I am frightened by @joebower‘s recent post on the Cooperative Catalyst where he pleads with us to abolish grading in schools. I’m petrified because I feel that he must have used some kind of X-Filian supernatural power to inhabit my mind, and then plagiarize its thoughts. Collective consciousness doesn’t even cover it. Whether you agree with his stance or not, it is definitely a must-consider topic for any stakeholder involved in the education of our 21st Century students. With the support of our awesome school board’s movement towards contemporary assessment theory and practice, I, like Joe, have been finding as many ways as possible to diminish grading in my classroom. I have certainly encountered the same challenges he speaks of, but many more rewards. This passage particularly resounded with me: My fears are almost too many to count. I’ve feared being different from my colleagues. I’ve feared being challenged by a parent or administrator. These fears still nag at me despite my confidence and research - I routinely have to tell my amygdala to shut-the-hell-up. Interestingly enough, my fears have never been about the kids. I thought one way I could contribute to Joe’s post is by quickly playing the self-interview game myself, focusing particularly on common myths about gradeless or near-gradeless classrooms that need to be debunked. Aren’t you abandoning/copping-out of one of your main responsibilities as a teacher? I don’t regard the act of handing a letter grade to a student for non-mandated moments as a fundamental responsibility of the teacher. Saying that grading is an important part of teaching is kind of like saying writing speeding tickets is what makes a good cop. So you’re afraid of hurting your students’ feelings? Well, yes and no. I do believe that self-efficacy is at the core of learning, and that constantly making authoritative evaluations of students work and progress is destructive in the development and nurturing of it, but this has nothing to do with hurting anyone’s feelings. Focusing on student self-efficacy is not the same thing as preserving anyone’s feelings. Don’t confuse the two. In fact, I’m more concerned about my students’ feelings being enhanced by the artificial experience of a ‘good’ grade. I remember a time in my life where I wasn’t very good at a subject, but worked incredibly hard at it and received an amazing grade/award which just legitimized everything. Aren’t you taking away this possibility from your students? Yes, actually, I am. I don’t like that school game. I played it as a kid too. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. It is somewhat repellant to me. Don’t confuse Hollywood story arcs with real learning. Academic rigour is important in education. Doesn’t your class lack it? If you want to see intellectual rigour, try telling a student who is used to being graded on all their work that it ain’t happening no more. Try telling them that we are going to use exemplars of quality work, collaboratively develop success criteria, provide and receive feedback in multiple ways, and reflect on our learning as a process instead of an end product. Then you will see rigour, not transactions. But aren’t you doing a disservice to kids who will eventually enter the harsh realities of the real world? This is one of the main questions I hear when the topic of grading comes up. My response is usually to answer it with my own questions: When was the last time you as an adult were graded on something? Maybe once or twice on a performance evaluation or something? And wasn’t that just a pass-or-fail anyway? Isn’t it true that your life is instead packed to the hilt with instances where you either have to seek, provide, or look within yourself for feedback on your project/work/parenting/etc.? Do you have the ever-evolving skills to do this? Do you think it is important that your own child does? The only ‘harsh reality’ our grade-filled classrooms will prepare our students for is the one that doesn’t require critical thinking, communication skills, creativity, or collaboration.

Everywhere I turn I see a lot of time and money being consumed warning parents, children, and teachers about the dangers on the internet. It’s getting to the point of absurdity. The problem with most of these initiatives and campaigns is they usually implicitly suggest that proverbial abstinence is the best policy. Actually, it’s the worst one. The less we work with students on being critically literate online, and the more we avoid social media and networking as an authentic part of the classroom experience, the more danger our students will be in. The internet is the most complex text ever imagined in the history of the world. Students are not just going to learn to be socially responsible, proactive, critically literate readers and users of it through exposure alone. No one with an ounce of knowledge and experience in literacy instruction would suggest that explicit instruction and practice isn’t the best policy for teaching reading and writing. Then why is it alright for us to ignore http://www.elephantinroom.com, and act like kids are going to OK if we just pretend they’re not reading and writing on it almost every waking moment of their day? Sorry about the soapboxing. My main reason for writing this post was actually to say one thing: Let’s start early. Let’s not wait until high school when they are perceived to be old enough. If we wait until then, we will have to do more untraining of bad habits students have picked up Facebooking etc. Moreover, it is likely that anything we do with them in the classroom will pale in comparison to the far more intriguing drama happening in their personal social networking. In my work with teachers, I have noticed a lack of resiliency when working with web 2.0 tools precisely because they tend to wait until the intermediate years. From my experience, although I don’t think any age is too early, I have noticed that ages 8-10 are the perfect time to start. Students at these ages tend to be at a reading and writing levels that can more easily traverse the internet. By starting early, we get a chance to establish good habits about positive content on the internet for consumption, as well as positive posting habits. I dare anyone to argue or demonstrate evidence that continued work online in the safe environment of a classroom program is not the best preparation for the Facebook and texting years. Explicit modeled, shared, and guided instruction; independent practice; descriptive feedback; and continual mistake making! Literacy instruction hasn’t changed all that much. There’s just a whole world of texts that shouldn’t be ignored.

