Do Children Really Know the Difference Between Reality and Fantasy ? A Cautionary Tale About "Slender Man"!

I'm still having trouble typing because the rotator cuff surgery combined with the bicep tear repair is still painful and typing seems to aggravate the surgery site.  I start physical therapy next week and get to lose my sling during the day, but have to sleep in it for one more week which will make a total of 6 weeks. I'm doing a lot of writing for my grad class so I have to take breaks to prevent soreness. I know whine, whine and more whining - but soon I'll be able to be sure I haven't overdone it and reversed the good work done by the surgery.

I want to sound an alarm for teachers based on a 20 - 20 Television Show that played this past Saturday. It was about a Meme that has been circulating on the Internet and is being kept alive and made more fanciful by faithful fans adding to the "urban legend" credibility of this fictional story. Story lines, photos, videos and graphics are being uploaded by tweens, teens and possibly younger children. http://abcnews.go.com/US/slender-man-stabbing-survivors-parents-describe-horrific-ordeal/story?id=25787516 This is the link so you can find out all the necessary details.

Three issues are important for teachers.  First, when things like this happen - it's a little difficult to directly discuss the topic - you may be sensationalizing it and creating a problem.  The discussion needs to focus on how do you determine the difference between reality and fantasy?  My students were always quick to reassure me that they were fully aware of what was real and what was not - but the desire for many young people to find their 15 seconds of fame leads me to worry that students will use all avenues possible to "get noticed". The second issue is to get parents to realize how many children are aware of "Slender Man" and search for him on line using their personal technology or the technology of their friends. The ABC special makes it painfully clear that parents haven't got a clue what children are viewing - a link to the television program on your home page might do the trick. Finally, some exploration of these topics is natural and part of the development of the age group, but a media literacy unit needs to be in place to develop clear guidelines for measuring reality. Here's an example -

A great group research project might be helpful using the librarian as a resource.  Divide your class into small groups and have them become truth hunters finding the origins of some legends.  These should be age appropriate and again there are some easy-to-read "scholarly' articles/books that you can print out for the groups to use for visual and oral reports. Finding primary source material might help students develop a healthy skepticism and some evaluation skills when it comes to planning out seriously life altering plans for their infamous future.

Good luck dealing with this difficult issue.

Outlining and Research Papers

Outlining and research papers are two curricular objectives that both students and teachers dread.  Generally speaking this is because they are both formulaic.  In outlining if you have an “A”, you must have a “B” – if you have a “1” you must have a “2”.  Research papers tend to be expanded five paragraph essays on topics that most students can find on-line.  Some school districts have a minimum research paper requirement of around four pages with five sources that are scored by outside sources using a standing 4 to 6 point rubric. These nameless scorers use the usual domains indicating the level of control exhibited by the writer in content, style, grammar and proper research and attribution of quotes and information.

Teachers may start teaching mind mapping, webbing, word clouds, Creatly (a source for every organizational chart in the “universe”) or other meta-cognitive methodologies for learners with a wide variety of thinking patterns to get on the path to finding a worthy research paper topic.  Dutifully, around March or earlier, this painful process has started in grades five through twelve. Younger students usually do reports, not true research papers because developmentally, they are not quite ready to grasp the necessary concepts. Especially the idea of presenting the “straw dog” or the hypothetical argument that runs counter to their thesis statement.

By the time I started teaching high school in 2001, I had decided that placing the research paper near the end of the school year was a mistake.  I needed it to be the first assignment.  I was fresh; students were ready for a new beginning and somehow, waiting until later in the year, just made teaching or re-teaching all necessary skills seem like scaling Mount Everest instead of an achievable assignment.  I never had to endure the ordeal of getting my students through passing the eleventh-grade research paper, but I wanted to have them so well-prepared – that it would feel simple to them – almost like child’s play when they left my ninth or tenth grade classroom.

