Why I Joined The #edugood Project

I have never been a fan of making New Year’s resolutions. But, this year, I have signed up for Krissy Venosdale’s #edugood project. She is a part of my Twitter PLN and a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, and support. A few days ago, she launched the #edugood project, which asks educators to post one picture per day of something good that happened to them on that day.

On her blog, Krissy argues that if we manage to document the good things that are happening in our schools, it will be easier for all of us to view education as something worthwhile and beautiful. Especially in these times, when so much education-related news seems to be negative, this project, in whatever small or large way, could help steer the conversation away from the negative towards the positive.

Although I try to be as positive as I can, I know that on occasion, I too am guilty of focusing too much attention on the negative. However, this year I am hoping that I can take five or ten minutes every day to record the good things that actually do happen all around me every day. I firmly believe that this small act of reflection can make a difference, not only for me, but for others as well. Sharing our positive moments with each other should help construct a more positive discourse surrounding education, and the more people that participate, the more powerful this discourse will be.

Normally, I would not participate in a project like this. I am a very private person (I do not even own a Facebook account!), and the thought of sharing 365 pictures of my life with other educators would usually scare me senseless. To be sure, I am still scared, but because I believe in the power of this project, I am willing to push myself outside my comfort zone. In addition, I ask my students to stretch themselves on an almost daily basis, so it only seems fair that I should ask the same of myself. The longer I teach, the more convinced I become that to develop as an educator, I have to constantly challenge myself to try new things. Old news, I know, but something that I will continue to remind myself of during this upcoming year.

I am excited and curious to see what 2013 holds for the #edugood project. I know that I am determined to do my best to make it a success, and I know that if I can muster up the courage to join, there is no reason why you cannot do it as well. So: I am in–are you?

An Occasion When Technology Really Helped

If I am honest, there are times when I struggle with the infusion of technology in education. To be sure, the vast majority of the time, I am a believer in and supporter of all things tech as they can provide for deep and meaningful learning. But, some days, I have to admit that I question what technology does to our attention span and our personal interactions. Today is not that day.

We are in the middle of exam week, which is a stressful time for both students and teachers. Before my exam today, I had a student tell me that she had been feeling dizzy all day, and that looking at a sheet of paper with writing on it made her even more dizzy. I asked her if she wanted to go see the nurse, and if she was feeling good enough to take the exam, and she told me that she would be fine.

About 30 minutes into the exam, it was clear both to me and the student that she was not fine. She had finished the multiple choice, but was clearly struggling to complete the test. She asked if she could go outside to get some air, which I of course let her do. As she was outside, I pondered what to do. She was clearly determined to finish the test, but on the other hand, I was equally determined to not let her suffer through the essay part of my exam. So, I told her that she could record herself speaking her essay answers, using Vocaroo. She was happy to do so, and I let her sit outside in the fresh air (luckily the weather was nice enough to allow this), and she was able to complete the exam using Vocaroo, without feeling any worse.

By using Vocaroo, not only was she able to finish the exam without feeling dizzy, but she also managed to do very well on the exam. To me, this is clearly an example of what technology can do for us in teaching. Granted, this was an exceptional situation, but it does illustrate some of the possibilities available to us when we employ the use of technology. I still believe that tech for tech own sake is a bad idea, but today, I am grateful for the technology that is available to both teachers and students.

Teaching Students How To Value Failure

How do you teach a student that a certain amount of failure is an essential part of their education? How do you convince a student that s/he will be a better human being by having experienced failure? How do you explain to students that the closing of one door often leads to the opening of another?

Especially in today’s success-driven society, these are questions that I struggle with as a teacher. Most students are under such intense pressure to succeed from parents, peers, and themselves that it is almost impossible to convince them that there is virtue in a certain amount of failure. And yet, we have to find a way to do this. The fact that we as a society have such difficulties dealing with failure means that it is even more challenging for students to learn from their mistakes or failures. Instead of analyzing and assessing the nature of their failure in order to learn something from these moments, many of today’s students simply refuse to consider the reasons for their shortcomings. Of course, this is through little fault of their own. As adults, we do not take the time to teach the skills necessary to handle failure. To be sure, these skills are difficult to teach, but they should be part of every classroom and every curriculum.

