TLITE

Beginnings

2009-05-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

1: Sounder

I've been in skills development at a secondary school in Vancouver. Some of the students are working on a grade 9 essay. "How do I write an opening sentence?" What does "Introduce your thesis" mean? "How do I do an introduction? " "What is a summary?" They ask me how to start and how to spell certain words. "Just get your ideas out, get notes and even point form. " I explain. This is the process of writing. The students had to talk about the novel and the film and the differences between the two. "What are some differences with the film?" and "Why do you think the director did this?" I ask. "It made the dad more interesting?" she tells me. "Do you think that the writer had anything to do with the film's screenplay?" (this I explained is an adaptation for a film) "No" she tells me, as she feels that the film is too different from the book. I realized in that past few days here, how important it is to give students this one on one help with assignments such as these. I want them to be in the moment, thinking of process-ideas- and not hung up on writing their introductions.

2. The photograph

Another assignment was writing memoirs and how to get ideas for writing. One student was having trouble starting as well. He had already done the first writing prompt excercises but now was on the photograph-What first comes to mind? Is there a picture you wish you had not been in? Is there a photo of you that you treasure? Is there one that taught you something? Then, something popped out of him suddenly: "There's this guy, sortave a godson-like a son, brother, my sister introduced him and he was part of our family, and he died" There's an idea that you could expand on! I say. Do you have a photo of him? I tell him the story of this quote I heard once: "Only the dead inhabit photographs...We the living are the ghosts." (Jeffrey Eudinedes) I explain that sometimes, when people die and we are showing someone a photo of them we say things like: "This is grandpa" But if they were alive we usually say here's a photo of Jane, or Helen etc. The photo becomes an embodiment of the deceased person. When I see myself in a picture, or someone else does, its not really real-but more surreal and well....ghost-like.

He tells me some things and I tell him to write it all down. He does. I ask him to look at this picture and describe it to me. "How does he look? When was picture taken? Does this man look happy or sad? I ask about how he feels when he sees this picture: "What does this picture say to you?" He has told me how this family member was only 22. I ask him about if he ever wonders what this man would be doing, had he not died. "Do you wonder about this?" Get anything you think you feel on paper. What you know is important, and worth writing about. I see him begin and write almost a whole page, from his point of view and his memory.

bubbles 2008

2009-05-07T09:40:00.001-07:00

2009-04-28T13:56:00.001-07:00

Just asked another student about school, who by the way, is also pretty much against video gaming too. His response to my questions regarding school: "No fun, boring." His favourite teachers of various subjects, were classes where they 'do' things or make things. He likes classes with activities, and humour and teachers who like what they do and make it fun. There are many dynamic educators making these positive changes in classrooms, and I see this as working the best for students, especially those who are not inherently academic or self-directed. I have now been in about 4 schools with alternative programmes, and I see bright students, who inherently do want to learn but have just not conformed into the regular system. I have met homeschoolers who are passionate and talented and are making music, making films, creating art, making history....

halo 3 obsessions

2009-04-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

Saw this documentary about teens and gaming. It was on the Fifth Estate a couple of weeks ago. Its fitting as my son is quite obsessed with Halo 3 and has gone to tournaments. Most of his peers now are older than him...either grade 10, 11 or 12 and beyond. Its an interesting social world: people he met online and now sees face to face. I can not get my head around it as I am not at all interested in playing first person shooter games, or any games for that matter. Although, I do go online to use Facebook. And, I do play some games: Lexulous, World traveller...both of which are on Facebook. I try to relate to my son and other teens who play games online. But I also feel helpless to make him stop playing.

2009-03-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

I saw this video from a couple of years ago-reminds me of the Michael Wesch's "A vision of students today" and here's another one of his that i love: Information/Revolution

I find myself drawn to those students who don't fit the 'norm' and march to their own beats...the 'artsy' types, the ones who fall through the cracks and are bored with school. But I am also interested in (and puzzled by) those students who get more from working independently, or are introverted and find school a place that stresses them out. I know from my own memories of school, that it was a bit stressful-esp. high school....but i also liked lots about school: i love to learn with people-I'm an 'extrovert' according to Meyer/Briggs....(but i did score once as a borderline extrovert/introvert...) I get energized from collaboration-and school is setup this way =but what about those who need to get energized from within...? What about those who hate going in front of the class but yet have to due to it being part of the curriculum?

