Death, Anxiety, and Sources

I spend a lot of mental energy as a teacher reflecting on my own experiences of school. I think that a lot of us do that consciously or unconsciously. We find phrases that teachers from our past used, sometimes helpful, sometimes harmful. We look for moments that really worked, pick examples that spurred us on to changing understanding. I think that this is the ‘art’ part of the Art and Science of teaching that Marzano refers to by title. It is really not an art at all, but a selection from the ‘stew of story’ that Tolkien talked about in reflection, or something along the lines of what Eliot is talking through in ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent.’ It is a rumination, a chewing of the cud of experience to glean the benefit of specific educational experiences.

But I promised you a story about Death in my title, and I would so like to improve as a writer, so I’ll deliver that promise.

I was born very close to my older family’s end of life. By elementary school, my grandparents were in quite poor health, and a middle aged uncle with a serious spinal cord tumor had recently lost mobility to the aggressive tumor. A large extended family on both ends of Western Avenue outside Chicago on the North and South sides gathered weekly to spend time together, but often that time was filled with discussion of health, or illness, and by mid-way through my elementary school experience, that time was filled with visits to long-term care facilities and hospices.

I don’t think that this is a unique situation, a lot of youngest children in larger families probably go through it. One impact it had on me that school at the time did not know or pay attention to, was a growing fixation and fascination with death. I was stuck in my mind in second grade with the ‘looking over a high ledge’ head rush sensation thinking about a void of time and experience rushing to me. I was sad that my family members were sick, sad as they passed individually, but my mind was singly focused on my self’s stubborn insistence at knowing what that would be like for me. To say that I was anxious is an understatement, I often would panic, my guts clenching to the point of dry heaving, and my head pounding with a rush of blood pressure.

Surely this anxiety has nothing to do with my current practices as a teacher?

My parents and I had a very open and honest relationship about the world. I was encouraged to read to find answers when they did not feel they had answers. This triangulation, my parents and me and possible answers as a refrain, made me into a curious adult, and built a lot of my personality. The answer to that anxiety came from both of my parents suggesting that I read the Bible.

My family was religious, although not terribly spiritual. My father’s family was Catholic, my mother’s family Congregationalist converted from Swedish Covenant, and my parents took us to two services most Sundays splitting our time between High-Church Mass and grape juice communion services that used liturgical dance. My parents raised my sister and I to listen politely at both services, but rarely made theological points about how our Sunday worship practices should or could impact our lives. I give this context, because other stories about being handed the Bible as source are connected to deeper belief stories, I had been given the Bible because my parents identified as Christian, and they did not have an answer for me to help with that anxiety.

I’ve been thinking about that this week as I’ve been mentally trying to span the gap between folks who’ve let conspiracy fill gaps in recent national news coverage and folks who are responding to a domestic terror attack. The event is the same, the anxiety leading up to the event is the same. I think of myself as immune to anxiety that would let me push illogical narratives so far to the front of my mind that I would change my beliefs from support of a system to support of a person – and the closest I can come is to that moment being handed the Bible to ‘figure it out.’

Leaving the events of the 6th behind for a moment – I did read, I did go to youth classes, and I did come away with the same answer that most folks do for my anxiety – that what messages there were as answers were locked in parable and metaphor, and that the answers would take time. What was important was doing the work, what was important was the moment that my parents honestly sat me down on the couch, and honestly shared that they did not know, that there might be some answers there and that it was my job to look for those answers.

I don’t know how to make an exact parallel for folks so deep in a cult of personality that the loss of that personality would alter their lives fundamentally. I didn’t find exact answers to my panic and anxiety as a child. But I know that, over time, I could separate the real pains of being alive from the pains of imagination of what might be. I think that, over time, folks will be reminded that America is not one person.

Reviewing for your final

Here is your pathos, ethos, logos slideshow. Please feel free to review it at your will.

Here is a link to the TV presentation notes.

Your test will not be multiple choice, so be able to write in full sentences and know the definitions of the terms.

Day 6 of Intensives

Howdy folks,

First and only day of filming is done. First day of editing is done.

Go to Youtube. Once there, search for a making of video. This can be the making of your favorite music video, commercial, or feature film.

Once you have viewed the making of video, describe the pre-production and production process that you were able to see. How much planning went into the final product? Do you think this is a type of video product that you could also produce (even if it’s on a smaller scale)? How was the pre-production or production similar to or different from the production that you have done this week? This should be around 100 words or so.

Be sure to include a link to, or embed, the making of video.

Finally, I want you to reflect on how much you did to help your group during the filming process. What went well, what did not go well? How would more planning time or less planning time helped your group during the production process? This should be 50 words. Consider this writing a way to balance out being off task during the filming.

