Educational Discourse

Well, I’ve finished the second chapter of Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through. This chapter sets out the five steps or parts to the  walk-through. In the book, each section includes a place for you to record you thoughts or understandings. I didn’t really pay attention to this at the start but as I moved through the chapter, I realized that it was important for me to do this. I ended up going back and recording my ideas, not in the book of course, to see how this was going to work for me. The first step is student engagement. This is to be done without interruption, if possible. This is when you look around the room to see if students appear to be engaged with what is going on. It would take very little time. The thing I noticed was when I walked down the halls, if I stopped by rooms with open doors, it was easy to gage if the students were engaged. I’ve also noticed a pattern to those teachers who have their doors open but that is another thing:) If you cannot do this from looking into the class because of a closed door or frosted glass, they suggest you enter the class, move to the back of the class as quietly as possible. Do not engage students in talk or even make eye contact. The second step is to establish what the objectives the teacher is teaching at this time. This will mean that one will need to be somewhat familiar with the various curricula that are in the building – a bit daunting if you are a K – 12 administrator. This step goes beyond this as it is explained that one does not just want the objectives but then one must become more adept at breaking this down into three parts.

The explanation is quite good and the examples are do give one an idea of what to do. However, as I was reading I thought that having some sort of template just to record some of the information would be a good idea. Later on in the chapter it is mentioned that a principal should work towards not having any sort of notes but be able to do this mentally before creating notes.

Step 3 involves looking for the instructional decisions that the teacher is making. This step also has 3 parts for which one should be looking. I found that this would depend on where you were teaching and what you were observing. However, this was well explained and gave some very clear examples.

The next two steps are less crucial and I’ll be back to talk about them and the overall plan.

MrC

Just began the book “The Three Minute Clasroom Walk Through” by Carolyn J. Downey, Steffy, English, Frase & Poston.

The beginning is very interesting as the model Downey uses is described, the influences that shaped the model are introduced and the stages of development are outlined. I particularly like the approach that has the teacher-supervisor in a collaborative relationship, working toward teacher self-efficacy with support from the supervisor.  I also like the fact that it focuses on influence and acknowledges that we cannot make someone do something with any longterm effect. Instead, we need to influence their thoughts through observed questioning which leads the person to reflection and change coming from within.  Stay tuned.

MrC

Today I’ve been working on my class at Harvard Education. I’m taking a graduate class in using Teaching for Understanding Incorporating Technology. The purpose of the class is to think about ways in which we, as teachers, can use technology to enhance the understanding of our students. We begin with the understanding that we want our students to have and then create a unit and lessons that look at matching technology to the class. My class, Communication Production Technology, works so well for this. I’ve been working with audacity in the class, having students create their own sound combinations and then, hopefully, creating podcasts that they can post for others to listen. We really would like to have them posted, get feedback about what might be need to be changed. If you follow the link you will see my school website that has the outlines for this class.

www.freewebs.com/mrchristie

I’ve been purusing the net and found a very interesting site at http://weblogg-ed.com

where the conversation has been very interesting, to say the least. I commented on one of the entry by Will Richardson http://weblogg-ed.com/2006/the-myspace-effect/  that I did not completely agree with the author and did not always like the tone of his articles. But hey, I’m just one guy who seems to be way outnumbered as the many posts will attest.

It’s not that I totally disagree with what he says. It may be that I’ve been to the point where he is frustrated and I’ve learned that it does no good. In fact, much of the worrying and fretting that seems to go on in the comments about teachers not being willing to give up their status as teachers and become learners with the learners is just wasted time. Yes, we need to vent our frustrations but about others not changing because we would like them to? Really, when has anyone been able to change another person without the person wanting the change? Okay, some marriages are exempt. But, really, the only person over whom you have control is yourself. As an administrator, I’ve learned that I can’t change the people with whom I work, the children within the school, or the people who enter the building or have vested interest in some way. That is one large group of people. In light of this, it is my own attitude and my way of dealing with each day which will have the greatest impact over these interactions and my ability to be aware of the people with whom I come into contact.

What does this have to do with technology? Well, consider that the school where I am administrator has computers in each room, that 100 % of the staff uses computers for some type of online teaching, that 100% of the staff uses email communication daily, 100% of the staff receives an online subscription and incorporates it in their personal growth plan, I’d say we’re making progress considering that 100% of the teachers did not use email in the school as of three years ago when I arrived. Are we using wikis, blogs and other webbased sources? Some of us.

However, it was the suicide of one of my students last year that really made me sit back and really focus on what was important. You know, technology didn’t finish very high. Getting to know people face to face did. Listening to the students face to face became very important. I’ve had a site for years where kids have let me know what they are doing. Whether it was through email or blogs, I’ve kept in touch with students that I have taught. But when I lost one for whom I was responsible, it made me realize that all the technology in the world, all the global collaboration isn’t going to save someone if we first don’t pay attention to those in our immediate lives.

I teach Communication Production Technology in which we use various technologies to produce communication. You bet I’m going to use the web for the students to get some feedback on their projects. We may even be able to use a wiki to have others contribute to the work. But it’s about the learning that we do together, not with the global school, that will build the relationships that matter because they are the day to day, face to face ones that people have to learn to work through, realizing that we can’t change others but must be willing to look at ourselves to see how we might be able to adapt.

Will Richardson  says “I hate to generalize, but the thing that seems to be missing from most of my conversations with classroom teachers and administrators is a willingness to even try to re-envision their own learning, not just their students. Many will say that they understand to varying degrees the changes that are occurring, that the Web is in many ways rewriting the rules of communication and socialization, that the world our students enter when they leave us will be much different from the ones we ourselves were prepared for. But it feels like there is this unspoken belief among most that we can deal with these changes without changing ourselves. And that’s is a huge problem.”

I agree but not because we need to look at changes so we can adapt to the technologies but because life requires us to change in order to grow and growth is needed to live life fully. I’ve had a number of teachers tell me that they can’t change, it’s too late in their career. To them I recount the quote from Roland Barth ” The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the rut.” We then discuss how changing is not something that might happen in a school, it will happen and their job is to be a model learner so that they can teach. Slow progress. But, I see things moving much more quickly than many would have guessed. Next adventure, a bit of a staff retreat to www.tappedin.org for some chatting, discussion and exploring.

If you’d like to see what else I’ve written about these kind of topics, visit www.freewebs.com/mrchristie . I’ve done some ranting there also!!

MrC