My love of outlining as an organizational tool for writing and for thinking is because it makes my job of responding to students easier. All the other cool graphic organizers still have to be redone to develop the concept of main idea, supporting detail, and related supporting fact in a hierarchical order. Undertaking this arranging of information to support a thesis statement perfectly describes an outline. The trick I've found to take away the pain of outlining is the take away the rules.  Students don’t always have to have a “B” or a “2”.  Additionally, have your students write the bibliographic reference next to the information collected from that source in the outline INCLUDING THE PAGE NUMBERS!  Direct quotes are printed and turned in with the outline, or if you are lucky, you can have your students turn work in through the Cloud or a Wiki – you can form a group with you as the administrator and then only you and the author have the ability to edit a piece of work.

It is messy to allow students to rampage about looking for a topic with an anything goes attitude.  Yes, I know students MUST write about something they care about, but for everyone’s sanity, choose an umbrella topic.  Since I was in a biotech program, I posed the question: Is forensic science reliable ninety-nine percent of the time?  Ask colleagues for input about what “big” umbrella topic would work to help them.  Your job is really to be the expert about the mechanics.  In middle school, my umbrella topic was WWII, which helped the social studies teacher. I also used the papers to have students form groups and write newspapers that might have existed at that time.

With an overarching topic like this, your librarian can be an invaluable help gathering materials, helping students and working with you to point students to appropriate resource material.  It truly expands the learning when students can return to their work and create poems, feature articles, Power Point presentations, Prezis and even animated PowToons.

This is a place for one of those “I Believe” statements that I talk about.  You have to be ready to believe that no matter what the haters hurl at you – you are prepared to speak about how putting this important project first, you have harnessed students creative energy at the right time and that having looked at the curriculum from middle school, you have learned that students should already have an initial grasp of the demands of a research paper. 

This reminds me, you may find that a lot of your students have been taught incorrect steps – many of my students wanted to outline the opening and closing paragraph. This is sensitive ground because you may be thought of as being critical of a former beloved teacher. I have blown this so I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Have a copy of a page from a grammar book that supports your scenario and quietly hand it out asking a student to read the highlighted portion aloud. Explain that you know many things have changed, but this rule(s) still seems to count.

Please do yourself a favor and get this out of the way during the first few weeks of school and use outlining as much as you can.  Don’t forget about a theme for your classroom – humanize yourself!

Bringing Your Own Device - Technology on the Fly - Is This the Way to Go?

For many school systems the idea of 1:1 education, a system where each child has a tablet or laptop provided by the board of education is affordable because of grants or other actions.  Steps are taken to free up capital to purchase the hardware and provide teacher training. Many companies sweeten the deal by providing free apps and loading the computers with the appropriate text books. Other school systems are experimenting with allowing students to bring their own devices with appropriate releases signed by parents.

I was an early adopter of technology when Mac's entered my teaching life.  I had the computer lab to myself for almost two years while other teachers didn't feel that comfortable taking thirty students to the lab without an aid.  In the mid-to late eighties, students loved playing Oregon Trail when they finished using a software program that allowed them to create plays.  They wrote poetry, feature or hard news stories, research papers and learned all the bells and whistles associated with Power Point. I had read about a piece of software that could take your writing and change it to sound as if Charles Dickens wrote it, Shakespeare or some other famous writer. After repeated searches, I never found it. (If you find it - I'll send you a gift card to Starbucks - I promise!)
Things got a lot easier once we hired a person to be in charge of the computer lab, but by then other teachers had decided to take advantage of the lab and the state of Virginia had put in computer curriculum objectives. The lab was not just my sandbox anymore.

I am concerned with the implementation of technology in the classroom.  That is why I found two examples: https://www.academia.edu/7964178/Web_2.0_Internet_Activities_for_Lower_Level_Learners 
and http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=edd5f8a1a0ad4e2fbacee11257dd2950 that could serve as good springboards for setting up technology.

I hope teachers will take the time to have a solid plan for when and how technology will be used.  Additionally, I hope you will work with students to monitor and adjust any outcome-based projects you assign so that random use of "devices" is limited. Managing behavior under normal conditions is challenging and without more adults available for oversight - I can see many opportunities for misuse of a very powerful teaching tool. 

