Things We Mean to Teach and Some We Don't

One of the questions we responded to during our consideration of Behavioral Theory was how punishment may be "archaic," that is, outdated and unnecessary in education. Of course, a clearer understanding of what "punishment" is, exactly, matters greatly here, as punishment has a wide range of extremes. The fact of the matter is that negative attention or consequences are a fact of life in the real world. You speed, for example, you ought not be surprised to get pulled over and issued a speeding summons. If we are to posit, as I do, that education is to prepare students for life in the real world, then not including punishment in some way might be leaving students somewhat unprepared for the real world. In a perfect world, all students would learn and be attentive and work to their ability all the time, everyday of the school year. Alas, our world isn't perfect. So I keep the options of punishment available.
With that said, I haven't written a referral or sent a student out of my classroom in years (literally), and one student I did send out of my class in my second year of teaching for chewing gum (and defying me) ending up getting arrested some thirty minutes later (literally -- it's one of my principal's favorite stories to tell). I teach middle schoolers, and I have discovered that if you are honest with them -- tell them what they have to do and why they should do it and so on -- most often most of them "buy in." I happen to think that there are few "bad kids," just kids behaving badly, often times because they find themselves in bad situations beyond their control. There, the teacher can play a pivotal guiding role to help steer these kids away from poor choices and bad decisions. In my first year of teaching, I taught an entire class of retained 7th graders and another of retained 8th graders. I say with some sincerity that I learned more from them than they did from me, though, truth be told, I also like to think that I helped to put them on a better path in life.
Last year I was teaching a book called Speak, in which a young teen girl is raped at a summer party. One of the issues of the book deals with "Learned Helplessness," a concept in which one learns not to do anything when, in fact, one can. The girl fails to speak up and get help. Why she doesn't seems puzzling? The answer is Learned Helplessness. This concept helps to explain the behavior of prisoners in concentration camps during the Holocaust. In any case, I have included an interesting link to show just how powerful and subtly influential Learned Helplessness can be. If students can be influenced so easily so quickly, it makes me pause to reflect on all that I may be teaching my students entirely unaware. Something to think about.

We've Soared in 50 Years!

Fifty years ago on this day, John Glenn rocketed into space on the Mercury space flight aboard Friendship 7. His five-hour flight took him around the world three times before returning safely back to earth. Fifty years seems a long time ago, but considering that Glenn had no computers on board for that first trip into space, and the ubiquity of computers and cell phones and so on today -- it may seem even longer. That trip was a sorely needed confidence booster for our country, which seemed to suffer a loss of self-confidence when the Soviets sent up Sputnik to take an early lead in the space race. I watched Glenn deliver a speech in 2002 in which he recalled the preparations for and flight of Friendship 7, and in his closing remarks he mentioned how essential research is to human progress. He mentioned Alexander Fleming, whose curiosity with mold led to his discovery of penicillin -- and our world and industry has been forever changed. He also mentioned a visit he made to Wernher von Braun, noted developer of rockets, and was surprised at the books he found in von Braun's study. He expected to find books on mathematics and engineering; however, he found more books on religion and philosophy. Glenn concluded that most of our great thinkers and innovators shared one quality: an intense curiosity.
Last week I delivered my first virtual lesson on the learning theory Synectics. I was fortunate to be able to work with Angela and Sue -- between the three of us, we managed to work out an effective presentation of Synectics along with a good lesson, too. I watched another NASA legend, Gene Kranz, who related the trials and tribulations of trying to get the astronauts of Apollo 13 safely back to earth after an explosion disabled the spacecraft. As Kranz related the process he and the others at NASA used to find solutions to the myriad problems to surmount, I realized the process he employed was Synectics. These problems were, like space travel itself, unfamiliar and strange, and to discover the solutions to problems -- one of which was finding a way to take a square filter and retrofit it for a round hole -- those at NASA followed the steps almost identical to find those solutions that ultimately resulted in three lives saved.
At a time when Americans may be feeling a loss of self-confidence -- with a sluggish economy, a massive, looming national debt, and other problems -- maybe we need to look back at how far we've come in just fifty years. Glenn, who became a senator from Ohio after his concluding his career as an astronaut pioneer, concluded his speech by mentioning how great a doctrine the Constitution is and the need for Americans to be active and involved in our government. While we live in problem-laden times, we also live in times of great opportunity. Like Synectics, maybe we need to just look at it a different way!

