Sean Sharp’s ITRT Blog

We are about to finish up our state testing with tomorrow being the last day. It has all gone well this year with our computer systems, the software, the students and teachers. For that I am grateful and relieved. This time of year does bring up, for me anyways, the BIG QUESTIONS about what exactly we are doing as educators. As I sit down to compose my thoughts I realize that I can have a tendency to go down the path of “ranting” about SOL tests and I am going to try to avoid doing that here. At least that is a goal that I’m starting out with. There might be some ranting along the way, just to be sure. You have been warned.

So, with testing and especially the emphasis on testing I ask myself what makes a good teacher? Teachers are judged on how well their students perform on standardized tests. Yes, this is true. It is one piece of the puzzle that evaluations are made up of, but with the hyper-emphasis on test scores, I think it is weighted a little bit more. There is a sense of relief from teachers when the testing is over and especially when their students performed well and a large number of their group passed. Still, what makes a good teacher?

In my mind it isn’t only the test score that makes a good teacher. There is so much more to being an educator than just helping students learn material that they can then use to answer the questions correctly on a standardized test. Teaching, to me at least, is also about all of the intangibles that aren’t measurable that a teacher deals with each and every day. For example, if a student comes to school late or tired; if a student is afraid of other students because they are being teased and bullied; if a student is simply bored with the material that they are being taught in class; again, there is so much more.

When I think back on teachers that made a difference to me, it wasn’t the content that I remember. It wasn’t what they taught me that makes me remember them as good teachers. It is that they took an interest in me as a person. Flash back to 8th grade for me: Mr. Stuart’s english class. It was there that I began to feel confident that I could write ok. At least I was better at that than I was at math, I knew that for sure. But more than that, it was the following year in 9th grade when Mr. Stuart and I started talking about books that really made an impact. I wasn’t a huge reader at that point in my life, but in one conversation, he recommended a book to me. It was some science fiction novel, probably written by Robert Heinlein, but I can’t remember. Anyways, I read it. The whole thing. I brought it back to Mr. Stuart and we talked about it. He then grabbed another book off of his bookshelf and said, “try this one.” I did. Several books and conversations later I realized that I was reading. Whole books. All the way through. Of course I didn’t realize until much later that he and I had just formed our very own two person book club as well. Mr. Stuart taught me that I could read books that had a lot of pages in them, talk about them, but mostly just enjoy them. That was the key. Was he my “best” teacher ever? Probably not . . .that is hard for me to say. Was he a very influential teacher for me? Absolutely.

So, it is beyond the content and has to be beyond the content. As educators we aren’t just teaching four choices on a computerized exam that comes once a year. We are <hopefully> teaching about kindness, how to learn, to think, to reflect, to communicate and express thoughts and ideas clearly. As teachers we are small steps in each child’s life that will help them grow up to become adults who are engaged in the world around them. Hopefully.

This is a reflective post today as I have ideas bouncing around my head after reading two colleagues’ posts on this topic. The start of this conversation is from John Hendron about his chat with a fellow teacher about books. The second is from Karen Richardson’s reflections on that conversation. I must admit, it is a bit circular and feels a bit strange to “talk about the talking,” going on in terms of this conversation. But, here goes:

I like books. I read books, sometimes more than one at a time and sometimes only one at a time. Recently I was invited to our school board office’s book group to talk about the book by Sherman Alexie titled, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. I was invited partly because when I lived in Seattle I had the opportunity to go to many of his readings and on occasion meet him and talk. Plus I’m a pretty big fan of his. The upshot of this is that now I’m the newest member of this book group, which I’m quite excited about. I’ve never been in a book group before, so this should be fun.

In addition to reading books and enjoying books, I read stuff on the computer. I use an RSS aggregator to pull information in from sites that interest me. I annotate, bookmark, share, blog and generally hang onto articles or pieces of information that I find online that I might want to access at a later time. In addition, I even use the Avantgo service to have websites downloaded to my Palm device for reading as well. It’s all pretty good, overall.

I also subscribe to a few magazines that I can toss in my backpack as I head out the door, or leave in the car for times when I’ll be waiting somewhere.