Day 3 of Intensives

So, now we have started to create the park plan in general terms. Tonight, look up some information on local statistics to find some data (logos) to create a position statement for your chosen group that is reacting to your Crosby Park Plan. Here is the website for Crosby Farm Park. With this website, be aware of what exists currently, and in your position statement, use this website to explain what works about the current park set up and what does not work with the current park. You may react to this personally, but I’d prefer that you take on the persona of your position holder.

Look at websites that have other information about areas. Try to see if Crime Statistics could help support or change your decision. Consider opposing view from the Marina.

Your position paper should be something that you could present for five minutes to class tomorrow afternoon. It should be between 250-400 words, and include links directly to the statistics that you are using. Determine what types of pathos, logos, ethos and kairos data would most directly appeal to your position, and communicate that in a clear and researched manner. Describe this data that would change the other students’ opinions about the park plan.

Day 2 of Intensives

Very great thanks to Bruce from the GRP Master Planning group for coming in and speaking with us today. Bruce took the park work that you guys worked with yesterday and gave you some real consultant field notes that were interesting to see. He explained some of the different forms of Planning and Design used to create and revise new park lands.

For today’s blog post: 200 Words

Reflect on Bruce’s presentation. How is this similar to or different from some form of writing that you have done in the past? Find a park planning project online and compare it with the GRP Master Plan. How do the resources each group determine the direction of their strategic plan? How have they accessed public opinion? Are there examples where public opinion dramatically shifted the direction of the planning (were there angry birders? dominant athletic coaches?)?

Include links to examples (highlight the text that you want linked and click on the link button at the top of your posting screen). If you find videos you can practice embedding them into your blog post. Here is a sample embedded video just for fun

Good luck!

Welcome to Documentary Methods and Great River Park Project

Howdy folks.

This is a blog that I have used for graduate school coursework, feel free to look through previous entries for models of what I expect out of a good blog post.

Blog writing is less formal than a pure research paper, but it should be more formal than pure conversation. A big element of effective blogs if your ability to link images, other websites and sources directly into your own writing. My blog does not always follow that format, this is an expectation that I will have for each of your entries.

Link your entries to examples that you find online. If you are used to using Bing as a search engine, I recommend switching to Google or Ask.com to search for article examples. Bing is fine as a tool for commercial searches and online shopping, but it is not as effective as a search tool for news and fact based blogs.

For tonight, send me a link to your blogs, either in a comment on this blog or in an e-mail to me, and write out the following blog entry:

Tonight your first blog post is to write a reflection about a recent historical event that you remember being covered by the media. Find an online article about that historical event. Was the purpose of this site’s reporting editorial, or purely to deliver facts. If the report is editorial, try to make the site’s bias and goals explicit. If the site appears to be delivering facts, come up with two to three examples of how you could change this article into a piece of advocate journalism.

Your post should be between 200-300 words and include at least one hyperlink.

Sample Blog Post ideas: Blagojevich selling Obama’s Senate seat, 9/11 reporting, Passage/Attempted repeal of new Healthcare law, the beer summit, et cetera.

This blog as a digital portfolio; how I would use digital portfolios in my classroom

My own blog as portfolio reads a little unorganized. Rather than connecting each of the blog posts each week, the posts tend to stand on their own as an attempt at mastering a different form of digital writing.

What does this say about my practice? It shows that I am willing to try things, although as it stands, I would not use this blog alone as evidence of my mastery of digital writing. If I did, I would want to revisit and revise each week’s post to model best blogging practices… although maybe if this was a portfolio instead of a blog, then the hyperlinking of quality blog writing would not be the focal point of a digital portfolio.

Whatever the case, this blog alone is not narrative enough for a digital portfolio for me. I believe that I would create a separate blog to paint a narrative of my skills as a writing teacher, and especially as a teacher of digital writing. This would include podcast, video, and other media samples accompanied by reflective writing, or a lesson plan written out from when I have used that aspect of digital writing in the classroom.

SECOND TASK: How would I use digital portfolios for students to present their work to me. I believe that I would use a simple, free tool, like voicethread, for students to create a slideshow showing images of their work, or the work itself, and then they could upload text of voice reflections on the work that they have created.

I think overall, a significant portion of my students still lack internet access at home and I do not have enough computers for them to access a digital document in class, so this idea of a digital portfolio is still one or two years past this point. The key will be when I can give equitable access to a consistent, reliable digital platform on which to host student work (and also one that is safe for students) then I will make more of a move towards this digital portfolio.

In terms of assessment; I believe that I would use this type of digital portfolio for a structure our school has called “Student led conferences.” This is where a student presents to their parents and homeroom teachers examples of success or a lack of success throughout the school year, and the student determines the focus of their coursework to highlight for these events. Rather than grade the portfolio itself, the assessment would be how well it communicates the quality of work to the students parents or guardians.

