Neuf in 60 seconds or less...

Here is the first introductory assignment we were to get together... the media story about ourselves from the session with Julia Poole and Garage Band. I did it the next day but haven't done much with it except post it to my website. Here's a link...

iTeach

I did a wordle for my teacher profile just to give it a go.. found the site in Julia's Delicious bookmarks.



iTeach

I tried numerous times to insert the actual image with no luck so I settled for a link... booooo me.

I wonder if I did a voice recording of myself actually teaching what the wordle would look like? Would my grand philosophies hold up in practice? I doubt it... but I am trying to live into my teaching too. Neat thought though.

With the amount of time it took me to try unsuccessfully to get this into the blog full size... I am wondering if I will use it again, other than for printable projects.

Who am I as a Learner Lesson... in Keynote

Not sure if I can get a Keynote presentation onto this blog... seems to having trouble uploading it. Will keep trying... if you have any insight please let me know. Cheers.

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_1102890"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/neuf/learner-keynote?type=powerpoint" title="Learner Keynote">Learner Keynote</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=enfplearner-090304195631-phpapp02&stripped_title=learner-keynote" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=enfplearner-090304195631-phpapp02&stripped_title=learner-keynote" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/neuf">neuf</a>. (tags: <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/myers-briggs">myers-briggs</a> <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/personality">personality</a>)</div></div>

Once Upon A Time...

Stories, telling stories, hearing stories, creating stories...? Great! I love this stuff; I am good at this stuff. I have always been the storyteller in friend circles, I have a Major in English Literature because I love stories, I teach every single day with stories. But wait, their is rules to this stuff, like not to have too many rules, but enough rules. There are good ways to utilize stories and ineffective ways to give "slide shows of vacations". Today, Keynote speaker Dr. Jason Ohler shared his own story, of being a learner, an instructor, and the power of story telling. He was full of wonderful ideas and slides of structures, but what resonates with me (always in these sorts of things) is his story, and his deep personal belief in the power of others stories. It makes me want to help others share their stories more effectively and in new and exciting ways. It also makes me wonder how I can share my story in these new technological ways.

So... here I go... Step One.

Literacy.... consuming and producing the media forms of today, whatever they are. They need to be able to write whatever they read.

This statement, subconsciously, was my biggest motivating factor for taking this program. I can no longer write what I read. My news, relationships, and relationship with information in the world has changed significantly, thanks to the internet and my iPhone. So my huge need to communicate with others and the world (ENFP) drove me to engage in technology despite my best reservations.

There were so many great technical ideas about writing and the steps to writing, and I have included a few key notes I took from the presentation below, but as i do, I tend to take in a wholistic impression of the address, because that is how I make it mine. For me, the most important part of today's learning was to recognize that he is a story teller... and the focus of his presentation was how to tell a story... the technology was a tool. This idea is coming around again and again these last few months... I like that.

OTHER THOUGHTS FROM HIS PRESENTATION WORTH CONSIDERING

Digital Literacy Guidelines

1) Shift from text-centrism to new media collage

2) Value writing more than ever.

3) Adopt art as 4th "R"

4) Follow DAOW of literacy (Digital, Art, Oral, Written)

5) Attitude is the aptitude

6) Practice private and social literacy

7) Develop literacy about digital tools

8) Fluency, not just literacy

9) Harness bot report and story... embrace story.

Stories need to have transformation... somebody needs to change.

Good problems allow for transformation... the story of the process of learning naturally creates these problems and solutions.

A story will lack good production... often a good production lacks a good story.

Use story maps... not story boards

Be a door opener...

Can't comment on all of them but my favorite point he made was story first, technology second.

Know Thyself

While contemplating the effort to become a knowledgeable educator, up to date with the latest research and literature, an expert in my field, I was reminded of the Parker Palmer (see I Don't Need No Stinking Experts entry) idea that we must teach who we are. If I am teaching who I am, then to be an expert I must know myself as well as my subject area. That seems easy enough, until you realize it makes you question yourself on a multitude of levels; like what should I be teaching my students, and what do I believe about being "human". Sir Ken Robinson's speech about creativity and the shift in mind set of the educational system from teaching facts and industrial skills to teaching and encouraging creativity grabbed old of me right away. I was inspi

My Little Red Bike

I was sitting here tonight, flipping through my now very full list of "delicious" bookmarks, and occasionally leaving to refinish my bookcase and throw some dinner together for my wife, when something very strange happened. Before I was cognitively engaged in the magnitude of the event I found myself surfing 6 tabs, and 4 applications all at once. I downloaded google talk videos and had a video chat with a good friend of mine across town (getting a tour of his new house), and then I downloaded Skype and had a video chat with my mom in West Bank (and gave her a tour of my new baby's room). I added several links and videos to my new school wiki, and read a few more links on Chris Kennedy's presentation wiki. I uploaded video from my Kodak Zi6, sent a few files to my mobile me account in the sky, and checked up on my own web page. Then I replied to emails, from all four of my accounts (and the five or six more that get forwarded to those accounts) and now I am writing a new entry in my blog while watching Peter Mansbridge. What happened to me?

