How I'd love to run classes with blogs and podcasting. I don't think you can ever really get away with face to face, one on one contact. But so much time is wasted in schools. Just think, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone, if you blow off the last ten minutes of class and let students visit, in a semester, that amounts to 15 hours of wasted class time. Now couple that with the same amount of time at the beginning of the hour that it takes many of us to get our lessons set and take roll and so on and you're looking at 30 hours of wasted time!

How much more effective would it be if we could, as congressmen George Miller put it, "make school a process rather than just a place."

Colleges are doing it. On the latest podcast from NPR's "All Things Considered," which focuses on education related issues, one university instructor is flipping the traditional classroom model upside down. Instead of expecting student to arrive as blank slates where they will be told what to know in class and then be expected to go out and read about it and enhance what they learned in the class and then be evaluated the next class session on what they learned, this professor is doing the opposite. He has his students come in to class - thanks to blogs and podcasts - full of knowledge already. Then in class they discuss and debate and make meaning out of the knowledge. Of course, while this is going on, he can survey the class and evaluate where students are in terms of leaning.

I like that approach, and this news story goes hand in hand with that approach.

In fact, the more we can put students in charge of their own learning - and allow them to personally relate to it so they can derive significant meaning and relevancy for it - I'm all for it.

In an odd way, I'm working to make my job obsolete. If I'm really teaching kids to learn, I'm really hoping to make them efficient enough where they won't need me. They will be active knowledge seekers.

Yet, where will you find a high-stakes test that can measure that?

The Scrimmage

We took our band of 13 freshman football players into our scrimmage Saturday against Bemidji, who fielded a team of 48 freshman (they took their own bus).

I felt a little bit like King Leonidas leading his 300 Spartans against the might Persian army.

And we fared about as well too.

That's a little unfair. We gave up a few touchdowns, but our defense impressed me. We have a couple linebackers who love to hit. One of our middle linebackers was all over the place. I knew he was a stud when I was helping with a tackling drill last week when the freshmen were practicing with the varsity and this linebacker didn't hesitate to jump right into the drill against a senior.

Offensively, we fared a tad worse. We only scored once, on a bootleg pass option. We did drop a couple sure touchdown passes (that was one downside of the scrimmage: no one can catch the ball! What an irony. I have one of the most talented quarterbacks I have ever had, and I have no one to catch it!). Our running game got off to a rocky start as we fumbled on the first three plays. Finally, we got it going and had some success with counters and a few powers.

We should get a couple sophomores to help us out this week . . . and they'll be greatly appreciated. A few of my offensive lineman were really sucking wind by the end of the scrimmage. You can tell this because they were standing straight up on defense and rubbing bellies with the offensive linemen.

All in all, there is hope. I don't see us having the 6-1 record like last year (Bemidji . . . errrr . . . spoiled our undefeated season. It was getting dark so they conveniently switched to running time when we were behind. We also fumbled six times. But we had a chance to win with under a minute to go (and about 40 yards to the endzone), but I called a dumb trick play that was intercepted). But it'that group will be one of the best groups to ever come through TRF.

Just last week while the juniors and seniors were heading off to paintball, and the freshman were practicing, a good share of the sophomores hung around to watch us. Then we sat around the portapits and reminisced about the season. What was so impressive was that these guys talked football the same way I did when I was their age (and there was nothing I loved more than football in high school). As we talked, it was like we were transported back a year in time to that season. I was surprised at what they recalled. They remembered as many plays and events as I did.

But that was part of what made those kids so special.

That's a lot for this group to live up to. But there's talent there. We just have to mine it and get it to the surface.

One thing I do great in class every day

This is one question we'll be asked to share at our small group tables tomorrow during our first inservice session.

Since I was privy to the question ahead of time, I couldn't help but think about my response.

"I get kid to laugh."

"I make learning fun and relevant."

"I get to know the kids."

Those came to mind. But they seemed too general. I wish I could come up with a strategy that I used in every single class. But sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to do in class until I see what the kids want to do or at least see what is on their minds. Then I take that and try to relate it to whatever we're studying.

But then I thought, hey, I have them write every day.

Then my answer hit me - "I get kids to love writing."

Not a bad way to spend a day. And I get paid for it.

How to Fix Education

Warren Buffett confided to Michelle Rhee that it would be easy to fix public education in America in two quick steps. First, you simply would have to make private schools illegal. Then you would have to devise a lottery system where public schools would be matched randomly with every child.

Suddenly, wealthy politicians and CEOs could not just pick and choose which elite private school their child would attend. Could you imagine a Kennedy or Busch or the Obama children attending an inner city school? As Rhee states, if this happened you would see the quickest reforms and funding in public education.

Of course, this would never happen. But it's interesting to at least imagine what such a fix would be like.

Going down the slide

While I did a little shopping (Macy's and American Eagle), Kristie took Kenzie down to the play land area of the Columbia Mall (located down by where Target used to be).

Kenzie loves it there. She is quite social and doesn't hesitate crawling among the much bigger kids (at least they seemed a lot bigger).

Here she takes a ride down the slide.

Technology

It's funny. When I started teaching, I never thought of myself as a tech geek. Then in grad school I began monkeying around with the eMac in the grad students lab (which was really a closet). I also took an internet design class and learned to build some webpages. Here are the results -- Writing Remedies and How To Run the Wing-T Sweep.

Then when I finished grad school and returned to Lincoln, I was able to teach a semester long night class of college comp at the college. With that extra money, I invested in a MacBook and an iPod.

Things have never been the same since. I've been tinkering and learning ever since. After four years the logic board in my first MacBook went kaput, so I upgraded to a sleeker MacBook, with many more features. It was not long before I discoverd comiclife and iMovie.

Then I discovered Keynote. Now I'm using Timeline 3D, podcasts, and my iPod classic on a regular basis to design lesson plans.

Now I'm anxious to see what I can do with my SMARTboard.

As a result of my tinkering, I've fallen into some opportunities to present at various functions. First, it was presenting various lessons at my MNHS graduate history classes. Then I was able to present at several common preps at Lincoln. Last year I was asked to present at our local Kramer Brown Fall Drive-In. Today I was just asked to present again this year. And a few weeks ago I was asked by the TRF Morning Kiwanis club to present to them on facebook, twitter, blogs, and cell phones.

That's the funny thing about life. Had you told me that I'd know all of this stuff or have these opportunities, I'd never have believed it.

Tinkering is a good thing.

Some interesting takes on technology in the classroom

The SMARTboard training session last week coupled with the new vision of our administration, I am really hyped to incorporate more technology into my classroom.

Of course, this is a double edged sword. In a discussion with a colleague last week, we raised the question of meeting standards and staying ahead of AYP. In order to do that, often times the 'cool' things that happen in a classroom get chucked in favor of skill, drill, and fill in order to pass tests.

In a perfect world, we'd be able to use the technology to make the skill, drill, and fill relevant and engaging. But that's not the world we will be in this year.