The year has come to an end. My students are very worried about the prospect of not being able to use their personal technology next year, so I had them blog it out. Here’s what they wrote: When kids are allowed electronic devices in the classroom they are able to communicate through technology.  This is called a back channel discussion. It can help kids communicate and get help from each other without making a huge discussion. When students have a test there’s no talking allowed because it can disturb others, with electronic devices we are able to communicate no matter what the situations. We use things like twitter and Gmail and other to communicate. A student might be using the device to escape not expand. Which means using it for other things, not using it for school work. There are always going to be negatives with this but as we go along we learn what’s right and wrong and it’s better if we get a chance at least. It really helps me get organized too. It can be annoying sometimes having to shove all different sorts of paper into your desk, and you’re going to be throwing it out later anyway. When you’re using electronics for work, it’s not just about communicating and sharing ideas but it can also help with reduce the amount of paper use and help keep your desk cleaner. By A.K. One of the great things of acquiring electronic devices such as iPods, Laptops, and cell phones  is that you have the Internet in the palm of your hands. You don’t have to get on that old school laptop that is snail-slow! Also, if you have the Internet in your hands, students can easily do their work. It’s like the perfect idea so far for schools! Plus, when you have these devices in hand, you can talk to a person across the room, or even other class, without disturbing other classmates. To include the final fact, with these Personal Electronic Devices (A.K.A. PEDs) you can easily grab it and go on the Internet within 1 minute, when those slow laptops usually take 5 minutes. A big change, huh? By S.A. At first it seemed like it was unfair that some people had parents that buyed them stuff. But we noticed that it just meant that everyone could just do what they needed, and plus more of our classroom devices became available to the kids that didn’t have iPods and netbooks. By E.M. There are amazing tools to use for student’s learning. For example there are, calendar, clock, notes, calculator, and mail, is a great tools to use on an iPod. Won’t that be better than having students ask you for a calculator and you having to look for one? You can always download apps to help you read or extend your learning. Their personal devices can help access information from the internet. You have the power in your hands to search and do what you want to do. I know for a fact that there are some students who hate talking but have great ideas. Well this is a lucky day for you! This is your opportunity to share your ideas. I can understand that adults think that children are not responsible, but you know what, you have to try it. Taking a risk can lead you a perfect class, or a horrible thing. Students can may EXTAND their learning. Extending students’ learning is the whole point. Well in my class we are allowed to use our personal devices. That helped our class get better marks. In our class we are allowed to use Twitter to back channel. For math tests, we back channel to work as a team to finish the test. We don’t even make a peep. So have you made up your mind? Why not give it a try? That’s why I think we should be allowed to bring electronics to school. By S.S. Yes, personal technology should be allowed in the classroom. I see valid arguements for both sides, but I am will be the first person to jump on the PED boat. First of all, this gives a chance for everyone with a device to be on the net at once. As a result, whoever is without a device can use class or school technology to be on the interweb, so nobody is left out. Second reason: PEDs in school are like our hopes of the Leafs of the future: took a long time to get here, but they’re amazing! Ok, back to seriousness, this allowed students to communicate with not only students in the class without talking, but students in other cities! Other countries! Other continents! Other planets! There is intelligent life out there after all! (me!) Another reason to jump on my PED boat is because of all the useful applications (apps for short) that can be minipulated for learning. Yes, Mwuhahahahaha! Again I go with the jokes. Back to the realm of seriousness! There actually are many apps that can be minipulated for learning. My favorites are iGmail, tweetdeck, notes, and iTunes. Yes, iTunes. This is because I can buy my favorite songs to help me to concentrate , as well as to get me engaged in the realm of learning in all of my favorite subjects. My final reason is (yay! This garbage is finally over!) is that the use of these PEDs is a change of pace for students in these techie classrooms (those nerds!). I have loved this experience over the few months that I have experienced this experience, (I love to experience the experience of the term experience) I have to say I have been very intrested in coming to class. This is a very fun experience to use PEDs, and I have been graced wih an idea better than me! By N.M. PED’s ( personal, eductional, device) has been I geuss under thought and mocked but really if you try it you would think it is like a pencil to paper, chalk to a chalk board a word to …. well you get the point, it is a good thing and if you don’t beileve other people than you may beileve me. One of the many reasons I agree that PED’s in the classroom is good is because you can express your sel in more ways than just writing like a summary where as if yo use PED’s you can make your own blog about what you read. And I know some people think that they would fool around on them but that’s only true if you don’t trust them. in my class we will use them even if there is a presentation going on because we are most likley talking about the presentation. So if you understand why these devices are so great then maybe this will happen in many schools around the world. By K.L. Alot of adults say that children are not mature enough and have no self disipline towards personal devices. In some cases that is true, but not all. Our class is fortunate enough to be allowed to have our personal devices at school and in the class. I actually wrote this blogpost on my ipod Touch. Alot of children around the world can handle the responsibility of carrying their technology. Besides, if we’re not even allowed, how can we prove it? By D.N. Gotcha cellphone! Kit Ramsy says as he screams at the ailien tower. I think that students should be allowed to bring in peds to the class. I think this because if I was in class and I ask the teacher what am I doing there and why I can’t skip it. At this point the teacher could either say because you have to or they could say because you have to learn in order to get a job. This time round the kid might say well why can’t I bring my cellphone will I not be able to use it when I get older.this is where the contraversy begins. For a few examples, if I was feeling a bit naughty and lazy one night with a load of homework I might just go to a computer to get the answer. However if I was allowed to I might not feel as compelled to go to that computer. Even though our homework is to use the computer you might feel less driven to use it for "evil." For any kid that thinks he’s being left out of the circle because he doesn’t have a ped, well that’s so sad for them. But wait what’s that it’s a bird no a plane it’s extra computers for everyone. In our class if your left out you can get one of our school or class MacBooks to work on. Surprisingly nobody seems to mind if they have to use the school MacBooks. And if your the type of person that has trouble figuring things out just tweet a friend on Twitter to ask them. It also helps kids that have problems communicating with others because they don’t have to talk. In conclusion, oh I don’t think you need to hear this, I think we all get the picture! But ok I guess I’ll wrap it up. Basicly as you can see we are now able to give the power of a voice to the "shy people." And at the same time help everyone else with their potential. By C.K.