I liken this experience to learning to ride a bike. When at a young age we climb aboard a tricycle and push ourselves around with our feet (using an email account). Then we see a few older kids on two wheelers and figure we could give that a go, with training wheels (surfing the web, checking out web pages and word documents). Then, on a day we are feeling particularly brave we decide it is time to take the little wheels off and test out our balance and extend the scope of our available world. At first, we ask for Dad to hang on to the back of the seat, and run beside us shouting encouraging words. But then, sometimes when we don't expect it, our support lets go and we're rushing down the sidewalk, feet turning madly, hands gripping tightly, and eyes open wide and unblinking. It is an exhilarating feeling, and many of us go through a mulitude of emotions, from a new sense of power and accomplishment, to an awe filled realization of the new possibilities. We are reminded of a favourite childhood story and wonder anew about the places we'll go.

Right now, I am in that euphoric state, soaking it all in, and wondering where I will decide to go. But as with my first vehicle to freedom, there are bound to be bumps in the road. In fact, more than bumps; big, hard, concrete curbs that stop your front tire dead, and send you flying (magnificently at first, then not so much) until you come crashing down in a heap of rash, dirt, blood and tears. When this happens I will feel deflated, grumpy, and ready to go back to the little wheels, and I will need to remind myself what I did, even as a four year old. I will pick myself up, wipe the stinging from my eyes and my knees, and get back on my bike, because I know that there is a big, wide, wonderful world just waiting for me to come barreling in to say hello, and I want to see their faces when I do.

Can you imagine how it will feel to drive a car?

Walk About Surrey

In his article, "Searching for the Right Passage from Childhood and School", Maurice Gibbons suggests that our education system needs to reevaluate what we are focusing on as requirements for graduation. He recalls a movie about a young Aborigine's walk about; the practicality of the experience, the individual experimental nature of the actual walk, and the community involvement in grading and celebrating the return of their new "useful" adult member. He suggests that western society needs to adopt this practice in various metaphorical and literal senses, providing all sorts of new activities that would fulfill the categorical requirements of Adventure, Creativity, Service, Practical Skill, and Logical Inquiry. All of these ideas are interesting and becoming more and more a part of teaching practice in Surrey in the form of portfolio assessments, work experience, apprenticeships, and leadership classes. Clearly there is room for continued growth but the paradigm shift has at least begun.

What interests me the most about his proposal is that it is a return to a student centered and student driven educational model. Instead of teaching all students the "required" courses on the off chance that they may one day need one of the many subjects they were told to memorize, the onus is on the student to find something useful and meaningful to delve into. Too often the biggest frustration high school teachers face is the lack of interest, involvement, and productivity of students who feel like they have to be at school and go through the motions before they can leave. Teachers carry the burden of making class interesting, exciting, meaningful, and relevant to thirty plus students per block, four times a day. No wonder even the best of students get bored and feel unattached and uninspired by their class work; or that teachers feel like students don't care about anything and don't "get it", don't know what the "real world" is like. So let's show them. I had often heard that a little responsibility can make a young person step up to the plate, and in my practical experience it has proven true again and again. In my practicum I had a low achieving, drug using English 10 class that produced very little work at all. When given the task of meeting, interviewing, and creating a story for a grade 1 buddy at a local elementary school, some of the older students with the most behavior and academic problems did the best job of putting their buddy at ease, showing off the high school, and creating a story that was based on their buddies interest. After four years of alternate school I have seen numerous cases of students that nobody wanted, that most had written off as useless, and yet these students when provided the opportunity to take control and ownership of some part of their own learning had grasped it and suddenly become driven and engaged learners.

Does it always work out wonderfully and magically like a movie? No, of course not. Like the real world, there are many stumbling blocks, failures, relapses in attitude and behavior, and sad situations where they are not able to handle the load given to them. In these times I reflect on the the traditional approach to education and ask the students and myself if they would be better off without the risk? Without fail, the answer is no, and in the education system failure doesn't usually mean death, so the opportunity to pick oneself up and go at it again is often available. Do I believe students should be allowed to choose whatever they want to do, or that the Montessorri system has it down perfectly? No, and I am sure the Aborigines who inspired this story have some structures and rules in place for young children to learn the fundamentals of life in the outback. It is the transfer of responsibility and the opportunity to focus one's energy that appeals to me the most. This shift happens in the students personal lives at some point, with the obtaining of licenses and jobs, the question is how to best do it in the schooling as well. I hope advancing technology and continued studies will help me find small and big ways to help do just that.

I Don't Need No Stinking Experts!

