Ms aposiOpesis

Yeah, the health-related and personal ones will go elsewhere. 

Educators have a natural “refreshment” break before each new school year, or term, to revisit goals and make adjustments.  New Year isn’t exactly the natural point for such endeavors, but since I haven’t been doing so well with the objectives I set for myself back in August–plus I have some new ones–I may as well start fresh here.

Ah, the sweet smell of optimistic good intentions!

So, first of all, the “I’ve-had-these-on-my-list-and-I-still-need-to-do-better” resolutions:

Grading. I’m still absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of grading and the hours and hours it takes.  I need to not only vow to decrease the time between getting the papers and handing them back with feedback, but find efficient means of doing so.  Perhaps I need to try some different methods–online commenting, peer review, etc.–because I something needs to change.  In 2009, I will try to grade more quickly and also find ways to do it *better*.

Family Contact.  My Principal makes this a priority, and we’re reminded to make contact with parents more often–and I have not done this as well as I could be.  I need to make more contact for the good things, the “wow” moments, the “You won’t believe the cool thing your kid did today!” moments.  I think part of it for me is that I’m far more comfortable with e-mail than telephone; I have a near pathological aversion for telephones and I would be quite happy not even having one, actually, especially in my classroom (I loathe the interruptions).  I know for sure that I would make more contact via e-mail than with phone, so my resolution here is twofold: to face up to my aversion to phones much more often and to make more e-mail contact, as well.

Fewer Stranded Lessons.  There isn’t enough time each day to get through all the lesson, practice, application I want, and there certainly isn’t enough time each school year to do justice to all the strands expected on the state standards.  I know I’m guilty of introducing a concept–usually something grammatical, the next step in making writing more fluent, etc.–and, because of lack of time, realizing days later that the followup for the lesson got lost in the shuffle.  When I come back to it then, it’s nearly like starting over.  I need to find ways of making sure this happens less often–I think I’m doing better this year already, but I haven’t reached my goal just yet.

And, a few new ones that I want to incorporate into my teaching:

Web2.0 Advancement. Ah, yes…I can hear the echo of this one reverberating off thousands of teachers’ walls across the country as we speak.  The big catch-phrase of 2008-2009 (at least where I’m from–we may be a bit behind the trends, being where we are, which isn’t always a bad thing as at least the trends have to take substantial hold before we get to them).  And yes, I am wholeheartedly signing on.  Not because I think the tools are ends in and of themselves, but because I think they’re great tools.  If the tools open up the world, if the tools help kids connect–both with text and with others, if the tools allow different perspectives, if the tools bring delight and efficiency to learning, then I want to use them.  I want to spice up old plans, I want to shift and expand and view lessons through different lenses.  Kids up out of their desks more often.  I want to see the love of discovery–something I’ve decried the lack of for years–and if these tools can help with that, I want ‘em.

Tags: education, New Year, resolutions, teaching

For now, as I get ready to meet my Mockers (Mock Trial participants) for an over-the-Christmas-break practice at school (I’m sooooo cruel), just a shout-out to one of my own role models and folks-what-I-admire:  A piece about Michael Franti’s work (words, music, film) from BoingBoing.

I, too, am a Franti fan, and I, too, am reassured about the human condition by listening to his music, hearing his kindness.

Tags: boingboing, Franti, music, personal

Here’s the deal.  Aside from grading stacks and stacks of papers, planning a few lit units, organizing my house that has, for the last two years, slid further and further into “crazy psycho collector read-all-about-it-in-the-Lifestyle-section” land, and catching up on leisure reading, I’m supposed to be putting together a presentation for my colleagues about all the neato things I learned at the TIES conference at the beginning of the month. (Reference this blog and this one for context.)

That wouldn’t be a problem–I like putting together presentations–except for two things:

1)  I hate, loathe, detest, and am flattened by having to present to colleagues.  I can only teach teenagers.  That’s it.  My repertoire is quite…small.  I can do 8th grade, and I can do seniors, and I can do everything in between, but beyond that?  I either come across like a total imbecile or, in trying to avoid that, I assume far too much and end up speaking babble in Greek.

and…

2)  In deciding what to include, I’ve been spending hours reading edtech blogs, following links, adding to my bookmarks, and exclaiming, “Oh, hey, another way to use Twitter!” and “Wow, that’s so freaking cool!” a lot.