Customer service is one of the most underrated qualities in a person, business, or organization. This is odd considering there are few things more intrinsically gratifying than both giving and receiving it. It is no secret that this education biz is a challenging one, fraught with multiple practical and theoretical pot holes which constantly make you re-evaluate your interest in staying in the game (or ‘the dip’, as Seth Godin might call it). It’s not surprising then that the drop-out rate of teachers in their first five years is mind-chillingly high. I think one of the main reasons for this frightening retention rate is the way we have the tendency to over-complicate the profession. We exaggerate theory and implicitly or explicitly prescribe practice. We make teachers feel like they suck. I worry that we often drive away the best ones. What if we simplified things and just reminded our new teachers to look for and assess student need, and do everything they can to support the student in fulfilling it? Now I don’t mean customer service in the pandering, incentive-driven, commercially-interested sense. Don’t be a used car salesperson selling a lemon. Don’t super-size your class. There’s a difference between selling and serving. Nor do I think we should confuse student want with student need. I’ve made this mistake about a million times. On the contrary, we should realize that, although you are just pretending to understand that grade 6 geometry unit, and even though you don’t give a rat’s ass what the difference between a orthopod and an arthropod is, you might still be good at assessing student need, and opening up doors that allow them to explore it. From my experience, if you approach the classroom in service of the students, rather than expecting them to serve your interests, your work becomes exponentially easier. Moreover, the following ‘big’ things just seem to fall into place: Student voice Differentiated instruction Assessment for and as learning Technology and arts integration Literacy Self-efficacy Character Higher-order thinking I think it’s a lot easier if you just look at your teaching gig as matter of customer service. Your students are the customers; you’re there to serve them. Sometimes the customers behave badly and are rude. But your response to this shouldn’t be to go all domestic-auto-industry on them.

As a teacher who either owns an Apple handheld device or uses them in the classroom, you’ve probably perused the ‘Education’ section of the App Store. There are a kazillion apps on it. I’ve bought many of them for use in the classroom, as well as for my own children. The problem with the Education Store is that most of the apps are not educational and many are just plain boring and dumb. Worst of all, they tend to be uber-focused on gimmicky content memorization. In other words, they are prettier, animated worksheets. In my view, you pass through the novelty stage in using handhelds in your class when you initiate the use of apps that connect students to one another and content on the internet. To put it another way, if you see a button(s) in the app called either SHARE, POST, COMMENT, SEND, you’re probably on the right track. I also think it is important that we think of apps for education by type, rather than too specifically. There are few things as subjective in technology use as what app to use for a particular purpose. Just look at the myriad of tools people are using to post to Twitter! Determining the quality of an app is extremely personal. What is more, the current changes so quickly in Appville that it is nearly impossible to keep an exhaustive list. With this in mind, I’ve created a list below (one which I will continually update and invite contributions to through my comments) of App types that you should be looking for to thoroughly engage your students in creation, collaboration, and shared critical thinking. In italics you will see my own personal up-to-date favourites (most of them apply to both the iPod Touch and the iPad). Every student/teacher should have at least one of these types of apps on their device: A Social Networking app: Twitter for iPhone, Echofon, Edmodo, Facebook A Google Apps app: Office2, G-Whizz! Google A Task Management app: Things, Bento, Today A Blogging app: Blogpress, WordPress A Password Management app: 1Password A Photo Sharing app: Flickit, FlickStackr An RSS Reader: Reeder A Notetaking app: Evernote Books/Magazines/News (for students): Marvel, DC Comics, iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, Archie Comics MindMapping: iThoughts A Wikipedia App: Wikipanion A Drawing or Doodling app: iDraft, Glow Doodle, Chalkboard, Whiteboard, Omnisketch, Kineo And don’t forget about the apps that come loaded on your iPod, iPhone, and iPad: Safari, Calendar, Contacts, Maps, Notes, YouTube, Mail, iPod are all essential tools as well. If you’re starting to hate me right now for being an Apple Fanboy, keep in mind that the same policy applies to Android, Blackberry, etc. Remember: it’s the purpose of the tool; not the particular tool/device/app itself.

In our family, our morning routine on a work day includes flipping on CP24 to sip our first cup of java while we contemplate saving the world in the classroom. I wanted to share a little conversation we had with our daughter as she lay splayed on the sofa with morning hair and pyjamas. An ad came on for Tango Condominiums. The tv spot was one of those where you can’t tell what is being advertised until the last second. A gorgeous woman and handsome man are seen dancing the tango in a romantic and elegant way. At the end comes the alluring tag-line spoken by a sensual voice: Tango Condominiums. As Janet and I sat somewhat zombified in our morning state, our daughter suddenly piped in without provocation. "I know why they call those apartments Tango, daddy." "Why, honey," I responded, with the tone of a cynical parent who no longer finds it novel to converse with a 7-year-old. "It’s cuz they don’t want just anyone living there." Janet and I suddenly stared at one another in that way that couples do when the child they created no longer seems like their own. "What do you mean?" "I mean, like, you’re supposed to be fancy if you wanna live there." "What do you mean by fancy?" "You know, fancy." "Are mummy and daddy fancy?" She responded without hesitation: "No. That apartment’s not supposed to be for you. That commercial wants you to think that only special, fancy people deserve to live there." There are two things I reflected on after this little morning snippet: 1. Media literacy is not a strand of literacy. It is Reading and Writing - period. 2. When parents of my students ask me, "Mr. Lee, what can I do to help my son?" I wish most of them wouldn’t look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them to a) talk to their kids frequently, and b) talk about what they are thinking and how it helps them make sense of the world around them.

It’s pretty cool that you are allowing cell phones in your class, but how do you get around kids wanting to chat and text during class? Um, well, that’s, like, kind of … the reason I’m letting them use it.

I made this Prezi to promote the use of Twitter by educators in our school board. Please reuse, remix, and recycle:-) Wanna use Twitter? on Prezi