For a complete view on BYOD check out this Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/stem/schools-move-toward-bring-your-own-device-practices-to-boost-student-tech-use/2014/09/14/4d1e3232-393e-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html  
Finally, here is a sight that demonstrates how to control security issues with "Bring Your Own Device: For more information on how AccessNow can facilitate BYOD in education, visit: 
http://www.ericom.com/AccessNow-BYODForEducation.a... 

Since it will take a lot of effort to get the use of technology right, try and team with other teachers and use Cloud file sharing to create your lessons and projects. You should not try and go this alone. I also found my computer lab coordinator to be really helpful when she wasn't in total overwhelm. Make finding a teacher or teachers to work with a goal and you may be able to find money to support any great ideas you create. 
 

Media Literacy Verses Critical Thinking - Same Theoretical Base with Different Applications and Outcomes

Many teachers have interactive whiteboards and many teachers don't. Available computer labs hardware and software vary from school district to school district across the globe. Add to that the fact that new technology is being developed faster than any school system can anticipate it begs the question how do you design an open ended curriculum/program based on a model that supports rapid change?

Currently, I'm in an graduate level Intro to Cinema Studies class with a strong focus on applied cinema theory.  The text the professor selected for the class had to be an overview of the wide variety of theories starting from around the 1920's to the present - classifying and clarifying the ideologies or rather multiple critical theoretical models representing the body of work done on all aspects of cinema.

The novel organization of the text, Film Theory an introduction through the senses by Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener relates what happens on the screen to an imaginary spectator and then bridges understanding the relationship created between the film and the mind and body of the viewer.

I think this model works in teaching.  Your students are spectators and you are transmitting knowledge using tools and techniques to reach all of their senses in many ways.  You can measure your effectiveness as a teacher by designing lessons that guide students in using critical thinking skills. Students need to be able to make sense of the multiple sensory messages they receive many hours every day.

Critical thinking skills help students determine main ideas, supporting details, fact verses opinion, the variety and reliability of source material, the importance of primary source material and obvious bias and these skills are the same skills that aid students in deconstructing the meaning of various media. Conversely, you should plan assignments that require students use these same organizational principals in presenting their findings.

However, one of the most important literacy skills students need to obtain is understanding how easy it is to manipulate what they see, hear, read and believe.  Technology has advanced so that what we view is not reality.  For a teachable moment use the DVR:  Life  of Pi and show the technical portion where we learn the secrets behind the CGI screen.  Students will see how technology was instrumental in creating every aspect of this beautiful narrative. When they learn the truth is not strictly reliable until checked through multiple sources and perspectives, then they will be truly media literate.

I'm not supposed to be typing with the rotator cuff surgery, but needed to share a quick post!

Taking a graduate level class creates some odd tensions for an experienced teacher. My last professor didn't have a clue about how to teach and I ended up with an A- and three of my papers were not returned.  The lack of feedback was appalling, but worse yet, she interrupted my end of course presentation and the presentation of another student because she had not planned enough time. 

Additionally, she kept saying she'd put guidelines up on her wiki, but she didn't.  So, I looked up her writings on-line, studied her style and did the best I could to determine what she wanted from her own body of work. Many college students I talk to say that well - it's up to us to figure things out and learn on our own.  I find this attitude shocking.  To the extent that college students should turn in assignments on time, follow guidelines, ask for help and clarification as needed - yes, they have certain responsibilities.  However, they have a right to expect a well-prepared professor, who doesn't post his or her syllabus two hours before the class meets for the first time. They are paying big bucks for what should be a first class experience.

Students also should expect that the department will have some coherent guidelines for writing assignments and grading.  The Dance Department at George Mason has a wonderful, clear set of expectations.  Why can't the English Department get their act together? Even though the expectations are shaky, my Intro to Cinema class is fantastic in it's scope and integration of subject matter. The professor has chosen excellent films to demonstrate very difficult concepts in film theory.  My one concern is the misuse of the Socratic questioning technique.  Film theory is filled with very difficult terms and if the students are going to be asked to define them- then we should know ahead of time - Socratic method - which is kind of what I think is the objective (of the professor) doesn't really have a definitive right or wrong answer, but expects the respondent to have factual support for an opinion.

