Symbolism Described By Elmer

I don't normally get teaching ideas from listening to my pastor, but this morning he inspired me.  Reviving a segment of the service he calls Pastors Pals, Brother Elmer called all the little ones down to the altar to hear a child specific lesson on what the Lord's Supper was all about.  For anyone who doesn't know, the Lord's Supper is a symbolic ceremony where church members eat bread and drink wine (or grape juice)  to represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We do it to remember the sacrifice of our Savior.

Most adults know what the ceremony is all about, but children don't understand until they first comprehend what symbolism is.  Brother Elmer had the children crowded around him, and he explained that he wanted to help them understand what the Lord's Supper was all about. He pulled out a set of flashcards.  The first was the McDonald's arch.  He asked the children to tell him what the picture on the card meant. Young hands went up and shouted answers,"That's McDonalds!" "Cheeseburgers!  Fries!" "Playing!" "Toys!" The congregation laughed. Elmer explained that when they see that picture, they think of all sorts of things. The picture helps them remember stuff about McDonald's. Then, he moved on to his next card- a Nike swoosh. They knew all about that one too. Kids yelled out various things about the company, sportswear, and athletics in general. Next he pulled out the Xbox symbol. Kids were practically jumping out of their seats in excitement. They knew all about Xbox, and they were thrilled to share their knowledge. He closed with the Lexus symbol, which a couple kids knew, and most did not.

What I really liked about his lesson this morning was that it was easy to understand and appropriate for all levels of learners in the sanctuary. He pulled in various symbols that would stimulate connections from both youth and adults alike. It gave credence to the cultural background of the children, and made them feel intelligent by giving them something they already knew something about. It was a brilliant lesson that I felt was worth sharing. I may just steal it for my tenth graders.

But this lesson can teach educators something too. The world is filled with learning opportunities and learning lessons. Education doesn't just happen within the confines of the school system. It is everywhere. Pay attention to the world and you may just find some brilliant ideas.

Why Read? Like, I Just Don’t Get It.

On the first day of school, a student asked me the question, “Why read? Like, I just don’t get it.” She was serious.  My answer was, “There are so many reasons to read, I just don’t think we can tackle that question today.  Let’s talk about it next class.”  So, today, on the second day I saw this student, I decided to begin with a book talk about Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.  I chose that book because I thought my students might be able to connect to the main character, a teenager who died just before she got her driver’s license.  After the talk, several students jotted the name of the book down in their composition book (unprompted) as something they might be interested in reading.  Then, I told them it was time to write. 

My instructions for writing were simple.  I set a timer for ten minutes, and students had to keep the pen in their hand and write for the full ten minutes.  I told them they could write about the book talk I had just given them, or they could write about something else it made them think of.  They could even choose to write about something personal in their life that wasn’t related.  It was their choice.  Pulling out my own composition book, I sat in the middle of the room and wrote with them. 

When I saw a student put their pencil down 5 minutes in, I cleared my throat and looked straight in his eyes.  He picked their pencil up and continued writing without a word.  I filled my page with an explanation about why reading is so important to me.  After ten minutes, I stopped the students.  I told them that I’d share first, then I’d take two volunteers who wanted to read.  My instructions were:  when a person reads aloud, they can ask for feedback before they read.  If they do, the class can respond.  If they don’t ask for feedback, the class isn’t allowed to do anything but say “thank you.”  Then I read my piece about how writing is inspiration, imagination,dreaming, and escape. It was a very good piece of prose, one I was proud to use as a model.  After reading, I got up and sat in a student desk.  I gestured to the teacher chair and said, “Who would like to sit in the author’s chair and share?”  A volunteer stood.

The student was nervous, but she told us about her van that she can’t wait to drive.  It is old, but it is hers, and she is proud of it.  I asked her why she chose that topic, and she said it was because of the book talk about Elsewhere.  I smiled and thanked her.  Then, another student stood up.  I was shocked by which student stood.

He was a kid who was actually repeating the grade.  He’d been my student the year before.  It killed me, because he’s smart.  Yet, sometimes smart isn’t enough.  Effort has to be there too.  So, when he volunteered to read, I was on the edge of my seat.  What would he share?  His piece was personal.  He wrote a story, of which the contents are so personal, I daren’t place in this post.  The other students in the room were blown away by the level of emotion that came through in his writing.  They didn’t know what to say or do.  I thanked him, not just with my words but with my actions too.  As I moved on to the question of the day, I made sure to pat him on the shoulder.  He deserved it.