When people ask me, "So how’s your class this year?" I usually say "Great!" (Depending on the day.) I suppose another way I could describe them is … well, um … what’s the opposite of blindly compliant? The current group of students I have right now are incredibly critical thinkers. They also have a reputation. They are not particularly well-liked by staff, and are the thing supply teacher’s nightmares are made of. Boundaries, in their view, are meant to be pushed, and they never let anything go. You know that one question you just wish your students wouldn’t ask because you’re tired today? Well, they always ask it. I think they are going to be immensely successful once they leave the bricks and mortar of The Institution. That is, if you define success as taking control of your life and realizing your destiny. There are copious reasons why I think this, but the one I’m focussed on today is actually their disdain for Rules for the Sake of Rules. The students in my class rarely take anything at face value. They want to see the underbelly, the implied meaning, the truth. They think in what you might call pre-Gramscian or Foucaudtian terms. Hegemony and ideology? They are ready to tackle this stuff. If we were still talking about a 20th century world based on a factory economy and devoid of tools for self-creation and publishing, I would be worried about this group. Some of them might have to take the rock star or starving artist route to achieve their dreams. But I don’t think that is the case now. It is the very fact that they so vigourously defend their right to blaze their own trails rather than seeking time-honoured paths set for them that, in my view, will ultimately put them in good stead as grown ups. Bad, my friends, may be the new Good. This isn’t to say that they aren’t a work in progress. Many of my students need a lesson in rethinking their level of self-entitlement, and a few of them need some explicit instruction in self-discipline. But, please, give them a break. You probably had similar issues when you were going through puberty as well. In fact, I suspect the most ‘successful’ (intrinsically motivated, adequately compensated, happy) people you know had major problems with this at a young age. For me, this school year has been a constant and perplexing dichotomy. On one hand, it is difficult for me to walk the halls of our own building without being stopped to discuss how, somehow somewhere, ‘bad’ one of my students has been. On the other, as an open learning centre classroom, and as someone who involves my students in leadership opportunities outside of the building, I rarely get anything but positive, sometimes amazed, feedback from educators and people about them. There is a deep lesson to be learned from this paradox. I am very optimistic about their future. (PS. I apologize for the cliched use of Che Guevara’s iconic image. I simply couldn’t help it.)

Dear Innovative Educators, Many of you have been talking about using Apple’s amazing mobile/handheld devices like iPods and iPads in your classrooms. I’m pretty impressed that you are so willing to take your programs to such a relevant and dynamic level. There’s only one slight problem. Let me introduce myself. My name is Digital Rights Management (my friends call me DRM); I’m the proverbial elephant in the room. I’m here to tell you that if you don’t address me, I may be the thing that stops true equitable change from being realized in our traditional classrooms. Really smart dudes like @Doctorow have written and talked on awesome shows such as @jessebrown‘s Search Engine (listen here) expressing concerns about Apple turning the open-internet into an ‘i-controlled’ world. Other wonderful bloggers such as @rdelorenzo ("Format Wars in Mobile Space") and @techieang ("Apps - What works? What Doesn’t?") have alluded to the practical issues we may run into in schools. In terms of logisitics, let me tell you, there are quite a few. Not enough to legitimize those that rail for the status quo in education, but enough to occasionally keep you up at night. The main logistical piece has to do with DRM. You see, when you buy a song, app, audiobook, or iBook to use on an Apple device, there are restrictions placed upon the amount of devices/accounts you can put them on. From wikipedia: FairPlay-encrypted audio tracks allow the following: The track may be copied to any number of iPod portable music players (including the iPhone).[2] (However, each iPod/iPhone can only have tracks from a maximum of five different iTunes accounts) The track may be played on up to five (originally three) authorized computers simultaneously.[2] A particular playlist within iTunes containing a FairPlay-encrypted track can be copied to a CD only up to seven times (originally ten times) before the playlist must be changed.[3] The track may be copied to a standard Audio CD any number of times.[3] The resulting CD has no DRM and may be ripped, encoded and played back like any other CD. However, CDs created by users do not attain first sale rights and cannot be legally leased, lent, sold or distributed to others by the creator. The CD audio still bears the artifacts of compression, so converting it back into a lossy format such as MP3 may aggravate the sound artifacts of encoding (see transcoding). When re-ripping such a CD one could use a lossless audio codec such as AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC or WAV however such files take up significantly more space than the original .mp4 files. At this time, it appears that the restrictions mentioned above are hard-coded into QuickTime and the iTunes application, and not configurable in the protected files themselves. Fairplay prevents iTunes customers from using the purchased music directly on any portable digital music player other than the Apple iPod, Motorola ROKR E1, Motorola SLVR, Motorola RAZR V3i, the iPhone and the iPad. Although the blurb above speaks specifically about music tracks, rest assured similar limitations exist for apps and iBooks. So here’s the scenario I want to posit to you: First of all, let’s assume that your school is in a demographic in which families cannot afford to purchase apps on demand, let alone a device for their child. It’s easier to lift a discussion off from this vista because, even if your school is in a high SES area, there are likely exceptions. Now let’s assume that your parent council, school, board, or a combination of the three is committed enough to mobile learning, and has the finances, to front the bill so that its students can learn in a relevant, dynamic environment using industry-elite technology. Even in this situation, we still have a problem in that we are forced to be creative in how we manage DRM in the building. We are pushed into thinking of ways around it (legally, of course) when there is a better and more equitable way. Apple needs to lead the way (as they so often do) to create a fair, reasonably inexpensive way for classes and schools to purchase apps, iBooks, music, etc. from the iTunes store so that there is a school account, and when an app gets purchased you can buy a multiple-device license. I’m talking bulk purchasing here. For example, if you wanted to purchase an app like Blogpress for your students, it is currently $2.99USD for one person to own. If you need it for, say, thirty or a hundred or eight hundred kids, are you telling me we’ve got to multiply that number by the amount of kids? Hmmm, my mama always told me that you gotta haggle when you’re buying in bulk. Or here’s a crazy idea: How ’bout DRM-free apps for schools? Apple needs to lead the way because they’ve always lead the way. They need to lead the way because they make amazing products for education that usually far outstrip the competition. They need to take charge because,like Spiderman … Is this too much to ask? Is there a better way? What are your thoughts? Sincerely, DRA/Elephant in Room/Not Exactly School Ready

