I wish I could say taking a class in 21st century skills has been fun, but it honestly has been a lot of work. But I have to admit, I would not have taken the time to sort through a variety of web tools on my own, and to teach that to yourself takes a lot of time, especially when no one is around to ask questions, and help...well..."help" is notoriously bad via web; most sites have computer techies writing the help and they are writing it for other techies I think!
One of the biggest challenges to taking a class is in time management, and for any one who teaches English it is a crunch, no matter when during the school year. My next class will definitely be during the summer or through CEUs because this has been an incredible challenge to fit in with student essays and research papers (grading them is gruelling enough without the added stress of my homework to do!). Not only are there papers--mountains and mountains of papers--to grade, there have been other things to deal with: the mock accident for SADD and t prom stuff, and after prom to take care of, and of course, babysitting for grandchildren, and taking time for a funeral, and illnesses, and and and....oh, and did I mention parent teacher conferences? yah...that too. So time...my enemy...never my friend (((sigh))).
I suppose I could always learn to manage my time better, but then who or what would I cut out? Not take the time to smell the fresh spring spice bush that blooms only briefly once a year? Ignore my grandchildren when they want me to take them out for icecream? (Some day they will be grown up...and I will wish I had eaten more ice cream with them!) Maybe ignore my dog when she wants to go for a walk? How could I ever look into those lovely, patient brown eyes again? So though it takes me time to think, time to plan, time to create (such as it is), time to figure things out and to sort through the technology, I feel I've managed my time as best as I was able. And now...for that...I will pay pay pay because I can hear more papers squealing in my backpack, and my lawn growing into a jungle!
If I have proven more adept at any one skill of late due to my dilligent use of the computer, I would have to say I can now create links on almost anything that allows it. I can also see that a lot of people lose money to many people because they are getting paid squat for some excellent ideas. I wish more people could make more money for what they have posted that has helped out others, but...there are some wonderful people out there who have helped me and have no idea they have done so except for the comments I keep leaving like Easter eggs all over their web lawns!
Overall, continuing education continues; I'll always resent HAVING to take the class, but after it is done, I'm always glad I've taken it and feel more enlightened for it : ) I don't think that is spoken like a true teacher, is it? Ah well.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the big C word

It seems that change is a recurring theme in the world today. In almost every aspect of life there is a desire for change. The presidential election was won on Obama touting a change in government. Because of the economy and desire to make a buck at someone else's expense, there have been changes in business structures, from those in power to those at the bottom, and also in the way those businesses produce. All we have to do is look at the car companies to see that traditional structure has outlived its usefulness, and now is the time for companies to redefine their goals, values, and output. That appears to be what governments need to do as well. Families, and what have been traditionally considered to be families, have changed. More and more children come from broken homes, indeed, that has become the norm. More children are coming from families that have situations that would have been wholly unacceptable not so many years ago (and are still struggling in some areas) whether that acceptance is in step-brothers and sisters, racially mixed parentage, or same-gender parenting. Yet the one area where we apparently are lacking in change is in the public school system.

This view of education is from both perspectives; inside and outside. Ideas about education and what should happen in education were readily apparent last night at the high school parent teacher conference. Interesting input. And overall? I believe that most parents believe that public schools are not much different than they were when most of them were kids twenty years before. And frankly, even though from a teacher's perspective it is a bit different, public schools have hardly changed at all and the parents are right....to a point. And that is what I see if I step outside myself and look in. Yet from the inside, it seems like goals, values, ideals, all that encompasses education keeps changing, and has been changing, yet nothing seems to last long, and nothing seems to dig too deeply beneath the surface. It is almost like plexiglass...it can take all kinds of scratching yet to break through and make a real hole it takes an awful lot, or a different way through. If we were going to really change the public education system, as the media is wont to dictate when they continually offer negative reviews of the public school systems, as we need to do to incorporate new technology to keep our students current, then we need to reassess what we want, we need to rethink, we need to refresh, renew, and replan, and we need the financial means to ensure change will take place. Where that is going to come from I have no idea. We can bail out Wall Street, we can try to help the car companies...but education? Good, positive change that will break through the plexiglass? What can we do about that?

