That Which We Call A Rose

It’s all in the language.

“Well, I’ll worry about that later,” I thought to myself
yesterday. Then I noticed what I had said to myself and mentally reworded. I
find myself doing this very often nowadays.

You have to be very careful with the words you choose to
think with. Words are the bricks of reality. You choose different words for a
different reality. If you simply use the words you have inherited from the
communities to which you belong, then you are confining yourself to very
particular cardboard boxes without even the awareness of your own confines.

“I’ll worry about that later,” is a reality-molecule: a
recipe made of various atoms (words) assembled for a purpose. “I’ll worry about
that later,” is invoked easily and automatically as one of many mind-tools. Its
function, in this case, is to disarm an immediate threat with a rationalisation.

The phrase does its job when we use it. It provides a
strong, common-sense mental scaffold for tucking away a concern for the moment.
This is why it is such a popular phrase, and a standard riff in our internal mental
music.

It works, but we can do better. I don’t like ‘worry’. The
word describes a state of mind that is inefficient and unproductive. There are
much better words with which, if I am deliberate enough, I can supplant ‘worry’.

    I’ll develop…

    I’ll digest…

    I’ll play with…

    ...that one
later.

I’m aware how corny this language sounds. I don’t care.
Changing language works.

So now, turn your eyes to teaching. What mental scaffolding
are you working with, how did it get there, did you have any say in it, and
might you not begin to self-consciously tinker with it and improve it?

First, the word ‘teach’ takes an immediately alarming direct
object. Verbs that take direct objects are verbs like: hit,
smack, hug, deny, love, hate, know, bury. It is something you DO
DIRECTLY.

I hit you.

I smack you.

I hug you.

I deny you.

I love you.

I hate you.

I know you.

I bury you.

I lift you up, 

tie you down, 

pass you around, 

pummel you, 

exalt you, discuss you,

 Yes, and I teach you.

In verbs that take direct
objects, you are the passive recipient. There are interesting variations
– “I observe you” is hardly violent. But, you have little choice in the
matter. Even being observed has violent possibilities. Did you ask permission? Where is my privacy? 

I nourish you.

I feed you.

I support you.

These are still direct objects, and hardly violent, but there is still little room for YOU. And if I nourish, feed and support you, I will then

assess

examine

measure you.

Now, verbs with indirect objects have a different
feel. These are verbs that require a preposition between them and you. Prepositions act as a buffer, create space, and allow possibility, negotiation, and
unexpected freedoms:

I talk with you.

I walk alongside you.

I speak to you. (Still fairly aggressive but better than “I
lecture you”)

I negotiate with. (The word ‘with’ is a winner)

I listen to you. (I'm doing the action but the action conveys high responsiveness to you).

Tentatively I wonder, are verbs with direct objects more restrictive, certainly
for the art of so-called ‘teaching’? Should we look for verbs with indirect objects when
conceptualising our relationship with our students?

A bigger question: Why is the sentence beginning with ME at
all?

Or, to put it another way, if I am ‘teaching you’, then what
are YOU doing? Being taught? Passively? You are being hit, smacked, hugged,
denied, loved, hated, known and buried? You have no choice in the matter.

 “What happened to you today at school?”

 “I was taught.”

 This is the core problem with transitive verb ‘teach’.
(Transitive means it takes a direct object, as discussed above). I teach, you
are taught.

 SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN. I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU.

 Oh yes, I am going to teach you good and proper.

 I am going to teach you A LESSON.

 (A Maths lesson, English lesson, French lesson, or Science lesson).

 Thence a huge leap across a broad chasm, to a distant point
on the far horizon:

 You learn.

 I teach.

 You learn.

 You had better take a long run up to that chasm if you think
that because you are teaching, the direct object of your teaching is learning. Oh
spectacular assumption!

I teach French. I teach students. I teach students French. I
teach French to students.

Sure, and what are the students doing?

They are doing what I damn well tell them to. Maybe I should
issue a command “LEARN!” I shall be like Gandalf with his staff, bending
reality to my will through sheer stubborn conviction.