So I am taking baby steps.

First, I want to use my SMARTboard (once it is operational) on a regular basis. Next, I hope to incorporate blogs and wikis into my classroom - maybe even facebook. We'll see. Then I hope to also use cell phones on a daily basis in my classroom.

Here are a couple videos that focus on the need to bring technology into the classroom. While watching these, I was reminded of something Stacy, one of our SMARTboard trainers, said, "Technology itself cannot make a bad teacher good."

But it can make a good teacher far more effective.

Respect

There are few people in our building . . . actually, our district, whom I have more respect for than our head football coach.

Now, this is not a lovefest or suck up job. I'm perfectly content with coaching freshman football. I have no aspirations to move up. What comes next is simply the truth.

One reason I respect our coach so much is that he does so much more than coach his players. He molds them into young men, productive members of society, and leaders.

Monday night was our annual parents meeting. Each player must have a parent attend - or they must attend in place of their parent.

Coach did two things that totally amazed me - because I have never seen them done anywhere else.

First, he put up a survey that he sends out to all players and parents. The final question is "Should Jeff Mumm remain head football coach for the Thief River Falls Prowlers?"

That's admirable. But he doesn't stop there.

He compiles the results and prints out copies for the school board and superintendent!

When he first did this with our previous superintendent, the first words out of the supers mouth were, "Are you nuts?"

Jeff's philosophy is simple, "When the results show that parents want me to go, I will."

Brilliant.

Second, coach works hard to make parents feel like they too are part of the team . . . and not just their sons.

This is vital for building support.

In fact, coach asks parents for a list of goals THEY have for the team! I mean, come one, where else have you seen that?

Most coaches set up a we vs. them attitude when it comes to parental involvement.

How refreshing it was to see this new approach.

Coach Mumm also displayed all of the various goals parents sent him -- all 154 of them!

And he read through them all with the parents and coaches at our meeting!

Imagine another coach doing that? Imagine the goals some parents would tell the coach if given the opportunity?

Now, not all goals were positive either, so to speak. One mentioned "conditioning" the players instead of running them through "boot camp." Yet, our coach still manned up and showed the negative feedback as well.

He even ended the night with the one and only letter calling for his resignation, which he received last year. Of course, it was unsigned.

But he had the guts to share it with everyone.

These are but a few reasons why more coaches need to coach like him and actually construct a team that feels more like a family. The majority of coaches out there give this concept lip service, but few actually follow through with it.

Just look at how he turns a simple football season into an extravaganza.

First, for the 'pre-season' he has a watermelon feed, a paintball trip for his juniors and seniors, a car wash and hot dog feed where the varsity players pump gas and wash windows while coaching staff serves food, the adopt a freshman night where a senior is paired with a freshman and coach orders pizza. And that's before school even starts.

Then he has weekly dinners with his captains.

He has weekly leadership meetings for his seniors.

He has his now famous "Do the Right thing at all Times" T-shirt where the varsity players where an ugly blue shirt with a large gold dot on it and the slogan previously mentioned on the back. The players are also given a gold dot to put on their cell phones as a reminder to do the right thing at all times.

He has a home game that honors a past team and coach.

He has a big supper at a local restaurant after the parents night - instead of simply listing the parents over the PA as many local teams have begun doing (and not even having the parents come out onto the field).

He has the entire football program come out with the varsity squad during the homecoming game (last year he actually had the 8th graders, who barely had enough to field a team but stuck with it to get one together, lead the varsity out on to the field prior to the homecoming game. Can you imagine how good those 13 and 14 year old boys must have felt?).

And these are just off the top of my head.

And those are a few reasons why he has my total, utmost respect. And why he has it of his players, coaches, and parents too.

It's not quite stealing candy from a baby . . .

I'm raising a thief.

When I went to pick Kenzers up from daycare yesterday, one of the girls who worked there asked me rather sheepishly if Kenzie still took a nuk (pacifier).

"No," I said. "She never has taken one."

"Oh," she said and began fishing around the crib Kenzie uses in search of Kenzer's socks.

"Why?"

"Well, she was in the infant room with Gracie (the new baby at daycare). The next time we looked, Gracie was missing her nuk. We looked and looked and then we saw Kenzie. She had Gracie's nuk in her mouth!"

"Really," I said, thinking I have to call Kristie and tell her about this. But I fought the urge to fish my BlackBerry out of my pocket.

"Well, I thought that maybe you guys gave Kenzie a nuk when she got home."

Nuks are strictly forbidden when the infants turn a certain age.

"Oh," I said.

"But did Kenzie cry when we took it out and gave it back to Gracie!"

I turned to Kenzie, who was in my arms, and I swear she smirked!

She gets more like her mother every day!!

Glogs?

What is a glog?

Well, Kelly, our media center specialist, emailed me an article on some really cool tech tools and resources - one of which was glogs.

They are posters or collages you can create here. Not only can you use pictures but the site also allows you to implement graphics, artwork, templates, music, and video.

I can't wait to use this in class. What will students come up with for The Crucible, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, "The Lottery," "Young Goodman Brown," and Poe?

Glogster

Is the issue this simple?

I found this great site thanks to an excellent presentation today from Stacy, who is out of Bemidji. I also got the "When I become a teacher . . ." video from her.

The folks at Common Craft have a way of taking complex topics (the ones we looked at in our break out session were technology related, like wikis and blogs) and presenting them in rather simple ways.

How can I use this approach in school? As Einstein said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

What the heck is a glog?

Well, it's a poster or collage making media that allows you to incorporate music, pictures, art work, and video.

Here is my first attempt at one.

Can't wait to use them in class.

When I become a teacher . . .

Now this is interesting. How often are we guilty of some of these things mentioned in here?

Well, she's not reading them yet

. . . but at least she is plenty interested in books.

Especially Stephen King and werewolf books.

This is disturbing.

This reminds me of a scene from District 9. The protagonist of the film is a man who is leading the removal of the Prawns by a large multi national defense contractor. He comes in to contact with some alien matter that causes his body to change . . . into that of an alien.

Now the aliens are far advanced in terms of technology. Their weapons are far superior, but humans cannot operate them. Apparently, the Prawns have developed a weapons system that only becomes operational when a Prawn is using them. There is a reaction between the weapon and the Prawn's DNA that allows the weapon to work.

Well, when the protagonist begins to change, he is quickly taken back to the multi national defense contractor's headquarters where he is forced to test the Prawn's weapons. At first they have him destroy pig carcasses with the weapons (mainly by wrapping his mutant hand around the trigger and then using a cattle prod to cause his muscles to contract).

In the final sequence of weapons testing, the scientists march out an unsuspecting Prawn to be used for target practice (maybe the weapons won't work on the Prawns??). Again, the man is forced to operate the weapon, though he is begging for another pig carcass rather than an innocent being.

