Bud the Teacher

    If you’re at all familiar with the history of podcasting, then you know who Chris Lydon is.  (He did the interviews that Dave Winer turned in to some of the first podcasts.)  If you’re not, maybe you should spend a few minutes at the blog for his new radio show, Open Source.  Eventually, the show will be an interactive one, much like blogs are interactive. 
    The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, which means you can look for it soon.  In the meantime, you might want to give a listen to the 3rd pilot episode.  It features an interview with the founder of Wikipedia, and conversations with folks who use Wikipedia and those who would prefer it isn’t used at all.  Very interesting conversation.  Personally, I like Wikipedia and would send kids to use it — but we’d also talk in class about what the site is for and how it should be used.
    One of my favorite authors, Simon Winchester, pops up on the show near the end to discuss his experiences with the interactive encyclopedia.  The show’s worth a listen, as, I suspect, the future episodes will be.

  Originally uploaded by Bud the Teacher.

    We held our 2005 graduation ceremony on Friday night.  Our school of 120 students sent 37 off into the larger world.  These flowers were given to me by seniors during a section of our graduation we call the Rose Ceremony.  Each flower was given by a senior to someone who they felt was important to their success. 
    This is the best bouquet of flowers ever created.  Each flower is different and beautiful, just like our students. 
    One student told me that she wanted to give me a flower, but didn’t have enough.  She told me that she was giving me a "spiritual flower."  I really liked how that sounded.  Spiritual flowers, I’m guessing, don’t require water, and never, ever die.
    Here’s to the Class of 2005, and the amazing stuff they’re about to do.

    She’s baaaa-ack!  Woohoo!

    I received a few e-mails about a problem with the link to the podcast.  I’ve been experimenting with using the Internet Archive to host stuff — and the experiment isn’t going as well as I’d like. 
    I’ve changed the link to a smaller file — it seems that the Archive servers weren’t sharing in a very speedy manner.  Hope this solves the problem.
     I guess I should really just bite the bullet and pay for more space — but I really, really would prefer not to.

    This is the 100th post on this blog.  That’s not the reason for this post, however.  Yesterday, I started using a new podcast rig.  I was testing it out and stumbled into a podcast.  In this podcast, I discuss and reflect on the experiment, the social in social software, and perhaps ramble on for a bit longer than I should have. 
    As always, let me know how to make the podcast more useful to you.  Thanks for listening!  Here are the relevant links for this podcast:
    * Nancy’s blog (Random Thoughts)
    * Darren @ A Difference
    * Outside the Cave
    * Anne Davis
    * Adventures in Educational Blogging
    * Steve Dembo

    BionicTeacher, aside from having some really interesting ideas, is also sharing one of those pesky little viruses memes that make their way around from time to time.  He’s right, though, that we can learn more about each other when we share like this from time to time.  So, I’ll play.

First 5 Songs in Shuffle of Entire Music Library
1. Boat Drinks — Jimmy Buffett
2. Reservations — Wilco
(An unidentified podcast — use those ID3 tags, folks — but this doesn’t count, because it’s not a song)
3.  How Many Times — Bob Marley
4. Time Baby 3 — Medicine
(Dave Winer’s Morning Coffee Notes from March 1, 2005 — but this doesn’t count, because it’s also not a song)
5. English Civil War — The Clash

* Current Book You are Reading (or lightly leafing through)
I’m in between books, but I’m informally skimming The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to the First Year by Armin Brott and have a wicked-long summer reading list that I’m four days away from beginning to tackle. 

* Last Movie Seen in a Theater and Where
Um.  Right.  Remember how I’m reading that new dad book?  I can’t remember when I last went to the movie theater. 

*Five People To Whom You’ll Pass This
I’ll pass this to my blogging students, in large part because I haven’t met with them in a week and I miss them.  It wouldn’t hurt for them to have a short blogging prompt with which to begin the summer, either. 

    The other day, Fred the Fish stopped by and left this comment:

. . . As a first year, untenured teacher in California, I ask: how far can we
go before the standards yank our collars and pulls us back? As I plan
summer school, which includes a reprisal of the Vagina Monologues read
by me, I think what I and other new teachers want to be sure of is that
we can still can push the boundaries even with the standards and Arnold
looming over us.
Is this true?

