End of an Era

My digital curriculum job is dead. Long live my digital curriculum job.

As of January 7…or maybe later this week…or maybe retroactively January 1, I will no longer work for Time To Know. It’s the end of an era.

Time To Know has joined forces with McGraw-Hill Education, and as part of that relationship, I am becoming a McGraw-Hill employee. In case you didn’t know, Time To Know is a digital curriculum company based out of Tel Aviv, Israel. Most of the employees are located in Israel, and they will continue working for Time To Know. Those of us working in the United States, however, were offered to McGraw-Hill. Sort of like a dowry. Thankfully they accepted us.

In the end, I think it’s to my benefit to work for a company based out of the US, not to mention a corporation like McGraw-Hill which is able to offer employee benefits a start up like Time To Know could not afford. But before I get all chummy with my new corporate overlords, I’d like to reflect back on the past three and a half years I worked at Time To Know. It’s been an incredible experience (for the most part), and I can only hope that my time spent at McGraw-Hill will be just as rewarding.

Top 5 Reasons I Enjoyed Working at Time To Know

1. Discourse

One of the reasons I loved this job immediately is because I got to argue with people about teaching and learning. In my years as a public school teacher, I found that most of my co-teachers did not like it when I challenged their ideas. Not that I went out of my way to say they sucked or anything. I just naturally enjoy talking out lesson ideas and figuring out how to improve them. That means if I disagree with something and think that it’s not going to be best for the students, then I will stand up and say so. Yeah, that didn’t go over so well usually.

No grudges. No matter how intense the meeting, we always came out as friends.

But at Time To Know? They encouraged it! I remember numerous heated meetings when I first started working with my team. The best part is that we knew that we weren’t arguing because we were mad at each other, but because we wanted to design the best instruction we could for the teachers and students. The culture at Time To Know encouraged passion and collaboration in a way I never experienced as a teacher.

I’ll be honest, you needed a thick skin to survive on my team. The first time I had to present a lesson I wrote, I was defensive, I was flushed, and my pulse was going a mile a minute. It didn’t help that the review meetings were nicknamed “shredding” because it was often the case that they would offer so much feedback that your lesson felt shredded to ribbons and you were left with a lot of rewrites. Those meetings, tough as they were at times, taught me a great deal about the power of collaboration. You can accomplish amazing things if you can get people in a room who believe in the same mission, speak their minds, and honestly listen to each other.

2. Travel

As a public school teacher, I was lucky if I got to travel to Dallas or Houston for a conference. At Time To Know I’ve traveled to Dallas and San Antonio, but I’ve also traveled to Israel, New York City, Ohio, and North Carolina. At this point I’m a bit tired of travel for work, but boy was it a great run while it lasted. Traveling to Israel is probably the highlight of my years at Time To Know. If I’m counting correctly, I’ve traveled there 5 times and I had a blast each time. Of course I was there for work, but I fit in plenty of sightseeing to make it worth it.

Jerusalem- The Old City

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Israel before I took this job, and it was never on my radar as a place I’d ever like to visit, but I have to say, if you ever have the chance to go, you should definitely take it. It’s surreal to drive down the highway and see every other exit is a place from the Bible. The country is just sopping wet with history. I’ve been to the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, Megiddo (the site of Armageddon!), and Jerusalem, to name a few places. The great thing is that it isn’t a large country so you can see a lot in a few days.

Floating at the Dead Sea while on a work trip. One of the coolest things I’ve ever done!

Be sure to go to the Dead Sea. It’s unbelievable. No matter how hard you try, you just cannot sink. Your body wants to float and it will fight you. Even trying to tread water, you’ll feel your feet being pulled out from under you and up to the surface of the water. There’s something magical about it that captured a feeling I haven’t had since I was a kid.

The Bianca – the most amazing pizza I have ever tasted

And of course eat plenty of delicious food. It’s one of my favorite reasons to travel after all, and Israel is one of my favorite places to eat.

3. The La-Las

The La Las

In my office in Austin, there were at one time 6 of us on the math team and 4 amazing ladies on the Language Arts team, nicknamed the La-Las. I can’t imagine what this job would have been like without them. Whereas the math team was usually quiet and deep in thought, the La-Las could usually be heard laughing and telling stories. I’ve never met four people who enjoy working with each other as much as they do. Their specialty was bringing the whole office together for good food and good company. They organized birthday lunches, taco salad potlucks, Thanksgiving feasts, and white elephant gift exchanges. And they made great traveling companions. We’d meet up every evening in the hotel lounge to decompress and laugh together.

4. My Team

The Math Team – Pure Awesome

We tried coming up with a nickname like the La-Las. We were the Mathinators or something. It didn’t stick. And it was kind of dumb. We just weren’t as cool as the La-Las.

