My fears for next school year were reinforced recently.
I had been exploring the space in my room and putting the desks in different configurations in order to get a feel for the space. I was out for a while and when I came back one of my fellow staff members mentioned that a parent of one of my future students dropped by and had a negative reaction to the current layout of the room.
I want to explore experiment and try new things. That also means there will be failures. How will the parents of the students in my classroom handle it?
Some of the things I'm going to try will turn out to be bad ideas. Some of them will be good ideas that I implement badly, or that just don't work with this group of students.
I want to create a classroom in which experimentation and failure is acceptable. Where it is perfectly fine to stretch yourself, to try hard and miss the mark and then get back up again. Where students will be willing to push themselves to the limit.
The best way to do that is to lead the way and show my students that taking risks and failing is perfectly acceptable.
We did not get enough participants in our online program to run it for a second year, despite how successful it was in the first year. There are plenty of reasons for that, which I might go into in later blog posts.
What's next?
I'll be heading back into a more traditional classroom after spending a year teaching online. In may ways it's like a sabbatical. I've been invigorated and refreshed by many new ideas that I want to bring to my classroom.
One particularly exciting part is that I had to pack up all my old stuff a year ago and clear out my room. Now I'm moving into a new room for the first time in 10 years. With my experiences of the last year I will walk into my room and re-think all the things that I did for so many years.
For example:
Why do I need a teacher desk?
Why do I need a filing cabinet?
Why do I always have the students facing the same way, every day, all year?
Why put the homework on the board when I can put it in a shared calendar online? (Shared with parents too!)
Why do anything on paper? (Actually there are good reasons to do things on paper at certain times, but it is important to ask if it's the appropriate medium.)
Why am I the one deciding what all the projects and assignments should be? How much can the students do?
There I discovered a school that was actively using online tools to teach. It introduced me to so many other resources and ideas that stretched my thinking. (See this blog post for some of them)
After a year and a half of listening, reading, and thinking I started looking for other Christian educators in my neck of the woods (Ontario, Canada) who were doing and thinking the same kinds of things about online tools and their impact on education. I couldn't find anyone.
After that I decided that waiting for someone else to act wouldn't do. I decided that I would have to do something. But I didn't know what. What's more, I was just a classroom teacher, how would I get anyone to try anything?
It was in October 2010 that I finally had a brainstorm.
One of the great privileges of this past year has been working with some amazing students. They have been able to create some fantastic work.
Too often we don't realize how much our youth are capable of.
Here are a few samples of the work my students have done this past year:
You could also go to iTunes and search in the podcast category for "The Young Prophets", where you can hear episode 26 from one of my students this year. (The other 25 episodes are from previous years.)
I want to see more students creating work like this.
I'm waiting because that's the deadline for the applications for the online project I've been running. Any parent who wishes their student to be a part of this program for next school year has to have their application in by then. (If you want to know more check out www.ceiada.org and read this blog as I share more of the journey that led me to where I am today.)
We need the applications then so we can decide what roles I will or will not take in our school this next year.
We have a minimum number of students we need in order to run it, and it's not guaranteed that we'll reach it.
I'm torn.
On one hand, I would love to do a second year of the program. It worked remarkably well this past year, despite a number of challenges, and I'd love to do year two because I can make it so much better now. I have so much more experience and so many ideas for how to make everything better.
On the other hand, I would love to go back to a "traditional" classroom because I have so many ideas and experiences that would make a classroom that I teach anything but "traditional". Which was one of the key purposes of this pilot program we're running in the first place.
So, when the final application arrives and we sit down next week to determine exactly what job I will be doing next year, I want both. I'd love to spend the next year re-fining an online program, or spend the year taking a "traditional" classroom and bending it as far outside of the box as I can. But there's only one of me and I can't. In the meantime.....
I started searching for podcasts that would provide positive influences in my life instead of leading me into sin.
I found some good ones on the Focus on the Family website about parenting and marriage. I found some good devotionals online. I found some about teaching to help improve my craft in the classroom.
I began to spend my time listening to valuable resources instead of only fluff. I put the headphones away when I walked in the house. I found a more balanced approach to using the device in my life. This tool began to help me become a better person instead of a more greedy and selfish one.
I'm still processing all I heard and experienced there. I just finished reading some of the other delegates blogs about their take a ways, and I though I would have to share mine. Thanks Paul Kelly, Barend Blom, and Pippa Davies.