directed/self directed/learning

2009-02-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

I am listening to Teri talk to her grade 9's and 10's about photography. Something she spoke about yesterday sticks in my mind. She told the students that there is a large amount of evidence proving that students still learn the best with the teacher in the room. She is an art teacher, film teacher, photo teacher and also teaches Yearbook. Much of her course assignments are project based, being 'art' courses....hands-on etc. However she feels that there is a time and a place for the teacher to be in front of the class....teaching. In this case, to learn about cameras, safety and expectations. But also, throughout the term, students will have this face to face, with new topics. I know that I like to learn with others. Teaching myself online is probably my least favourite thing, and while I've been forcing myself to do this better, I still favour an 'in the flesh' approach!

So gettting back to my WIKIspace with my Communication 12's, I have received assignments from 4 of 17 students. I also have added their regular teacher to our WIKI. She is giving them some class time to complete assignments which I post online. I would mainly like to see the WIKI as a discussion place, where students can share and post and modify the page if they want. I also have told them I see it being a support to their learning. A place where they can go to find information to supplement what they are doing in class. Unfortunately many I think, are feeling like its extra work. (and not its off to eat i go....Teri has homemade Turkey soup)

portmoody12com.freeforums.org • View topic - wiki vs. phpbb

2009-02-21T11:58:00.001-08:00

A lot of my finding so far, have been observing students (and teachers) while I was a TOC in various classrooms. I found that the courses where students could direct their learning more, (drama, music...art) seemed, for obvious reason, more engaged in their learing. With English, the curriculum seems more 'set' and more difficult to adapt in some ways. Students get used to doing things in a particular way. (read, write, questions, test, read...) I thought by adding to this, making some of the assighments online-or a palce to discuss in -class assighments, I could creat another classroom of sorts-a social network. But, the students, most of whom already were using tools like Facebook, Texting, seemed to look at this 'wiki' as yet another 'job' or assignment (which is was). I also know that given I was not the full-time teacher, many did not take my lesson seriously. I may have more response ( I know I would have actually) with the grade 9's. I was planning to set up a blog with them but could not get access to the lab to do this with them for one of the periods. From all of this and what I have seen in other classrooms where it works, I would definately use Blogs and Wikis in my classroom. It was be part of the overall curriculum in any subject I taught. For English, I would use Blogs for discussions and reflections, and have students use their own blog for journal entries which could be posted to feedback or kept private for just teacher feedback.

portmoody12com.freeforums.org • View topic - wiki vs. phpbb

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fielding questions...

2009-02-17T16:53:00.001-08:00

Well....interesting day-booked libary out...and as I thought....the students meandered in and 14 of the 17 showed up. I managed to get them set up but now need to figure out some WIKI stuff...like whether when I first made this wiki if I made it a teacher/educator type one. I remember Sharon from TLITE helping me initially with this when we did the COQTLITE wiki. Here's the link for my new classroom wiki: planetzutar ... I am still having some difficulties with understanding the inner workings of html and privacy and admin. vs. members etc. I do what I usually do-play-learn with the students and thankfully have many helpful/knowledgable ones! I was going to have them set up blogs as well, for creative writing and journalling but it took the whole class (as expected) to set up the wikis (and the computers/internet were super slow) Well now its back to Coquitlam for daughters hockey game.

PMSS Field study

2009-02-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

Had my first day with my Communications 12 students and they seem keen to try this Wiki stuff. The only problem I'm facing now, is that although I have their emails and I've invited them all, I have to wait to see if they do their homework! I have booked a computer lab to ensure I have them all on board and then to get them to create blog portfolios which I am planning to link to our Wiki. I also like the idea of one Blog that is student run. As this is not 'my' class, I have to somehow get it across to students that this is part of their classwork and will contribute to their learning and their final grades. I feel pretty optomistic about the whole project. There are still some glitches to iron out though: how to keep the connection with the students when I am not here-participation is still key to any lesson working. It was nice to see many of my former students today.

Torres on the brain

2009-02-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

I had such a great day listening to Marco Torres yesterday. He showed us this nifty pen too-LifeScribe-fitting..... I first heard about Marco Torres back in 2005 when I was looking on a favourite website of mine (Edutopia) http://www.edutopia.org/ and then again, his name appeared in our first summer session of TLITE....I was hooked. My fascination for Project Learning (http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning) was in 2003, while at UBC and a guest instructor of Technology Education told us about it and Edutopia. Since then I have been getting a subscription to the magazine and have made it my mission to always include some aspect of project-based learning in my teaching.