What does it mean to be attentive? Hands in lap, straight back, eyes fixed on speaker? Perhaps a better question would be: What does it mean to be attentive in 2010? Just like the meaning of ‘literacy’ and ‘intelligence’ evolve over time, I think ‘attentive listening’ needs to be reconsidered. Believe me, you have to rethink it if you allow students to bring their own technology into class. Students need to learn that the old world which rewards compliance above all else is no longer waiting for them once they leave the bricks and mortar of schooldom. When you give someone your full and undivided attention, you usually do it because a) they are damn interesting; b) as a courtesy; or c) you are consciously or sub-consciously afraid of an external consequence if you don’t. As a teacher, there is a voice in your head that says: "Your class is disrespectful and will turn to chaos if students do not always fix their gaze on you when you speak, and take turns raising their hand if they wish to speak. That other teacher down the hall who is good at this is a way better teacher than you. If others walk into your room and see students looking visibly inattentive, they will think less of you." Nevertheless, perhaps you should also let this voice have a say: "Your students can’t possibly ignore everything else they are doing or thinking and stare at you quietly all the time. You can’t possibly be that interesting. If you do have a Mentalist’s power to achieve this you are a very skillful brainwasher but not necessarily a teacher of a student in 2010. This isn’t to say that the ability to command attention is not a vital tool of a classroom teacher. On the contrary, so much of teaching is performative. But you should know that it’s not all about you. But it’s hard. After all, we all have bad dreams. My wife, a former chef, often tells me about the classic chef nightmare where you’re getting order after order and everything’s falling to pieces. I used to have the recurring teacher dream where I am doing everything possibly to get to school on time, but absurdly disastrous events like elephants on the road and car keys made of jello keep stopping me (not funny while dreaming it). Still, if you were to survey 100 teacher candidates asking them to honestly admit what their #1 fear entering the classroom is, surely at least 99 would say, "I’m afraid the students won’t listen to me." The problem is that knowing whether a child is listening is a task fraught with so many variables. Culture, ethnicity, personality, disposition, the list goes on and on. That’s partly why we’ve suspended disbelief for so long by, well, forcing students to suspend disbelief themselves and act like good little teacher pleasers. We never even questioned the inherent defeatism in this goal, considering that in order to recognize and reward our teacher pleasers, by definition there must be ones that don’t exhibit this behaviour. It’s even hard for me, Mr. iPod Man, a guy who’s TOLD the kids they can type on their cell phone while the teacher is speaking. My first impulse is to admonish. "EXCUSE ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE …" But I have to resist it. As for backchanneling, I’ll let you know how that’s going in my next post (I’m still trying to get my own head around it;-) On another note: The first official week of allowing students’ own tech in the room has been a surprisingly easy one. Not as capital-B Big as I anticipated. There are definitely some bitter students in the school who (understandably) do not comprehend why it is happening in Mr. Lee’s class and not their own. And I’m not sure how even I feel about my classroom being a living, breathing advertisement for Apple product consumption. But the challenges have been relatively minor so far in a logistic sense. I did have to remind some students the either day to not play the ‘I hid your iPod’ game as, and some are having difficulty avoiding the ‘OMG check this app out’ game as well, but let’s be a little understanding. I seem to recall that in the last workshop I went to teachers too were immersed in the same kind of iPhone fervour. I guess the biggest challenge will come if and when the first kid loses or damages their device. Funny, though. They take really good care of their electronics. Like this:Be the first to like this post.

I tweeted a version of the TED Commandments my class created as success criteria for Oral Presentations. Wow, it totally went viral and exceeded the Google Docs Bandwith. So here it is again for anyone to download: MINI TED COMMANDMENTS

Those who know me know that I am a freak for technology (or a ‘technology slut’, as my father-in-law so affectionately has called me). Considering this, I suppose I was rather late to online social networking and the blogosphere. I don’t really know what took me so long, but now that I’ve found it, I’m all in like someone playing with house money. I wanted to share this quick true story with you because it has become my new token reply to anyone, in my professional or personal life, who suggests that technology is inherently the tool of the devil. A few weeks ago I had to put in a warranty claim with Rogers on one of our iPhones. Anyone familiar with this process knows that Rogers sends you a package which includes: a) the new device; and b) a pre-paid UPS envelope in which you must dutifully return the device you are replacing. So, being the anal task manager that I am, I promptly scooted down to the nearest UPS Store to drop-off the returning package. Big mistake. From that day forward, said phone ceases to exist on the planet. There is no record of it ever being put into the UPS, let alone Rogers, system. I do not know what happened, but one can infer. So I waited a few days, even though I knew UPS usually delivers within the GTA quite promptly. More days passed and I started to get a bad feeling. I myself was stupid because all I got from the store was a little scrap piece of paper with a hand-written tracking number and a store stamp. I checked on the online tracking site. Nothing. Rogers.com. Nothing. I started getting worried. My next step was to go back to the store and ask what had happened. My Spidey senses spiked with anxiety when I walked in and found another man angrily talking to a UPS agent on the phone, demanding to know where his ‘lost’ item was. I asked one of the young lads about my package, and he shrugged his shoulders kind of like the way one of my grade 6 students once lied about stuffing an unwanted ham sandwich in an unused cupboard in the classroom. "It’s not our fault - it’s head office’s," was his claim. So I called head office. "I’m sorry but there is nothing we can do because it was never put into the system by the store". I called Rogers. "I’m sorry but this is really a UPS issue. We don’t see it in our system." (The Rogers customer rep even warned me to never drop-off at a UPS Store!) In other words, The Usual. That very day I also received a letter from Rogers warning me that if I did not return my phone soon I would be out 800 smackers. I didn’t know what to do. Write a letter? Wait? Just put a ‘trace’ in the system? No, I tweeted it. OMG I think the UPS Store stole my iphone #RobbedByUPS Ten minutes later I received this reply from the UPS head PR office: @r_o_y_a_n Please contact us immediately regarding this issue at the following number … I was stunned. The rest, as they say, is history. The saga did not end completely there, but people at UPS sure got very helpful very fast. Needless to say, and rightfully so, the iPhone with legs is not costing me a cent. If the head PR office rushes to the assistance of a mere speck of dust like me because I seem to have a voice I never knew I had, what does this say about Twitter and Web 2.0 as a kind of emancipatory tool? What about the Ahmadinejad Regime’s desire to literally stamp out tweeters during the Iran Election (or #iranelection, as it’s known in the Twitterverse)? And why is the NFL, the most powerful sports juggernaut in N. America, banning their players from tweeting? Hmm, one of the biggest courier companies in the world, an autocrat, and a multi-billion dollar sports league don’t like people speaking their mind on a little website? In my world, that’s something that is, at the very least, interesting. So the next time a colleague angrily calls you ‘A Tool’ (another true story) for giving PD around technology, or your kid’s high school decides (in vain, no doubt) to ban cell phones at school because, well, it’s just easier, tell them the story of how a corporation was concerned about, and acted immediately upon, the Twitter habits of a little Asian man in Toronto.