I am a teach-er. 

Are you just?

What verbs might we deliberately employ instead of the awful
‘teach’? Verbs for me and verbs for those human beings in my classroom I like
to refer to as students?

Verbs with unexpected potentials.

Verbs expecting surprises.

Verbs creating space.

Verbs respecting relationships.

Verbs for my students and verbs for me.

Leave a comment with your ideas. I walk around with a bit of
paper all the time now, so keen I am to liberate my mind from inherited
vocabularies. Feed me, dear reader.

No ‘learning facilitator’ phrases please. I’d rather teach.
Give me something humane, heartfelt, and encompassing. Metaphors allowed and welcomed.

TEACH ME!

The Story of Anne Mirtschin

A few weeks ago, I invited teachers to relate how their lives as teachers had changed due to engaging with other educators online, and to relate how this change has flowed to their students.

I received the following response from Anne Mirtschin. Here is a quick teaser of what is to follow:

 

As for me, I am classified a ‘baby boomer’, have loved using technology. It has reinvigorated me in my final years of teaching, so much so, that I do not want to retire for many years. I have ‘refound’ my passion for teaching and learning. I am no longer an ‘out the front’ of the room teacher, but more a facilitator working in amongst the students as their needs arise. 

Anne's blog is http://murcha.wordpress.com/ and her Twitter ID is @murcha.

I have added in headings to what Anne wrote:

Recount your journey

The Beginning:

My journey began three years ago, when few
students in schools in Victoria or Australia were blogging. As our grade 6
class was developing podcasts for the nearby volunteer run Volcano Discovery
Centre and as we were to use web2.0 tools as part of the Rich Picture Case
Studies grant from our Education Department, that enabled this project to
continue, blogging sounded like a good tool to use to document our journey. So
my teacher blog was started and a class blog called ‘Our Backyard” 

A Mentor

At the same time Heather Blakey of Soul Food Café came to our school to run
some professional development, and she became my great mentor, introducing me
to her global contacts. The students had an immediate authentic global audience
and hence our entrance into the wonderful interactive world of web2.0. My
school is a prep to year 12 rural school and is geographically and culturally
isolated, Soon all students from grades 5 to 11 had the own  blog.

Growing Relationships

The next step, was to become a member of
classroom2.0 where further valuable contacts were made mostly on a global
basis. This led to the wonderful world of wikis, social networking and global
projects. Twitter was just starting to become mainframe and after a puzzling
start, Sue Waters, now the editor of the Edublogger, adopted me and introduced
me to 20 valuable contacts who in turn led me to make further valuable
connections. A fabulous personal learning network was established. Soon we
heard about and became part of the amazing Flat classroom projects. All these
social networking tools have had an amazing impact on my teaching, classroom
and community.

Busting Open the Classroom to the World

Russia

It means that I can work interactively and
in virtual teams with those who have similar passions to mine. Here are some of
the many stories from my classroom. My students have appeared on Russian TV
news when we videoconferenced with a school in Soglasie Russia. (I met the
teacher Ekaterina on classroom20.com). 

Antartica

Our whole school was online from prep to
year 9 linked up in a  direct
videoconferenece with a research scientist whilst in Antarctica researching the
Adele penguins. 

Earthquake in Java

We have spoken directly
using skype to students in West Java, Indonesia within 6 hours of them being
hit by an earthquake at the end of last year. They were still under tsunami
warnings. We heard the fear in their voices, heard what it was like to
experience an earthquake etc. The bell went but students did not hear it but
were still researching the internet for full evidence of the extent of that
earthquake.

Germany, China, Anywhere

Students from their homes at 9pm at night with proud parents
watching, enter 'Elluminate', virtual classroom software, to join a class with
their fellow classmates from Germany (who are at school) and classmates from
Beijing China to work out their global projects as part of the flat classroom
project. My backchannel through twitter are on hand to immediately answer our
questions eg how can we convert an xtranormal video into mpg or wmv format.
What games do you use in your classroom? Could you fill in our survey forms
etc. .  It means my students can learn
anytime, anywhere with techn-how. Students have learnt the techniques of
cybersafety, netiquette, responsible online learning and digital citizenship.
They have started their digital footprints in the global world that is theirs.