In reading these thoughts by John and Karen, I see that in a sense, they are both correct when it comes to text and how we interact with it on a daily basis. It seems to me that there is room for all of the above. We are in an estuary if you will, a zone where text-in-a-book and text-on-a-screen are both legitimate ways to access information. Both formats have advantages disadvantages, too. For example, I’ve never tossed my laptop, lid open, across the front seats of my car and have it bounce around and land on the floor which I then pick up and use with no problem. I’ve also never opened up a book and found one of my favorite websites available for me to bookmark and/or share with others on sites like del.icio.us or diigo.

Both of these blog posts caused me to go back and look at an article that was written in The New Republic magazine three years ago in May, 2005 by David A. Bell about the emerging technologies that were in the pipeline at that time. It is a several page article that is well worth reading, in my opinion. Some of the highlites are how reading really is an unnatural act and how Johannes Gutenberg’s revolution was more a revolution of production rather than “in the product itself.”

Finally, I thought about a conference that I attended years ago in Portland, Oregon. The speaker talked briefly-very briefly-about our experience as readers. He said something to the effect that reading a book is a process where the eye receives reflected light off of the page, which is different and far easier on the eye than reading from a computer screen as this light is projected light. I found a short piece on that phenomenon at the website, Writing For The Web. I’m sure if I searched more I could find more information on this topic.

So thanks John and Karen. Good posts from both of you have helped me realize that I will still read my books and enjoy them and also read from my computer and enjoy what I read there. Now, back to some more reading . . . . . . .

Easily Summarize A Word 2007 Document :: the How-To Geek

This is one of those to file under ‘helpful.’ We use Office 2007 in my school division and this little trick will certainly come in handy at times.

The Random Thoughts of Louis Schmier

I’ll repeat something I told a colleague earlier: inspiration is far more powerful than intimidation; self-confidence, pride, enthusiasm reaps higher yields than insecurity, disbelief, and fear; aspiration will seldom occur in a hell hole of desperation; a smile is more powerful than a sneer; a tap of kindness will get you more than a slap of sarcasm; spotlighting strengths and talents is far more uplifting than focusing on weaknesses and shortcomings; fortifying a student’s self-worth will get better results than tearing down a student; and, caring is far more invigorating than not giving a damn.

Whenever I need a dose of perspective, I head over to Louis’s blog and check out one of his posts. He always seems to nail it for me, whether it is a reflection on teaching, a thought about a particular student, or a short story about a classroom episode–he has a viewpoint and points-of-view that help remind me what teaching and education are really all about.

Official Google Reader Blog: Reader and ARIA: A new way to read

This via my Google Reader today: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA). Basically it’s a screen reader for Google Reader, which allows vision-impaired folks to have their RSS reading spoken to them aloud via the computer. I haven’t tried it yet, but will do so once the install is complete. Follow the directions!

Assisstive  Technology is something that I’m just starting to explore . . . . .more soon!

The Web’s best free stuff

This came via my del.icio.us account yesterday. Some good stuff is here–today I tried the online word processor  known as “Buzzword.” Simple and user friendly. Good collaboration tool! Enjoy . . . .

Teenagers and the Internet | Salon Life

Teenagers today read and write for fun; its part of their social lives. We need to start celebrating this unprecedented surge, incorporating it as an educational tool instead of meeting it with punishing pop quizzes and suspicion.

Good read.

The Tech Savvy Educator » Blog Archive » Four Simple Truths - It’s Not About The Technology

This is a great post about (again) Web 2.0 issues. I’m not sure I emphasized this enough in my presentation at the Library Media Specialists conference last week. It isn’t about the technology, but about what our students are already doing in their lives. In this case, they are leading, and we are playing catch-up. The movie at the end is quite telling and very good–something faculty and staff should all watch.

Steve Hargadon: Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education

I believe that the read/write Web, or what we are calling Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press. I believe that we cannot even begin to imagine the changes that are going to take place as the two-way nature of the Internet begins to flower, and that even those of us who have spent time imagining this future will be astounded by what happens.

This is an excellent article for those interested in Web 2.0 issues and ideas. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with his thoughts about how transformative Web 2.0 is and/or will be, the ideas are great to think about and consider. Thanks Steve!

I’ve recently begun listening to some educational video posts on a site called, Ustream.tv

Today while working on a website for one of our art teachers, I listened to Will Richardson give a presentation on using Web 2.0 tools in education. He talked about what it means to teach our students for what lies ahead in their lives, rather than what is happening today. He also spoke about the realities of teaching now–assessments, time constraints, blocking sites, etc. etc. It was quite informative. You can check out this show and others that he has done at his Ustream website.