Atlas has it easy.

Most people, nope, that’s wrong. Some people are aware of the myth of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders.You know, there he is standing on…. well standing there holding the world on his shoulders. Naked. What was he standing on? Snot - now I have to go find that out. Anyway, as an administrator in June, I’m thinking about seeing if there is any way to do a job switch for a few weeks. Now, I know that this sounds strange, but a couple times the last few weeks it has felt like some comicbook badguy has crept into town and stolen all the common sense and I’ve been tasked with finding it and giving it back all with my wondercape and tights out for cleaning.(Don’t ask, don’t imagine, just read. Trust me on this one.)

Yeah, I know, that is why I get the big bucks. Let’s just clear that up by saying that, here the BIG BUCKS are more like middlen bucks with the wonderful opportunity to practice the “camera pose.” Why do you think administrators always take such good yearbook photos? Speaking of yearbook, why don’t they ask for the principal’s message at the beginning of the year? If I were to truly give my message now  …..I might not have anything to trade with Atlas.

I know it’s the end of the year and all, but if I’m being required to be on my best at this time of year how come others are being let off early? Did I miss out on the memo on good behaviour? Maybe it was one of the 300 daily email I get that I didn’t read clearly enough or didn’t have a subject. How hard is it to put a title in that line? Do people not realize that when you get 400 daily email, not having a title really slows down the whole email sorting process. In fact, a good title can really make or break the email for me. So, from the 500 odd email, those without a title go to the archive folder unless they have the name of someone I know wouldn’t send me a time-waster. (For those people, if you are reading this, it’s ok not to have a subject. I open your email regardless!) For all the others who are vying for my attention out of the 600 emails, no subject and archived you are. This account for about 400 leaving me with 300 to sort through and decide if I answer them “now” or do I put them on “hold” for later in the day. That’s my email sorting system. With 800 emails, I need something simple and quick.

It’s like common sense, that subject line, and lately there seems to be a shortage. So with my cape and tights being cleaned, starched and pressed, I’m trying to do this without letting on to others my hero identity, which actually isn’t tough because no one is noticing me until there’s a crisis and then, when I arrive, they disappear. Like “poof” gone.  “Go get the principal!” can be heard in my office from the far reaches of our known galaxy (the farthest point south on our playground) or, better yet, I can hear from the phone the secretary has answered and she’s two doors down the hall and mine is closed.(I tell everyone the lights are off to conserve energy and make it cooler in my office. Like flurescent bulbs give off heat! And they believe me!) Really, I’ve had all kinds of things just dropped off at my door. There’s a knock and when I open it, some students have been just left there with a note stapled to one of their shirts with a brief explanation of what happened. When I ask the students, they aren’t even sure which teacher was there because they left so fast.

Common sense. Missing in action. Get this - some of my students - between the ages of 10 and 12 - didn’t realize that if they threw rocks at one another, someone might get hurt and end up bleeding. Yes, you read that right. And they were just playing a game - which involved throwing rocks at each other. And - I quote - I didn’t know that if I hit him in the head with a smaller rock it would cut him. I didn’t know he’d get hurt. What do you say to that? I’m not making this up - 5 of them. (The team with only 2 did lose the game but had better aim because the others had the more severe damage.) That was morning of the second day.

Today, I entered the library to find 3 or 4 classes in the resource centre (that’s our new name for the library with a computer lab) and 1 teacher was visible. When I mentioned this, there were all kinds of reasons for me seeing only one teacher. All I can say is thank goodness the librarian was away for the afternoon or she’d have been having a coniption and I would have been the one she would have been having it on! We all know that, after the secretary and janitor, the librarian is next on the list of “Do not tick off!” Like, no one planned any activities so all these classes were sent to the computer lab. And like the rock throwers earlier in the week, there was a lack of understanding about why this wasn’t a good idea. Really, you cannot have 75 students on 27 computers. Some will be doing nothing which, in June, is not a situation I like - 50 odd students, mulling about with nothing to do and one person watching over them who is not armed. Visions of City Slickers II and the coffee grinder just popped into my head.