Neither of these points are very helpful, you might notice.

Perhaps as an act of exorcism, I’ll lay out some of the cool things I’ve been finding for #2.  (If any of you have ideas on fixing #1, please comment or e-mail!)

• Wordia.  I’m having visions of some very fun and creative vocabulary lessons for kids.
• Search Cube.  Cool for visual learners, I suspect.  You can view an example here.
• Twitter Venn tools.  Very cool.  Visually interesting and fun.  (Not to mention an awesome woman whose blog I need to watch closely so it’s already added to my RSS feed!)
• Speaking of new bloggers I’m following, here’s a great idea for Movie Trailers for Books with a very cool resource for keeping track of visual sources.  Woot!

Where did most of these come from?  Tweets on Twitter posted by other educators or edtechs.

So…back to that presentation.  Maybe after following links to just a couple of more sites…and checking my tweets another time…oh, and yeah, that new Wiki I joined for educators, that might have something new…and…and…and…

Tags: Folderol, teaching, web2.0

As an addendum to a post-baby boom blog of yesterday, more baby news!

Friends of ours, Doug and Neil, are fostering a newborn baby boy, born 12/18/08 and placed in their care a day later, and hope to adopt him after six months!  They fostered a teenaged boy last year and hoped to adopt him, but with the stupid laws (he was from out of state, which was the problem) they weren’t able to.  I hope this one goes much better!

Neil and I have been friends since the Dawn of Time (okay, more like 1988 or so) and Doug since they began dating ten or eleven years ago.  Since they live in the Marshall area (Doug’s a professor here at the college), they helped us find a house when we moved here seven years ago, and I served on a city commission with Doug for a year.

Anyway, yay for more families!  As an adoptee from foster care myself (back in 1968, when I was 2 1/2 years old) placed in a non-traditional family (my parents were childless and in their late forties and told they’d make terrible parents because of it), I salute them and support them and am thrilled for all three of them!

(I’ll add a picture if I get permission from them to post it!)

In the meantime, a picture of me shortly after my own adoption. 

Tags: family, personal

For persons interested in linguistics, etymology, or religion–or, if you’re like me, all three–here’s a nifty tidbit from my Slate feed about Jesus’ name and its changes, its frequency, and, well, other cool things to know.  Astound your friends!  Impress your family!  I love stuff like this. 

“Was Jesus a Common Name?”

Tags: cool, etymology, linguistics, religion, words

Last May, two couples who are not only friends of ours, but friends of each other, both announced that they were having babies.   These babies would both be third children for each of the mothers, and both were complete surprises.  Due date for one was just before Christmas, while the other was a couple of weeks later.  The mothers joked about trying to time it so that they could be in the hospital at the same time, but we all know those plans never work out, especially over six months out.

Mischa went in on the 23rd to have labor induced–she’s had a rocky last month, and it was time.  However, like their second baby, the new one didn’t want to come into the world, and after twenty-two hours of hard labor, she agreed to a C-section.  Elliot Cooper entered the world just after 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve, joining his two big sisters, Kieran and Claire.

What we didn’t know at the time was that Sarah, from the other couple, *also* went into labor on the 23rd, and two rooms down from Mischa gave birth to a boy, and hour and a half earlier, when Malcolm joined the world and said hello to big brother Aidan and big sister Lucy.

Two good friends, two rooms apart in a largish city (60k-100k), giving birth less than two hours apart.

And *neither* couple knew the other couple was two rooms away until after both boys were born!

What a beautiful day!  I suspect Elliot and Malcolm will be friends for life!

And, for more backstory, it’s been a very tough year for both couples.  Businesses failing in the current economy, the death of a dear mother, job changes, moving, and much heartbreak.  However, in the face of a newborn, all is smiles, all is fresh.

All starts anew.

Life is stranger than fiction, at times, and all I know is that I got to hold brand new fresh babies today and ain’t much in the world can be wrong when that happens. 

Welcome to the world, Malcolm and Elliot.  Find the joy, make your beauty.

Tags: holiday, personal

In response to yesterday’s blog about Lawrence Lessig (correct spelling, today) as well as a couple of previous blogs about my consternation over internet filters and mandatory FCC blockades, look!

Reboot the FCC.