If I had a complex set of vocabulary, I'd probably deal it out like a deck of cards and ask for a definition and then an example for the next class meeting.  In fact, I might have had a matching game. I'd probably use this over and over again because all of the students indicated we felt pretty lost in the terminology. Using some sort of repetition, I'd insure that students had a real grasp of the terms because these also apply to philosophy, art, religion, and other subjects- not just film theory.

So - no matter what age or grade level - teachers have to decide what objectives are theirs to own and how to effectively use technology or "whatever" to make the learning stick. 

Now for your technology goody!    If you want a free PowToons account to develop animated presentations here is the link " title="Link: http://www.powtoon.com/blog/effective-teaching/"Discover the New Method for Effective Teaching >>

Good First Day? Have A Theme for Your Year and A Short Story Recommendation . . .

Here's hoping you survived the first day (for some of you). For all teachers, if you want to form a connection or make an impression with your students try having a theme for the year.  One year my theme was pirates - we were going on journeys, decorations had a nautical theme, I gave out Life Savers.  It was one of my best years ever.  I even had a faux parrot in the room and I must admit that "Polly" and I had conversations with the class.  That winter break, I got more pirate-themed gifts - very cute and appropriate - than I can list.

I think I just hit on the theme one day flipping through television channels - so let something inspire you. :-) I found that having mementos and photos around the classroom created opportunities for sharing.  Hopefully, you have already gotten students started on their personal collage for back-to-school night.  Also, you have the 3 x 4 or larger cards for parents or guardians to write three positive statements about their child.

I have rotator cuff surgery tomorrow and it reminded me of one of my favorite (not everyone's cup of tea) short story by Jack London: "The Unexpected".  I love this story because the main character is a very, very observant woman.  She doesn't just observe the "normal" stuff, but has learned to look for things that others might miss.  I think this is an important life skill and of course, in the story - it saves her life and the life of her husband.  The story itself doesn't have to be used in its entirety.  As a matter of fact, no piece of writing has to be analyzed to death.  Pick out the relevant parts and try telling them as a story teller.  Shorten them or have student groups act them out.

I don't know when I'll be up to writing again - soon I hope.  As long as my elbow stays close to my body, I can use my fingers. Let me know if you have a topic you'd like to have researched.

Topics I Care About - You Should Too! Too Much Technology - Students Need To Understand the Pros and Cons

Two local high schools have initiatives involving handing out tablets to either all of the students, Manassas Park or just the ninth and tenth graders in Osbourn High School in Manassas, Virginia.  I am a proponent of a solid use of technology and have presented my followers with links to two programs that I think give students the skills they need while keeping them clear of the social media mainstream.


Some of my favorite books and why: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury because it paints a picture of a technological future where books are burned because they offended minorities or special interest groups and soon began to all sound the same.  People are all "happy" and entertained by wall-sized television sets and listen to music on Seashell Radio sets attached to their ears except that Mildred, Montag's wife attempts suicide and turns him in to the authorities.

This book can help students understand the possible isolation and "sameness" created by social media. When students understand that this book was written in 1953, it makes it even more compelling.

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a book about the future where all pain, war, fear and basically critical decision making has been eliminated. Jonas must take on the role of the Giver and hold all the memories for the society and he becomes convinced that there is a world beyond the "bubble" of safety and eugenics that is "Giverland". Technology has "fixed" this world so that everything is shades of gray.  Emotions are harmful.

This is why STEM without a solid literature and English program to provide students with critical thinking skills about the limits and problems a technologically "wonderful" society might produce troubles me. Friday, I had to have my hair cut very short because I won't have use of my right arm/hand until the surgeon clears me to move my arm after the rotator cuff surgery and I noticed a 3-year-old girl playing on her phone.  In fact, almost no one in the salon was interacting with each other (parent/child) they were all on some electronic device.

We love our children! So read to them.  The other day while I was in the ER for four hours with my mom, I read aloud to her as she had read aloud to me and I had read aloud to my daughter.  I also made up stories for my daughter to pass the time. Talk to them about big issues - ask them questions and listen.  This is what I do with my 28-year-old daughter now when we go on play dates.