Dear Professor

Here it is spring of 2011 and I have taught three, almost four, online classes. All those things that I thought I would do, well, like any other class, I find I'm still working on them. I have placed video and links and visuals in to begin to reach some of my visual learners. However, the big changes I wanted - more interaction, more conversation, millions of links, assignments that were easier to grade. Well, they're still coming.

The most interesting piece for me is the similarities of class behavior. I began this teaching experience believing that "online" would be different. The answer is yes and no. Yes, there is no face to face and when, occasionally, I meet a student, the physical student may be different from how I imagined online. The online geek nerd boy doesn't wear glasses and looks like a football player. The sophisticated literate girl looks like she got her clothes at the thrift store and hasn't washed them. However, I still get the same number of "Dear Teacher" messages, although now they seem to think that calling me Professor has a sympathetic appeal. Some just call me "Nancy" and have a casual, buddy kind of approach. They all want something - a little more time, a little less work, the answers to the quiz before they take it. You would not believe the number of sick relatives, natural disasters, electrical outages and faulty computers one class can have.

But I slug along and every once in a while, I get an email after the class is over! And it says," Thank you. I learned something I never knew before. I think it might help me in the future."

So I'm still teaching. :)

The new Millennium?

Millennium kids, the X gens, or digital natives. Is this what they want? As a librarian, this child is talking to me!

Watch this!

Which Life?

Once I explored Second Life in an online class as a student. Flying to exotic locations and wearing far out scifi type costumes was fun. Working as an online teacher has not been as theatrical but certainly thrilling in its own way. First, there is nothing to compare to the hysteria of emails when the main homework link goes down. To compound the problem it was not something on “our” end that we could fix although we tried mightily. Finally, it was a vendor glitch that was easily fixed. Not until the week for the assignments was done however. Bless every student that didn’t give up and got their assignment in!

I also was unexpectedly delighted to find the couple of students that sought me out in my library office, face to face or “F2F”. I felt some sort of celebrity. I guess the anonymity of the online environment produces that distance, that iconic status. I wonder if my unglamorous humanity was a letdown or a comfort. I would have dressed up if I had known I would be on display.

I have balanced my online teaching with F2F substitute teaching. Today I had 2^nd graders. Oh, the joy of learning how to spell “delicious” so one can declare the pumpkin pie a proper, heavenly dessert. Reading Stuart Little aloud to a rapt group of little people was the apex of the day.

My greatest challenge in both arenas is to be clear with my information and also to keep the interest of my students. I have some ideas to explore but it will be next semester’s students that will benefit. Games for the second graders? Video for the online class?

The Challenge

Challenge - something that by its very nature serves as a call to special effort. After a summer of experiences other than formal education, this fall I will be working with the students at Cerro Coso Community College as a librarian and educational support tutor. After getting my feet wet, I'll actually teach online as well - rather than theorize.

How will my previous posts about online instruction look in the face of a real teaching experience? In public education, my classroom experience was far from my college classes. In fact my first teaching observation in a downtown Memphis middle school was my last. The perfumed lady professor who observed me teach took a pill and went home never to return. She told me later, "My dear, you are doing mission work. You have no need of my advice. Of course, I am always here if..." Yeah, right.

I expect I will learn more from working with students than any class but only through the reality of trial and response. Probably, I will wish I paid more attention to my formal classes. What was that she/he said about Jing? I also expect to have a rollicking good time. I always have with students. Hey, I've also finally graduated from high school! I'm working with college students.

Stay tuned.

Balance in Teaching

Balance in Teaching: A Response to

Dumbing Down Teachers, Henry A. Giroux, Truthout, May 26 2010.

A self reflective discipline in a vacuum of experience is useless. I didn't learn how to teach until years after I went through my "teacher training". I needed to step into reality. Without the days in the real classroom all my critical pedagogy was smoke in the wind. I also have seen the use of practical experience in learning with the students Giroux seems to champion. Those at risk students when involved in service learning which has a solid academic basis come up with some of the more profound insights into subject matter than I have seen in a "regular" classroom. I suggest that students should practice not just the critical thinking Giroux yearns for but the other two "c"'s - communication and collaboration. (21st Century Skills) If modern education lacks anything, it is this step into application of learning. That takes freedom of expression in class and a respect for opinion that models our ideals of democracy.

As to his defense of teacher unions and measures of teacher performance, I suggest that instructional methods need to be assessed in a responsible data driven, self-reflective manner. I have belonged to both major teacher unions in my time and the only advantage I had was the provision of legal representation. That and contract negotiation seem to be their most intent function. For those reasons I supported them. However, the practice of evaluation of teachers is inadequate and at times, criminal in benign neglect.

Practical application does not have to be joined with the repressive production of worker bees without the ability to consider the world. If my teaching were not grounded in my deep thought about the implications of my subject matter as well as my methods, I could not effectively function. Cookbook teaching is not teaching, in my opinion.

Giroux is right to note that "schools are dominated by a politics of fear, containment and authoritarianism" particularly for schools of color and poverty. This is a reflection of our society that does need to be addressed. Knowledge is power. Without that knowledge these students cannot escape the cycles of poverty and hopelessness that follow them to class. Ruby Payne's controversial theories of poverty and social culture forced me to look at the assumptions I had about a "proper" classroom.

It is certainly easier to focus on data, standards and testing than to grow an articulate, informed, literate, critical thinking citizen. The schools run like businesses do have something to offer. I would have liked to go to "work" at a creative place like Apple. There the experience informs the debate and opinion is based in experience as well as theory. That's what our kids need in school.

Teaching is a verb, a very active verb. Our kids deserve the best, all of them.

Focus on Students

This last weekend I went to Great Basin College in Elko, NV to watch a former student (and adopted daughter) graduate with an AA in Applied Science (Electrical Systems Technology). She graduated Magna Cum Laude and did 70 credits in one year. She would not have her high school diploma without the individual focus and support she had from her small high school, High Desert Academy. That school is now closing due to financial declines in the district. I am endlessly proud of the staff and students that have been at HDA and watch with great regret the closing of this "necessary small school". My wish is that somewhere someone would be able to fund this wonderful agricultural focused academy. Please read the students' comment in a local venue.

Letter to the Sierra Wave by High Desert Academy Students

Online Civil Debate

In examining the change in "mindscape" in an online class, we were talking about a "civil debate". Setting rules for this in the classroom is a skill we all develop as teachers but in the online realm things are different. There were two pieces that relate to the change in using an online discussion.

First, often what seems acceptable in a F2F encounter can come off cold or abrupt in an online settling. We just don't get the humor or the facial/ body language things that make a contradictory statement not so aggressive.

Second, online discussions can encourage the back of the room reluctant participant because of the feeling of anonymity. Often people are braver about talking online.

Think about it. How does it change your classroom world? How do you change to accommodate the difference?