This scene shocked me. I was thinking that there can't be a huge agency like this that does such despicable things. Well, there is. Even if they just threaten to do terrible things, it is still despicable.

Isn't this America? Or at least it used to be. If anyone wants to toss around the term "Nazi," well, this is a far better claim than our supposed move toward socialized health care.

More Pulp Fiction

Here are a few other classic scenes from Pulp Fiction.

The first scene takes place after Vince and Jules kill the young guys during breakfast for not repaying Marcellus. Vince and Jules barely escape with their lives. In fact, Jules think it is divine intervention and he must change his ways. However, an accident puts them in a dire predicament. This scene makes it possible for "The Wolf," played by Harvey Keitel.

Another great post modern element of Pulp Fiction is the setting. It's obviously set in L.A., but the music and dress and decor make it seem like it's set in the '50's or '60's or '70's, though the use of cell phones obviously place it in the modern day (1994 when it was released).

Poor Marvin -



Here is another classic scene, maybe Christopher Walken's best. This ties into a third story element running through the film. What Bruce Willis' character will do to get this watch back is utterly unimaginable.



The classic dance scene.

Pulp Fiction

Given the breath of fresh air that has been taken by our new principal - and hopefully blown through the entire school, I am taking a look at my teaching and re-evaluating my approaches and practices.

One thing I'm wrapping up now is an inquiry approach to teaching the first theme I tackle in Lit & Lang 11 (American Lit), which is "The American Dream." I have some interesting ideas for approaching this. I've tried to incorporate a few key readings from our text of various genres. I've also lined up some videos. podcasts, and films to use. Students will have the chance to text and blog, use youtube videos, create collages, and finally, write a digital essay (an essay they read over an iMovie or slide show of pictures and images).

I've also looked at how I approach lit theory in College Comp. One type of theory that students always struggle with is post modern. Though it's my favorite theory, I too struggle to teach it.

Yesterday while heading to football practice, I was thinking about this and realized that one of my favorite films, Pulp Fiction, was my first taste of post modernism.

I mean the film runs counter to every other mainstream film I'd ever scene up to that point. The plot is told out of order. The protagonists are really the antagonists. Tarantino dispels the stereotypical image of the hero as wearing white and saving the day. In Pulp Fiction the protagonists are cold blooded killers and gangsters (or worse). There is no classic resolution - again, the film is told out of order. Even the story line and dialog are in stark contrast to the plots and dialog of traditional films.

In short, it's brilliant. This might have been the first film where I knew I was witnessing something great and important.

In the end Forrest Gump won the Academy Award. I was bitter. Though I enjoyed Forrest Gump, it was not - in my opinion - on the level of Pulp Fiction. I would have loved to have even seen The Shawshank Redemption get the nod over Forrest Gump.

Here is one of my favorite scenes from the film -



Again, I had never seen anything like that!

While I can't use Pulp Fiction in class, I can still refer to it and if the students go out on their own and watch it, well, so be it (one can only hope).

It wouldn't be until a year later when I saw Se7en, that I'd feel that same rush from a film again. After that, just a few films have struck such a cord with me, The Matrix, Crash, and No Country for Old Men.

A true first

Kenzie watched her first Bengals game today.

This was her favorite part.



I just have to get her to say "Ochocinco" now!

Crazies

I found a link to this video from one of my favorite blogs, country scribe. The link revealed this clip --



Comparing the president to Hilter is insane. I said the same thing when a history teacher made headlines when he compared Bush to Hitler (in class!) a few years ago.

Now, I'm sure the networks are showing more of the sensational side of things when it comes to these townhall meetings. But you can google or check on youtube for plenty of meetings where crazies have shown up. Whether the billion dollar drug companies are putting the crazies in there to stir things up is one reason, though that is a little too conspiratorial for me.

Certainly, the average American can see that these types are crazies (notice how most at the meeting applaud how the politician handled things).

But some are just nuts. I read on the news the other day about one man standing in line for a townhall meeting, with the president, holding an assault weapon!

Now this is crazy on several levels.

First, if you own an assault rifle (or any other type of weapon not used mainly for hunting), you are a crazy (at least in my book). Second, if you bring any kind of weapon to a meeting with the president or any other politician, you are a crazy.

Just like calling the president - regardless of political party - part of a Nazi regime.

Now this is a code of conduct!

Speaking of the past, this has been hanging in our staff lounge for a couple years now. I was finally able to copy it down. I’ve been meaning to post it here for awhile.

RULES FOR TEACHERS

1872

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimney.

Makes my complaints about the waste paper buckets not being emptied and my windows continuously leaking air seem trivial.

2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for that day’s lesson.

A scuttle? I’ll stick to bringing my MacBook and iPod every day.

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.

I’d love to have one of those old fashioned quills.

4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

I think this was in our former superintendent’s code of conduct that he wanted us to sign.

5. After ten hours in school, teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

Other good books? I bet they'd burn a teacher at the stake for reading Kaffir Boy.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

Unseemly conduct? What about male teachers who marry? This was the one that got my grandmother, Myrtle Baril (some of you may have had her over at Knox) when she first began teaching, for she married but kept it a secret. Of course, when she became pregnant – that was a little difficult to cover up.

7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden to society.

As if there’s any extra left!

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

What’s so bad about the pool halls?

9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

Nothing much has really changed!!

A new look

I wonder if this look could catch on?

Out like a light

There's nothing like a nice warm bath and a big bottle of formula to knock Kenzers out like a light.

An interesting email

My dear friend Sharon sent me this forward. I'll attempt to include it here and then comment on it afterward because I think - while being very interesting and offering a great look at what comprised education at the end of the 19th century - this email serves to perpetuate several myths about education (which I'll discuss later), though I don't think that was Sharon's intention by forwarding this to me (after all, she has a pretty remarkably talented granddaughter who proves wrong much that is implied by this forward).

First, the email -

This was the response from the person sending it to Sharon (or at least that's how I read it) ----

"If I would have had to pass this exam, I would still be in the eight grade. But I do believe 1895 ninth graders probably knew more than most college graduates.


Pencils ready!


What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS - 1895
Grammar (Time, 1 hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time, 1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton..
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Orthography (Time, 1 hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals& nbsp;
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, f ain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
Geography (Time, 1 hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO, I don't have the answers! "

*****

Now this type of email is part of what is known as the myth of nostalgia.

First, as late as 1950, fewer than half of the high school students graduated. There is no telling the reading levels of those who did graduate. So let's just imagine what the graduation rates were like 50 years prior to that?

Second, we like to think either that the people of the past didn't know as much as we did (well, they didn't actually . . . since we have so much more to know than they did), but we like to think that we are superior to those in the past. That is not true. As James Burke said, you could travel back in time and talk to a serf during the middle ages and he could tell you a thousand things that related to and affected his life and all you'd really recognize would be the strong scent of manure. Or we like to think - and this is what is meant by the myth of nostalgia - that the people in the past either worked harder or were more devout or studied harder or whatever. And that isn't always accurate.