To top it all off, this is happening at a time when I’m trying to figure out teaching assignments and determine class offerings for next year which, by the way, have not gone any where near how I thought they would and, unless something happens involving the school to which we broadcast, we, yeah right we, there will need to be some changes which might include going from a 6 period day to a 5 period day. And you should have been a fly on the wall when I delivered that bit of joyous news. You’d think Atlas had dropped the ball and the world as we know it was going to end. And talk about being treated like a 7 year old - there were times I felt like I was back in grade 2 being scolded by the teacher. I’m the principal for crying out loud. “Did you count the selections right?” HUH???

A suggestion was just to have the students taking the class leave their other class the 10 minutes early. Hmmm - over an entire semester - about 98 days that’s, well, hmmm. Well I can’t count from the sheets how do you expect me to figure that one out? But I can tell you  that it’s too much time to miss from any class.

I just want some common sense to return for a few more days. Please. If you are the badguy who’s stolen the common sense, what do you want to have it returned? Wait, maybe if Atlas will just do a switch for a few days, then it would only be one world I’d be trying to hold up not everyone’s separate universe. You don’t know how many times I’ve looked at someone and thought “What colour is the sky in your world?” One world, the sky is blue, a few days. I only hope no other principal has thought of this before and Atlas is on to it. I’m not worried that he wouldn’t come back. I’m more worried that someone would steal his common sense and then we’d all be in trouble. “No Atlas, you can’t use it as a hackey-sack! I don’t think it’s good for the oceans! I don’t care what the rock throwers said, it will definitely hurt an ankle. Did you look at their foreheads? They threw rocks at one another!”

My wife compares all of this to giving birth. It starts out all fun, with some type of party which hopefully includes fireworks for someone. Then, as things progress you begin to remember how things were but you still don’t recall the end. There are moments of warm glowing happiness and times of really bad vomitting.  When the final few days arrive, you wonder if you’re going to make it at all, hoping it all will just end. Finally, when the moment arrives, you question your own sanity but almost as soon as it’s over and you hold that miracle in your arms, you forget all about what just went before. Sure, over the next few weeks, you’re reminded of it with pains here and there but, after a few months, you’re willing to have that party all over again. (Look, I’m a principal and a father of 7 children so this works for me!)  I’m at the “I just want it to end” stage. Grad is in 8 days. Birth.

Common sense. Maybe I’m the one who has none! Really, who’d want to trade with a guy like Atlas - all he does is hold up the world - I’m trying to help create it one student at a time. (minus the rock throwers would be nice. I’m just lucky the bars are close together on the windows or someone would have been buying a new window!Not. The bars I mean. They’d have had to pay for a new window. Hey, I don’t make that much!)

Who changed the calendar already?

I’ve been meaning to write here a few times now but each day just seems to fly by. I’m seriously thinking that I may need to talk to someone in law enforcement because I think someone stole the month of April! Is time speeding up? Is the world revolving faster? Who’s driving this thing anyway? These are all questions that flash through my mind as I begin another Monday only to come home to a Friday evening. I’ve missed my workouts for weeks now because I begin Monday morning and come home Friday. How can a guy hope to get to the gym when someone keeps stealing the week.

The weekend is no better. I’ve given up all hope that I’ll be able to sleep past 8:00 on any day of the week but on the weekend the three boys have begun a contest to see who can get up earliest and do the most damage without waking anyone else up. I go to bed only to be up 2 or 3 times putting boys back to bed after they’ve decided that: they’re thirsty and need a drink of milk from the container that was full (hence large pool of milk on floor!) They are hungry - need a peanut butter sandwich with bananas - I don’t even know how to explain this one. Thank goodness the youngest can’t get out of the crib without making enough noise to wake me up because I can only imagine - well, truthfully, I can’t imagine what he’d do. This is the kid who uses several stools to climb up to get gum from the cupboard and chews the whole pack because he knows there’s more.

I’ve been aware that this seems to be a phenomena that is occurring all over the place. People are going to work and looking up from their desk only to find the day has vanished. The begin a small task only to find that it has taken a whole day. Are there time police who can be hired to find out who’s stealing the time?

Is the internet to blame?