Teachers are always having to accommodate change; I've yet to see the exception. In any place I've worked, there has always been change, and all required constant shifts in thinking. When I started, we had Madeline Hunter lesson plans, then those went out the window, and in came something else, and then a revolving door to education was placed at the school entry way, and the old has never found its way out; truly, what goes around comes around, but in this case it looks quite a bit different from what came in. It may take awhile to recognize it for what it is, but...lurking in the shadows, it's there. Madeline Hunter with the twist of Multiple Disciplines with a hefty dose of techno and oh yeah, make sure it is across the board while you're at it!

I don't really mind change (though I hate its beginnings). What I mind is that the change is never permanent! I suppose that sounds a little oxymoronic, but we try something new, and throw it out. We try something new...and throw it out. It doesn't matter if it works or not, we throw it out. It is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....speaking of change...may I interrupt me? I'm trying to get this done but my daughter keeps sending messages because she is bored in her college class; she's on her lappie chatting to her mommy, but, as she so eloquently pointed out, the people sitting around her are on their lappys too, but they are playing tetris and at least 5 types of solitaire and a video game that she doesn't recognize, and that is just on the monitors she can see....now...is that education today???? Ok, I'll come back to the post when I have time adjust to the change in environment!

thoughts on eportfolios

I haven't been in education forever; as a matter of fact, I was a late bloomer and was in my thirties before I got a job in education. But looking back, it really didn't take so long for the past to catch up and revolve full circle. When the college was trying to prep us for our jobs, we were pushed to compile a portfolio. Now, this portfolio included all the information that any employer would want to see, supposedly. It even included student work that was done under the supervision of yours truly during student teaching years. It was a lot of work and effort and creativity compiling this huge notebook of reflection, communication, and credentials. It was my one and only book that was all about me...in regards to education. And when I went out searching for a job, I used the book exactly 0 times. Hmmmm....that's a lot of time and effort wasted.
Today we are looking at using e-Portfolios and in some cases, demanding that our students put together their own compilation so that this is available for jobs/colleges to look at in the future. But I am wondering just who is looking at these. Are potential employers taking a peek at these? Are they relevant to the job? If our students create e-portfolios, is there a decent chance that someone will look at them?
It took a long time for me to put together my own notebook, and that was without having to tackle various types of technology. I can't imagine the kid today who puts one of these together and has the time to incorporate all elements that should be there. It is dismaying to think of the time that people expect others to put into empty, useless compilations of something that is never used, never noted. Our world is changing rapidly and time is certainly of the essence. Let's find out if our kids are going to need the e-portfolios...and other types of time-consuming techestry before we demand they stretch themselves to the nth trying to create it, especially when they could be using the time to create something worthwhile, pertinent, and useful.

A comment or two...

Generally I comment on things around me; I think most people who are alive and aware do. But over the past few years, I find myself taking more time out to comment online to a variety of articles, blogs, andwebsites. One of my favorites is reading the local paper and commenting on who does what, especially in Detroit, what with Kwame Kilpatrick's run around and all. I don't count commenting as blogging; commenting is so much quicker, and truthfully, I don't have a lot of time to just sit and write for....well, other than this class, I don't have a purpose for it...yet.

Most recently I have commented on
http://ednews.org/articles/36740/1/19th-Century-Skills/Page1.html
a website that I mentioned in an earlier blog.

I have also read and commented on
http://tsheko.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/teaching-21st-century-literacies/ although this one I might have more of an argument with. Still, blogging is a form of learning...and I blog, read blogs, comment, and learn as I go : )

And, if you could go into my computer past...you would see my comments on newsvine.com, freep.com, detnews.com etc. But blogging...well, that's different ; )

21st Century Skills in my own work

Incorporating 21st Century tools and skills into my classes is something I've generally been working on over the past few years, but I guess I didn't realize then that it had a tag name. The first time I incorporated use of such skills was in about 1996, and it was a choice of assignments. Actually, I initially set it as one of the choices because I had a young student then who was computer literate...he ran circles around our tech teachers (but then it was just basic keyboarding, and very little learning about actual programs except for emailing and windows which had just worked the holes out of win95). Anyway, students then had a choice for their Shakespeare project, and of those options, those with computer savy could work with a partner and create a website. Things were so new then, at least to us! We were really just getting in a computer for each teacher, and things were becoming more digitalized. I can't even fathom how things could change so quickly...but here we are thirteen years later and even many four year olds have some basic computer know-how.