For example, I have no doubt that this is a legitimate test from an 8th grade class. However, is it a ubiquitous example of 8th grade work around the country? How many actually passed the test?

Plus, look at what the test actually gets wrong - I mean Columbus clearly did not discover America. Yet, that is what this test claims. Also, look at the term they use for the Civil War - the Rebellion. And, much of the information on this test is simply rote memorization, which often passed for education back then (another phrase that tends to denigrate the past, but that is not my intention in using it).

Third, this is a great example of how certain periods of time give more credence to certain seemingly paramount information than other times. Also, certain sections of the country put a great emphasis on certain figures than other areas.

Here is one question -- Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?

Now, another generation after this might see little use in certain names here, instead wishing to insert Hoover and Roosevelt. While people two generations removed would find it relatively useless to worry about Whitney, Fulton, Penn, and Bell when they could include Hilter, Eisenhower, Patton, Salk, and Einstein.

Fourth, this seems to be a rather blatant bash on our education system today - given Ken Fort's response at the end about how bad our education system is today. The problem is that such a statement is moronic.

Those 8th graders needed certain specific knowledge to thrive at their local at that specific time. Yet, very little in the way of pertinent information (given the large portion of Americans who still worked on the farm at the time) was given on that test. I mean what impact will having a sound understanding of grammar and orthography have on the young people who would most likely end up earning a living from the land or in factories after the Industrial Revolution?

That is one criticism of today's education - why don't you teach me anything that I will actually use? Well, maybe the supposedly superior education system of the past was not any different.

I have no doubt that most kids today would not do very well on this test (do we have any evidence, though, that these kids did well on it? No).

But try and imagine how these 8th graders would fair on even our sixth grade curriculum today? Could you imagine them trying to do the higher math now done in grade schools? Or typing on a computer? Or analyzing reliable information on the internet? Multi-tasking? They would have no clue.

Now, I realize that if you were to take my seniors from this year and transport them back in time to 1895, I have no doubt they would struggle to make sense of the world around them (if they would even live longer than a week given the diseases that would not have been conquered back then). But the same is true if you were to take those kids from 1895 and transport them to 2009. Could they even derive meaning from 30 seconds of CNN? They'd probably collapse into an epileptic fit given the glut of information that flows across the screen and the amount of visual stimulation they'd be exposed to.

But think of all that we have now that those poor souls back in 1895 didn't have. Most people in 1895 probably didn't travel more than a few hundred miles from their homes in their lifetimes. Yet, that is a weekend shopping trip for us today!


Now, I put Father Guido on here with his facetious take on the results of college education; however, it is utterly repugnant to claim that an 8th grader in 1895 would know more than a college graduate today. It's like comparing - again - apples and oranges. Much of our education and training schools today are far more technical than what this test attempts to measure. So you're telling me that a student who graduates with the ability to write computer code or program a computer or engineer a highway or a skyscraper is less intelligent than an 8th grader in 1895? That is stupid beyond measure. But again this falls under the myth of nostalgia and how easy it is to bash what we have accomplished today and viewing the past as 'the good old days.'

Finally, I'll end with this from Sir Ken Robinson --

Kids are living in the most intensely stimulating environment in the history of the earth (just turn on the TV and go to CNN for stimulation - or - go to the web), they deal with more information in a day than we dealt with in a year (again, think of all the 24 hour news stations that exist and think of the flat, globally connected world we live in today - one book I was reading remarked how one reporter actually said this on his radio show, "There is no news to report this evening. Good night." My how our worlds have changed! Could you imagine Tom Brokaw or Katie Couric doing that now?), their minds are moving at a thousand miles an hour (again, multi-tasking and the ability to deal with multiple sources of stimulation - think of commenting on Facebook, texting, listening to an iPod, and blogging at the same time) . . .

So really, Mr. Fort is trying to compare apples and oranges. I know he states that he would not do well on the 1895 test and that our schools today are poor by way of comparison. Mr. Fort is certainly welcome to come into my College Comp class when we discuss literary theory or in Lit and Language 11 when we produce iMovie trailers or when we stream video off the internet or download podcasts and see if that is up to his level of challenging or not.

Ultimately, like the kids that took this 1895 test, our kids today are products of their time periods. So whose to say who is really smarter? Are we to glorify the 8th graders for rote memorizing information that would really have next to no impact on their daily agrarian lives (if I'm not being too stereotypical there) or at least have little impact on their daily lives after the Industrial Revolution? Are we to penalize the students of the 21st century because they could head to Google or Wikipedia and answer every single question correctly (bonus points for correcting the test itself on the inaccurate Columbus question) in a matter of minutes? After all, just as in 1895, these 'facts' would have little impact on the daily lives of our students after the IT Revolution and in our global economy.

This looks AWESOME

In the tradition of Army of Darkness and Star Ship Troopers and Slither, Zombieland looks both hilarious and horrific. Nothing like a horror movie that does not take itself too seriously.

The next great Sci Fi film I have to see

KoKo, some of her TR buddies, and I caught District 9 last night. It was excellent - one of those films that balances humor, tenderness, heartbreak, and hope - all dealing with lobster like creatures from outer space. No easy feat.

But this film, 9, look to be its equal.

One question I like to ponder -as does Dan Carlin on his Hardcore History show (the umpteenth plug there - CHECK IT OUT) - is what will the next great civilization look like?

I mean we can't be vain enough to think that we are the be all and end all of human civilization.

I'm sure that's what the Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Brits . . . all thought. But civilizations and empires rise and fall.

I mean we here in the 21st century are - what - humans civilization 3.0, right? There's the very old world (Bronze age or so). The old world (the Renaissance world). And the 'new' world (the one Columbus 'discovered'). But we can't be that vain to think we're the final model, right?

Certainly if you look at the fossil record, well dinosaurs were around much, much longer than we have been - and look where they are now!

Who knows maybe one day a future society will be running their machinery off our bones - and clogging up their air and warming up their world while they're at it too!


Well, 9 takes a stab at what might rise up to replace us.

Entertainment Weekly has referred to it as Toy Story meets Terminator. Now, that's interesting.

A little misunderstanding

I should preface this entry by acknowledging that we run a very open household. Kristie wants her kids to talk openly with her about anything. Usually, I agree with this - though I come from a home where this was not necessarily the case (though my mom was my best friend, there were just some things I was never going to broach with her or Dad for that matter).

I was indoctrinated into this open household when Kristie and I were still dating and some of her babysitters - who were well into high school - were over playing games.

They began to talk - right in front of me - about their periods and tampons - heavy flows and running out of tampons and on and on and on.

I could only cringe and shake my head. This subject was never ever broached in my house hold.

The girls just chuckled at my squeamishness and kept right on talking away.