I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when I heard a story on NPR about the differences between teaching the concept of struggle in American and Japanese schools. To be sure, the Japanese school system has challenges of its own, but it was interesting to hear how much emphasis Japanese teachers place on teaching the value of struggle. In the Japanese context, struggle does not necessarily have the same negative connotation that it does in an American classroom where a struggling student often feels as if s/he is not smart enough, does not work hard enough, etc. In Japan, students are taught that engaging in struggle means that they are on their way to improvement, which is very different from how most Americans view this concept.

There is no doubt that there is a difference between teaching students to value struggle and teaching them to handle failure in a more positive manner, but I still think that there is some correlation here. As teachers, we must continue to find ways to educate our students about the value of struggle, mistakes, and failure. Whether that is through constructive test corrections, revision upon revision of an essay, or in any other form is of less importance. The important thing is that we make a conscious effort to teach these skills. If we manage to do so, our students will not only be more successful in the classroom, but better citizens as well.

Why I love Evernote

I am not sure what I would do without Evernote. I was disturbingly excited when I downloaded the new version, and I was all too pleased with how well it works.

In all seriousness, I do believe that Evernote helps me tremendously in my teaching. Although I do not use it with my students as extensively as others do, the ability to store, organize, and classify information is simply outstanding. I know that I sound as if Evernote is paying me to write this, but if you have not tried this product yet, you should give it a try. It has made it easier for me to save ideas, archive information, record notes, and be generally more organized. In the past, I often came across an interesting idea for a lesson plan, only to forget about it later. With the help of Evernote, this does not happen anymore. Especially with the enormous amount of resources available on the Internet, Evernote is an invaluable tool for me in my teaching.

Greek Drama in the History Classroom

During the last few days, I have used some Greek plays as part of my unit on Classical Greece. We have read excerpts from plays and though I have done this for the past couple of years, it is only this year that I have come to appreciate fully the value of these plays.

Yesterday and today, I have had my students record themselves as they are acting out a play, and after they are done with their acting, they record a discussion on a couple of questions that force them to reflect on the play. Not only do most (not all, but most) students seem to like the acting, but it also provides them with a different view of some of the themes that we have covered in a more traditional way. Lately we have focused much of our attention on the role of Greek women and some of the obvious contradictions between the development of a more inclusive political system and the treatment of women. Despite my best efforts, my regular discussion of these issues often leave the students with a relatively simplistic view of how women were treated. (Second class citizens, had no power, poorly treated, etc) But, after reading a few (school appropriate!) excerpts from Lysistrata, they were able to deepen their understanding of this issues in a way that I would have struggled to do through any other activity.

By analyzing how Aristophanes portrayed Greek women, my students were able to refine their view of gender relations in ancient Greece. The play offered an alternative way to make students reflect on how complex history really is, which is always one of my goals.  Not only does engaging with literary sources excite many students who normally do not like history, but it also offers a unique and different compliment to my traditional sources. I know that these are not new revelations to any teacher, but it is always rewarding when one can witness students grappling with historical complexity.

Observations on My First Two Weeks of Online Learning

I am now almost two weeks into my online course (“How to teach an online class”), and my thoughts regarding online teaching is starting to become a little clearer. Although it is of course almost impossible to draw any wide-ranging conclusions based on just two weeks of instruction, I have noticed a few trends.

For one, the collaborative aspect of online learning can be quite powerful. Our teacher has us post reflections on various topics by Tuesday, and then we have until Friday to comment on the posts of others. Although this type of discussion is not as spontaneous and intimate as in a face-to-face setting, there are some advantages to the online version. Because there is more time between posts, students have additional time to formulate their thoughts on a particular topic. In our case, this has led to some very insightful and complex discussions, which would have been much more difficult to accomplish in a 45 minute class period. Hence, I think that though our exchanges are not as spontaneous, they could very well be more substantive.

