I Used to Record “The Young Riders” on VHS

From 1989-1992 I was in love with a television series called “The Young Riders” featuring a young Josh Brolin and Stephen Baldwin, as well as seasoned actors like Melissa Leo and Anthony Zerbe.  I loved it so much that I recorded the episodes on VHS tapes.  I probably had 3-5 full tapes of episodes.  A quick synopsis -- these very attractive young men (thus, why I watched!) were riders for the Pony Express, risking their lives delivering the mail and fighting the bad guys that rode into Sweetwater.  The story of these orphans fascinated me, as did the setting of the ole west.  It featured a part Native American rider, a mute rider (victim of Scarlet Fever) who used sign language to communicate, and a female rider breaking the rules alongside the bad boys who were fast with their guns.  The show lasted 4 seasons, compared to the 19 months of the ACTUAL pony express.  So like everything, it too ran its course.  

The Pony Express’s affordances ran out.  It was no longer the right tool for the job.  It eventually had no use to its users as faster, more reliable tools were developed.  Reminds me of my battle with an overhead projector.  I quite possibly was the last person on staff to let go of my fond friend.  Something else had to come a long that was too good to be true...the Elmo.  It was not a farewell I was happy to make.  After all, whatever would I do with all of those transparencies I had made and saved for use every year?  But the Elmo was a winner to me once I started to use it.  It sure did make it easy to highlight passages in the textbook or share student work or images from my phone on a spur of the moment.  The Elmo had more affordances than the overhead projector for sure!  As Dawn’s reminder in the assignments said “...the more you use a tool, the better you understand the tool.”  I was on my way to happily using the Elmo.

However, that tool she’s talking about is not necessarily a technological one.  In this case I think she means the design document as the tool.  As I filled out a table for the ABC’S in the design document the ideas did start to come.  The resistance to the document I had, and still have, is slowly fading.  I can see the affordance of the document itself.  It is forcing me to think differently and to interact with the curriculum and the desired results in a boarder, more global way.  I don’t enjoy the process, but I can see the benefits.

I also want to say that I appreciate a section of the Bower article that admitted that the process of matching tools with learning tasks as outlined in the article does not take into account “student ability, group allocation, motivation, and assessment” (Bower, 9).  Teachers can’t ignore these factors, ever.  These are always at the forefront of our thinking/designing/planning.

Finally, I feel like to truly understand the affordances of tools, and make wise tool usage choices, teachers have to be immersed in the using of those same tools, which I find hard to do.  There needs to be more tool share fairs happening at the local and county levels.  I know teachers CAN be motivated enough to do their own research and investigations, but some/many aren’t...or lack the time to do so.  This is a problem (lack of time) for which there is no tool.

Nailing Up my Own Theses

Firstly, as a social studies teacher who teaches the era of the telegraph (though not in much detail) I LOVED this book!  There is a museum in Baltimore that has a display there connecting the telegraph (the line from Baltimore and Washington DC) to the railroad system as well as its influence on the Civil War.  A truly great stop if you’re ever in Baltimore and have time to kill.  

As I read The Victorian Internet, I could easily see the connections to the development of the internet.  I was fascinated with the consequences that the invention brought with it.  It made me start to ponder, as I often do, about the changes that technology makes in our lives.  I remember after getting married, that I would never use a check card...writing checks and balancing my checkbook every month like my mother did was a necessity.  Or when we switched to a DVR and could record and watch shows whenever we wanted.  I remember thinking that this was WRONG!  Whatever would this teach my children?!  It pained me to know that they wouldn’t have to wait until the next episode the following week, or feel so disappointed when they missed an episode of a favorite show.  This would be life lessons they wouldn’t learn.  Instead, instant gratification has become the norm!  Binge-watching is the new norm!  I remember growing up when there was nothing on TV we wanted to watch, we went outside and played!  My kids (5 and 7) have figured out the DVR, Apple TV and Netflix!  There’s always something on!  When we watch television in “real time” they get so frustrated that we can’t fast forward the commercials.  Their patience, at times, is so non-existent, I think partly because of the advancement in this technology.  And our phones!  I swore off the new iPhone for a long time, and now, I’m totally addicted!  I think often about how technology has changed us as people… temperament, attention, privacy, morals, etc.  It makes we want for different, slower times in reality.  It makes me think that not all technology is good!  

