Dressing for the part

An interesting conversation on Twitter arose about professional dress.

The conversation went on about how some teachers feel that dressing more relaxed allows them to connect with students, while others suggested that we need to dress as professionals.

Personally, I think it's all about dressing professionally for both students and teachers.

I've worked at two uniform schools and one non-uniform school, and while every school is different, there is a distinct and noticeable difference in the uniform schools.  I firmly believe that dressing for what you intend to be doing subconsciously changes your behaviour.  This is very evident on "non uniform" days, and even students will notice this.

Just as you wouldn't wear gym clothes to a fancy party, there should be an expectation that students and teachers dress appropriately.

Does this mean uniforms?  Personally I think it does - it means that everyone is dressed appropriately, and furthermore, it removes the issues with clothing being a differentiator.  Uniforms don't have to be super formal, however, to work - a nice golf shirt and business-casual pants are all that is required for students to "act the part" and dress for a purpose.

Some teachers suggest that dressing for the part doesn't change how professional they act.  While in the larger picture I would agree - clothes don't make the man (or woman), but I firmly believe that dress affects how we behave, subtly.

Another very large issue is how we are perceived - far too often the public has a negative view of teachers, and I think that if we want to start being treated more as professionals, we need to start dressing and acting that way.

Every job has a dress code, why shouldn't school?

Show me the money...

I'll start this post by saying that I'm a huge fan of private schools.  I think they're a better form of education, and part of the reason I'm a fan will hopefully be revealed here.

Now that I've turned off probably 80% of my readers...my topic for today :)

It's nearing the end of the school year here in Alberta, and budget cuts are being seen across all programs.  I was curious one day just how much money is spent on children's education in Alberta.  I was quite shocked at the result - a little over $12,000 (that's education budget divided by students).  That includes everything to do with education in Alberta - all the administration, all the school upkeep, all the salaries, all the supplies...everything.

I then looked around and remembered that I worked at a fantastic private school last year that charged a grand total of $9,000 per kid.  Since the government gave them some money as well, it worked out to about $13,000 per child, or about a thousand more than the Alberta government is spending on education.

The differences are huge, I accept - managing an entire province costs money, managing multiple schools costs money, and helping all the kids we have to help costs money too...but, can't we spend it a bit better?

My proposal - treat every public school like a private one.  Give them the money per kid - all of it, minus a few salaries at the ministerial level - and say "go forth and teach".  Trust the principal, trust the teachers, and trust the parents to keep it all running.  There doesn't need to be a district, there doesn't need to be special funds to various schools for this or that...there just needs to be money, per child, in the hands of the people who are actually doing the teaching.

It works for some FANTASTIC schools in Canada - there isn't any oversight for the private schools in Canada - they sink or swim based on their ability to deliver quality education.

Some would argue that the parents donate huge sums of money to these schools - yes, they do, but not for programming.  Check for yourself - all their books are public because they're charities, and you can see that every dime they receive from parents and the government is spent on salaries and yearly programming - nothing capital.  In addition, parent donations are spent entirely on capital projects or scholarships, not yearly programming.

So really, what would go wrong?  If we hire a good principal, back them up with a volunteer board of appropriate business and education professionals in the community and run it like a business delivering education...what's the trouble?  The school would be accountable because the parents would have total choice over where their child went to school and the money would follow the child.  Schools that weren't using the money well and delivering bad programs would be simply put "out of business".

If a private school can deliver the kind of education they can on about the same as the government spends....where's the money going?

"Sounds" good

A quick share on what I've done recently in a "media arts" themed Options class (like an elective for Junior high kids).

I found some pictures on the internet that displayed an obvious emotion - a girl running through a field, a man sitting lonely on a bench, a goal being scored in soccer, etc.  Using Garage Band I had the students create a 30 second "theme song" to go with the picture - the criteria was "if someone heard your song without the picture, could they describe the same emotion as when they see the shot?".

Some lessons learned:

Any loop software works for this - Aviary was a close second choice in terms of using their instruments to create, but they don't have "loops" like Apple does.

Showing students some "good" music/clips can be really helpful - especially pointing out which instruments are generally used for which emotions.

Talking about beats per minute (here's a great math lesson!) can also help get students into the idea of creating music for a mood.