The best formal professional development (as opposed to my PLN, which I regard as informal) I ever received was in drama/dance education. There is no way I would be half the teacher I am without it. Drama education taught me the difference between seeing and thinking. It taught me how to make literacy learning about passion, not just mechanics. Basically, it taught me, and taught me how to teach students, how to look at cardboard boxes and not see a box. Our good friend @jenntwits got our son this gift for his 3rd birthday. What a wonderful little book it is. I read it to him again before bedtime tonight for what already feels like the umpteenth time in a row. In a few simple pages, we learn that, according to Bunny, ‘This is not a box! This is a rocket ship … and a building on fire … and a robot … etc." So simple, and certainly not the first children’s picture book to tackle this concept, but so effective. Jackson finds it utterly hilarious. If anyone asks me from now on what it is I am spending so much time tweeting about, or doing in my crazy classroom, I will show them this book and say, "I am trying to preserve children’s natural impulse to see that boxes are not really boxes, teach them to harness that understanding, and facilitate their eloquent communication/expression of their ‘not-a-box’ idea." Hey, I’ll readily admit it’s a work in progress:-) This blogpost can also be read on my Project365: http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_o_y_a_n/4497883145/

This photo is of Joe’s Burgers’ amazing chilli sauce which my family and I had for dinner tonight. Ya, ya, I know it kinda sucks, and I know there’s nothing worse than someone tweeting/blogging about the mundanity of their daily meals. This isn’t about that. I just wanted to tell a funny story. At the end of the day today, I had about 3 minutes to kill with my students so I invited them to line up and challenge the Grand Master of Rock Paper Scissors. They all queued up with great resolve. I surprised even myself when I discovered they could not beat me. One by one, I was whupping their rock-paper-scissor butts. It was so bizarre. The kids started looking at me as though I was a sentient being. In fact, the truth was that I had discovered a pattern in their behaviour. Most of the time, a student would observe which kind of fist the previous player lost with, and predictably use the opposite. So, if I had defeated one kid with a rock over his scissors, the next kid would inevitably try me on for size with paper, to which I would respond with scissors. Finally, after creaming about 9 kids in a row (I realize I am enjoying this a bit too much) I ‘allowed’ a student who I knew could use a confidence boost to beat me. He was elated. As the class roared with encouragement, I reassured them with feigned arrogance that it was likely only because this student enjoyed spicy food like me that he knew how to defeat ‘The Master’. The kid turned to me with the face of someone who has seen a ghost and whispered, "It’s … true … I do love spicy food". In about a span of 10 seconds, I had convinced the whole class that the key to rock-paper-scissor strength was a passion for chilli peppers. When one of my students pouted, begging me to explain how she had managed to lose to me when she was, in fact, a fan of the spicy stuff, I replied with my own question. "What kind of spicy food do you eat?" "I eat stuff like Doritos Spicy Nachos!" "Not spicy enough," I stated with the scornful face of Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. "You need to eat kimchi soup or fresh jalepenos!" "You’re right, Mr. Lee," she replied as though resigning to the alignment of stars in sky. "But tonight I’m going to go home and eat a tonne of wasabi peas. You’re going down tomorrow." You should know too that my students are in grade 5 and 6. They aren’t kindergarten kids. They watch R rated movies on a regular basis, text each other while doing it, and there isn’t a swear word in the book they don’t know intimately. But, for five minutes today, they totally suspended disbelief with me. In fact, that’s kind of what it’s like for me everyday. I love being their teacher because they love learning. The reason I’m telling this story is because it was a pretty stressful day for this spicy food loving Literacy Teacher, planning for PD in the depths of teaching’s most wintery (figuratively and literally) season. This little moment with my students reminded me how awesome this job is after all. [This blog post can also be viewed on my Project365: http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_o_y_a_n/4329192916/]