I am convinced that students at many of the secondary (and elementary) students in the lower mainland would benefit from the approach that Torres takes. He speaks about it here: http://www.edutopia.org/marco-torres-empowering-students-through-multimedia I hope to have the opportunity to see him and his students in action one day. I loved his feelings about how students are often recipients rather than producers of information and learning. I also loved his analogy to a cooking website and how creative it was in comparison to what schools offer kids in terms of school web pages etc.( I think of Sharepoint too.)

While Torres is dealing with a high school drop out rate of 85%, and many children with little or no access to technology at home, there are similiar issues here in some of the schools. In my neighbourhood...one of the postal codes: Grandview Woodlands, is one of the poorest in Canada! There is a higher percentage of Native/First Nation students as well as ESL and special needs. Torres's student population is made of of predominentally Latinos. The main difference is that his school has 5000 students, and most of ours have less than 2000. I am definately going to keep his ideas in mind while doing my field work in an Communications (English) 12 class.

bloggerbrain

2009-02-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

I am reading Will Richardson's book 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms' again. I'm amazed at how much I have learned! The first time I picked up this book, when first starting in TLITE, I was overloaded and still quite new to social networking and online portfolios. This is not to say that I am an expert or that I am never overwhelmed with information anymore....its just that now that I have been blogging and using WIKIS, I see what he is talking about. I am in the organizing stage of a hopefully ongoing project with two different English classes (which might expand to 3) Its so important for mentors to remain open to learning too....much of my own learning has come from being in the classroom and watching students and asking them questions....(how do you do.... ? How do you spell....?) I never assume the role of expert. I feel I am more of a sharer of ideas and keep my childlike curiousity alive...

field studies

2009-02-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

Found an informative site-just googled 'integrating technology into high school english class'
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/int_tech_lit_la.phtml

then had link to this site...
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/687/03/

I am still trying to find ways to integrate technology into a secondary English class. I am planning to set up in two different classes-one grade 9 and a gr. 8 or 10. The teachers are using different approaches and novel studies.

seasonally adjusted momentary fragments

2008-12-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

December snow....siatica issues and constant meanderings of my inner workings...

Sister DJ's Radio Band at the Farmers Market, Wise Hall, it was cccccccold!

linking

2008-12-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

I am working on a few ideas in order to fit my reality (my work at present) with that of TLITE and all its inner workings.

1. collaborate (with another teacher-attempt #2) Possibly English-or playwriting (grade 12)

2. observe (not unlike the lone ethnographer of the past but without that smug notion of 'objectivity')

3. online learning (homelearning vs. attending school)

4. finalize into a term video to share

The TheatreLink idea is fabulous but I would need to have a school support the program as it is intensive and would require a whole semester to complete. It would work well in a grade 12 Playwriting/Directing class. Now to have that class!

memory

2008-12-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

...its so surreal to drive with no wiper in the rain....

On the way to the summer institute for TLITE, my wiper on the driver side, just stopped moving, crashing into the passenger side one...while I was on hwy #1 going east in a torrential downpour! I believe this was a sign of some sort...(like how come the driver's side one?) i waited at the side of the hwy...pondering what to do....go home? wait? keep on going? I was not even in Burnaby yet! I saw that the sky looked clearer in the east so I went for it! To my surprise, the further I went east, the less it rained and the less I had to squiggy my windscreen...It was sunny all day.

nov/dec

2008-12-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

so here it is...I am classless....invisible but not a 'visible' minority.... trying to allow my journey to unfold-keep on task and try to come up with ways to work with what I've got...for the moment-which could change at any given moment.."always an adventure" (teacher on-call slogan) However, the perks are the freedom I have: no prepping, no marking, no report cards....but on the other hand: no security, no regular paycheque, no longer term connections with the students except those who I have connected with already.

But, I do like the fact that I can share my knowledge in my TOC-ing. I go to schools and share my stories, my real-life dramas (-the play that I currently am working on, YouTube videos I've come across through others in the program and on my own, ProD workshops which I have integrated into my teaching, especially Drama, English,Art and Technology classes.)

So the reality of my current situation, of being 'on-call', has validity, even though at times I have felt unappreciated and expendible.