Drawing a concept map on the whiteboard, I told the students to copy it into their notebooks.  They had to be told that notebooks did not mean composition books.  Composition books are reserved for personal writing.  Their notebook is for notes.  Students drew the circle and labeled it “Reading” as I had done.  Then, I asked them what Reading is.  At first, nobody wanted to speak.  Then, they started throwing out ideas.  As they said different things that reading is, they realized that reading and writing were connected.  They also noted that reading was personal, and that it varied depending on purpose.  They figured out that reading makes you smarter, both at a word level, and also at a concept level.  I didn’t have to tell them any of this.  They came up with it on their own. So, I repeated the question.  “Why read?”  The same girl who had asked that enormous question piped up and said, “Well, there’s lots of reasons to read.  I didn’t really think about all that stuff, but I totally get it.  Reading makes us smarter, but its fun too, right?” Score!  Lesson understood.  Now comes the hard part.  The follow through.  Will she and others in the class follow through and internalize the lesson?  That remains to be seen.

Books Can Be Dangerous.

Before setting up students on goodreads.com and figuring out reading rates, this is the journal prompt I'm going to give them.  Considering the power of books to change oneself gives importance to the act of reading.  Today, my students asked me, "Why do people read?"  They meant it too.  They thought that people read just because it was fun for some (but not for them, of course).  They didn't realize that books have meaning, that they can make you better.  They didn't realize that books can bring about change.  They didn't think about the fact that books build vocabulary.  Books can be dangerous because they are powerful.  And they are important.  And they should be a priority.  Give your students ten minutes per class period to read independent reading books.  It is worth your while.

An Example From a Sales Environment

Today I had a revelation about my personal work history. I've often thought that that the time I spent working for Citicards was a waste of four years of my time, other than meeting my husband there, of course. Yet, when I reflect on my experiences in customer service, I realize that it contributed to my teaching pedagogy. 

As a customer service/sales agent, I was consistently one of the site leaders in sales numbers, so I was constantly pulled off the phones to assist in motivating others.  My duties included coaching struggling agents in ways to interact with customers more efficiently, but I was also expected to motivate my crew to pull up their sales numbers.  After all, in a business it is all about sales.  Sales driven performance was the center of CitiCards Customer Service. 

In order to increase motivation, management had instituted a sales incentive bonus called R2S (Route 2 Success).  Sales agents earned R2S points by doing something special, meeting a goal, or winning a contest.  Points could then be traded in for various prizes.  For instance, I got a camcorder and a digital camera after winning top site salesperson for the quarter.  It was a good program, and motivating for most agents.  We all wanted points.  I even wanted them, and I was the one giving them away.

When I got pulled off the phone to assist other team-members, I would set up sales contests.  I'd challenge my team to make 25 sales total in an hour, and if the team completed the goal, then everyone would get 100 R2S points.  Or, I'd challenge them to sell a dozen of a single product in a shift, and they'd get 250 R2S points.  While they progressed toward the goal, I'd keep track of their progress on an anchor chart.  Everyone on the team could see as the tally marks got them closer to the reward.  At the same time, the goal was an appropriate challenge.  It was doable, but difficult to achieve.  It was just outside of the normal performance rates.  That was essential in designing an effective sales game, so it continued to be motivating. 

The other big thing was that the game's rules had to be simple, and easy to understand.  Sometimes it would be just a straightforward fulfillment goal.  Other times, we'd assign a certain number of points to each product, and they would be set up on a bullseye.  Games were varied, but they were always goal-based, and creative.  It was fun.  Fun was the key to motivating the team.

The gaming principles set up in video games were being enacted in our business sales environment.  We achieved higher sales percentages when a game was in order.  If teachers would set up goals, just like I did with my sales team, it would be motivating to students.  If creative games-based learning principles would be put into effect in schools, am certain that learning would increase, just as sales increased at CitiCards.

North Star of Texas Writing Project

This summer, I was privilaged to become part of an amazing community of people.  The experience was absolutely transformative, giving me access to a network of dedicated teaching professionals spanning from early childhood to university level.  While there, we followed a model consistent with National Writing Project's (http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/nwpsites/what_sites_do.csp) goals and guidelines.  National Writing Project is a a network of sites anchored at universities to support pre-service teachers and current educators to improve the level of writing instruction across the United States.  Participating teachers attend a month long summer training session, immersing themselves in professional reading and writing of all genres.  After attending the summer institute, graduating teachers are given the title of teaching consultants, and are invited to join any number of special interest groups for continuity of the group.  It is not over when the summer session is over.  Instead, participants are invited to come back and speak to new groups, present at conferences, and conduct professional development to home schools.  Funding has been traditionally been from the federal government, but has recently been cut from the budget.  This is a concern for all sites involved, and we need teachers, administrators, and parents to petition for the reinstatement of budget for this cause. 