I’m wondering if the internet is to blame for all of this time seeming to be stolen away. I mean, since things happen in an instant, is time being reduced because it’s taking less time for things to get from here to there? Is the immediate exchange of information, money and other things creating some sort of time vortex that is sucking time into it because it’s no longer needed? Are we becoming so affected by what is going on on the net that time itself is somehow being altered? If not, why does it feel like every time I sit down at the computer, time seems to vanish and I don’t get the done work I thought I would? What’s going on here? Maybe it’s the Russians? Or the butler (if I had one, he’d have done it)?

Speed o life

Somehow, the speed at which we are conducting our lives has increased, if that is possible. We are expecting to do more and more in the same amount of time and, therefore, feeling like we are losing time. We are also spending time doing things on the net that are not even close to being productive. Like tv, reading and other forms of entertainment, we are spending more time using the net for non-work related things.

As educators, we are being asked to do more but not being given any more time to accomplish these added items. Whether it’s a new test to administer, a new program to implement, a new strategy to try or different method to adopt, educators are being asked to do more but there is no added time for this. Somehow, they are suppose to do this and what they did before in the same amount of time. This does not include the increasing amount of paper that seems to be flowing from many levels, all wanting to cross a teacher’s desk somewhere.

Finally, I’m seeing more and more books that need to be read. I believe that my reading list is now in triple digits and I don’t have a hope of reading most of them until after I retire. By that time, I’ll have figured out I don’t need to read them anyway and get to the books I should have read at the start. Books that move my spirit, refresh my soul and expand my consciousness. Believe it or not, I think I now what the problems are in education and, given the time, energy and support, I think that many of us could begin to make some headway with some of the things that are problematic. In fact, I’m beginning to think that if many of us were to trust what we know and put down some of the books, we’d find out that we really don’t need much more than the accumulated knowledge of the people that surround us right in our own buildings. Given a few tools for organization, some time to work on our goals and the feedback required to move us along, I think that much could be done to make some pretty big changes.

Huge Assumption

Of course, I’m making a huge assumption that educators have been doing some reading and are able to discuss the various things that will need to be done in order for change to begin. If not, then I guess there will need to be some development done to allow people access to this information. What if they don’t want to change but just go back to their classrooms? Well, how will that be different from now? Why does change have to include every teacher? Why can’t the change be done with those who are willing and ready? I think there are many teachers who are willing and ready but who seriously don’t have any more time to give because of all the things that have been added to their loads.

We need to get off

It is becoming more and more obvious to me that in order to bring about change, there needs to be a slowing of the pace. The rate of change may continue but, in education, there needs to be some period of learning before we move on to the next. As learners, many teachers who are technology minded don’t seem to be taking that time to see how these new technologies are going to work before they move on to the next. Unlike other areas of society, education has more to do with helping others understand than using the next new product. So we need to work with things for awhile before we adopt new change? At least we’ll be able to take time to figure out where things fit. As it is, many teachers aren’t taking that reflection time that is absolutely necessary.

April, usually a rather calm month is over. I’m panicking because the following two months are very intense and high energy and I usually count on April to give me that little rest I need in order to finish strong. With the month now 2 days from finishing, I’ve somehow missed that rest period because I was too busy to notice that I was missing it. I really don’t know how I’ll survive May and June without some sort of breakdown or something. Hold it, I already did that in April! Now what will I do?

I’m hoping that some can catch whomever is messing around with the time and, if nothing else, punish that person by slowing down time and putting them somewhere, like a middle years math class where time seems to stand still to begin with, in order to make them pay for all the stress their causing the rest of us. If nothing else, I’d like to have Wednesday back so I can at least get to the gym one day a week. Otherwise, I’m going to have to go shopping for some new clothes and everyone knows that no guy has time for that!

Meme: Passion Quilt

Linda and mrstucke have tagged me for the quilt meme. The whole idea of this meme is to post a picture that is especially meaningful to you or says something about your passions as a teacher. I was hoping I’d stay under the radar for this one as I’m not a real picture person. However, there is a picture that I took a few years ago while on a tour of England that isn’t flashy but is kind of cool.