Now, in 2009, I require writing assignments, and many times students have to begin their hand written drafts in class, but students are not allowed to hand in to me a polished piece that is not typed up. My composition students are required to write a research paper, yet now the information is so much more accessible than it was those few years ago; "just google it" the saying goes and how many hits did it come up with? What are the links? What is the url? This is jargon many would not have understood at that time. But now, when my composition students go to the media center, they direct themselves to the computers, but not to look up information in the library books--oh no--instead they google everything. Whereas I indexed my information on 3x5 cards, they copy and paste theirs. Whereas they used to present with maybe a few magazine pictures stuck to a poster board, 0r some handsomely hand-drawn drafts and charts, students today really don't think twice about a Powerpoint presentation. Recently, when students for my World Literature class wrote a comparison paper based on The Tragedy of Macbeth and Medea, they presented the ideas they wrote about in the media of their choice, including websites and Powerpoint.

It is all changing; it is hard to keep up with, but the 21st Century skills needed are ones I think, given the chance and the interest, our students can grasp and own, and pass on to others.

21st Century Skills out of our 19th Century classroom

In retrospect, this is not only a commentary but kind of a rant....but it starts out well enough : )

Oh my gosh! I swear, someone out there is reading my mind! From that perspective, Will Fitzhugh, Senior Columnist EducationNews.org, The Concord Review
http://ednews.org/articles/36740/1/19th-Century-Skills/Page1.html blog begs for comment. According to Fitzhugh, "...the 19th (and prior) Century Skills of reading and writing are still a job for human beings, with little help from technology. Computers can check your grammar, and take a look at your spelling, but they can't read for you and they can't think for you, and they really cannot take the tasks of academic reading and writing off the shoulders of the students in our schools." I'm glad to see him point this out, because so much of what we've learned so far implies that these skills are not the focus in web creations, yet without fluency in these basic, centuries-back skills, students and everyone else will struggle with information that they deal with online. He also states, "Neither group (one group who wants to make the students more accountable, the other which thinks that is not enough) gives much thought, in my view, to whether any of our high school students have read one complete nonfiction book or written one serious research paper before they are sent off to their college remedial courses." Fitzhugh shows that our reliance on 21st Century Skills first requires of students to know the good ol' 3 'Rs, as outdated as that may seem.

And this is where the rant comes in....I was doing ok til then!

Where I really connected with Fitzhugh's words--what caused the flutter in this English teacher's soul--was when he stated in words he stole from my mind..."While almost all high schools would say they want students to be able to do academic essays, they set aside no time for teachers to work on them. More time is available in most high schools for tackling practice on the football field and layup drills on the basketball court than for working on term papers in English and history classes." OOOOOh. And Amen to that! Why is it that there seems to be a popular outcry about students in America suffering from their public school teachers (who obviously are shirking their duty of teaching these students skills that will help them in college and real life both!). We can work on these papers all we want, but when it comes down to it, who has time to grade 90plus ten page research papers? If it's multiplied by 15 minutes, that equals to over 20 hours just on those papers alone, and then there is the lesson planning, the student who needs help after school, the make-up quiz before school, the extra-curricular the teacher is advisor for (providing that is only one, which is doubtful), the parent phone calls that have to be made, the discipline that has to be taken care of, the fundraisers that have to go to the accounting office for, the mandatory once-a-week collaboration with your peers (during the prep period of course so it doesn't impact anyone's teaching time!) and of course all the unaccounted little time consuming disruptions such as answering email, computer failure, etc...OH and now we are going to include 21st century skills for both teacher and student. Learn it learn it learn it learn it.....arggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills are not overrated, but there is a sense that every single one of us must be fluent in these skills. While I realize that the world is changing and that these skills are invaluable to our children and generations to come, I also live with real life people, teach at a real life school and communicate in cyberspace with many others. Perhaps it is the area that I live in, or the tense feeling in our nation at the moment, or maybe it is because I have brown eyes, I don't know, but I can't seem to believe that 21st Century Skills are what every kid needs, as is implied by all the information that I am inundated with. We talk a lot about multiple intelligences; doesn't that imply various talents as well? Doesn't that imply appealing to people with a variety of learning styles, and as such, doesn't that in turn imply people with a variety of skills, talents, and abilities?