"Less is more" tends to be good for my kids - they want to put 6 tracks of loops all at the same time, completely drowning out the idea.  Three or four max would be better.

Showing them how to "space" their tracks so that instruments and beats come in and fade out at different times can be an easy way for them to discover "creative" song production.

Try it yourself!  You'll have a better understanding of some of the struggles the kids are about to go through if you've tried to create a mood using some sort of audio program.  Some things I found were the difficulties in not being too repetitive, as well as the challenge of finding instruments to match specific moods.

Overall, it was a fun class, and the kids came up with some really neat songs to go with the pictures.

Yes, you have to...

As part of pretty much every teaching professional body/union/licensing agent/other "thing", teachers agree to ongoing professional learning.

It's a hot button issue around contract time (oh, we need more PD!)

In fact, one of the biggest things I keep hearing from my colleagues is that they aren't trained on xyz equipment.

Okay.....so why do we have to wait for someone else to teach us?  I suppose it's because we're teachers who are used to guiding students slowly but surely towards a "lightbulb moment".

Here's the problem....ask most teachers, and they all want their kids to be more independent, more able to solve problems, more able to "figure stuff out", and yet, some people will sit idly by and say "I don't know how".

Here's my solution - tell them to learn!

We're not allowed to be "bad" teachers - we need to have criteria to mark with, we need to ensure that we have an orderly class, we need to ensure that our assignments are more than simply stand at the front and lecture, and we need to ensure that our students learn things.  These things are professional obligations that, rightfully so, are enforced (or could be enforced) through our contracts.

Why then are we allowed to simply say "Sorry, I know all this research says that using this idea or that idea or this thing or that thing is a great tool for learning, but no thanks, I'll stick with what I've got".  This is the response given far too often when teachers are asked to implement this idea, or this technology, or this lesson.

So I go back to it - tell them to!  My first VP was fantastic, and a major innovator in educational technology.  He told the whole staff "You will use Twitter and you will use a blog roll.  We're going to talk about what you learn at monthly staff meetings".  This was my first job - I didn't know that, in the culture I see now, he apparently wasn't "allowed" to tell teachers this.

So brand-new-me learned how to use Twitter.  I learned how to set up a blog roll.  It didn't take long, and it still doesn't - he wasn't expecting the moon, he wanted us to get into it.

And I thank him for it every morning when I use these tools to better my learning.  I didn't know what it was at the time, but I went along with it, and it's really made me a better teacher.

So really folks - why CAN'T we be told to learn something?  That's just one example - I've taught myself how to edit videos, shoot photographs, use twenty-three million online tools, and generally how to be a better teacher.  It didn't take forever - 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there.  I see it as part of my professional obligation.

Doctors and engineers and pilots and the like (appear) to have done it right - they subscribe to journals, they talk to colleagues, they stay up on the cutting edge stuff because they're required to by their professional obligations.

So a message to administrators - please, force us to learn!

The Power of PD

As some know, our school won $20,000 from Best Buy this year for new technology.  With the money, we purchased 15 Macbooks and 5 video cameras, along with the various accessories.

The primary users, thus far, have been myself and a colleague who helped create the videos.  This wasn't by design - we advertised that the equipment was available for everyone to use, and we'd be happy to provide some help.  No one had taken us up on the offer...

Yesterday, however, we finally got some PD time with an external presenter.  The content wasn't hard - indeed, as my colleagues sat down with the Macbooks, they were easily following along or moving ahead of the presenter.  Nothing incredibly complex was presented, but an amazing thing happened - teachers who had before shied away from using the laptops were getting very excited to try things in their classrooms.

It was interesting to see because more and more I'm discovering that it's not a lack of ability to use technology that is causing some teachers to avoid it, it is a lack of time to explore it.  Our very valuable 30 minute preps a day tend to be taken up with mundane things like marking and photocopying, and while I believe all teachers should spend some time on PD, it's not always the case.  Therefore, providing two hours of dedicated time was fantastic for my colleagues as they had the excuse to explore a technology they haven't had the chance to yet.

I encourage all "teach leaders" in schools to set aside some time for teachers to explore the technology - time they wouldn't have usually gotten, so time they wont feel like they should be using to mark or photocopy - you'd be amazed at what could happen!