I’ve actually had this as my desktop for awhile and had a large print made. People ask me why? My response is that it’s an image that you see all over the tubes of London reminding people that to be safe, you have to “Mind the Gap”. For me, it speaks about life in our modern age. How we must be reminded to stay safe even though it should be something everyone knows.  As an educator, it also reminds me that there is always a gap in what we do and, if we don’t mind that gap, someone will fall through. My passions - students, all students, doing the best they can to the best of their ability. Being able to increase their knowledge and show others what they know. Not letting ANY student slip the gap and become a statistic.

The meme works as follows:  The rules are simple.
1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Okay, now I get to link to 5 people. Hmmmm well, here’s a few new bloggers that it would be nice to introduce to the world: lgatzke,  mathman33, georgygrrl,  cgseibel,  speters. Looking forward to their pictures!

What was I thinking?

This past week I received a tweet from RashKath telling me she had rewared this blog with the Thinking Blogger Award. Rashmi Kathuria has been a mathematiques teacher since 1994. She created Passionate Teacher’s Ning and has been doing some great work connecting and sharing with teachers all over the world. She has a great site for anyone teaching math.

I am very honoured that someone like Rashmi would think that highly of what I am doing here on my blog. Rashmi says

  Kelly Christopherson, a principal in a K - 12 school in Saskatchewan. He is a great administrator , educator helping and guiding teachers to use techology in classrooms . His posts are inspiring and very close to our daily life routine realities. He is guiding many teachers all across this globe on Passionate teachers ning also. Read his discussions, you will surely experience a new thing.

I am very honoured that Rashmi would pass this on to me.

About the award
The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote. (I couldn’t get the badges or the link to work!)
In addition there is a note: “Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking! “

Five bloggers

This was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a while. To pick only 5 bloggers that make me think was not an easy task since all the bloggers on my RSS Feed do that. In no particular order:

 Dean Shareski - I ran into Dean’s blog when I first began blogging. Since that time, I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few of his workshops, participating in a few online connections and learning from his vast experience with technology. Dean writes about a wide variety of things, has a great sense of humour and great knowledge about technology tools. He is one of my “must read” bloggers (he has some great dessert recipes and pictures of beautiful golf courses!)

Alec Courosa - Alec is a professor at the University of Regina. Through the various networks that Alec and I inhabit, I’ve found Alec’s technological expertise and his willingness to try new technologies to be a great help. Because Alec teaches a Master’s class that one of my colleagues is taking, I’ve been able to have a sneak peak into his classes and his teaching and he is one that walks the talk.

Susan Funk - Susan is a classroom teacher in Saskatoon. I met Susan through her blog and then f2f at a conference. Susan has just returned to the classroom after taking time off to do graduate work and it is great to have her perspective on school life as someone who is working daily with students in a setting that isn’t really condusive to technology use. The great thing about Susan’s writing is that it doesn’t just focus on technology but on many other aspects of teaching, particularly reading. It is great to travel along with her as she struggles with the different issues that she has in her class.

Principal’s Page - micsmith is listed in his biography for those who have nothing to do. All I can say is that if it every happens that micsmith becomes unemployed, he could write comedy. (Gaging from his one entry, this is not a far off possiblity - being unemployed)  I visit his page regularly because of his humour, wit and uncanny ability to make me feel like a small kid again (I only wet my pants once!) For me, he captures the administrator’s life with comedic accuracy. Laughter is good for the soul - this site does my soul good!

Glenn Moses - Glenn is a vice-principal in a charter school and is responsible for the e-learning of the school. I really don’t remember when or where we crossed paths but it sure has been great for me. Glenn discusses a variety of things on his blog with some of the topics focusing on technology while others examine a variety of educational issues.  As Glenn states in his short bio

 Glenn Moses is an assistant principal and teacher. He is trying to turn high school into something meaningful, figure out the best ways to teach students online, and make sure that all students have access to online content. It’s a takeover, not a makeover.

I appreciate Glenn’s honesty and his desire to do what is best for students. Great reading.

Each of these educators has had an effect on me as an educational administrator and are important people in my network. Give them a read!