I know that we can never anticipate the goods and bads that will come from new technology.  With every new invention comes consequences.  No matter the time period, people cope and adapt.  The inventors of the telegraph and printing press could not have foreseen the challenges and changes in society that would occur as that particular technology was developed.  Inventors were simply trying to solve a pressing problem of the time.  It just seems so much harder to balance all life has to offer the more technology creeps in the current era.  I feel that it brings with it unnecessary stress that doesn’t benefit anyone.  Did people “back in the day” feel the same stresses with the onset of new inventions?  Currently, are the effects of technology on our physical and psychological well being worth it?  But who would determine what’s good, beneficial technology and what isn’t?  

(If you couldn’t tell before, I’m kinda the glass-half-empty kind of person...the devil’s advocate on my team.  It’s who I am.)

ABC…Is It As Easy as 1,2,3? (The Knowledge Principle)

Well, is it as easy as 1, 2, 3?  I’d have to say when Dawn is explaining it with examples and ideas pouring out of her mouth, why yes, it does sound as easy as 1, 2, 3…or in this case ABC.  When explained, of course it makes perfect sense to situate students in an authentic situation where they get to practice the skills and develop the knowledge of a true practitioner in the field.  Of course it makes sense to scaffold activities to the extent that students have the opportunity to converse with peers to interact with knowledge as practitioners of that discipline do, and then develop their own meaning within context.  Of course it makes sense for students to then construct something that allows them to manipulate the information so they can prove understanding and share it with others.  But easy to design?  This teacher is not so sure.

As some of us have already put out there, we just don’t feel confident yet to do the designing that is expected of us.  But also, as some have already expressed, we have to start somewhere and we’re willing to try. 

Thus, Dawn is situating us into our own “cognitive experiment” in our own zones of proximal development.  These zones are slightly different for everyone.  She is designing activities that are authentic that are pushing our personal thinking while allowing us the opportunity to participate in collegial discourse further broadening our understanding of design.  She is not sharing ALL information, but some.  It is enough information for us to apply it to our practice, gathering ideas and learning from others, pushing us forward to a deepen cognition of the information.  After we’ve had some time to digest the information, we share it in a blog.  But yet, as Vygotsky says, we’ve only just begun in our learning. (90) Furthermore, on page 90 in Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, “Learning is not development; however, properly organized learning (design) results in mental development and sets in motion a variety of developmental processes that would be impossible apart from learning. Thus learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human, psychological functions.”  In our case, Dawn has properly organized [our] learning [that is] result[ing] in [our] mental development, setting in motion a variety of developmental processes. (90)  She is our “adult guidance” as we “collaborate with more capable peers.” (86)

So I guess I should say “bring it on” to our adult guidance.  Guide us through this process of learning our ABC’s all over again for what [we] can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense more indicative of [our] mental development that what [we] can do alone.” (85)

The Ends Principle -- What can we Justify?

In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead by the Collier brothers, General Israel Putnam of the American army executes an innocent American soldier to make an example of him for others, ideally scaring them enough so that other American soldiers will stop stealing food from citizens to feed their starving soldering selves.  I ask my students every year, do you think the general’s ends justify his means?  My students always need me to explain that phrase.  Does getting the result you want excuse the methods you use to get there? (FYI there’s no proof in the novel that his means deterred anyone.) 

Based on our course reading, I think we have to start asking ourselves, are the methods we’re using getting us the results we want in the end?  In The Saber-Tooth Curriculum it was easy to see the methods failing those wanting to be educated as time passed.  The skills being taught were eventually pointless to society.  In fact, the one skill that started it all -- daring to be different and thought-provoking enough to begin the concept of education, was downright suppressed when traditional methods were questioned.