I had one of my most memorable days of teaching ever last week. I didn’t plan it on paper, but to some extent I did in my own mind. I could never have predicted what would happen this day, but I did predict that something like this could happen when you use web 2.0 tools in the classroom. On Monday, a wonderful reporter from the Globe and Mail named Susan Krashinksy (@susinsky) came to my class to do a story on the ways we are using a web-based comic creation tool for literacy in the classroom. The students and myself were totally stoked by this. It was a great day. Susan hung out as we worked on our Social Studies / Language project, took some photos, asked some questions. On Wednesday, the article was published (check out the article here). I posted the link on our class moodle and Twitter, and sent it to a few colleagues and friends. Not that big a deal, but fun. Little did I know that it was in reading the article as a class that we would open up an exciting can of worms. The students in my class beamed as they heard their names being mentioned in our national newspaper. As we neared the bottom of the web page, we noticed that there were already quite a few comments posted. One of them was negative. (For some reason, the numerous comments that were on the site have been deleted. I’m not sure if it was crashed by my students going on and commenting, but, unfortunately, most of them are no longer there.) The essence of the negative comment was that a) we were dumbing down learning; b) we were not teaching writing; and c) kids today won’t be prepared for the future as a result. What’s more, the comment had a very sarcastic tone. If only you could have seen the look on my students’ faces as we read this comment together. It was a mixture of shock, excitement, and anger. My entire plan for that period was sabotaged. We had to deal with this comment. I was taken aback by the conversation it started. After calming my students down, I had them plan a reply to the comment in groups. Here are the ideas they came up with: We did hard, critical research for the project. It’s much harder to be creative and different in presenting information than just writing them in paragraphs. We don’t just comics. We use many other technological tools, and we work hard on our reading and writing. Working on fun tools like bitstrips gives us a voice. The teacher lets us show ourselves, not just pleasing the teacher. We are trying to address 21st century skills like collaboration and creative thinking. You have a narrow view of what learning is. it’s not just about paper and pen and essays? I nearly weeped with pride. I just couldn’t believe they were already so articulate in communicating what was happening in our class. Some other ‘teachable moment’ points we had to address: Why it’s important to be respectful in our reply, and not take a personal stance. Whether or not we should use or real/full names. So that’s what happened. It was one of my best days of teaching ever, and it could only occur in this crazy, constantly changing world we live in. Here are some of the replies from my students: Hi Mr.Allen I’m Dana from the article. I read your comment and i noticed that you think that when we were on bitstrips, you thought that we were just playing with comics. I just wanted to say that we were also doing work. Don’t believe me? well here’s what we did. First we took a few weeks to find information on what we were doing our comics on, then we had to put all of the information we had and put it all in 5 comics. most of the student had lots of information so it took them longer to arrange the information. we aren’t dumbing down, we also use paper and pencil and other programs to help us with our work. So…,what i am saying is that first did u try out bitstrips then write the comment? If not then why did you write the comment if you don’t know how good bitstrips is. try it out then think again if you think we are dumbing down the future. Bitstrips is not only for fun, it can be hard if you have to find alot of information and decide how to put all of your information into 5 groups for 5 different comics. so please try out things before you say if its good or bad. Dana Hello Mr. Henry Allen, I am a student in Royan Lee’s grade 5/6 class, the Nathaniel in the article to be exact, and I would like to thank you for the wonderful compliment. It got me to thinking: why do you have that opinion of our digital literacy? I settled on the fact that everybody has a different view of learning and school. Times have changed! It’s not all pen and paper anymore! Switching gears, I would like to inform you about our digital literacy. We also use YRDSB Moodle, a website used by many classes in York Region where you write in forums about anything, view your homework, access informational websites, and a whole lot more! Try it sometime! Finally, I would like to say that if you ever have any concerns, feel free to voice them anytime! But seriously! It is hard work! For example, we have to create characters, pick through your information, setup positions, sizes, props, shapes, furniture, backgrounds, and titles! It’s hard work being a critical thinker! Hello, I’m a student from Mr. Lee’s class. I sort of have to say that you are wrong Henry Allen. You have proved some intelligent points in your comment but 1 thing is that we have done hard research before making the comic on bitstrips. For example, I researched Japan. 1 worksheet we had to do was fill in an "ASAB" sheet.(Authorship, Sources, Appearence, Backup.) School isn’t always about writing big essays with a pencil and paper. If we all kept writing stuff like that, some people will only be doing a bunch of work for nothing. If we do comics on bitstrips, we will be having fun and learning at the same time. This will be easier for students like me to learn. It’s MORE frightening for us to think about going to school and only writing paragraphs and paragraphs EVERYDAY! This might even help us become a computer engineer! Or maybe an awesome literacy teacher like Mr. Lee!

The other day I tweeted that I was learning so much from watching my daughter’s piano teacher in action. My friend Down Under @mnjorgenson messaged back to me that I should blog about it. A butterfly must have flapped its wings somewhere because I was literally thinking of doing it when I read his message. Here’s the deal with Yumi’s music class. You go to a nondescript house and walk to the basement where a slightly cramped and most definitely humble little room awaits. Yamaha or Cosmo Music it is not, but it is painted in cheerful primary colours. You sit down with your child at one of the keyboards. There are eight kid-parent pairs in all. Ms. Lin sits up front at her piano. For one hour, you act as something of an Educational Assistant sitting beside your child as they take lessons from the formidable Ms. Lin. Ms Lin is not the piano teacher of my childhood, of course. She does not hit my daughter with a ruler. She is friendly, but is so in a slightly distant way. In other words, she means business, and wants the kids to know that she means business. The hour burns by. Speaking as someone who is fairly confident in his educative capabilities, I would say that I am consistently amazed by Ms. Lin’s teaching methods. More importantly, I learn heaps from her. ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’ is not just jargon; it works Ms Lin probably doesn’t even know it, but she uses the GRR model of teaching an learning in her class. Everything revolves around a circular process of MODELED explicit instruction, SHARED/GUIDED practice, and INDEPENDENT work. It’s so bloody effective and reassures me that what I’m doing in my class is not just something invented by school teachers. Kids can learn anything if you take it slow When we first started in the class, Janet and I were a little mystified as to how Yumi ( a 5-year-old at the time) could possibly learn to, say, play a melody with the right hand while the left hand played a chord. Just pressing a key with one finger seemed to be a challenge. But after just one year of weekly lessons, she can now play an entire song doing that. Why? Because Ms. Lin never jumps to step 11 if the children have not confidently grasped step 9 and 10. I don’t think this means that all learning happens in a sequential, linear fashion. Rather, I think it means that you shouldn’t put students in positions to where they cannot possibly succeed. Repitition is important Nuff said. Kids can’t sit for long The children in the class do not ever sit at the keyboard for longer than 5 minutes at a time. Ms. Lin constantly alternates between stand-up activities at the front and sit down practice at the keyboard. It’s like she’s using a 6-year-old’s natural distractability against him/herself. In my own class, I’ve noticed that even something as simple as getting students to stand up out of their seat to be enormously beneficial. It’s like a metaphorical cigarette break without the lung cancer. Homework is useful when it’s consistent and is merely practicing concepts from class I don’t like homework. I don’t like doing it, assigning it, checking it, marking it, helping my kid with it, or giving it to the dog to eat. But, surely, the polarized debate surrounding it is a tad simplistic. Homework is just plain necessary for development in music, and it’s sometimes necessary for our classroom students as well. Kids want to impress peers far more than their teachers/parents (and rightfully so) When we mention to people that Yumi takes a piano class, instead of private lessons, they are often surprised. We ourselves even wondered about the efficacy of this model when we first began, but, wow, have we found it effective. The students in Ms. Lin’s class are constantly on display, accountable to an audience of their peers. I am not even certain if Yumi would practice at all if it weren’t for the fact that she has to (as they say in hip hop culture) represent. This is precisely why I use Web 2.0 tools like Moodle in my class program: Kids. Need. To. See. And respond to. Each others work/ideas. All the time. There are most certainly a plethora of contextual and curricular differences between Yumi’s class and an average public school classroom. Not the least of these is are the differences in class size, parental involvement, and strictly skill-based nature of the piano class. I also realise that Ms. Lin is by no means breaking massive ground or telling us something any good teacher should already know. But sometimes it’s the little stuff that really matters. Ms. Lin, I am sorry if you are horrified that one of the parents in your class is deconstructing your pedagogy on a weekly basis (no less blogging about it!) I just hope you know that at least one person gets what you’re doing.