Never a dull moment

Things have not been going quite as I had planned. In fact, if I were to plan how they could go awry Monday , today would have been pretty much bang on. Okay. I arrived at school at my usual time, went to grab a coffee but it wasn’t ready yet so I go down to my office and began my morning looking at paperwork that I had ignored yesterday. (that was my first mistake, looking at paperwork so early) I proceeded to go talk with some of the teachers, stopped in the hall to talk to a few students and then back to my office to look at email. My normal Tuesday morning ended. What do I find but a reply to my email about a meeting today that I figured was in the afternoon. Nope - 9:30. Location - an hour away. Time now - 8:35. I didn’t panic but I also didn’t get my cup of coffee.

For the  next 20 minutes, I’m dashing around trying to get someone to cover my supervision, cover my class, be acting-principal (never have figured that one out. How come someone else who takes my place is acting? What does that mean when I’m there?) Then there is the phone call home to make arrangements for hockey practice and a few other after school activities. By the time I leave town it’s now 9:10 and I’m driving in fog so thick you can cut with a knife.

Why am I doing this? Oh, yeah, it’s for the kids and I love my job and I have payments.

The meeting was ….. - it was about technology use in the division. The coffee, when I finally got there, was pretty good and lunch was great - lasagna. I figured that things were turning out not to bad and I was going to get home in time for hockey pick-up. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I made a fatal error at that moment. Something that usually only rookie principals make. Something that I should have remembered. It’s Tuesday. Go home. Nope, not me. Not today.

I went back to the school. For some reason I do this when I’ve been at a meeting out of town. Even though I kept telling myself to just go home and go in early tomorrow.

We had 7 new students register in school. One who will need a full-time aide and others with some learning difficulties. Teachers are going on breaks already and the substitutes aren’t really ready to come in yet. I have a request for semester 2 timetable for a distance ed class and, well, I’m not even close to being done. And to make things really interesting, my office is now the football equipment room and old computer dumping ground for the moment. It’s only Tuesday!!!

See, if I’d gone home, I wouldn’t have known any of this until Wednesday and you kind of expect this kind of stuff on a Wednesday. I mean, it’s the day when many things take place because everyone is finally fully awake and recovered from the weekend. People are finally realizing that the paperwork isn’t in or they’re missing a form. Parents feel that all kids need to be back at school because, well, it’s Wednesday and they were feeling okay this morning. (especially after they threw up. Really. They did.) Teachers are realizing you had said you’d do something and are reminding you that you said you’d do something. (Thank goodness that by Thursday afternoon they forget because neither of you can remember what it is you said you were going to do.) Kids have been aggravating one another for two days and someone is going to get it and you might have to figure out who got what and who was really aggravating whom (even though this has been going on for longer than they have been in school and will only end with, well, probably old age and death) but you still have to work through things to make sure that everyone knows that you actually did something this week.

But oh no. I figured I’d just drop by and see what went on during the day. Thus I began my Wednesday work today and I’m not really ready for it. My body and mind are still in Tuesday and what I’m needing to do is really in need of Wednesday thinking. But I’m here so I’d better do something besides write this post. Post writing doesn’t really have a day. You can write on any day it’s just the content will be different depending on the day. Like if this had been tomorrow, I would have written about it being a typical Wednesday with all that was going on and what had happened.

All this has really messed me up but, as I work through this, I realize that if I’m already doing Wednesday work that means that Friday can be partly Saturday so I can leave early and begin my weekend Friday at noon. Hey, that’s sounding not bad. Wait, I have to go to a basketball tournament with my boys team which will not only make it impossible to leave early Friday but I have to spend Saturday with students so it really won’t feel like a Saturday.  Now I’m really down. I don’t think even an Aero bar is going to get me over this. What was I thinking when I booked that? It was probably in early November when all those stupid tournament requests come out and you figure “Hey, that’s sounds good. What’s the worst that can happen? What, will Tuesday really become Wednesday?” and you laugh it off. Every year the same thing happens and yet I don’t remember. I think that when they took out my heart and my sense of humour (you have to have those removed to be an administrator. True story. Mine are in a jar on my desk so I can show the kids when they come in.) they also removed also done a bit of a nip and tuck on my longterm memory so that I only recall things after I’ve committed to them. (Probably why I sit on so many committees.)

I was blocking it out and not thinking about it but now I end up thinking about it all because my Tuesday ended up being a Wednesday.