In Defense of a Middle Ground

I've been spending more time on Twitter, and a bit more time reading blogs lately.  I've noticed something about everyone crying out for change - it appears that in their minds that it's all or nothing.  There is no partial solution - either completely remove (or implement) something, or bust.

Some of what I've seen lately...

Homework is evil!

Tests destroy learning!
Competition is bad!

It all has to be relevant!

The internet should be unfiltered completely!

Math has to be real!

The thing is?  I agree with all of that - but all to varying degrees.

Why can't people (and I'm guilty of this as well, although trying to change) accept a middle ground.  Are there really that many issues in education that have total rights or total wrongs?  I can't name too many, and certainly, in my opinion, none of the ones I've listed above are black and white.

Where do I stand?

I think some homework is important.  It allows teachers to provide some practice for students that they didn't have time for in class, and it provides students with an opportunity to learn a valuable skill of completing work for a deadline.  Not 50 questions, not 2 hours, but a few questions to reinforce a lesson.

I think tests are necessary, as I said in a previous post, to prepare students for the next stage of their education.  I also think that it allows for some learning to be displayed in an efficient manner.  I don't use them often, and I don't place a huge weight on them, but I certainly don't think they should be removed completely.

Competition is bad?  Really?  Competition where someone feels bad, I suppose.  Competition that's unfair, yes.  Competition with kids who can't understand winning and losing - sure.  Competition to teach a concept with a bit of fun?  Not a chance.  My kids LOVE playing math Tic-Tac-Toe, and I've used a dozen other "competition" games before as well.  What game do students play on the playground?  Competition tag games, football or basketball, etc.  Winners and losers aren't bad, it's how we react to them.

As I spoke about previously, relevance is important, but not always vital.  Learning for the sake of learning is valuable, and learning to learn is important.

I'm a huge fan of unblocking most websites, even some of the questionable ones, because students have to know what to do when they encounter something inappropriate.  Sometimes, however, age plays a factor - we rate movies not necessarily because we don't think children should understand the topics being covered, but because we believe them not to be ready to deal with it yet.  Therefore, most of the internet should be unblocked most of the time...but there are cases when some filtering is necessary.

As a math teacher, I get the question all the time about "What's the point".  Usually I have an answer, because most of our math really does have a point.  Sometimes, it's simply for the love of learning, or for the act of solving a challenging problem.  Sometimes, math doesn't have to be completely relevant.

I would simply ask everyone screaming for education reform to think about perhaps considering the other side of the coin...consider that perhaps there is a middle ground.

It's rare that there are decisions that have absolute rights and absolute wrongs, there are too many factors and too many situations that we have to consider when we scream for change.

Social Networking in 10 minutes or less

So one of the many complaints from colleagues that they "just don't have time" to use Twitter/Blogs/other PD opportunities is they just can't find the time.

And who can blame them?  It all looks like WAY too much reading, if you're not used to the idea.  Twitter has gotten a bad wrap - "It's about people posting what they ate for breakfast" is the most common comment I get.  I also get "I don't care what Beieber thinks" is a close second.  Showing teachers without a good explanation, however, also harms them - they see my stream updating every second with something new to read, or look at, or respond to, and get seriously overwhelmed.

I explain to them that I get my PD in 10 minutes with a morning coffee.  They act surprised - "10 minutes to read all that?".  Nope.  Only what I feel like.

It's so important to remember that good resources keep popping up in multiple places, and if you miss something, it's probably going to come back.  It's also important to note that if you HADN'T looked, you wouldn't get ANYTHING, so getting one thing is better than the alternative :)

I explain to them that my morning works something like this - I open up my blogs, and skim through the various education/math/science titles - call it 15 posts.  I'll probably read one, and save one for a prep or the next morning (remember, 10 minutes or less!).

I'll pop open twitter and read the last 5-6 tweets in case someone has an interesting discussion happening right now, and then scroll looking for links.  I might click on 3.

They start to see what I'm talking about - I get one or two things a day, which adds up to a LOT in a week and even more in a month :)  The rest?  It will either resurface, or I'm not any worse off than not looking.

I'll be making a post about why I think we need to require more continuous PD, but I've converted a couple of people to spend 10 minutes learning something new.