We live in a world where technology is always changing...but where our public schools (a majority) cannot afford to keep up due to the costs. It seems that there are always some students without a computer at home, and some who have bigger issues on their minds than becoming computer literate. While I believe the offering should be there, and that for the most part, there does need to be required time spent being web-literate, there also needs to be time to refine those skills that make people fluent in their reading and writing skills in general, and fluent in their area of interest, whether it be agriculture, carpentry, cosmetologist...or whatever.

Furthermore, even if we manage to instill "playfulness that leads to innovation; design thinking; collaborations in which groups are smarter than the smartest person in the group; and real understanding that leads to problem solving and not just test passing... " as David Warlick calls 21st Century skills in his blog "21st Century Literacies"
( http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=1719 ) shouldn't we see and account for the fact that this isn't for all students? Does that mean we should forget that different students aspire to different things, and many have no interest, nor will they need an interest in, many of the things he is insisting that students learn, even though it is what people are calling 21st Century Skills? I guess what bothers me most is the implication that the prior century skills are outdated, that 20th Century skills are not valuable, but without these initial skills, wherein lies those of the following centuries? There is some value to be found in what has occurred. It's like the saying, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Keep what is good, and enhance it, and tweak it, for the best learning possible for each student.

What is good for one is not necessarily good for the other...and not everyone is a group worker; some people work best in solitude and independence. There is a lot to be said for 21st Century Literacy, but there is a lot about it that bothers me. A lot.

English Explorations B

In this class that explores a variety of genres, you will be learning about how to explore literature on your own, and how to comment on the literature that you find. Some of the genres that you will be perusing will include poems, a play, and a novelette. There are a lot of websites out there than can help you in your quest, so feel free to branch out and search and record. Don't forget that you will have to comment on these, so choose only a couple under each category (to start with). You might consider the following links as stepping stones for your own searches:

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/

Medea and Lady Macbeth

Two evil women...but at what cost? One, her sanity...the other, her children...
I wonder how, no matter her anger, a woman could kill her children. What would drive a person to such horrific actions? Lust, hate, envy, greed--all are strong emotions, and generally the most persuasive to negative action. Yet, in regard to Medea, there is strong evidence that the story does not always insist that Medea murders her children, although when she does so, it gives rise to audience revulsion and perhaps persuades them to look more positively on Jason, who has, according to most opinions, treated Medea abominably. Anyway, there are two interpretations to the story. One is that Medea murders her own little ones. The other story is that the townspeople, in their anger at what Medea has done to Creon's daughter, and to Creon, killed the children to gain revenge against Medea. If that is so, how does the killing of children either way offer true revenge? Where is the justice to be found in murdering defenseless children?
As for Lady Macbeth, I find it interesting that she could love Macbeth, yet ridicule him for not killing the king and fulfilling HER ambitious desires. And then, when push comes to shove, she uses the pathetic excuse that, well, she would have killed King Duncan but he looked oh so much like her daddy. Who is the coward now? And even though she tries to encourage Macbeth to hold on to his sanity in front of his men, who is the first to allow hers as an expression to tell all? Her greed, and perhaps her religious beliefs too, led her to take her own life.
Women today live and love just as fiercely, yet even today we would scorn some of Lady Macbeth's actions, and Medea's. What do you think of these women? These women were comparable to the heroes we've covered, yet they shine less brilliantly than the men in the Iliad and in other epics. Is it just because killing is acceptable only in battle? Or is it because it is still a man's world. I sure don't know but it all seems worthy of speculation, especially since it seems that most women are poorly portrayed in literature from biblical times through the 1700's. I have to wonder why it is that classic literature rarely shows a heroic woman other than one who is "virtuous" for her man.