Better get at planning semester 2 and figuring out where I’m going to put all this stuff stacked in my office. And to think, I’m the guy supposedly in charge around here. Can you imagine what Thursday must be like

Why are we only partly done our year?

Tomorrow morning life will once again begin that familiar cadence as school begins for 2008. We’re almost half-way through the year but 2008 is just beginning and with it all the expectations of a new year. It seems kind of funny to be starting a new year in the middle of a school year. I mean, all the rest of the world works on the calendar year, beginning in January and ending in December, kinda. Why is education so different? Why do we begin our year in August/September and end it in June? Why couldn’t we transform our school year to begin in January and end in December? Would it be impossible? What is keeping education from doing this?

The new year will start whether we are ready for it or not. Instead of waiting until June to finish our schooling, why can’t we finish it in December - have exams and begin our new year in January? What is keeping education from joining the rest of the world and following a yearly schedule that is more closely aligned to the calendar. We’d get rid of all the problems with birthdays - born in X year, you begin school instead of having a cutoff of, like, September for students.

I’ve thought about this for quite awhile, ever since I began having to deal with budgets that would begin in August and end in June but really didn’t happen that way since they ended with the Dec cycle. So, as I prepare to go back to school, knowing that I have about 3 weeks to finish my course and then exams begin, I really wonder if this is the best for students. Why can’t  we finish everything up, write exams and be done with the year like everyone else? January would see us beginning another year, students would be moving on to a new grade in time with a new year. We might even be able to do some moving of holiday time so that there is a bit more time off now or at other times of the year instead of the huge break in July and August when students lose so much. We are no longer an agrarian society yet our school system is still being run like we were.

Would changing the way our system was organized allow us to break the mold in other areas? Would we be able to redesign how things work and take into consideration what works best in each area? I mean, what works well in cities might not work as well in the rural areas. Do we all have to be cookie-cutter replicas? Education the world over looks very similar, from what I’ve seen. Why is that? Why is it we seem to have only one formula for schooling?

Tomorrow, ready or not, school will begin for many educators and students. Life will once again fall into a familiar pattern as education moves forward to the end of yet another year - in June. Maybe we need to disrupt that pattern. I mean, for the first time in history, there will be more people living in urban areas than in rural which could give way to a whole group of new developments and changes. Could 2008 be the year of the great educational reform?

Blogged with Flock

Tags: schoolyear, school, learning, timeframe, reform

Resolutions

My resolutions for this year are pretty straightforward because I’ve decided that I need to focus on a few things and do them well instead of the usual list of 10 that I don’t really do at all. My #1 resolution is to take care of my health. I’m reading RealAge by Michael F. Roizen and looking at how my “habits” are affecting my body and my life. I not promoting this. Instead, it is a read that is giving my ideas about my health and the choices I make. #2 resolution is to blog/write frequently even if it is a short post. Sometimes I have so many ideas I want to discuss that I am not sure which to follow and end up doing none. Since joining Passionate Teachers and Fireside Conversations - both educator Ning sites, I have decided to dedicate a portion of my morning to writing/commenting. #3 is spending more time with my family. To do this, I will have to prioritize what I am doing and learn to really stick to my schedule. #4 - the last one - quit talking about web2.0 and starting implementing it with my staff, students and other administrators. First step, setting up sessions with teachers to explore. Second, putting teachers in contact with other teachers. Finally, begin doing presentations to others about the everyday uses of the technologies.

That’s it. 4. Each one requires that I pay attention to details - something that isn’t a strong trait for me but will be essential if the use of technology is to become a norm for our students. It will require teachers overcoming their fears about technology and doing things a bit differently but, unless these steps are taken, things will continue at the glacial pace they are moving. I want my daughters to be exposed and use the skills they have developed outside of school in their daily school lives.

People often have goals/resolutions but they don’t take the time to get to the specifics which undermines their goals. So, for me, each of the goals above will be fleshed out and be broken down into smaller, achievable goals. As my friends, I hope that some of you will call me on these goals and help me to keep them. I’ll share my specific goals using google docs if that helps.

2008 is indeed my year!

Why do we have school?