1) I was so amazed to spend time with Christians from all over the world. France, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, South America, and so many more. It was such a blessing to see so many educators with a passion for Christian Education.
2) It was such a blessing to learn about so many other ways of doing Christian education. The group of schools I belong to is relatively homogeneous, and this group of educators was anything but!
3) I was especially inspired by the work of our colleagues from Northern Beaches Christian School in Australia. Their work is inspiring me to consider doing some very different things here.
It was an incredible experience, and I hope that I have the opportunity to go again next year, God willing.
That's right, my Mom won an iPod. She didn't know what to do with it, so she gave it to me. Being a geek I, of course, said, "Yes!"
Not having a lot of money, I didn't buy any music or any apps. I didn't even know what an app was! Instead, I found podcasts. I happen to be an avid gamer, so I found podcasts about games. Lots of podcasts and lots of games. Podcasts from Korea, from Texas, from all over. My world began to expand. I learned about lots of games that I really wanted to play.
But something else happened too. I started to get covetous. I wanted all those games. I became greedy, I began thinking more and more about all those games I didn't have. What's more, I started listening to the iPod around the house, since there were so many podcasts to keep up on. I started ignoring my wife and children.
In short, the iPod led me into sin.
Now, I happen to believe that this world is God's world. That things like iPods can be used for sin as well as for good.
So I started asking, "What does a Christian iPod look like?"
I can hear the question some of you are asking after my last blog post.
"What? You don't want your child to go to school? Aren't you a teacher at a Christian School?"
Indeed I am. Not just any school either. In fact, I work at a good school, a very good school, an exceptional school even.
We have a vibrant and healthy supportive community, many engaged and committed parents, a visionary school board, a dedicated and innovative leadership team, incredible staff members, and wonderful students. We have a great building that's full, healthy finances, plenty of resources, and so much more.
My fellow teachers are skilled practitioners of their craft, with plenty of creativity to go along with it. I'm watching our grade 7 English teacher lead her students through a wonderful exercise where they interact with seniors and write their life stories. I am amazed at our grade 8 teacher's depth of experience and easy camaraderie with his students, our VP teaches wonderful hands on lessons in his classes and supports us in so many ways through his gifts with tools, and that's only the first two classrooms at my end of the building. I could go on and on naming each staff member and the amazing gifts they bring to our staff.
My son is in grade 1 with a highly skilled teacher from whom he is learning so much. My middle daughter will be entering Kindergarten next year and there are two fantastic teachers she might get. I'm actually torn because I'd love for her to have both of them, but she'll only get one.
So what's my problem?
I think Sir Ken Robinson explains it best:
When I think of my children entering this factory model of education that's why I don't want them to go to school. Except that the school is the best choice we have at the moment. (We entertained homeschooling, but it just won't work for us.)
Our school is a very good school. In fact, I wouldn't want my children to go to any other school. But my school is going to struggle to provide the kind of challenges and supports to help my children to grow to their fullest potential. Let alone the many other children who enter our classrooms every day who have an even wider array of gifts, talents, and challenges. Each child is so unique and our "one size fits all" model of schooling doesn't leave much room for their development.
How could we get away from the factory model of education? What would that look like? How could we create new kinds of schools and learning experiences that would allow for each child to grow and develop to their greatest potential?
These are the questions that circle my mind every day. These are the things I think about as I work in my classroom with my students.
How easy is it for us as parents to burden our children with our broken dreams and missed opportunities? To try to relive our lives vicariously through our kids? To burden our children with the unyielding weight of our expectations?
I'm often afraid that my second prayer may do that to my three.
I pray that they'll be smart.
I want them to love to learn and stretch and grow. To love books and thinking. To develop their talents to their full potential. I want to push them and challenge them. I want them to be out of the box thinkers, bold innovators, brave leaders, and so much more.
And yet, what if that's not what they are called to do? What if their gifts and talents are different than mine. As they probably will be. I know my Dad, who I respect enourmously, hoped I'd be a chess player, and I can't stand chess. So, I know that they will probably turn out very much unlike me.
So let me revise my second prayer.
I pray that they will take their God given talents and gifts and stretch them to their fullest potential, no matter what those gifts might be. I pray that they'll grow into unique and radically different people who are incredibly competent, serving God in many varied ways.
And that's why I don't want to send them to school.
Some of the things I'm going to try will turn out to be bad ideas. Some of them will be good ideas that I implement badly, or that just don't work with this group of students.
