Short Circuit

Well, to begin with a play on words, I feel I am on a short circuit.

First I am stuck, and second I am running in circles--some of them quite small.  

How am I stuck?  I don’t consider myself a trilobite of the teaching force, though perhaps I am ossifying.  Yet here I am, bewildered by this class.  How so, you ask?  I am having a VERY hard time finding the class website and my own google account.  I created a blog which I could not find until Nancy Daniels sent me a comment which I received an email notification for (thank you Nancy).  I could not find the blog to which we, as class members, were supposed to respond to until today.  And even though I found it today I have no certainty that I will be able to replicate the process and find the pages I need tomorrow. This has made me feel endangered, like the dinosaurs which came before.  Is my meteor technology?

My short answer is NO, I refuse to go down this way.  I know enough about computer hardware that I was, literally just last week, designing my own computer, researching parts and prices.  I had intended to build, from pieces ordered individually on line a system to the specs I wanted and could afford. This was so until I discovered I could purchase a ready made computer for the same price as parts. Through the company I customized the system to fit my specs and price range without paying for what I didn’t want.  This will leave room to upgrade in the future, which I will do myself.   I say this in defense.  I know about computers, I am not a complete newbie. In reality, it isn’t the hardware that has changed so much in set up.  What has changed dramatically is the way we use it.  This is where the change has been too fast for me to follow, and where I run the risk of becoming a fossil.  Taking Google Tools for Schools is essential, it is now clear to me.

In order to best teach the emerging 21 Century learner we need to use the tools they will need in the workforce.  This isn’t just email and posting pictures.  It is also using search engines effectively, and dealing with constant bombardment visually, mentally, and physically.  Even when a kid logs off the internet they are being bombarded with text messages and bonds which are sometimes maintained electronically and conversations laced with media references and expectations that they are “connected”.

Here is where my second reference to “short circuit” comes in.  I am running in circles.  Just a year ago I was begging leniency for the use of technology in my classroom.  I wanted kids to have permission to pull out ipods and do quick searches.  I also was arguing against kids having cell phones in the classroom.  Immediately you can see the conflict, some smartphones are the equivalent of ipods and I made exceptions for kids to have these.  And now, this year, I read about kids and technology and realized that middle school aged students should be able to have their technology on hand.  They need to learn to use them correctly.  If they don’t learn it from us, where are they going to learn to use technology correctly and with proper etiquette?  This year I will be arguing for the use of cell phones in the class as well.  

I am being short circuited by technology in that it at times makes it harder to keep up with my class.  I have had kids posting writing pieces through Young Writers Project (YWP) and Google Docs and then commenting on other’s writing in an attempt to build a community of writers. This sometimes swamps me with way too much to read and respond to. But, as far as their work and growth, I have had some success.  This was a small step. And then in a staff meeting I heard that “handwriting will be obsolete” and that we should carefully consider time spent teaching penmanship (which has been declining anyway) for the sake of teaching "more important things".  This led to the discussion that kids are having a hard time reading handwriting from teachers, and from primary source documents. I was a bit shocked at first and also a bit afraid. I couldn't put my finger on what I was so alarmed by at first.

It dawned on me from the discussion had that we need to preserve handwriting and putting together documents by writing by hand.  Why? because there is something inherent in those skills which is essential for the learner as well.  It feels like the “phonics vs whole language argument”.  It isn’t really that one should supplant the other.  They should work in tandem.  So, I find myself feeling the need to defend the teaching of writing on paper, interacting in the real vs. electronic world.  This is fueled in part by my reading from Last Child in the Woods which is about the real losses children have developmentally as they play outside less and less.  And more recently this was fueled by hearing professional writers discuss that they find the BEST was to brainstorm is on paper, electronics are too restrictive or distracting from pure brainstorming.

So, I am going to learn to deal with my short circuit to the best of my ability.  When I feel short circuited to simply stop, reconsider, and find a way to bridge the gap and forge forward.
And I already see this happening in this class.    I will translate it to mean “work in small circles”.  A short circuit.