    Interesting question.  As I’m a third-year teacher myself, I’ve thought about lots of similar questions over the last few years.  There’s an implication in Fred’s question that makes me uncomfortable.  Let’s start there.
    By assuming that we need to "push the boundaries" in our classrooms, we’re acknowledging to some degree that we need to work outside of our system in order to be the most effective teachers that we can be.  I wonder about this, and I’ve written about it before.  Do we really need to push the lines because they are in the wrong places, or is there a sense or image of the effective teacher as a renegade, one who challenges the mainstream for the sake of the challenge? 
    Or both?
    While I would certainly argue that there is much in mainstream education that requires adjustment and, in some cases, outright destruction, I don’t know that we need to be able to push the boundaries all the time.  Some stuff is, well, pretty darn good.
    Now, I’m in no way saying that this was Fred’s point — Fred’s question was a fair one.  But I find myself sometimes chomping at the bit to challenge a rule or policy — before I’ve actually through through the logic (or lack thereof) in the rule.
    I like Colorado’s standards.  They’re good reminders of what’s important — without being so restrictive that I feel like I’m just facilitating someone else’s content.  (By the way — there’s a tension here between feeling ownership of what I teach and realizing that, ideally, I am facilitating the learning of the content that is important to a number of different folks — my students and community included.  Can anyone help me tease this idea out more?)   
    We do need to have some guiding principles that are shared across classrooms.  NCTE and IRA have published these .  What guiding documents are y’all using in your classrooms? 
    Do you find them to be helpful, or restrictive? 

    There’s still more to come on my final thoughts about the blogging experiment and the coming aftermath, but I owe many folks a thank you (at the very least).  Thank you so much to all of you who stopped in and took the time to treat my students like members of the blogging community.  In particular, thanks to Nancy, who was there as a reader and contributor from the beginning; Mr. Sizer, who had lots to say which gave us lots to think about; Will for discovering us and showcasing my students; Tom for his comments; Anne, who showed us that the elementary students get blogs better than we do (we’re thinking of you today, Anne), and Mr. Kuropatwa for teaching a lesson that I wasn’t able to articulate.  Thanks, too, to the others who stopped in on their blogs or the wiki that I have overlooked. 

      When we work together, sharing our strengths, we can do some pretty neat stuff.  Thanks for being good models and partners in our learning. 

    We’ve reached the end of the experiment.
    I’ll be reflecting over the next few days — there’s been lots to think about and respond to.  For right now, I’d like to tell you a story. 
     Yesterday, one of our other English teachers had some questions about blogs and blogging.  She and I have been discussing technology off and on throughout the year, but there was always other stuff to do instead of passing her a glass of blog kool-aid.  But teachable moments happen at the best — and worst — times.  She stopped in for a minute and stayed for an hour. 
    It was wonderful.
    In that time, she quizzed my students on some great blogging questions, and they gave some fabulous answers.  It was pretty much a pop final for the blogsperimenters. 
    They aced it.
    One question worth mentioning was her question about what blogs can offer to shy or reluctant writers.  David answered, saying that when one starts a blog, no one is reading.  Over time, as the readers begin to find the blog, the writer begins to develop a level of comfort and confidence in blogging.  I had never thought about it like that.  Of course, I’ve said that a lot over the last six weeks.  I love that about teaching.
    By the end of the hour, the teacher had a blog.  She was convinced.  The blog’s not much to look at yet, but I know that when she gets some time she plans to explore.
    Score one for the bloggers.  I wonder what the next round of blogsperimenting will look like.  Actually, I’m beginning to figure it out — as you know if you’ve been listening to the podcast.         More on the future of my classroom in the days ahead.

    Yesterday in class, we stumbled into our first podcast. We
were talking about how to grade blogs — and then we got to talking about
a lot more. In true Dave Winer fashion, I started the recorder to capture their thoughts. 
    I was blown away by the words and ideas coming from my students. I am proud of their thinking and the seriousness with which they are treating their education.I only
wish the other half of the class had been present for the conversation. 
    Maybe Next time.