Every time we released a lesson, we placed it on the Go-Go Wall. (Our office building was next door to a strip club, and their business office used to be in our office space. Super classy!)

What we lacked in clever names, we more than made up for in pure awesome.  Over the past three years the team I led produced nearly 100 digital math lessons. And when I say lesson, I mean an hour or more of content that involves a wide variety of interactions in the classroom from whole class discussion to individual exploration. I’m proud of the work we did. We were able to meet increasingly tight deadlines without sacrificing quality.

5. The Product

I know this should probably be number one on my list of things to remember about this job, but honestly all of my other experiences trump this. As much as I love our product, I’ve always been a bit sad that I’m making lessons I don’t get to teach myself. I know several thousand students have encountered lessons I’ve designed, which is just baffling to think about, but I can’t help but selfishly think, “I want to be the one teaching those kids with our curriculum!”

I guess that speaks well of our curriculum that it’s something I want to use myself. Nowadays there are so many digital products vying for students’, teachers’, and schools’ attention. Many are criticized for isolating students by plugging them into individualized programs. There’s also a fear that technology products are trying to replace teachers. Check out Dan Meyer’s latest blog post for an example from a charter school. What I love about our curriculum is that it has always been designed to keep the teacher as an important figure in the class. We aim to augment with technology, not take away or diminish.

And that’s all I want to say about our curriculum because I don’t want anyone to think this is turning into a commercial. Suffice it to say, I’m proud of the lessons I’ve written, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of writing them.

Looking Ahead

Here’s to great success as McGraw-Hill and Time To Know join forces.

While my time as a curriculum developer at Time To Know is over, I embark on a new journey as a curriculum developer at McGraw-Hill…which is to say I’m basically doing the same job as before but my paycheck comes from someone else. I’m thankful that McGraw-Hill has faith in the work we’ve been doing, and they’re allowing us to continue without a lot of interference or unreasonable demands. If all goes well, I’ll continue to develop math lessons to be proud of, and it will be a good long while before I have to write another post like this one.

The Twitter Clique: Us vs. Them (Part 2)

Source: Russell Sekeet (CC BY 2.0)

In my previous post I shared excerpts from a recent #edchat to illustrate a disturbing theme I’ve noticed in numerous educational chats these past few months: “us” vs. “them”. In case you don’t have time to go back and read part 1: “us” includes all the enlightened, connected teachers who use Twitter and embrace technology in education. “Them”, on the other hand, represents the intractable, disconnected teachers who don’t use Twitter. Perhaps it’s because they fear technology or they fear failure. Either way, they’re not here, and their teaching isn’t up to snuff. Boo. Hiss. Evil. (Picture me with my fingers making a cross to ward them off.)

All sarcasm and faux drama aside, while reading through the #edchat transcript, I actually came across some encouraging comments that question this kind of discussion and thinking. I want to share those comments in this post so you can read what made me smile.

As a reminder, the #edchat topic I’m referring to: How should teachers deal with colleagues who are comfortable with 19th century methods and punitive measures for non-compliant students?

Please note, as before, I refrained from including any Twitter handles. You’re welcome to find out for yourself in the transcript who said what. It wasn’t important to me because my purpose is not finger pointing at particular individuals – whether I agree or disagree with what they said. Rather, I’m more concerned with the general culture created through formal educational Twitter chats.

Questioning

Some participants questioned the day’s #edchat topic, while others questioned what they were hearing throughout the conversation.

Do we have the right to try to correct others who have a teaching philosophy different from our own, even at the expense of kids? #Edchat

But is that necessarily a bad thing? If it really ain’t broke, why fix it? #edchat

Is it up to us to change what is working for someone else? #edchat

as a general question: In your personal experience is this a common problem? #Edchat

Is it up to us to change what is working for someone else? in true collab environment; must appreciate differences #edchat

Only if you can prove your methods are more effective. Without some measure what ground do you have to stand on? #edchat

Using 19c techniques are normal and they help students learn. Why should a teacher change? #edchat

Agreed! Too often tech becomes a synonym for “engagement” Sometimes I think we r 2 focused on dazzling ‘em w tech #edchat

Exactly. So why force it on effective tchr? RT @_: Using tech doesnt guarantee excellent teaching and great learning. #edchat

It seems to me that today’s #edchat topic is too negatively phrased.

It feels to me that with the language the topic uses it limits what language we can use to discuss this issue. #edchat

Perhaps instead of “deal with” we should use “work with”? Learn with? #edchat

I see what you mean, but if I’m an educator who has it under control, why risk messing up when I know I’m OK this way? #edchat

Supporting “Them”

At times, some of the participants came to the defense of “them”.