Students

My students are motivated, engaged, excited,
empowered, willing to return to school virtually at night time to work with
global classmates and most of all have ‘fun’ whilst learning.

Conclusion

As for me, I am classified a ‘baby boomer’,
have loved using technology. It has reinvigorated me in my final years of
teaching, so much so, that I do not want to retire for many years. I have
‘refound’ my passion for teaching and learning. I am no longer an ‘out the
front’ of the room teacher, but more a facilitator working in amongst the students
as their needs arise. I can teach anywhere, anytime, 24/7/365. At nighttimes I
run online PD sessions for teachers targeted at Australian teachers, but have
found the audience can include educationalists from many countries including
Africa, India, Europe, Asia etc. They come from all levels of education
including pre-school through to university and adult educators all with the one
shared passion – to empower learning and bring education into the 21^st
century.

A Day In the Life of Booralie Island, our School's Virtual World

A typical day in our virtual 3D island:

At lunch each Friday we all meet to build, swap ideas, and so on.

I noticed one student - a boy in Year 8 - had built a little ANZAC memorial in front of his shop:

In Australia it is 'ANZAC day' in a couple of days from now - where we remember Australian and New Zealand soldiers and their sacrifice in World War 1.

The sign needs updating, of course :-)

Then, some of the Year 9 girls said they had built a recording studio. Here is one small part of it:

They have programmed the drums, keyboard and guitar so that it looks like you are actually playing them, i.e. it's animated.

When I arrived home from school, I thought I'd log back into Booralie Island, and found some students working on a Coliseum - style arena. Some other students were logged in and were chatting:

Booralie is a great 'equaliser' in social interactions, partly because of the social codes and culture we've established, and I think it helps that students have pretend names too.

Just another day, where as normal I am highly impressed at students from my school and what they are creating in our little virtual world!

Sydney Teachers, Send Your Colleagues to Me!

This is a quick post, mostly relevant to teachers in Sydney, Australia.

On Friday May 21st I will be running a full day of training at my school. The title is "Real Audience Project: Student Web Publishing". 

It is the first day ever of our new PD initiative. It is going to rock! "PD Like No Other"! 

 What this means, is helping teachers getting a website running where their students' work can be published for the world to see.

I am guessing that if you are the sort of teacher who reads blogs, i.e. is reading this right now, you probably know how to set up a blog already!

But I am also guessing you have colleagues who might just be willing to give it a go, if they had a whole day with a lovely person like me holding their hand!

 I am not reluctant to describe myself like that. I am a patient, gentle person, (ironic photo to your right) perfectly suited to assisting teachers get from:

 Point A (like the idea but sounds out of my depths) 

to 

Point B (oh, I can do this; this is going to work.)

I have enormous confidence in the concept. Once up and running it requires little effort but impacts very positively on students. 

You are an English teacher? Your students can publish short stories, poetry, essays, reflections, and so on. (see http://hmac56.wordpress.com/)

History teacher? Your students can publish 'point of view' pieces, their own interpretations with evidence, a day in the life stories, and so on. (see http://electinghistory.wordpress.com/)

Science teacher? Students publish their understandings, experiments, results, and provocative questions. (See http://stage3science.wordpress.com/) 

Language teacher? Maths teacher? We have teachers from Kindergarten to Year 12, across KLAs, who publish their students' work. The websites are easy to run, and invariably gain 1,000s of views with weeks or months, as well as comments from other students and teachers around the world.

Student web publishing remains for me among the easiest, most high-impact applications of the internet to revolutionising the experience of your students: their motivation, their perspective, their engagement, and the quality of the work they produce.

So whether you want to come along yourself, or can pass this blog post to a colleague and encourage them to come along: COME ONE, COME MANY!  