I said that I was glad to be a guy and not have to deal with that - and it wasn't just the physical pain and uncomfortableness as it would be all the hassle of the paraphernalia you'd have to lug around. I mean in high school the guys had a steady supply of deodorant and God awful Brut cologne - just in case it was a rough gym class. You had to be prepared. I stated that if I were a girl, I'd just hide a tampon under each of my desks at school and one under the drinking fountain and one behind the pop machine.

They all laughed, but it sounded reasonable to me.

So I found it no surprise when I got a text today from KoKo asking me to pick up some famine products for her at the store.

Unfortunately, I was just pulling up to our house.

I got home from Hugo's to find our little KoKo seated in front of the computer logged on to Facebook.

Normally, this is not so bad. But today she was supposed to clean her train wreck of a room. She was given explicit instructions NOT to go on the computer.

"Hey, clean your room," I said with arms full of grocery bags.

"I will. I will. I will," she said.

"Well, you're going to have to do it later because I need you to put these groceries away while I run to daycare and pick up Kenzers."

She agree and reminded me to pick her up some Maxipads.

"Fine. I'll run over to Brent's."

"You can just tell them they're for me if anyone asks," she said.

"Well, I should hope so!" I laughed. "I doubt if anyone will ask. And who cares anyway? I'll grab Kenzers and then pick them up."

However, on my way to daycare, I called Kristie to let her in on KoKo's lack of progress on cleaning her room.

"Well, tell her to get to work," Kristie said.

"I will. Right now, though, I have to pick Kenzie up and then run to the store to pick up pads for KoKo."

"She doesn't need them," Kristie said.

Man that's cold, I thought, she must really be mad at KoKo. Well, it's not how I'd punish her, but if she wants to teach her a lesson. I guess . . .

"She needs them," I said.

"Well, she can do without them. You're not running all the way back to TR for those," she said.

"What? I'll just get them at Brent's?"

"What? KoKo can live without knee pads," Kristie said, obviously thinking that KoKo couldn't find her knee pads for volleyball practice later in the afternoon.

"No, no no. Not knee pads. Pad pads . . . for her period."

Kristie could only laugh hysterically at the other end.

"I thought you were mad at her and trying to punish her for not cleaning her room. I thought you were really going to teach her a lesson!"

More laughter on the other end before Kristie had to get off the line.

I guess the open household is only open when you both know what the other is talking about!

New English Journal

Last year I subscribed to the English Journal on my own rather than reading the copy of Media Center gets and houses in our Professional Library.

I figured that NCTE would just skip the summer and ship a new issue in September. However, when I stopped at Lincoln a few weeks ago to check my mail, I found a new July copy in my mailbox.

I was like a kid at Christmas (a nerdy kid, though, I know - I know).

It was a who's who issue. A great article from one of my favorites, Tom Romano. An article questioning the idea of 'best practices' by Peter Smagorinsky. A rebuttal to that idea by George Hillocks Jr. Plus, two articles focusing on teaching Harry Potter and another essay discussing - and quite intelligently too - about using an zombie literature in the English.

I promptly chucked the rest of my summer reading and jumped into this issue.

The Five Minute University

Now this is an interesting spin on what you get out of college five years down the road - tongue planted firmly in cheek of course.

What a pair

Last week Kenzers, KoKo, and I headed up to TRF for some errands and to wash the sleeping bags at the laundromat.

When we finally got back home, I found this scene in the back seat.



and

Washington DC Teachers' contract

That short clip from youtube expresses it well.

Provided the contract is approved - and that is no sure thing -, if you're a teacher in Washington DC, you can choose two tiers:

1. Red tier. You will get something close to a 28% pay increase and 8 grand in cash.

2. Green tier. You will get a 48% increase, 8 grand in cash, and a chance at 'incentives' based on student test scores. The top teacher salary at the top of the scale there is approximately 68 grand. If a teacher is at the top of that salary scale and chooses the green tier and gets their students achieving at the highest possible rate, they are eligible to make 128 grand.

But the catch is you have to give up tenure, which would allow Rhee to fire you if your students' test scores did not improve.

She is paying for these increases with non-profit dollars and private funds. However, she claims she has a plan in place to permanently fund those contract numbers after five years - once she gets the special ed and transportation messes sorted out (which are currently draining millions and millions from the district).

Initially, I was opposed to this.

Actually, I was not. I'd choose the red tier in a heart beat - after all, you don't have to sacrifice tenure on that tract. Then after a year or two, I'd go green.

I think the terminology is interesting too. Why not the yellow and blue tiers? Well, that's obvious.

Now, though, I'm coming around to the side of paying teachers for performance.

I'm very skeptical - as are a majority of the teachers in the country - about tying pay to standardized tests.

There is a plethora of reasons -

I don't trust the tests. They are not designed by teachers who know the kids and work with them every day. They are manufactured by some test company. Quite frankly, I think these test companies - the Iowa Basics back in my day and today it's the NWEA and MCA and BST - that are raping school districts the same way the giant drug companies are raping the average person and their insurance companies.

I don't trust that the test will always measure learning correctly. There are more than a significant portion of examples where results were lost or misread or any other kind of nightmare for schools and teachers.

I don't trust that students will try. I blogged in the spring about three or four of my best and brightest College Comp kids hurrying through the test - which had zero to do with the class they were in at the moment - just so they could return to class and finish watching the movie and join in the discussion. See that motivation they exhibited is authentic, intrinsically motivated learning. If they didn't want to be in my class, they could have sluffed off on the test and taken an hour to complete it. Instead, they were back in fifteen minutes. Motivation and learning like that can't be measured - yet anyway - on a standardized test.

The students just don't see a connection. I know many are tied to graduation, but that isn't effective. I knew I had to pass the PPST to graduate and teach, but it didn't motivate me to learn more and be a better student. Nor, in fact, did it accurately measure my ability. Of the three areas, my lowest score came in composition. Yet, a few years later my thesis was the first English thesis awarded thesis of the year from BSU - at least as far back as any of the current faculty could remember. So did if accurately measure my writing ability?

Once a test is designed that truly measures learning, then I'll be sold on standardized tests as an accurate measure.

There must be better ways to do this. When I was going through the selection process at BSU to become an RA, they sat all the candidates down at a table on the 12th floor of Tamarack Hall and put us through a 'test,' but it was anything but standardized.

We were given instructions to build a device from the given materials in the center of the table that could would protect an egg from a 12 foot drop. We had ten minutes to come up with an idea, assemble it, and then drop it from the step ladder a few feet away.

Then the 'testers' sat back and watched us work it out. Of course, they were looking for who would take charge, who wouldn't contribute, who was too assertive, and who could manage the group. I thought it was a great way to 'test' us as opposed to giving us all fill in the bubble sheets.

I also like what Bill Sanders had to say about standardized tests - acknowledge the error built in and then do what other companies and industries do once they get a test result back - do more analysis.

Talk to a teacher. Look at student work. Talk to parents and the kids themselves. Or God forbid, have them write an essay test (at leas the writing tests our kids have done so well are evaluated by humans).