Years back, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I decided that I needed some money to pay for bills, food and rent because I didn’t want to move home and live with my parents. I was 18 you know and that would have been a real blow to my independence and self-esteem if I had had to move back home. After doing a few odd things, I happened upon someone who needed some painting. The rest, as they say, is history. I liked the job and, after a few summer working for someone else, I decided to work for myself. With a partner, a company was born that proved to be quite successful, employing 20 odd university students during its peak operations. I was also attending university and this “summer” job provided me with the opportunity to  earn enough money to put myself through school plus pay the bills. At one point, I decided that I should really take this a bit more seriously and took some classes in the craft moving toward my journeyman status.

I’ve been reflecting on this over the past few weeks. I’ve been finding it rather difficult to write these past few weeks because of a ho-hum that has settled in. Now this could partly be due to the fact that my candle has finally reached the point where two ends cannot burn at once. Another important impact is that I’m neck deep in various projects that are requiring my time. A third possible reason for my lack of ideas is that I’m not really sure where I’m going right now. That whole “being adrift” feeling and not having a focus. I’m lacking enthusiasm right now and I really don’t know why.

However, while cruising through some posts the other day, I watched a video Digital Students @ Analog Schools. As I listened to the students speak, I was reminded of the movie Teachers with good ol’ Nick Nolty.

The issues that are raised in that movie regarding teacher/student relations, the incredible tensions teachers find themselves under and the ways they deal with that stress, are similar to those we are still facing today. The schools didn’t work for those students, or the teachers for that matter,  why should we expect them to work now? I mean, the best teacher is an escapee from a mental institute who makes history come alive for the students. Students are depicted as entering and exiting a world of ditto worksheets and any teacher who is reaching out to students and using whatever technological methods available is still an outsider. Now there is more going on in the movie than this but the whole idea that the schools weren’t working.

As for what students are saying in the video about what they expect when going to school, I’d venture to guess that it was no different than some previous generations. I mean, my university experience didn’t prepare me a lick for what I do today. In fact, other than the skills of reading, writing and math, I really question all the other things that were covered in my schooling. Very little, if any, gave me the skills that I needed when I entered the work force, started a company, did a variety of other things and then entered my present profession.  Not to mention the skills I have found that I need as a parent and a community member. Holly macaroni! Where was I during those classes? No amount of “real world” experience or problem solving could have prepared me for that.

However, I didn’t have the means to express that frustration or angst that today’s youth are being provided and it has given them a voice unlike any voice they have had in the past. As I’ve discussed with students a few times, having a voice is one thing but expecting that you will get what you want is another. As I watch the different presentations about schools and read the discussions, I wonder if there is any way we can bring the two sides together? Can schools ever hope to provide what the youth want when it comes to education? Did schools ever really provide students with skills for society? Or do we just pay homage to a system by saying “it worked for past students but wont’ for these students.” when in fact it didn’t work and, from my brief survey of people around me, didn’t really prepare them for the lives they are living. Could it be the whole idea of “preparing the youth future society” won’t really take place at school? Instead, it will take place like it did for many, during the day-to-day of actually living and dealing with what is taking place at that time.

As I ponder what people say about schools, students, technology and the future,  I wonder if we are any different from what has taken place before? Sure there is greater access to global partnerships but we still need to take care of what is happening in our own backyard. Sure we can communicate with people all over the world via a multitude of methods but it’s the daily face-to-face encounters that move us and affect us far greater. Yes we can work and collaborate in incredible ways but the sharing of duties within a house still impacts people in deeply rooted ways.

I don’t think we stop using and working with the technologies and helping students to use them to broaden their learning and sort through their  understandings. Technologies do give us access to things we didn’t have before in a number of areas. But, when we really get down to it, did schools really prepare students for the future? Or does school play another role in our societal design besides the preparation for the future? Should we be looking at things from a different perspective?  I’m not sure. But as I work through quite a few different “real world” problems with students, parents, teachers and staff, I wonder if we need to reconsider how we label the role schools have in our society.

