Had a very successful meeting this morning with a school district technology educator. I am pleased to report that blogs have a future in my district. Quite possibly a very bright one at that. The next step is to hammer out some technology details and to set some ground rules. I need to make sure that I am protecting my students while still honoring their freedoms and rights and school district policy. It’s a tricky tightrope — but, based on my conversations of late, a manageable one.
I was skimming the Longmont (Colorado) Daily Times Call this morning, and I discovered that there’s a group looking to take the city wireless. Seems like a neat idea — basically, those interested in "donating" wireless access can do so via a system of antennas setup around the city. Cool.
I posted over the weekend about how I’m not much for anonymity. I’ve also mentioned that I worry sometimes about what’s okay and not okay to talk about in this space. Looks like the events of the blogosphere have caught up with my thinking.
In response to a request, Will Richardson has come to the rescue. These are his suggested guidelines for keeping a teacher blog (see his excellent thinking on this matter in his post:
1. Decide carefully if you want to create a public space for your ideas
with your name on it. Maybe going anonymous would be better. There are
a couple of great anonymous teacher blogs out there, Hipteacher among them.
2. When you write, assume it will be read by the very people you may not want to read it. Think about the consequences.
3. As much as possible, blog on your own time with your own equipment.
4. Tell the truth. If you can’t, don’t write.
5. Ask people’s permission before you write about them in your blog,
especially if it revolves around some struggle that you might feel
worth reflecting upon or sharing with your audience.
6. If you do use a blog for professional reflection or opinion, my
personal wish is that you take the time to present those ideas well.
I’m not perfect when it comes to misspellings or errors, but I try to
read everything at least twice if not three times before publishing.
7. Start simple, and find your groove. If you just post about news and
don’t add much in the way of commentary at the start, it will give you
time to develop your voice.
8. Again, if you decide to blog openly, don’t try to hide that fact from peers or supervisors.
9. If you think people may have an issue with your blog, ask first, and make your decisions based on the feedback you get.
10. If you find yourself looking over your shoulder, don’t blog.
I really believe in the value of blogs and blogging for professional
growth and reflection. But I can understand the reluctance of many
teachers to want to try it. The transparency is scary. The concept of
open-text for one’s ideas and experiences is very different from what
most are used to. Each of us has to weigh the benefits against the
risks, real or perceived.
I believe that this space should be public — and that teachers should be thinking publicly about their teaching — in part to be accountable and in part as a way to further educate the public on just what it is that we do. Such transparency and openness have educational potential for our students and their families, and also for those legislators who believe that they are experts in school matters as they once attended a school a lifetime ago.
I teach in a public school. I am accountable to the public. That’s fine — but I want this society to have as much information as possible when thinking about and evaluating schools. My classroom door is usually open; so, too, is this blog.
Bill Johnson of the Rocky Mountain News, a columnist I always make sure to read, weighs in today on lots of the craziness going on in Colorado. I’ll let you discover most of the craziness for yourself. His mention of a school administrator in Norwood, Colorado, who both banned a book and apologized for the ban in the same week is interesting because of a short statement near the end of the column:
He {Luis Torres, a professor at Metropolitan State in Denver} worries even more about the freshman
English teacher who put the book on the reading list in the first
place. The teacher initially apologized.
"It is very hard on young teachers, especially one who thought
he or she was doing something they thought was good. To get
reprimanded, to see a book they recommended destroyed, has got to be
hard to take," Luis Torres said.
Bless Me, Ultima, he said, is a "totally beautiful,
poetic book, which is why young people respond to it. This teacher
should be rewarded for recognizing something that is a cultural
treasure."
Bob Conder {the Norwood administrator} has said the teacher will not be disciplined.
Given the state of things today, if I am that teacher, I might be thinking about another job.
Better yet, another career.
Or will the teacher play it safe and stick to the sterile anthologies and yellowing book room books from now on? I hope that professional can just brush this experience off. Keep your eyes on these situations. This garbage is why new teachers aren’t sticking with teaching.
I wouldn’t blame that unnamed teacher if he or she wanted to leave. Not one bit. I can’t imagine measuring every future decision with the yardstick of a book banning situation. What incentive does that teacher have to push the boundaries of her classroom, to search for texts that will excite and inspire his or her students? Will he or she be able to trust the backing of the administration the next time that he or she wants to teach something edgy?