Simply running a cheap bubble test through a sophisticated computer is a cheap and lazy way to measure learning.

Now, with that said, I do believes - as does George Parker, head of the Washington DC union and the lead negotiator in the Rhee proposal - that pay for performance or merit pay is here to stay.

Fine.

Why not reward those who work hardest and achieve more?

Why should a teacher who arrives early, works late, busts their ass with the kids and designing lessons and doing outside research and professional development not get paid more than the teacher who arrives late, leaves early and shows movies all the time or has 'make up' days or has those asinine deals with kids where if they are good for so many periods, they get some kind of reward?

I was talking with someone the other day and he stated that one reason most coaches work so hard in coaching - and sometimes the teaching side of things suffers (I could not imagine being a head coach of anything. I can barely keep it together and I'm a lowly 9th grade coach) is that they see instant results and gain instant gratification from their respective sports.

Why not set school up that way? Wouldn't it be nice if all teachers worked as hard as the best coaches did in designing practices, traveling to clinics, managing post season honors and banquets and so on?

Merit pay could allow for that.

Now the sticky point is how do you determine that? One popular way seems to be to have an expert or lead or supervisor (pick your adjective) teacher who teaches part time and observes others part time who would then give feedback to the administrators or whoever decides merit pay.

The problem with this is could you imagine doing that to your friends and colleagues?

On the other hand, why should we not call out lazy and ineffective teachers? Isn't that part of our professional responsibility.

Yet, we let mediocrity exist in teaching. We all know teachers - or have had teachers - who you think "Oh, God, just try and get through their class with as little trouble as possible."

I think of KoKo's education, where some of that happens. I mean she had a teacher for home ec who seemed to hate kids. Then why be in the profession? How can KoKo have A's and B's in all the classes and earn a D in home ec? Because often times teachers still are allowed to grade on how they like you or what grade they think you should get.

Or you have universities, like UND or BSU, where they tell you that they know kids from certain schools come in deficient in some areas because of the lousy teaching that goes on there.

That's - to put it bluntly - bullshit.

And it happens too often in our public schools. And we allow it to go on.

This is one reason why Rhee states that tenure has no educational value. It doesn't necessarily help kids as much as protect lousy teaching.

I'm not going to dispute that.

I will say that some of my hardcore union friends and colleagues will say how nice it is that they have security from being fired over conflicts with the principal or parents. Now, this hit home both when administration found out about my blog several years ago and took an unkind view on some of my criticisms, but I was protected. Likewise when some of my comments about Kaffir Boy angered parents and conflicted with what our superintendent at the time thought should happen. Yet, I was protected.

That's great.

But too often it allows an ineffective teacher to hang on to their jobs. And ineffective teachers don't help kids succeed in a flat world where they will need to be on top of their very best intellectual games to compete against China and India.

Rhee is fond of two sets of statistics that have really changed how I view not only my job but this issue as well.

First, in Washington DC, the federal government decides how many prisons to build based on the third grade reading levels of African American boys. That point is blunt - if a kid can't read, he has a whole world closed to him. The options that are left for him inevitably wind him up in prison.

Second, again in inner city schools, results show that if a kid - especially poor minority kids - has a highly effective teacher for three years in a row, especially in grade school (because once a kid falls behind grade level, it's very difficult to get them caught up) it can change their life trajectory.

Think about a great teacher you had - did it impact your life? Think about a horrible teacher you had - did it positively impact your life?

Ask yourself this - what would your life be like if you had highly effective, empathetic, engaging, interesting, bright, and passionate teachers ALL the way through school?

That's why I've swung to the pay for performance side.

Number 65

Kristie's brother, Brian, proposed having a surprise birthday party for Ed. Then Kristie did the rest. And boy did she do it right.

She called a good friend of his, who also happens to be the owner of one of Ed's favorite haunts, Charlie Browns. He was more than willing to host the event. He even put up a sign on their billboard wishing Ed a happy 65th. Well, see for yourself:



Next she talked to L&M Meats, whose owner also is a friend of Ed's, and he was more than willing to donate a meat and cheese tray for the event.

Next, she designed invitations and sent them out to Ed's friends and family - given the number of kids in his family - that was no small feat.

She called Hugo's to order a cake and fruit tray.



We ran to Grand Forks earlier in the week to buy paper plates and plastic forks as well.

Lori, Ed's wife, also decided to surprise Ed by secretly driving up from South Dakota.

Once Brian and Eddie got Ed to the bar, he was quite shocked. He never expected it at all.




I was charged with taking pictures - at least the first few dozen or so.

Ed's crazy sister, Gail, was on hand - colorful as ever. Here she made some signs/masks for Ed.



Then she had a little surprise for him as she donned another mask and costume and had a little dance for him. It was hilarious.





Brian, Ed, Kristie, and Eddie



One major flaw in the plan, Casey and Chelsey aren't 21 yet, and could not stay in the bar - even for a few minutes.



Ed and Lori after the big surprise.



Ed even had time to find a gift for me - one of his sayings that I stole and use all the time is on this patch, which just happens to be in the Bengals' colors of black and orange: "I like you. I'll kill you last."

Townhall meetings and health care

What an interesting debacle we have fallen into with these town hall meetings.

I've been watching a few on youtube. Swastikas painted on a sign in the GA governor's headquarters. Screaming. Shouting. Politicians losing their temper and screaming and shouting.

Is this what we have become?

A couple things strike me about this -

First, I recall a Thomas Friedman column called "China for a Day," in which he argues how nice it would be if our government could actually get something done. In this age of 24 hour news networks, year round campaigning, and special interest groups, our government doesn't seem to be able to get anything significant done. How nice would it be to be like China for 24 hours and actually get something done - I believe Friedman was referring to the government's inability to approve tax credits for green companies.

Second, why do we always hate the person in charge? Reading some of the commentary on youtube gives truth to my old mantra of "the masses are asses." When Obama is in, the conservatives insist that he is a socialist/Muslim intent on turning us into a hybrid Russia/middle eastern country. Yet, when Bush was in - and if you search the videos I bet this would be fact - I'm sure the liberals were ripping him a new one for his lust for oil or his struggles with speaking in public and so on.

I'm reminded of a shirt Axl Rose wore on national TV during the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in the spring in 1992 - it had a picture of Christ with a crown of thorns and it read "Kill Your Idols." My mom was outraged by this, but a sliver of it rang true to me - how many of our idols or leaders or people of power do we (or some nut job) assassinate?

Now we have pictures of Obama looking like the Joker with white make up and a Glasgow Smile under the heading of socialism.

If we cannot even conduct a civil town hall meeting, do you really think any president could remove guns from the nut jobs who hoard them in their basements waiting for the terrorists - or black people from the inner city - to drop in and try and pry them from their cold dead hands or turn our democracy into a socialist government? The American people would never let that happen.