Tabamania

It’s my birthday today, November 13th. No. I wasn’t born on a Friday either.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I do residential and commercial painting, during my many leisurely hours. Monday, which was an off day for us, was spent putting in a few hours painting some new Ready to Move homes that are being built in town. This new business venture has been a boom for our small community but, like in many areas, trades people have been hard to find so I’ve been enlisted to do help.

When I’m painting, I have quite a few hours to think about things of all sorts. It’s during this time that I contemplate how our School Improvement might look over the next few years or how our Code of Conduct will develop. I think about how we might engage a few of our students that are not interested or what we, as a community, can do for our youth. Today, during one of my less than deep moments, I thought about how the average person uses the browser and, on average, how many tabs they have open at any one time. (Hey, it was a long day

Now, I’ve found that I usually have about 10 tabs going at the same time as I keep tabs (ha ha ha) on various things. I have ClaimID, Pageflakes, iGoogle, school inbox, twitter, staff wiki, blog, admin wiki, planning wiki, class wiki and usually a news site open. Now, if someone has a twitter about a particular URL, I might check it out so the tabs could pile up. I do use delicious but I’m not very good at looking there. I’ve begun to reduce the number of tabs I keep open since it sometimes makes the browser become unresponsive when I awaken the laptop.

I also find that with my use of more online apps like Google docs, calendar and such, I have more tabs open as I add things to various places.

What’s your tab count? Do you find yourself with multiple tabs open at the same time? How do you track your tab use? Has it grown with the more online apps that you use?

I only Vote in Elections

Edublog Award time is upon the edublogosphere and, given some of the already interesting discussions that I’ve seen about them, I’m going to voice my own opinion - not as any kind of moral conscience but just as my own opinion.I’ve written about the edublogosphere and how, in a nutshell, it’s a case of some bloggers who have high profiles voicing ideas and thoughts and others following. For myself, it’s a case that there are blogs that I read regularly, blogs I find via other blogs and blogs I find doing searches just to see if someone new is around. I have also found a number of people who do most of their discussing in social networks which eliminates them despite their good ideas.

Why do we need these?

I get that we want to honour those who are doing exceptional work. We want to encourage people to use these tools, contribute to the blogosphere and a host of other things. I just don’t understand the why. With the Twitter becoming a tool I’m using as much as my blog, I’m wondering if we’re at a different point now. As teachers integrate tools and use them seamlessly with their teaching, there are new examples of Flat projects and people assisting others with these. The projects are becoming much more collaborative in nature with all kinds of people contributing to the overall success of the project.

Individual teachers might be using blogs but they might also see podcasting or use of ustream and video as being a better use of their time never making it to the point of posting because, face it, it does take time and dedication. As I talk about in my last post, some people are just very busy and being part of the edublogosphere isn’t one thing they do.

Doug Belshaw has been taking it on the chin for a few things lately. (Must of been his week!) If you go over to his post regarding his thoughts about the awards, you’ll see all kinds of comments from those who have very good points about why the awards are important to, well, the other stuff which has nothing to do with the awards. The main point, however, is pointed out by Karyn Romeis’ 

I don’t have a problem with the notion of the awards, I think it raises the profile of blogging per se and it always brings a few previously overlooked gems to my attention. That said, if Doug doesn’t like the idea, I think he should be allowed the space to say so and to give his reasons for saying so.

You can disagree with his reasons and give your own reasons. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the stuff comes up. Having said that, I’m not sure that I like what happens when people are campaigning to get their blogs nominated for various awards. I don’t believe that was the intention of the whole thing but I could be wrong. (Read through Josie’s comment on Doug’s blog. I don’t think it suggests that openly campaigning is what this is all about.

I really could care less. In reality, I’ve enough going on in my life as a father, community member and  principal without this. Right now we have an election going on in our province and I’m much more interested in that and how it could affect various parts of my life. I can see how this is important for some people and they see it as recognition for all the work they have done. Others see it as another “thing” to collect and put on the shelf - something to prove.

Sorry to all those out there, but I vote in elections. As for the awards, there are so many great blogs and writers that reducing it to a few just doesn’t do justice to the others. And if some of what is going on in the comments like found on Doug’s blog is what we get from having the awards, then I definitely don’t want any part of them. Doug shouldn’t have to put up with that just because of his opinion.