We cannot force someone else to change their teaching. We can only offer help, be supportive, and stay positive. #edchat

(1/2) It’s important to remember that what works for one person may not necessarily work for another, everyone an individual. #edchat

(2/2) Have colleague who is very lo-tech but has kiddos COMPLETELY locked on his every word! It is a gift!!! #edchat

Some techniques are timeless. It’s the all or nothing that causes conflict. Need balance & variety. #edchat

Some teachers actually do better w/ low-tech & they’re more effective that way… I think that should be okay. #edchat

I don’t think it is up to teachers to try to force change. I share my “techy successes” but I don’t think “my way is better” works #edchat

#edchat technology is not the only way forward – it is one way. Need to be mindful that it is not the be all and end all for tchrs and chn

Don’t forget though, that some of these teachers have been through many waves of “the new great method/program/etc” #edchat

Good teaching does not require #edtech. Be open minded. We all can learn from each other. #edchat

Our joy is the art of teaching. It’s never the same for anyone person or class. Otherwise we’re no different than a computer. #edchat

Inclusiveness and Collaboration

Finally, some of the discussion shared an attitude of inclusiveness and collaboration without insinuating that “us” knows better and needs to change “them”.

Me, too I personally don’t think it is necessarily bad for kids to be exposed to a variety of teaching methods #edchat

I think the only right we have is 2 engage in conversations w/ those like that; we cannot force our philisophy on others #edchat

But we can’t just shut our doors – we have to collaborate and share what we’ve learned with our peers #edchat

Don’t force change if something works – but – keep introducing new ideas and techniques – share #edchat

Agreed. Having that kind of know-it-all attitude can really turn teachers off… esp when you want to share ideas w/ them #edchat

Sometimes, coming from the top down helps. But there is nothing better than coming from the bottom up. Teachers organically adopting #edchat

Setting aside time for real learning conversations with trusted colleagues about student work brings about positive change. #edchat

An attitude of “policing” is not the way to approach it. #edchat

Final Thoughts

In the end, I want to make it clear that I treasure the conversations I participate in through Twitter and blogging. They’ve opened up my professional world way beyond what it was before. Heck, they’ve blown the doors right off the hinges. By writing these posts, the last thing I’m trying to do is vilify anyone for any one thing they’ve said.

Rather, I want to point out that our conversations create a culture, intended or not. By speaking so freely about “them” and how much they are behind the times or how bad they are as teachers, we are creating an unwelcoming environment should those teachers ever choose to join Twitter. As I said in my previous post, teachers face enough criticism from outside sources. The last thing we need is to attack each other.

So what would I suggest? Focus on you and the issues you face with your job. Not the issues you have with how someone else is doing their job. You are the one person you can control and change for the better. Focus on that in your online conversations. You have such a great community ready and willing to help.

And don’t stop collaborating with others at your school. Have conversations (in person even!) where you can say more than 140 characters at a time. I mean really. Look at the excerpts from the #edchat. With the constraints of Twitter, you can hardly put together a coherent thought sometimes.

Talk about issues that matter to you, but also listen to issues that matter to your fellow teachers. It should be a dialogue, not a monologue. When you’re jonesing for affirmation for everything you’re passionate about as an educator, Twitter is a click away. Just don’t forget to foster professional relationships with “them” that are in the same building as you. Those are the people you have to see and work with day in and day out.

The Twitter Clique: Us vs. Them (Part 1 of 2)

Source: Steven Depolo (CC BY 2.0)

Admittedly, I only joined the twitterblogosphere a few months ago, so I’m not speaking from years of experience. However, in only a few months of taking part in Twitter chats, #edchat mostly, I have made a disturbing observation. Many of the chats tend to include an “us” vs. “them” theme. I’ve found it very off putting, arrogant even, and I wonder what effect it has on creating/maintaining an inclusive online community.

Tonight I read through the transcript of this week’s #edchat to see if I could find some evidence to back up what I’ve been feeling. This week’s topic ended up being great because I found exactly what I was looking for. Better than that though, I found people actively questioning this mentality. It was very encouraging.

In this post, I’m going to focus on the “us” vs. “them” comments. In the next post I’ll share the comments that were more inclusive and encouraging.

This week’s #edchat topic: How should teachers deal with colleagues who are comfortable with 19th century methods and punitive measures for non-compliant students?

First of all, I didn’t feel like the conversation was actually on topic. Maybe I am misinterpreting the topic. I thought the topic was about non-compliant students and the 19^th century discipline methods employed by some teachers. Misinterpretation or not, the conversation focused instead on how to encourage more teachers to incorporate 20^th century teaching methods in their classroom. A topic perfectly suited for “us” vs. “them” discussion.

I only made it through the first 300 or so tweets, but I feel like I found plenty of evidence. Also, it started to feel really repetitive. A lot of the same sentiments were expressed over and over throughout the conversation. I’m not analyzing this for a thesis or dissertation, so I felt like I collected enough evidence to make my case in a blog post.