Third, after learning all about Hoover's and Roosevelt's trials during the Great Depression, I've seen all of this controversy over health care and the cries of socialism before.

Do some research and you'll see that there was a significant rise in the call of socialism in America (led by our own MN governor at the time!). I always thought of Roosevelt and his famed 100 Days and New Deal as this breath of fresh air that saved the day.

Not exactly.

Vast numbers of people HATED Roosevelt and what he was trying to do! This has to sound familiar to Bush when he suffered the lowest approval rating of any president or what Obama must be going through now as he tries to reform health care.

And remember where we got social security (hey, what's that first word in that phrase?) and many other government run programs (Medicare) that if you stripped from people today, they'd flip over. Yet, Roosevelt failed to get health care truly run by the government - as did Clinton. We'll see if the present administration can fare any better.

Of course, people today think they have all the answers -when in truth - NONE of us have any clue what will really happen because we think we can base what will happen today because of what happened in the past. Some of that might be true, but if we really could base the future off the past, wouldn't we be more successful at it than we already are?

It seems to me the only thing we really are successful at is watching an event unfold and then - after it's happened mind you - saying what we should have done instead. That's not the same thing.

I love this quote that I heard yesterday regarding why we think we know so much and can predict what will happen - "the biggest impediment to understanding the past is that we know their future."

Sure our distant relatives in the future will critique our faults and missteps today - just as we do when we criticize past generations.

But none of us have an inkling of what the future will hold. Nor will we ever. Let's just be rational and patient and make logical and thoughtful analysis. Let's stop spraying swastikas and acting like morons at town meetings (and that goes for the crowds and the politicians). Let's act like more humanely and remember our place in the grand scheme of this.

And remember this great quote, which also takes a stab at predicting the future, though I think it's one we should try and avoid - "if all the insects were to disappear from the planet, within five years all life would cease to exist. If all humans were to disappear from the planet, within fifty years every form of life would be thriving."

The case for youtube and blogs

There has been some hard lines drawn in our district against students and teachers having access to youtube and blogs at least for a year now.

This is just folly. If you ask me.

Now, I'm well aware that one can use zamzar as a way to convert youtube videos into .mov or .wmv files to then download to your computer (at home) and then transfer to your school computer and use.

This has worked for me, but it's cumbersome. And it hogs memory on your school computer.

If we could access youtube from school, we could just stream the videos via the internet without having to download them.

It also seems hypocritical to allow presenters who come into our district to show youtube videos - the firewall must be disabled across the district for this - when those people have nothing to do with our students. Why not give teachers, who are in front of the students every single day and working our arses off to engage and connect with students, the ability to access youtube?

The biggest area where youtube access would be beneficial is the simple spontaneity of teaching. This happens all the time at our MNHS workshops. For instance, we were discussing the Great Depression. Then the presenter goes on line to youtube and shows us some videos from that time period. Not only are we engaged, but our learning and subject matter is enhanced as well. And this leads me - with my MacBook to see what else is on there and soon I'm finding several interesting videos that engage and enhance what I'm learning.

How often - honestly - can we use those two verbs (engage and enhance) in our classrooms? Not often enough!

I can envision discussing some topic or period in class - say the American Revolution or American Gothic writers - and then turn to youtube to see what we can find.

Or there are times when we are discussing stories in class and I'll realize that there I can make a reference to a historical event or even pop culture film or show and wish I could play it for the kids to make that connection clear. Youtube allows us to do that.

For example, I've referenced this clip in class several times when talking about the importance of clearly understanding a question and trying to envision all the different ways someone may interpret what you have written.



But nothing is as effective as being able to quickly show that clip to drive the point home for students.

Another benefit would be that students could upload their projects - whether they are iMovies or Keynote presentations - right to youtube. That would save me having to lug my portable hardrive around and hog up space on that. Then the next day we could watch all of the videos on youtube in class. Students would also be able to comment on each other's work and to get feedback from anyone around the world. Someone's grandmother in Idaho could log on and watch their granddaughter's work in her English class. How cool would that be?

Here's an example from my Science Fiction class two years ago where students had to read a novel outside of class and then produce a 90 second iMovie 'trailer' for it -



Now, the project is not without its minor flaws (much of that is due to iMovie's grainy resolution at time and too much text being crammed into a few slides), but to see a sophomore create (and isn't that skill at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy? How often do we allow our students to really create? Not nearly enough!) is brilliant. This remains one of the highlights from that year.

Just look at the feedback she gets? Isn't that what publishing is all about?

Now, I know youtube has a few inappropriate things on it. Sure it's a pain to have to monitor students. But - as one administrator said recently - what's stopping a kid from pulling out his BlackBerry in school and looking at inappropriate sites?

I know it's not without its faults, but I think the benefits of using youtube in school far outweigh the negatives.

Now on to blogs.

I think these go hand in hand with youtube. Look how I easily embedded two youtube videos into this blog.

Many schools, such as the one my former student, Luke Erickson, teaches (click here for his blog used for school purposes) at use blogs as extensions of the classroom.

This makes perfect sense to me.

I would love nothing more than to design a blog like this one for a novel or unit. And I just dreamed that assignment up in about five minutes. Imagine what we could do as a staff if we had some training or common prep time to really generate some ideas!

Additionally, I'd love to charge each student with keeping their own blog for my class. I'd have students read each other's blog and offer feedback. Now this would be tricky with permissions and screening feedback, but it could be done.

I'd also use blogs to have students do hypertext writing (that is the writing of the future). If you don't know what hypertext writing is, it's the type of writing that is used on wikipedia where you have certain keywords in your writing that work as links to other sources or other pieces of writing that you have done. My blog on the Ostfront is a type of hypertext writing.

In fact, more and more webpages are going to this. Just look at a newspaper column on-line and they'll include text that is linked to other stories or issues.

In fact, Leopard's new dictionary on my MacBook is almost total hypertext writing. That means if I look up a word - let's say supercilious - then the definition, which is behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others, then if I move my cursor over any of the words or phrases in that definition, those words or phrases then become highlighted, signaling that I can click on them and get their definition!

This would allow students to bring in all types of media and formats. Talk about depth and meaning!

Conversation

Had one of the most refreshing and optimistic conversations in a long while with our new principal yesterday. It was - as I said - refreshing to really talk shop for the better part of two hours. And it felt like about ten minutes.

It was great to hear him talk about how things will be changed and how certain problems will be addressed.

That's a change from the 'well, what can you do' attitude in the past around here. Maybe now we will finally get around to addressing some of those issues regarding the student handbook and rules that never really got resolved from two years ago.

There is a clear vision and - most importantly - hope and high expectations in place that I feel - for once - is much more than lip service.

Plus, I left with a book from his collection. Now that is refreshing.

Out with the old . . .

in with the new?

Yesterday, Kristie and I finished putting together the new daybed she ordered for our new family room (formerly Casey's room). Since the carpet was laid on Tuesday, and Kristie had finished painting earlier than that, we pretty much just had to move some things in.

