers to guess which one is false, and at the time I’m writing this 4 people have made their guesses but no one’s gotten it right, yet.  If you feel like playing along, you can go here.

Next up, I’m cross-posting this on Teachers 2.0 strictly for item three on today’s agenda.  Teachers 2.0 is a much larger community, as evidenced in more than one significant way, and I really want to hear people’s feedback.  You can comment here or there, although to be honest more people might read your response if you post it there.

-=-=-=-=-

Ok, on to the heart of today’s episode.  In the past I’ve expressed mixed feelings about high stakes standardized testing.  I feel that our goal as educators should be to prepare students to be successful in the “real world,” and that teaching to the test (which seems to be an inevitable outcome of this kind of assessment) does not do this - especially if and when the test itself is not assessing skills that will be required in the real world.

People in the U.S. reading this now may immediately think of NCLB, but I was teaching before that legislation passed I recall high stakes assessment  being disproportionately emphasized back then, too.

Now in the past every time I expressed this opinion, I added that while I dislike tests like this I feel I can’t complain too much because it’s difficult to think of another way to compare schools from year to year across a district, county, or nation without some sort of one-size-fits-all non-subjective bar with which we can measure student achievement.

But the other day, I put two and two together.  What’s our goal again?  To prepare students for the real world.  So how should we assess them?  How about by looking at how they perform in the real world, or at least in response to real world situations.

What if, instead of subjecting our students to tests that stress out everyone involved, we created some form of rubric to evaluate how they do after they stop calling themselves students? The rubric could include things like salary, job satisfaction, and any one of a number of variables that we apply to ourselves when we ask ourselves if we think we’ve been successful.

Of course if we adopted this system there would still be some problems.  True assessment would not be able to be measured until they were no longer our students, thus keeping us from correcting discrepancies that a well written standardized test may have caught.  Maybe a combination of the two?  I don’t know.

I’m not saying this is the perfect solution.  I’m not even saying I’ve thought this completely through yet, but it is something I’ve been mulling over, and I’d love to hear your opinion on the whole thing.  What have I overlooked?  Why would or wouldn’t this type of assessment be a good idea?  If it was your job to create the real life rubric, what would be the core variables worth measuring?

Inquiring minds want to know.