For some reason, a recent post to this blog has been labeled as a podcast and is linked from audio.weblogs.com. Sorry if you came here looking for a new podcast — I don’t have any.
Yet.
But I would like to know why I’ve been linked to from that site. How does that happen? Does anyone know? My guess, not that you asked, is that the inserted .doc file in the linked post sets off some sort of enclosure alarm for an aggregator bot or something somewhere. I had hoped that my introduction to the podcasting community was a little less, um, lame.
Speaking of lame — "an aggregator bot or something somewhere"?
I need technology help.
I’ve been team-teaching a Shakespeare class this quarter, and I’ve found a site that has the complete works of William Shakespeare in one place. Check it out.
We’ll be using the site today as a place for students to pull quotes from Hamlet as they complete a double-entry journal (Here’s
the easy-cheesy template that we’ll be giving them). The thinking here is that we’d rather they were writing about their response to the text rather than spending all of their time typing the text that they are responding to. We’re hoping to have our students put together their own abbreviated scenes from the play, using these double-entry journals as a place to explain why they kept certain lines and got rid of other ones.
Read more about double-entry journals here, here, or here. Tell me how you’d rework this activity here.
My science fiction class was in the computer lab today (We have 20 computers for 100 students and I want to get the entire school blogging . . .but that’s another story.). They were working on their postings for our discussion board. Actually, most of them were in the chat room on the discussion board site, typing away.
When I checked in, I discovered that they were all talking/chatting/typing about the story from the class. Just like I hoped they would.
I often turn the chatroom on just to see what might happen — but today was one of the more successful days with it. Some days, I have to shut it down to get work done. I want to leave the discussion board in favor of the blog — but I’ll miss the chat room.
Somebody has to know — where can I find a chatroom to build into my blog?
A Greeley principal had a problem with speeders in front of his school. He couldn’t wait until an expensive solution could be implemented — so he went old school. I’m impressed.
At pickup and drop-off times, he walks out by the road — and points an empty plastic milk jug at cars going by.
The drivers think he’s a cop holding a radar gun, and they slow right down.
In the meantime, the school is accepting donations toward buying the radar sign.
Well done.
I’ve been reading several teacher blogs over the weekend, and I keep seeing again and again that folks are staying anonymous — they’re not identifying themselves or their locations for fear of retribution or personal attack or . . .well, I’m not sure what else.
Here is one example of what I am seeing in regards to people wanting to be anonymous in their blogs:
A note about being anonymous: It is a must. I understand that
being and remaining anonymous makes my blog a little less personal.Last year I came across a then current student’s weblog which had
threatening words towards me included in an entry; my district would do
nothing to resolve this and she never found out I knew about her words.
The police report I made had a non-result.
Not that I intend to make threatening remarks, but due to the incident, I do find it imperative to remain anonymous.
I guess I understand if someone is afraid of retribution, and this is a bad example of what I am talking about, but all this talk of anonymity has me wondering just what it is that teachers have to say that needs to be said anonymously.
In general, hiding behind a veil of secrecy when making a comment or sharing an idea makes me uncomfortable. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me or to like what I have to say all the time — but I demand that people who have ideas or concerns to address do so in a professional manner. I do not respect the criticisms of someone who doesn’t share their name and allow for a dialog. The very nature of a teacher blog to me is scary — it is the blurring or the private and the public, it is walking a tightrope between the two. I’m opening myself up — sharing ideas and concerns and frustrations and what’s going on in the world of my teaching. I must protect my students and their identities, but still, I’ve got to be able to talk about my practice and what informs it. If I wanted to use this space simply to moan and complain about the students in my care, well, then I should buy a can of spray paint and a ski mask. And maybe some time with a therapist.
Professional talk is hard — but so are the issues that we’re talking about. Heck, you need only look at my previous post to see that I am uncomfortable here sometimes — and that anonymity would make keeping a blog that much easier. But it really wouldn’t, because then I could never mention my blog and I’d have to hide that at school. What good does keeping one more secret do?
Because I probably don’t understand the issue of online anonymity in a teaching blog, I’m asking anyone who would argue that teachers need anonymous space on the Internet — please explain it to me. I will be happy to reprint your comments in this space — but let’s have the conversation. I need to understand this.
Heck, I’ll even guarantee your anonymity — even though I don’t yet get why you need it.