I have no idea why I’m starting my first ever blog four days before the start of a new school year. God knows I have other things I should be doing. Long range planning, lessons, nifty name tags. I must be a masochist. Actually, I’m a parent. Being a dad to Yumi (6) and Jackson (2) is pretty awesome. One of the most spectacular things about it is that it makes me a better teacher. Every single day I learn things about pedagogy and psychology that astound me and lead straight to better classroom practice. Rather than being a strain on my time and energy, I really think of it more as a professional steroid of sorts. A Pedagogy Enhancing Drug. For instance, the other day I was at the playground with my 2yo. As Jackson is wont to do, he was climbing and sliding down everything in sight. This one thing cracked me up. As he was trying to go up some bar climbers that were probably a bit too tall for a 2yo, he stopped three quarters of the way up and yelled, "Help Daddy!" What did I do to solve this crisis, knowing that the same skills he used to climb most of the way up would likely take him the rest of the way? I didn’t push him up or hold him. I simply placed my hand gently on his bum with all the pressure of a dandelion seed. With no trouble or complaint, he scooted to the top immediately. I remember laughing when he did this. It was so funny to me because it told me everything I needed to know about one thing kids need from adults and teachers, especially in the 21st Century: the illusion of assistance. Then there is my 6yo. Determined, silly, and occasionally haughty, she was so mad when her friend Emily could swing on the monkey bars like, well, a monkey, while her own swinging style was more like a paranoid R2D2. Little did we know that it was going to be Yumi’s summer raison d’etre to become monkey-like. If she knew how to swear properly (actually, to be honest, she does) there would have been a lot of juicy expletives those first few days. Every single day we were at the playground, it was all about the monkey bars. Day after day, falling, sore hands, frowns. If we went to one without monkey bars, she’d make a disgusted face like Queen Elizabeth at a Bingo night. Needless to say, she now kicks ass on the monkey bars. So let’s recap: 1. Saw a friend do it, thought it was cool, desperately wanted to as well; 2. It was hard, kept trying, made heaps of mistakes; 3. Got it. Barrie Bennett once said that he knows there’s good learning going on in a classroom if the kids look busy and the teacher is walking around. This may be a bit simplistic, but I like it because it fits in with my playground metaphor. When my kids are at the playground, they mess around, talk, brag, cry, get dirty, hurt themselves, ask for help, refuse help, direct themselves, create and tell stories, repeat things over and again, and always seek new challenges. I sometimes get involved to get them started, or stand close to ‘Watch This’, but I’m never in the drivers seat; always the passenger. And most of all, the playground experience is exponentially enhanced by the presence of my kids’ friends. That’s essentially what I want to achieve in my class this year. I want it to be really fun, really challenging, and really safe. I want my ‘playground’ to be so cleverly designed and constantly evolving that only other playground architects can notice the subtleties of it. Oh, and I want the students to learn far more from one another than they do from me. Cheers, Royan

I’ve opened up the floodgates. Students are bringing their own technology to my class. First, a little context. Most of the locations in our board are now completely wireless. The wifi is accessible with a student or staff username and password. The wifi in our school in particular is, in my opinion, just about as stable and reliable (touch wood) as one could expect. This is why I am lucky enough to be able to use my own personal Macbook and iPhone in the building. My school is a comfortably middle class SES demographic. I would guesstimate that 95% of students have the most common technology and gadgets one would see in any Best Buy flyer. ‘Needy’ would not be a word to describe the students and families. I would not, however, classify them as privileged in a negative sense. On the contrary. A more rewarding community to be a teacher in I may never find again. When given permission to bring in their own devices, my class of 31 (yes, sigh, 31) brought in 18 iPod Touches, 3 Nintendo DSis, 3 cell phones, and 3 laptops. That means that the classroom resources we have more than compensate for students not bringing devices in. There are a few reasons why I’ve decided to do this in my class when most are staying clear with a 100 yard pole: I want to effect change. I can’t bear the idea of my own children attending school without the ability to connect wirelessly to a network at school with their OWN device. It gives me a sharp pain in my stomach. I want to explore. I want to see what it means to Backchannel, engage, be metacognitive, be critically literate, self-efficacious when students are permitted to use their OWN devices. I want to listen to my students. They want it. They are very articulate in explaining why. Their devices are sitting in their backpacks and bedrooms collecting Facebook dust. No one else is facilitating their understanding of these devices as pedagogical and metacognitive tools. Thanks to the following twitter buddies for inspiring this blogpost: @kentmanning and @techieang, for their questions which sparked my need to blog it out @rdelorenzo, for the great resources he provides on mobile learning (like this podcast on a mobile learning project in the States: http://podcast.cbc.ca/spark/plus-spark_20100317_mariebjerede.mp3) @digitalnative, for everything @slouca11, for also jumping into the handhelds in the classroom pedagogical casino with me (wouldn’t have done it without him) @aaron_eyler, for this (among other) blogposts: Recently, I read a tweet that made the following statement: the 21st century is a bad time to be a control freak. We need to start preaching that in our schools. Every teacher should feel it is his or her role to subvert the curriculum and prompt students to demand choice and democracy within the structure. It’s time for students to say enough with the uniform curriculum, enough with the uniform scope and sequence, enough with the rows, and enough with the hierarchy. (from: http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/democracy-starts-from-the-bottom-up/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter) I’m going to try my best to post updates on our class’s trials and tribulations. Stay tuned.

I’m fascinated by martial arts. I love the lessons on discipline, practice, and perseverance. I dig the concept of belt attainment, not as a carrot, but as a marker of development. I adore how you can only become exceptional if you have an awesome team to practice and bond with, and then how you hold your opponent to the highest esteem. I see how the assessment relationship of mentor and student involves constant conversational feedback of progress. I am impressed by the concept of learning to battle but never really fighting. I’ve never broken a piece of wood with my mean chop, but, in many ways, I like to approach my vocation of teaching and learning like Bruce Lee. And now, for your enjoyment, my favourite fight scene of all time: Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris from Return/Way of the Dragon.