The readings this week seem to drive home the need to immerse students in learning that is purposeful and real.  The learning needs to be as true to a practitioner’s methods and thinking routines as possible given the constraint of the age of the students being taught.  We have to allow students the ability to create their own learning from within the proper context, i.e., constructivism. This instructional strategy (immersion in the practice/culture of a discipline) is quality instruction.  Giving students the opportunity to converse about what they are learning while they are learning is also vital.  It is from these conversations that more meaning is developed (learner/learner dimension). The spontaneity of group conversations and ideas is responsible for a lot of innovation in our world.  Situating learning in authentic environments has been the way people learned prior to organized schooling...why are we excluding it now?

Knowledge is separate from the actual doing.  My dad went to college, though he had never planned on it. He was a “C” student.  I didn’t know any of this until he drove me up to NOVA when I decided to move here.  I thought (and still think to some degree) that my daddy is one of the smartest men I’ve ever known.  Based on his abilities I thought he was an “A” student.  He could, and still can, engineer anything out of wood, pipe, or sheet metal.  By trade he worked in the water well business and knew all the ins and out of the water systems in our parish (Louisiana).  When I was reading these articles I kept thinking of him.  Here’s a man who could probably take apart any water pump or system you threw at him, fix it, and put it back together.  He didn’t go to school for this knowledge (technically he’s a physical education major).  He learned on the job, in his situated environment.  A student couldn’t do that with just knowledge of how pumps work or look or are designed.  To assess problems, he needed to know the capacity of the water system, the number of houses it fed, etc.  He needed experience working with such a system.  I learned from him that sometimes a wet yard means you have a busted pipe.  Green pipes are for sewer and blue pipes are for water.  There were days I had to ride along with him in his truck full of tools/parts needed for working in his culture.  When the company changed hands and he was looking to retire, I remember his replacement learning in his shadow, as his apprentice in a sense.  He’s retired now, but his company still calls him for his knowledge and experience that no one else has about a housing subdivision.  You see, not all of the maps the company has are correct, and some knowledge and expertise isn’t written down.  Some things only the guy whose been immersed in water up to his shins for 30 years knows how to problem solve.

I also found the information on enculturalization interesting as I sat in church this morning with my 7 and 5 year olds.  I am a single Catholic parent.  My husband isn’t Catholic and works on Sundays, so if I’m going to get to church and want my kids to be Catholic, I have to be the one to get them there.  This can be a daunting task with young children who don’t want to sit there for an hour and who don’t understand most of it, yet.  But this made me think about enculturalization this Sunday as I sat in the pew.  If I want my kids to eventually exhibit proper behaviors in church, I have to expose them to those proper behaviors.  I can’t sit in the cry room with the other children, which might be the easy thing to do.  I have to have them be participants in the main sanctuary where they will “pick up relevant jargon, imitate behavior, and gradually start to act in accordance with its norms.” [Brown, et al] Content (knowledge) can be developed while situated in this context, while additionally learning can happen in their weekly classes as well as at home.  I can’t teach/guide them to doctrine without them worshipping in church, and I can’t have them worshipping without teaching/guiding them to the why.  The two have to go together, just like in the classroom.  We teachers have to lead them to the knowledge within the context that will make sense and let them explore with peers to flesh out meaning.

So, what does this mean for teaching?  If we situate students in authentic problems, they will use their literacy skills to access the information within a culture and context to become knowledgeable enough to learn to be problem solvers to make ethical decisions while participating in their community.  If we can get students to do these things, they will be ready for whatever the future may hold.  Our “means” will hopefully result in the “ends” we want.  

Teachers as Designers (Hangers-on for Life)

I have a quote on my backpack from high school carefully selected when I was a sophomore or junior and painstakingly written in whiteout ink pen on black canvas…

“Education is hanging around until you’ve caught on.”

                                                                                  Robert Frost

Being immersed in this course, so many questions now arise from that single quote that I hadn’t been forced to ponder before.

• What do you have to hang on to?
• Will someone help you hang on?
• Who will teach you how to hang on properly?
• What if you have a different method of hanging on different from the norm?
• What if you want to hang on for different durations of time, especially if you get overwhelmed?
• Who determines that you’ve hung on long enough?
• How do you prove you’ve caught on?
• What if the thing you have to “catch” changes mid-hang?
• What do you do with what you’ve caught when you’re done hanging?
• Will what you’ve caught be useful or even relevant once you’ve achieved the catching?
• What if you don’t even enjoy the view while you’re hanging on?
• What if at the end of it all you don’t like what you’ve caught?
• What if you just get tired of hanging around?