Synthesizing Synectics...Virtually!

Today is showtime -- the day we present our lesson on Synectics to our colleagues. As I have learned a great deal about the Synectics approach to problem-solving and generating interesting and "fresh" ideas, I feel comfortable with delivering the content of our lesson with, I think, an interesting "hands on" lesson. My nervousness centers around delivering this lesson "virtually" using Wimba (and, hopefully, only having to use Wimba). Reflecting back upon the mere year I have been in the MAITS program, my experiences with technology, as well as many of my colleagues', I might add, gives me reason to pause...and perhaps tremble. You never know -- and cannot control -- when the lights will go out (as they did for our final presentations last year)and the technology stumbles and falls. My experience working with Angela and Sue has been a good and rewarding one. Each of us, I feel, carried our share of the load in preparing for this lesson, and, with a little bit of luck, it should go well! It's a good thing this is a virtual lesson -- you won't see my rabbit's foot and horseshoe and four-lear clover on my computer. Good luck to all the presenters!

Connecting the Dots...

Recently I presented my students with a simple but challenging problem: to try to connect all nine dots in a square box using four continuous straight lines only. That is, you cannot lift your pencil or retrace your lines to complete the task. Sounds simple enough, but, for most, it isn't. Usually most fail by trying to complete the task by remaining within the box of nine dots, and these efforts are futile -- it cannot be done that way. The only solution is to extend a line beyond the box in order to connect two of the dots on a diagonal. The quaint words of wisdom "Think outside the box!" ring true here. And the sentiment of this message is to look at and try things in a unique and different way. So it's no surprise that this task came to mind as I delved into the Synectics theory these past two weeks.
Steve Jobs, the great innovator and founder of Apple, whose achievements in his shortened life far surpass those who live long, full ones, offered a few words of wisdom in his commencement speech to students graduating from Stanford, and one of his points including reflecting back on one's life to "connect the dots." He added that you cannot do so looking forward -- you just have to "trust your instinct that it will all work out."
Years ago (too many, in fact), when I was taking education courses, we were asked to share how we study and prepare for tests. Many of my classmates offered that they review their notes and so forth; however, I told used an analogy of what I learned of nomadic Indians who migrate during the year, and how they travel a certain distance, remembering to turn and look back. Why? It's all too simple: so that they would know what the return trip would look like. I added that I always try to "fit" whatever is new with my learning into what I already know, and certainly this is reflected in several of the learning theories we are presently considering, including cognitivism, connectivism, and constructvism. Doing so helps to add to the schema I have already constructed, perhaps even strengthening the concepts and ideas I have learned already.
One year into working toward my masters in instructional technology, as I stare at the daunting road ahead of new learning and the attending work it entai.s, it seems appropriate now to glance back to see where I was and how far I have come. One year ago I did not know what a Web 2.0 tool was (LOL) and couldn't perform even the simplest of tasks, such as adding links. Today, this morning, at my brother's kitchen table, I am drafting a new post on my blog some 100 miles away from home. After Amy's last class, where I had to step out of my comfort zone by creating a 50-point contract of my own projects -- something like opening the door of an animal who has spent a lifetime in a cage and now doesn't know what to do (please note the Synectics connection here!)-- as Jobs says in his speech, it all somehow worked out. Now I am presented with new challenges and obstacles to surmount -- preparing presentations and delivering a lesson with a remote partner, finding and sharing work and theories with a global parter, and so on. And all this while teaching my 7th graders English and working a second job on the weekend seems quite daunting. I suppose it's time to end here, so I'll do so with a few word of Steve Job's: "stay hungry, stay foolish" and believe "it will all work out somehow."