I plan to and do use freetechtools4teachers, and I do use google’s educational resources in my own classroom to further my learning. Google runs workshops on how to use google’s technology to help further what is going on in digital writing. Freetechtools4teachers is useful just to see others’ ideas. The biggest help to me in professional development is to soak up others’ experiences through observation and casual conversation, and so both of these websites help inspire me in that more passive way. In terms of more active professional development, I have been to classes that leave collaborative technologies out, and I do see a need to use the digital writing available to us as teachers to increase the quality of following up with professional development sessions.

Writing Assessment and Rubric

I’ve been modeling a particular informal kind of rubric with my seniors. Because we are an interdisciplinary school, I’ve been trying to figure out a way for students to use scientific thinking to think about Poetry. This helps some of my students, who have been taught to give English teachers vague and unsupported answers, to give some very specific expectations to their poetry. Ultimately, the assignment will be to write performance poetry pieces for an open-mic night. For the time being, we spent time trying to put Poetry on the table and dissect it. The categories we settled on is that poetry is emotional; although not always one emotion at a time. Poetry is concise; it pays close attention to the words it uses, it pays attention to meter, and rhyme and rhythm. Poetry is also meant to be clear, its meaning should be intentional.

How does this relate back to a rubric?

Each of our assignments is graded on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 being unsuccessful and 4 being accomplished. We now can use those terms about poetry to evaluate each others poetry and evaluate its success. The poem must be connected to emotion. The poetry uses poetic devices that show intentional selection of words and phrasing. The poetry also can be accompanied by an explanation of meaning.

Post for Class 11/23/2010

This week we are talking about good and bad design.

Both examples I’ll discuss are websites I read on a regular basis, regardless of design. Both are gaming websites that deal with new video game releases and gamer culture.

http://www.kotaku.com/

I think kotaku is a website that shows good design principles because its form follows its function. The website has daily articles listed in chronological order in the center. Because not all gaming news is equal, it aggregates the most popular articles on top. The text is busy, and that is not the best design (lacks the simplicity of google) but there has to be enough text to sort out just what type of game or what type of article each link connects to. This site also invites participation from the gaming community by using an open forum / open blog format that encourages readers to send in their thoughts and feelings. This is not necessarily the best editorial work to read through, but the fact they leave that space open makes it one of the cornerstones of contemporary gaming culture. Another good design element is they have worked at keeping their advertisements in consistent spaces to avoid the hassle of creating a visual nightmare for readers trying to figure out where to click.

http://www.penny-arcade.com

I hate to use this site as an example of bad design, because it was my homepage for an extended period of time. Penny Arcade is a webcomic that has become central to many adult gamers my age. Unfortunately for Penny Arcade, you have to be adept at reading websites to find the comic of the day unless you are directed to this part of the website. The text is well written on their blog post (updated MWF in normal webcomic fashion), but it requires that you participate with their specific hyperlinked diatribe on the homepage in order to give context to the comic. This is an interesting design, but some days people who read webcomics are not interested in reading the deepest thoughts of the comics creators. This is like having the directors commentary turned on for all dvds at all times; it’s interesting, but not always helpful to the reading experience. All that about the design of the website aside, this is an important site to gamers because of their capacity to lampoon and celebrate gamer culture in the same moment. The site has become so important that Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik now have their own annual convention that brings game developers and game players together… so in spite of bad design, some websites can still do their jobs quite well.

Here is a prezi presentation that I created for a professional development debrief I delivered to my staff. The model that Prezi has helped take the presentation out of standard powerpoint and allowed it to be more of a dialogue facilitation tool. This is better than powerpoints I received in high school in the late nineties, where teachers literally just translated overheads they had used since the eighties into static, one-dimensional powerpoints.

Final Project Podcasting Idea

School culture is an odd thing. Most teachers come into a class in media res, they deal with what they have and they don’t necessarily have the opportunity to question how the structures of the class could change in order to better encourage student success.

As a first-year teacher I had no idea that I could be in a position where I would have total control over curriculum as well as a strong voice in what happens in the classroom community.

How does this relate back to the podcast?

The podcast, at least potentially, represents systematic change. The podcast is not only a green option. The podcast also offers a vision for the future of River’s Edge.

I have heard we can expect about five years of birthing pains. Student attrition, lack of focus on either our green mission or sometimes our education mission. All of these problems happen at times, and it can be hard to try to innovate with so much else going on in the school.

INDEPENDENT STUDY – in charge of multimedia and publicity. – turn it into a class option independent study to produce media on a weekly basis.

Students do the prep work for next week’s group. – maybe it’s like a video announcement at some point.