I bring with me my life experiences combined with my empathy and respect and merely expect to be treated the same way in return. I get so much pleasure from just chatting to students, asking them about what music they like, movies they've seen recently, what sports they play and school subjects they like or don't. I also sometimes ask them why-why some classes are more fun or interesting than others? Most tell me that its the classes where they have freedom and independence and opportunities to show what they know...These classes always seem to look like this: students in groups, collaborating, brainstorming, sharing, organizing, laughing, arguing, debating, creating, moving, thinking.....I live to travel extensively here.

So this is where I'm at for now.... meanderings mixed in with the wobbling and occasional angst..I embrace the unknown and go with it!

mismeasuring

2008-10-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am in a unique position of being able to stand back a bit and not have that 'connection'that teachers have with students when they see them everyday....I knew this going into the program, that i might not have my own classroom or classes in which to do my field work and adjusted myself accordingly. Here i am, almost like an earlier ethnographer-seemingly objective- remaining the outsider looking in. But, I have to remind myself that I bring 'me' into everywhere I go...

(pic: 1922: Malinowski "The Ethnographer" at work in Omarakana)

glassblowing

2008-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

i am now in mid october....where has time gone? i lurk...i wonder....i vote...waunder....and i lurk some more...and think of Mervyn Peake and "...the vastest things of are those we may not learn...."

absorb/reflect

I sat and watched a few teachers performing...some so simple in their approach and I wonder if sometimes engagement occurs inherently when learners are involved in a process of collaboration both with their peers and teachers? In classes where there is more teacher led 'work', the listeners can sink into their own thoughts. Drama is inherently a participatory subject....we need to shift our approach to make all the school curriculum more like a drama class.

2008-09-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

I am blue

2008-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Meanderings

2008-09-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

Well here I am on the corner of 'walk don't walk'......but i keep on moving....searching for signs of intelligent life in the universe...

2008-09-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

2008-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

wobbles and shifts

2008-09-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on something I read in Will Richardson's Wiki...'.teaching' and shifting-learning with students-something I have always believed anyway. I have had the opportunity to have my own classroom only 3 times since beginning the teaching journey...and what I have found out is that all along i have had this approach to education: that I was a learner too...that I wanted students to have meaningful and engaging activities in class and outside of class, and that I wanted what they were learning to be something they felt linked to in some way-that they had some input into what they were studying.

Connecting students globally, students getting a voice, real work for real purposes and learning with students....this shift in education is also a shift in the word 'teacher'....I remember in the Education programme we ended up using the slogan 'life-long learner' or 'teacher/learner' who will constantly shift and evolve with their students, but how much of this do most 'teachers actually do'? I find most classrooms still 'teacher directed' and that most students will still tell you that recess is their favourite subject.

By really shifting our focuses-we are then more mentors or guides-in the daily running of a real learning environment, where students can shine, whatever their learning style.

2008-09-19T08:06:00.003-07:00

"I'm not young enough to know everything" Oscar Wilde

reflect

2008-09-19T08:06:00.002-07:00

TLITE reflection

2008-08-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

So its now the end of our second Summer Institute and I feel a bit sad. I love all the 'face to face' meetings we have, being the social person that I am. I always get energized from being with people 'in the flesh'. Also a bit ironic: I left my camera at the library of Terry Fox and drove out yesterday....thinking that maybe somebody would be there, but alas....parking lot empty and no one in sight! Empty! oh well....

So now begins the journey of our 'field studies' and how I might integrate digital technology with a course like Drama or Acting 11...I get ideas constantly and while I find this exciting, trying to get them all down so that I can choose one, is my main challenge: FOCUS!

Ideas: (as I can grab them from my inner workings)

1. I have asked a grade 12 student, who I had in Acting 11, to be the director of the Drama 9's play we did called 'Ghost Girl' last spring, for MET FEST '08...What I would love, is to have her keep a record of her journey-which would be part of her credit for Acting 12. (Directing)

2. Creating Wikis for the drama class. This could be a place for students to journal (or Blogspot) rather than in paper form which I always found a bit difficult to get all students to do. I like the convenience of Facebook...too...but ...well....................

3. Video-taping students acting work for them to use and peers-for self-assessment. Having rear projection for our Met Fest performance...and a soundscape would be nice.

4. Possibly broadcasting improv. skits with other students in other provinces acting classes. Have to research this further. But I love the sharing/penpal options available now for students globally.