The workshop day is just the beginning - participants are invited to optional follow up conference sessions over to Elluminate to troubleshoot, vent, celebrate, and nourish the connections they make the people they meet on the day. On the day, participants will meet students and teachers implementing the ideas. In fact every PD day that I run will be a potential window into that 'whole new world' of online engagement that time and time again transforms teacher energy, perspective, purpose.

Click on this image for more information:

 Click here for the registration form: http://scil.nsw.edu.au/register

Meeting Other Teachers in Virtual Worlds - a Brief Get Started Guide

I write this post with the aim of providing some simple, brief, specific steps for teachers who are curious about virtual worlds, not for students (in this instance!), but for teachers.

I suggest you 1. read instructions below and get up and running RIGHT NOW and then 2. attend the Newbie session on the 5th of May 2010.

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All you need to know to benefit from a virtual world as a teacher are these basics:

A virtual world is a 3D online space that you can see on your computer screen and move through by walking or flying around. "You" are represented by a walking figure on the screen - a figure whose appearance you can change and adapt, and this representation of 'you' is called your 'avatar'. As you walk around the world you can see other people (in the form of their avatars), you can text chat with them, sometimes voice chat with them (with a headset). 

The benefits of bothering are:

1. You can network / conference / connect with / share ideas with / debrief with colleagues in rich and psychologically compelling environment, from the comfort of home. 

2. Plenty of teacher conferences are held in a virtual world, and the best face to face conferences run a parallel conference in a virtual world - i.e. the speaker broadcasts their voice through a microphone to the people in the physical room with them, and into the virtual space too. This means you can attend conferences you have neither the time, money, or approval to attend in real life, from home. And if it's boring you can unplug! (Can't do THAT at a face to face conference!)

In particular, there are lots of unConferences - an unconference is a get together of teachers where anyone who wants to can share what they've been up to. It's a conversation rather a presentation, on the assumption that we are all experts through virtue of practical experience! Why learn from one official expert when through conversation you can pick the brains of many?

3. It's a heck of a lot of fun. 

So let's get specific - what to do if you want to dip your big toe in?

There are various communities of educators in 3D environments, but for simplicity let's look at "Jokaydia", and how to access Jokaydia.

STEP 1; First, go to the Second Life website and click join now - you'll get an account and a chance to download the Second Life program, which is what you use to go into the 3D world.

STEP 2; When you run the Second Life program for the first time you get taken to a tutorial space where you can learn the basics of moving around in the world. To finish the tutorial you end up leaving the tutorial space by 'teleporting' to the 'mainland'. Once you've done that, you're free to go where you want.

STEP 3: To get to "Jokaydia", either do a search for Jokaydia from within the Second Life program, or just click here: SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/108/159/23 

Jokaydia is a series of islands built by, and frequented by, a bunch of motivated educators, especially from Australia. Drop in, and you may well find people there - approach them and type in "hello I am new here!" and see where things go from there!

Jokaydia was and is pioneered by educator Jo Kay for whom I have profound respect and admiration. Now that you have access, have a look at upcoming events: http://jokaydia.com/jokaydia-events-calendar/

You'll see there is a "Newbie Session" on Wednesday the 5th of May 2010 - this would be your perfect opportunity to get basic advice and make some contacts!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jokay/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

There are also plenty of other events coming up, including an 'unConference' you can attend later in May.

Other Universes:

For the record, 'Second Life' is not the only virtual world system, and Jokaydia exists in other virtual world systems too. It is pan-dimensional!!! There is "ReactionGrid" and also "JokaydiaGrid" - both easy to access, and functioning very very similarly to Second Life. Jokaydia Grid in particular has the advantage that you can take groups of students into the space, for free! No rush at all, but if/when you're ready, there are instructions for accessing these worlds here: http://jokaydia.com/venues-and-resources-on-the-islands-of-jokaydia/jokaydia-reactiongrid/ (for Reaction Grid) and here: http://jokaydiagrid.com/signup-for-jokaydiagrid/ (for Jokaydia Grid). 

This is easier than it sounds - it's like belonging to multiple websites... this is multiple virtual universes! 

Also checkout http://wiki.jokaydia.com/page/Main_Page for much more information!

See you in there!