Personally, I will be using lessons and activities that we did in the institute, starting with the ice breaker activities.  I will have students decorate composition books and present them to the class as a way to have students take ownership of their writing vessal from day one.  Then, we will use a collection of childrens books, novel selections, videos, music, and more to show students that writing inspiration can come from anywhere.  We will take a few minutes each day to write, and share what we've wrote with others.  This is essential to creating a literacy-rich environment.  As much as I cringe to admit where I've left gaps in the past, I did not model as much as I should have before.  The institute reinforced the reason why modeling is so important.  I also did not put as much emphasis on sharing writing.  Students would share a sentence, then I'd move on.  That simply isn't enough.  As the school year revs up to begin, I am excited to see how the changes in my instruction will transform my student's writing, and more importantly, their attitude toward literacy.

More than that, North Star of Texas Writing Project (http://www.northstaroftexaswritingproject.org/?page_id=33) has also convinced me that I must do a doctorate.  I was not certain if that was the path for me, if I had it in me to do another four to five years of higher education.  After feeling the love of learning re-blossom inside me, and watching it happen for other practicing and pre-service teachers, I knew that there was no other option for me.  I must do it, because I want to help inspire others as my Writing Project mentors have done for me.  If I could teach educators the principles of NSTWP, then I'd feel like I did my job advancing reading and writing in an obtainable, enjoyable, and critical way.  Furthermore, as I shared my research interest with my peers, I found that what I have to say bears interest, but needs more investigation.  I didn't know if I was going to hit a brick wall with sharing my out-of-the-box idea that video games can be used to help reading and writing.  Instead, I felt supported and encouraged.  At the same time, I felt personally challenged to do more and talk less.  Thus, I've set up this blog, begun another blog that catalogs virtual book talks (http://virtualbooktalk.blogspot.com/), curated a pearltree (a shareable matrix where I've set up a listing of favored tech tools-http://www.pearltrees.com/t/techtools-teaching/id3072350), and created groups on facebook for my NSTWP peers and Human Systems Dynamics (http://www.hsdinstitute.org/)  fellow participants.  I've transitioned from being a consumer of research to an active participant.

What has National Writing Project done for me?  In short, it changed my life.

Lyrical Assertion for the Importance of Writing

As I was driving today, I heard this song on the radio.  Of course, as I heard the reference to Shakespeare, I had to jot down the lyrics and look it up when I got home.  Why?  Because it was beautiful, it was poetry.  It was a clear assertion that writing is an amazing thing to do.  Yes, its about love of a woman (or a child, as pictured in the music video).  But, it is also about how important writing is.  What a great message to give our students!  Doug Stone is absolutely right that stories need to be written down before they are lost.

Too Busy Being in Love- Performed by Doug Stone, Written by Victoria Shaw and Gary Burr.

If I had taken the time
To write down a few lines
Every time that you crossed this heart of mine
I’d put them all in a book
How much time would that have took
The words ‘n years have a way of slipping back

Oh no! Too bad, there goes the chance that I had
I could have written a play so sweet and so funny
Given old Mr. Shakespeare a run for his money
Written the words to the prettiest tune
That would never leave a dry eye in the room
My only excuse for not doing enough
well I was too busy being in love
Yes I was too busy being in love

Brand new phrases appear every time you are near
All these words you inspire after all these years
But I never reached for a pen
Break the mood that I’m in
Before I knew it the words were gone again

Oh no! Too bad, there goes the chance that I had
I could have written a play so sweet and so funny
Given old Mr. Shakespeare a run for his money
Written the words to the prettiest tune
That would never leave a dry eye in the room
My only excuse for not doing enough
I was too busy being in love
Yes I was too busy being in love

I could have written the part to make young lovers crazy
I could have written the movie for Hepburn and Tracey
The beautiful song and it starts with your name
Written my way into fortune and fame
But I have no regrets for not doing enough
well I was too busy being in love
Yes I was too busy being in love

Video Games: A Disruptive Container

Using the Human Systems Dynamic Institute's CDE Model (developed by Glenda Eoyang) as a way to understand one of the central problems for why it is so difficult for teachers to accept video games as a viable tool for instruction can be helpful.  First, lets consider what the model looks like:

C- Container: holds agents together until system-wide patterns can form.

A student is a container.  That students identity is their container.  They choose to affiliate themselves with others based on what containers they view themselves to be connected with. 

D- Difference: provides the potential for change and enagagement among agents. A variable to watch that is divergent from the status quo. It is the action we want. 

We want the student to succeed.  We want them to become engaged with the material, but that simply isn't always the case.  Every person is different, with divergent interests and abilities.  To get students motivated to succeed, we must determine what difference makes the difference and focus on that.

E- Exchange: establishes the connections among agents and between individuals and the whole.  It is a two-way transfer.