Woot!

(More another time.  Today was the last day of school before Christmas break.  I was in a building with teenagers all day.  One period was–I kid you not–7th grade study hall.  You’ll understand if I don’t form complete sentences at the moment.)

Driving home after work (school, prep, mock trial bus to courhouse and back, etc.), I was, as usual, listning to public radio, and Fresh Air was on.  Terri Gross was interviewing Lawrence Lessig, Law Professor at Standford School of Law, about copyright laws being antiquated in the age of digital information.

Just today in AP Lang, as students were doing an exercise to generate ideas for writing essays of definition, we discussed, briefly, copyright laws as they relate to music sharing–and now, that’s exactly what I’m hearing as I’m driving home.  Serendipity.

I want students to listen to this segment, not only because it relates to our own discussion but because Lessig discusses laws as they relate to teenagers, and in a way that immediately wants to take the teenagers’ side.

That doesn’t happen often in the world.  Without claiming a side on the copyright updating issue (I’m still working it out, myself; see below), I can say that as a teacher of teenagers, the concept that teenager = dangerous hoodlum is far too rampant.  It’s a refreshing change to hear a scholar, and a legal scholar, want to revisit issues that affect teenagers without immediately behaving like an overindulgent parent of spoiled youngsters OR someone who wants to further constrict the creativity of young people.

As to the issue of copyright laws needing to be updated to meet a digital age, Lessing (and others) make very good points.  The medium does affect the use, undoubtedly.

On the other hand, I absolutely also believe that artists (whatever the medium) need to be compensated for their work, and compensated fairly.

To bridge that gap, Lessig brings up EFF, for example, and also individualized copyright protections (Creative Commons) based on what the creators want—full access to full restriction, depending.  Both concepts made to allow flexibility both for users and creators.

As to the latter, NIN were brought up as a pioneer into this sort of freedom, and a statement by Reznor on a related topic.  The gist here, and with Lessing, seems to be that creative use–teenagery creative use–of artists’ work is creative in and of itself, and there should be ways to allow this without criminalizing this creativity.

I can get behind this, certainly–I’m a Free Speech Absolutist, afterall–but as a person who appreciates words, and music, and the genius (or lack thereof) that goes into these enterprises, I also wonder about fairness and compensation at the point of origin.

In the spirit of essays of definition, I have to ask:  What is “derivative”?  What is “original”?  What is the difference between “remix” and “plagiarism”?  What separates “digital sharing” from more traditional types?

And, as Lessig opens with, what is, in the modern age, a “copy” that should be regulated by “copyright”?

Good questions, and I suspect we’ll have many good answers–from various perspectives–as the next few years pass.

Edit:  12/23/08:  Corrected spelling of Lessig’s name (NPR bit had it two different ways and I picked the wrong one, yesterday).

Edit: 12/23/08:  Included link to Creative Commons

Tags: AP, copyright, definition, NPR, tech

I’ve received two nifty Christmas gifts this past week, and both are more about the narratives than about the gifts, themselves, perhaps.

First of all, the other day after school, I stopped in at the office to get my mail from my slot.  No mail, but there was a very prettily-wrapped large, flat package, in blue paper and a bow and glittery Christmas Stockings on the label.  It said, simply, “To Ms. Olson, from Secret Santa.”

My first reaction was panic because I thought I’d somehow received an organized “Secret Santa” gift from someone and I’d not drawn a name, myself– how embarrasing!  I quickly asked Sandy, in the office, if there’d been one of those gifting parties organized this year and I missed it, and she reassured me that no, there hadn’t been…the gift wasn’t a mistake.

I looked at the writing–it looked very familiar, in one way–and suspected that it was Shuckhart, my colleague and good friend.  Justin was with me at the time, and he thought this, too, even though we’d just had dinner at the Shuckharts’ and we’d agreed not to gift this year.  We’re broke, they’re broke, I have medical bills, and they have brand-new preemie twins and more medical costs than one could wrap a mind around.

Still, I asked Shuckhart, and said, “Nope.”  In a way that I believed him.

What was the gift, you might ask?  I beautiful European-made calendar of Stockholm.  Gorgeous photos.  Text in Swedish, English, German, and Russian.  Very, very cool–and because I am a fan of Scandinavia and am Swedish myself, in heritage, I have to assume it’s someone who knows me quite well, yes?