One of those thins was our TV. We have been a TV less house since late May. How nice it was to go almost three full months without it on.

Though as we moved the ridiculously heavy TV and wooden stand into the family room, I was kind of anxious to watch some. That's kind of a disappointing.

Of course, like with everything these days, we had a mass of chords to deal with. As Kristie was straightening them all out, she asked, "Where is the DVD player?"

We have a DirecTV DVR above the TV. And we used to have a DVD.

"Maybe Casey took it when he moved out?"

Nope. He had his own DVD player.

"Would it be up in KoKo's room?"

Nope. She has her own DVD player.

"We didn't through it out when we were getting ready for the garage sale did we?"

Yep.

We had so many used up pieces of technology - two printers, a small TV, a VCR, and what we thought was an old DVD player - not ours for the TV!!!!!!

I just hope there wasn't a DVD in the player when we chucked it.

What Great Sci Fi is all about

This movie looks to be one of the best sci fi films to come out in quite some time. Science Fiction - when it's done right, like Fahrenheit 451 or War of the Worlds or The Thing, always work because it works as an allegory for real issues, such as racism or communism or mass stupidity.

This looks to be in the same tradition. Plus, it's shot ala Cloverfield, documentary style.

The teaser trailer.



The newest trailer.

Ostfront Part III from Dan Carlin

For the umpteenth time I'm going to recommend checking out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. Check it out here -

For the past few months Dan has been recounting the unheralded (at least here in the west) story of the Ostfront - or the Eastern front of WWII - Hitler's colossal blunder to try and invade Russia.

These are but a few of the videos I found on youtube focusing on the Ostfront.








There are several excellent websites out there from the Russian point of view. One of the most interesting - and poignant - is here, which actually offers a fascinating view of Russian faith, history, and ideals.

The atrocities the Germans perpetrated upon the Russians as they tried to drive through the motherland to capture Moscow and then later the precious oil fields in the Caucasus region in the south is unimaginable. One effective strategy the Germans employed was an encircling tactic. They would advance in large circles, thereby surrounding huge portions of great numbers of people. One order Hitler made was that anyone caught behind enemy lines would be liquidated. Well, anyone caught inside these large circles were considered behind enemy lines. Thus, masses of innocent people were killed.

The German bombing of Stalingrad was equally brutal where thousands of civilians were killed.

The Russians, though, thanks largely to Stalin, had their own ghoulish ways of exacting revenge. Carlin cites an eyewitness account from a German soldier's point of view. They are marching across the steppes of Russia when they come across a strange path - or road - of ice. It just didn't seem like it belonged there. As the soldier looked down, he was met with the blue face of a German soldier with his eyes wide open staring up at him from beneath the ice. And there were dozens more of these soldiers buried under the ice. It seems the Russians needed a road. So they made the German prisoners lie down shoulder to shoulder. Then they hosed them down to create a road of ice and bodies.

Can you imagine?

The battle tactics practiced by both sides - ON THEIR OWN MEN - were particularly harsh. Hitler would refuse to yield the two Russian winters and lose thousands of men. He ordered superiors to shoot any deserters or soldiers who attempted to surrender.

Of course, Stalin did the same thing to his troops. In fact, Stalin's brutality was so harsh that he had many of his commanders needlessly throwing away the lives of their soldiers.

One example was his infamous order #227 - Not One Step Back. This order says that any Soviet troops moving back in an unauthorized fashion will be killed. Soon there will be two platoons in battle. The first fights the Germans while the second one checks for deserters and prepares to kill any who flee.

Can you imagine?

Carlin recounts one military entry that talked about a platoon of soldiers, many of whom had lived on the vast prairies in Russia and had little experience with large bodies of water and did not know how to swim, encounter a large Russian river, Carlin calls it the White Sturgeon.

The commander was ordered to cross it and begin fighting the Germans on the other side. Never mind that the soldiers might be better off behind this natural obstacle. But an order is an order. The commander orders a troop to cross the river. The man objects, having no such experience and not knowing how to swim. He will surely die.

The commander points the gun at him and tells him its better to drown a soldier than show insubordination. The man is forced into the water. He is taken by the current and drowned. As are all the others he orders in.

Better to lose men and follow an order than risk looking like you are defying high command, who fear that it will look like they have not been following high command, and so on and so on all the way to the very top.

The commander calls to his comrade major, who is, of course, outraged at having lost so many men - and without having heard a single shot. The commander states that they all drowned. At this the comrade major threatens to shoot him on the spot, just like this very commander had threatened to that first poor bastard who drowned. The commander explains that he lost all the men trying to cross the river that the major had ordered him to do - despite the commander stating that they had nothing with which to cross the river!

The major is furious at this block head who just destroyed an entire company of men. The major feels partly responsible and must call the colonel and report the loss.

The colonel is shouting at the major. He had given the major five hours to get his company across the river.

When told of the losses the men have encountered, the colonel is relieved. "If there were no losses our heads would roll," he states (the belief being that at least the died attempting to fight. Better that than not dying and looking like cowards to Stalin).

The colonel just wishes to know how the men died as he had not heard any weapons firing.

At this the major explains that the cucumbers, what the general soldiers was called, were all 'slant eyes' from the steppes who didn't know how to swim and who went in and drowned. The colonel is incensed. He states that HIS company has been dragging around pontoons all over the place for days! He would have given the major as many pontoons as he would have needed to get the whole company across the river safely.

The major explains that it's little use now since so few are left.

The colonel explains that they have to cross anyway because what counts is not how many died but that the order was carried out.

This is how large numbers of men had their lives wasted out of fear of Stalin.

But the stories Carlin documents are not just about the men.

Another fascinating part of the Ostfront campaign was the Night Witches. These were women who were some of the greatest fighter pilots in the Russian air force. They flew old WWI style by wing planes (with no parachutes, by the way). They had a gift for flying at night. They would climb high and then kill their engines and glide silently toward earth - and the German trenches. Once they were incredible low, they would pull out and level out and begin bombing the Nazis, who had no idea how the bombs would suddenly burst from a completely silent night. Thus the name, Night Witches.

These are but a few of the incredible details of the eastern front, which does not garner nearly the attention the western front does. And it's too bad because many historians believe this is Hitler's main downfall. Who knows what would have happened had he left Russia alone, with whom he had a treaty in place - before he invaded? Who knows what would have happened had he offered Stalin a treaty when Hitler's men were breezing through Russia during the spring and summer on their way to Moscow and the Caucasus? Maybe we'd all be blue eyed, blond, and speaking German now?

Or maybe the Americans would have fought with the tenacity and ferociousness that the Russians did when their country was invaded. Or we could only hope. Because what the Russians were able to do against the Nazis was nothing short of miraculous.

Now I can't wait for Ghosts from the Ostfront 4 on Hardcore History.