In a traditional classroom, the teacher gives information to the student.  The student is then expected to accept that information and internalize it.  This doesn't always happen, thus creating an unmotivated student.  Another exchange may be in the work the student does (or doesn't) turn in to the teacher.  It may be in the questions the student asks, or the comments the students make.

Using the CDE model, I can identify patterns, or differences and similiarities shared amongst interactions with a student.  If I have a student (c) who is disengaged (d) and refuses to interact with the rest of the class (e), I have identified WHAT the problem is.  Then, I must think, SO WHAT can I do with this information?  In my view, I need to connect with the disengaged student and figure out what matters to them.  What will make a difference to them?  In interactions with some of my disengaged students, I've noticed that discussing popular culture, specifically video games, helps create a common text for us to complete goals.  NOW WHAT do I do to take action and help this student and future like-minded students?  My adaptive action, or action taken as a result of noted patterns, is to try and incorporate gaming culture into my normal classroom instruction.  This is the human systems dynamics model in action.

One difficulty with getting other teachers to buy-in to this method is that they see video games as a container and school as a container.  In this view, they are separate containers that don't mix.  They are disruptive.  But, in my view, the student is the container, and these two parts of their life work together to create learning.  When the student goes home and plays the video game, they (the player) (c) levels up (d) by completing quests (e), they are consistently moving forward to harder and harder cycles of learning.  In school, when the student (c) plays the game of school, they are tested (d) to determine their levels of learning and expected to verbalize (e) in class.  We need to shift our boundaries to include both parts of the students life in to the whole picture of the student's learning experience.  Instead of trying to set up fences to separate the two learning engagements, teachers should be trying to use games as a way to create an affiliation, or to attract the student to learning the content.  Students want to recognize that their learning outside of school is relevant in school.  They want to see a consistent pattern.  However, when we devalue their gaming culture, we are interfering with the pattern, causing students to have to choose which identity they would rather have: a good student, or a good gamer.  Unfortunately, some students will choose to identify as a gamer and will then give up on school.  Its not worth it to try in school because it isn't important to them. 

Here lies my sticky issue.  How can I convince others that this sort of thinking isn't helping our youth?  With the help of HSD to frame the problem, perhaps others will be able to see that it is, in fact a problem.  The devaluation of gaming as a learning system is creating an identity crisis in adolescents, leading to disengagment.

Why Change IS Necessary

Today’s learners are not the same as yesteryear’s.  When the current education system was founded during the Industrial Revolution, it was exactly what the country needed.  Giving a set of clear structure to a system that was desperate for guidelines gave schools and teachers common goals, a major improvement over the previous schoolhouse Lone-Ranger approach.  The education system took the best part of the rise of industry and implemented it into action so that American citizens could rise above the rest of the world, educating the masses.  That system was effective for decades.  But, just as the automobile factory has adjusted over time to accommodate newer models of vehicle, so should education move forward to create a new system that utilizes the technology we’ve worked so hard to develop.

Whether we like it or not, our world has undergone a massive revolutionary change.  The introduction of the internet to public use transformed the way we research.  Instead of traveling to physical libraries, many students choose to conduct research through online catalogue systems.  Using web browsers, people can also easily find articles relevant to their question.  Today’s students have never had the experience of trying to research with only hard copy books at their disposal.  In fact, readers don’t ever have to hold a hard copy of a book in their hands anymore, because they can access resources within seconds by downloading the text onto their tablet or e-reader. 

Technology has not just affected the way we communicate, but it has also affected the job market.  The fact is, most jobs are not based in manual, factory labor anymore.  Most careers are founded on intellect.  Even a modern car mechanic has to undergo specialized training to handle the computer systems built into cars.  Farmers don’t milk their cows by hand anymore, they attach machines to do the milking, allowing farms to produce more.  Our world is different, the jobs are different.  Yet, eduction remains stalwartly unchanged.

Human systems dynamics recognizes that changes in context causes the need for change to a system.  In this case, a change has occurred in our culture- the introduction of computer technology, and its integration into our real world communication.  Learning can and should be interative.  As we learn new thing, as we identify and develop new technology, it should be used to modify our current practices.  We are in a new cycle of education, one that needs to be change to fit the current context.  In order to advance beyond the problem that is our broken education system, we must acknowledge that the world has change.  Once we do that, we can take action to improve it. (To learn more about human systems dynamics, visit http://www.hsdinstitute.org/). 

note: This blog was written after the first day of the Human Systems Dynamic Institute: Transforming Lives Workshop.  HSD was founded by Dr. Glenda Eoyang, and the workshop was taught by her sisters, Dr. Royce Holladay and Dr. Leslie Patterson.