Okay, so I really got on a roll there, and honestly I liked the word play.  As I look back on my notes from The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, what I glean was a history of the educational field, though admittedly, I’m not sure of all the educational references that Dr. Peddiwell was making.  What I do get is that education was developed with the sincerest of purposes -- to perpetuate a society by teaching needed skills for that society to thrive.  It was for the “peace, prosperity, security, and happiness of the people.” (p. 50) Ideally it taught skills needed in a real-world situation.  

The problem that surfaced was that education did not seem to evolve as the society did.  And to continue to feel superior and in charge, those at the top of the educational food chain, kept others down by either changing the rules when it fit them or by scaring into submission those that thought differently.  (Coincidentally it was this skill of unique thinking [a skill supposedly taught and originally praised and responsible for the development of education in the first place] that was suppressed.) 

The story theoretically concocted was a great example of explaining the issue facing the educational world today.  The field isn’t evolving as it needs too and at this point, we are far behind where we need to be.  

The different organizations we were directed to (NEA, Common Core State Standards, Partnership for 21st Century Skills) all speak of preparing students for the 21st century without really knowing what this century will truly evolve into.  So for lack of that exact knowledge and exact skills needed, the best direction for education is said to be one in which students are taught skills that will be applicable in all types of local and global situations.  These skills are commonly referred to as the 4Cs… critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.  I don’t disagree!  These skills seem extremely valuable in any job and in the balancing of everyday life.  

I have a couple of concerns though.  Firstly, we seem to be adding to the workload of teachers, though my uncle, a former principal would say to work smarter not harder.  It is possible for teachers to incorporate the teaching and practicing of these skills into their lessons through careful design, i.e, working smarter and not harder.  We as teachers are going to have to be more strategic in our thinking.  If Partnership for 21st Century Skills wants teachers to turn out students with global awareness/diversity, civic literacy, health literacy, financial/economic/business/entrepreneurial literacy, environmental literacy, technological literacy, adaptability, initiative/self-direction, productivity, accountability, leadership, and responsibility we have no choice than to become more efficient designers of curriculum.  It’s either that, or lengthen our school day...or maybe we could eliminate information students are currently being held accountable for.  Let’s think about it...as a history teacher I can’t help but think we need to either let Columbus go, or add a course or two to U.S. history to give important topics their due.  If we keep making history and you want kids to learn history, you have got to stop short changing it. (Off soapbox.)  Oh, and where are these students’ parents?  Initiative/self-direction, productivity, accountability, civic literacy, health literacy, financial literacy...these sound like skills that should have a foundation in the home. (Okay, now I’m off my soapbox.)

If we say these skills are what are most important for students to learn, then we also have to be okay with alternatives to college degrees, as well as alternatives to high school degrees.  If we truly believe that the role of education is to bolster a functioning diverse society, we have to honor diversity of skills and desires, and thus jobs that are needed for the functioning of a society no matter their economic status.  

I also question if innovation in education is occurring at the right level?  No where along the way in my undergraduate career did anyone teach me HOW to teach math or HOW to teach someone to read!  I learned how to take a running record and how to create valid assessments.  But now one taught me HOW to do the most important things.  And honestly, for a while I thought, as a teacher, you either knew how or you didn’t, and usually the “knew how teachers” had good classroom management and the “didn’t know hows” were catastrophes waiting to happen.  Granted, this is 20+ years ago.  This was when you did all that undergrad work and finished your degree off with a one semester practicum under the tutelage of a veteran teacher.  In retrospect, why on earth would one wait to the end of one’s college career to be thrown to the wolves in order to decide if this was the best career path?  How can that be deemed responsible as an educational program?  Maybe it wasn’t, but that’s what was done.  Maybe this is where the innovation needs to be...in the instructional classrooms of future teachers.  

Finally, just once, I want to see this innovation in action!  I want to binge watch a year’s worth of innovative, thoughtfully designed teaching.  I want to see concrete ways in which this evolution of teaching is successful.  I need to be taught how to evolve.  I need to be shown how to hang on until I’ve caught on.