When one wants to engage in learning new information, new skills, or new philosophies, it is usually recommended that he or she consult with the expertise in that field before deciding what they know or do not know, or setting goals and achievements of learning. This can mean researching the published works of the experts, going to lectures or conferences, and keeping up to date with changing policies. Being an academic has never been a strength or even a focus of my practice as teacher, and dare I say it, even as a student. I have never valued the "facts" as much as the "experience" and the "stories". I would give myself a 4/10 on the category of Critical Practitioner. I had already read Parker Palmer's book "The Courage to Teach", when we were assigned the first chapter in class, which I suppose means I have done some reading on the subject of teaching practice, and I realte quite strongly to the idea that we teach who we are. I have a high values score for "moral purpose" and have always tried to live my life and practice as honestly as appropriate. This can be reassuring but I also have to be careful not to let it become an excuse for poor practice. I have clear strengths and weaknesses, and may always have those patterns, but I am not a static entity and neither should my class be. If I had to name the biggest influences on my teaching practice it would be myself as a person first, and the stories/observations of other teachers and their classes/philosophies second. I enjoyed Naoko Aoki's idea that the stories hold a unique value that the research and theory cannot always capture. This plays into my personality traits (ENFP) of enjoying social interaction, group learning, variety, and the value I place on Intuition over facts. In the first few months I have learned to tap into the experts knowledge in a new and exciting way for me. Instead of sitting in a library flipping through a scientific text that I cannot connet to my own practice, I have begun to use technology. Websites like TED and their video talks that are 18.5 minutes long bring the brightest minds in the western world and their wonderful ideas and inventions to me in lively, engaging media format that makes me feel and experience their knowledge in story format. Like Sir Ken Robinson's thoughts on creativity. Wow! Between these and other new formats, like blogs, podcasts, and webpages I hope to be able to find myself at an 8 or 9 out of 10 in this capacity... always exploring and testing new ideas and old assumptions with the foundation of academia and the experts support.

Being The Person My Dog Thinks I Am...

Who does my dog think I am? I'm not sure, you'll have to ask her; but she treats me like I am sincere, honest, trustworthy, and the leader of the pack. So how do I know if she is right? The process of constant critical reflection, as described and fleshed out by Brooksfield, in Chapter One of "Becoming A Critically Reflective Teacher", is more than a little scary to me. I summarized me feelings about the article by saying "You must always assume your assumptions are wrong." If this is true, than the play on words becomes an exhausting, untenable battle with yourself. What is really happening, who am I really, and did I achieve anything I set out to? I think I am about a 5 out of 10 on the scale for critical reflection. I am very good at looking back and finding fault in my performances, and even accepting those faults as acceptable and part of the learning process. Where I think I stumble is on the plans for change. I recently argued with a sociology graduate student that critique or critical reflection (of society in his case) without a plan and action for change is simply criticism. Criticism inhibits growth, I am trying to nuture it. However, I tend to make many small changes, very quickly sometimes, and to move onto the next challenge before finding full closure to my thoughts about the first one. As I said to Lepin in class, when am I supposed to find time to do all of this reflecting, with school, prenatal classes, coaching, teaching a full load, and pretending to enjoy life once in a while. I guess I hope to be able to improve the effectiveness of my down time, make meaningful adjustments to my practice and learning, and continue to allow myself to make mistakes (8/10). If I keep assuming my assumptions are wrong, and every so often they are right, it will be a bit like getting a gold star that day... oh, wait, are gold stars doing what I think they are? Oh no...

The Learning, Learning, and Learning Capacity

The capacity of continous life long learning is one of the key basis for the field study ideals. The creation of self directed professionals who consistently work to improve themselves and the field they are working in. In this capacity I would rate myself as moderately successful (6-10). My personality (ENFP) is one that leaves me open to changes and excited about new ideas. As a result, I do not have a set or ingrained idea of what "good" teaching is, or what "my" teaching is. I enjoy wearing many new hats and in my short teaching career have continued my professional development both formally and informally. I have completed a one year literacy program known as SMART reading which focuses on the steps required for effective reading. I have completed my Level 1 Resitution training which focuses on working through behavioral issues with students to empower them and the learning community and have them returned to the community strengthened rather than punished and embarrassed. These programs have helped me challenge my preconceptions about teaching and my own practice. They encourage reflections and readjustments in lesson planning and philosophy. As a result, I have begun the journey of critical reflection and continued learning, but I believe that the metaphor of a journey is fitting because I still have many legs to this amazing race. I hope that this program will continue my professional growth while also jumpstarting me into the world of technology. So The first semester has improved my ongoing development by providing me with a new list of possibilities. I especially like th Wiki provided by Chris Kennedy (www.sfupresentation.wikispaces.com) , which allows me to explore a few of these ideas at my own pace, and with direct links to educational responsibility and usability. I would hope that by the end of my two years in LATTE I would be able to feel like I am successful in the capacity of self directed learning (8/10), and that I would would have new skills and experiences to continue to research possibilities and challenge the status quo.

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