In addition, despite the fact that I have only interacted with my fellow students a few times, I do feel as if I am starting to get to know them a little bit. Again, because the discussion posts are written pieces that students have (hopefully) spent much time planning and writing, I am able to catch glimpses of what I believe to be their personalities. (Or, at least their online personalities, but that is a topic for a different blog post…). I must admit that I was surprised at how quickly I started to recognize patterns of thoughts and ideas among my fellow students. Of course, this is not to say that I feel as if I know my peers in this class on an intimate basis. An online relationship, no matter how deeply invested all parties are, is by nature different and should never replace face to face relationships. However, I do think this dovetails nicely with my view on online teaching as a whole: it can never replace face to face teaching, but if done well, it can serve as a nice compliment.

The last observation stems from an observation one of my fellow students made. She claimed that there are flaws to the argument that the quiet students will feel more comfortable and will be able to interact more with their peers in an online environment. The main problem with this argument is that it assumes that the quiet student is a good writer who finds it easy and comfortable to express him/herself in writing. To me, this is an important point that drives at a larger issue with online teaching. Based on my limited experience, good writing skills seems to be a key component to a successful online learning experience, even more so than in the traditional classroom. Of course, there it is nothing wrong with this, after all, good writing is a very useful skill to have, but it does raise the question whether all students are equally suitable for online learning. It is no surprise that self-motivated students tend to perform better in an online environment, but there might be an additional factor at play here. It certainly seems to me that in most online classes (with the possible exception of math), there will be a large emphasis on good writing, and students with better writing skills might find it easier to succeed than the ones who are not as skilled in this area.

Of course, that argument can also be turned around: online learning can be a great place for students to practice their writing… In the end, this leads me back to the point that I keep returning to: online teaching, when done right, can be a great supplement to face to face teaching, but it can never replace it. After two weeks of online learning, I still believe this to be true.

Teaching Analytical Thinking Through Writing

I have always been a firm believer in the value of writing well. I tell my students that though this is a history class, they will complete a fair amount of essays and in-class writing assignments. If they seem unhappy about this, I tell them that no matter what they end up doing with their lives, the ability to express themselves clearly and concisely in writing is a useful skill to have. Besides, the older I get, the more I appreciate good writing, which is another reason why I have started this blog. I am well aware of the fact that my writing is far from perfect, and this medium provides me an opportunity to hone my skills.

In the past, I have always had students write historical essays or reflect on prompts that have some kind of connection to history. This has worked well and I was most often very pleased with the result as students practiced critical thinking and good writing skills at the same time. The one thing that I sometimes felt was missing was creativity. To be sure, students had to use a certain amount of creativity when answering historical prompts, but I have been searching for a way to combine the practice of analytical and creative thinking. The more I think and read about this topic, the more convinced I am that if we can encourage students to think creatively, we will also sharpen their analytical skills.

With that in mind, I tried a little experiment in class last week. On Friday, I provided my students with a list of prompts. The first one was mandatory and typical of a writing prompt in a history class. The remaining seven prompts were wide-ranging in topic and the students had to select two. All of them forced the students to reflect on themselves and our society, but not all  asked specific historical questions. (One example: if you could change one thing about your school, what would it be and why?)

Two interesting things happened. First of all, the great majority of students really enjoyed the more wide-ranging topics. I think that this in itself is important as it shows students that writing can be fun and it will hopefully encourage them to keep writing. Secondly, the fantastic responses I received illustrated how incredibly creative my students can be when given the chance. Not only that, but as they shared their responses, they engaged in animated discussions where they showcased both critical and analytical thinking. To some extent, the prompts were just means to get the analytical process started.

Of course, I will still stick with the more traditional prompts in my class; mine is a history class after all and not creative writing. But, I do think that I will on occasion allow my students more freedom in their writing. I am beginning to suspect that it can do great things for their critical thinking skills, and I am curious to see if at the end of this academic year, I will be able to notice a difference in their critical and analytical skills.