I can’t wait to hang it up in a couple of weeks.  It’s gorgeous.  And I wish some unnamed Secret Santa out there a very happy Christmas, and I wish I could return the joy!

The second story actually began while we were dining at the aforementioned Shuckharts’ home last weekend.  We got to talking about upcoming plans, and I mentioned the beginning of March for some reason.  Justin, casually walking away so I couldn’t see his face, said, “Don’t plan anything for March First.”

I immediately ran through all my in-laws’ birthdates, my parents’, and school functions…nada.

“What’s March first?” I asked.

“Nothing.  Just don’t plan anything for it…”  Oh, he’s sneaky, isn’t he?

“Will I find out on Christmas, perchance?” I asked, getting a confirmation.  Cool!  I like surprises like this!

Now, the thing you have to know is that Justin also has a habit of never closing out of windows (or even signing out before he does close them), and I woke early the next morning to find several open web pages on the computer.  As I began closing out of them, I noticed one of them featured Greg Brown, one of my favorite musical artists, and so of course I began reading the news item.

The news item that said, in essence,  “Greg Brown to perform in St. Cloud on March 1, 2009.”

And while I can be very, very dense and slow on the uptake, this wasn’t very difficult to figure out, you know?  And while I was thrilled to find out that we were going to see Greg Brown live, I was very torn on what to do about finding the webpage.  I hate lying, even for a good reason, and I’m not very good at it anyway.  Yet, I didn’t want to ruin Justin’s Christmas Day surprise.

I tabled the decision, waiting to see if he even brought it up before Christmas.

A couple of days later, he did, while we were driving to work.  “Only a few days and you’ll know what March First is!” he teased, happily.  In a split-second decision, I decided against lying, even for a good reason. I told him what had happened.

All is well.  We laughed, he doesn’t seem disappointed that the surprise didn’t last longer than it did, and besides…we’re going to see Greg Brown in March AND I have a nice, new, Swedish calendar!

Tags: fun, gifts, holiday, personal

Addendum to Irony 2 of a few days ago:

So, the final straw came yesterday afternoon.  I had a group of kids in my classroom, on their own time, after school, to play with ArtRage on my SmartBoard.  I had just gotten the upgrade to the pay version okayed from the office, and I had the school’s credit card in hand to get the upgrade so I had use of all the tools.

Coolness.

Fill out the form.  Get the registration key in e-mail.  Open the link…and…

Blocked.

Yep, blocked.  The page where I could actually download the program.

So, yeah, I looked up the number of the liaison at the service co-op that provides the filtering and, as nicely as I could, begged for some sanity.

After he unblocked the website for me (only took a few minutes), we had a chat about my concerns.  I said that while I was told (see earlier blog’s comments) that to receive funding, the co-op had to block a minimum number of categories based on a rating system (one more asinine than the MPAA, I might add), I queried why blogs and wiki slide presentations and everything was blocked when it wasn’t on the neat little list my Principal handed me.

The nice man (thank you, Josh!) listened to me gripe, and then promised to check the list against the blocks and do it soon.

Then I asked him who provides the funding and filter mandates, and he said, as I suspected, the FCC.

Vision of Carlin danced in my head…

“So, I get to take on the FCC?  Freaking awesome!” I joked, half-serious.

He laughed, too.  “Yeah, good luck with that…” he said.

But I’d really, really like to.  I think I’ll follow this up and find out who makes these decisions, based on what data, and how designations like “R-rated” and “inappropriate” are awarded.

And why it is that when I googled “Greek people” the other day for an image to use in class (I’m teaching The Odyssey in my LA 10), I got, uh, much more than, uh, Greek people.  (My point here is not that I was offended–far from it, I can deal–but that even with all the freaking filtering of quality information, the ugly or objectionable or age-inappropriate still gets through.)

I’ve had students unable to write research papers on breast cancer research (the word “breast” is blocked) or write arguments against drug use citing NIDA (blocked because–get this–of the word “drugs”).  And we’re supposed to be educating?!?

Anyway, today?  Blogs are no longer blocked.  I can actually read all these blogs I have linked to over here on your right —>.

I won one battle; the war continues.  I hope I’m not alone in it.

Tags: Folderol, rant, school, tech