As I went through the transcript, I marked tweets that expressed an “us” vs. “them” mentality. I also quickly (and loosely) categorized the tweets. Here are some sample tweets from each category. I added the implicit assumptions that I see associated with each category.

Please note, I refrained from including any twitter handles. You’re welcome to find out for yourself  in the transcript who said what. It wasn’t important to me because my purpose is not finger pointing at particular individuals. Rather, I’m more concerned with the general culture created through formal educational Twitter chats.

There is a “them” and they are not like “us”.

Assumption: Teachers who participate in Twitter and blogging are doing the right thing. Those other teachers are not doing the right thing. They should change.

Exactly you have to gently show them how tech can help with what they are teaching #edchat

it’s important not to step on their toes but continue to set an different example- there’s a new way to skin this cat #edchat

 I’m not sure ignoring them is a solution. We all complain about how slow #edreform is. We need to address them head-on. #edchat

 absolutely; we can’t fall to the pressure to scale back what we do to make others happy #edchat

 I know that I also have to not allow myself to get frustrated with others that don’t know technology. #edchat

Perhaps we need to beam them back to 1900? #edchat

 If their methods are hurting students, then I do think someone (e.g. admin) should step in #edchat #edu355

 You must work with their perception. If they do not perceive a problem, then change will not happen. #edchat

 In defense of our profession and the public villanization of teachers, do we have an obligation to police our own? #Edchat

 No obligation to police your own, but certainly hold others accountable in a myriad of ways is prudent #Edchat

 Yes…we have to realize, though, that nothing we say or do will change that; they have 2 decide 4 themselves 2 change #edchat

 There is a better way.

Assumption 1: The way I believe teaching should be done is the right way. Those not doing it this way are wrong and should change their methods.

Assumption 2: This better way of teaching almost always features technology as the key component.

It might not be broke, but if there is a better way of doing it …  #edchat

 We can’t change people but we can present better methods that get results. #edchat

 It’s not about the 19th century world, it’s about the kids world and future of learning. #edchat

 Teachers need to continually learn and come along with the times. It’s not fair to kids to not be up on current best practices. #edchat

 Teachers still using 19 century methods need to learn how to begin engaging students in the digital age! #edchat #edu355

 I know that if teaching methods do not change where I teach, we will fall farther behind the curve. It is up to me to be a catalyst. #edchat

 We love making, drawing and doing the learning with kids, but technology has changed the way we teach for the better of the student. #edchat

 Tech = language our Ss speak. We have to adapt so they can learn our academic language more effectively #edchat

 We have to continue pushing integration of contemporary methods and technology as the norm. Drive the rest to extinction. #edchat

We need to lead by example.

Assumption: See the “There’s a better way” category.

The best way to lead is by example. Share successes you have in classroom & offer support #edchat

 #edchat Lead by example, but do not let others affect your effective use of #edtech.

 leading by example works wonders. I’ve seen a lot of dinosaurs turn into birds via refreshing young new teachers #edchat

 have to continue to try to share when we feel like giving up on it, because one day, one person might change. Makes it worth it. #edchat

 Excite the non believers by having a Smackdown with those who use tech. #edchat

 Be a role model. Show them through actions that you can engage students and make a difference! #edchat

 Life is about evolving as individuals and as part of society. A schools culture can evolve witth a few tchrs & admin. 2 lead the way.#edchat

offerPD and model strategies For the staff. If the leader can do it—so can the faculty #positivemessage #edchat

 The “peer pressure” model isn’t ideal but I’ve seen it work. It’s how we did online grading #edchat #edchat

 Those other teachers fear new methods, fear technology, and/or fear failure.

Assumption: Teachers are not changing their methods or using technology out of a basic fear. If we can help them overcome the fear, they will improve.

I am a technology coach in my building. Many of those teachers are afraid of the technology. Show them and Help them! #edchat

 We sometimes 4get that it’s not necessarily an unwillingness 2 do something diff/new, but fear…of failure. Have 2 cr8 success. #edchat

 Yes, we all should be constant learners and not be afraid to try new things. #edchat

 If we push / make colleagues feel inferior, we will only feed their fear (of failure). Need 2 b patient. #edchat

Those other teachers just don’t have the motivation to learn to do their jobs better.

Assumption 1: Teachers should be constantly learning. 24/7/365. A teacher who isn’t learning at all times isn’t doing their job.

Assumption 2: The learning a teacher should be doing should specifically focus on how to teach in a better way.

Teachers need to realize that there is not enough time and money to constantly support PD. You need a PLN and learn on your own. #edchat

 Do they not care or are they ill informed? #edchat

 Unfortunately, many are not self-incentivized to want to change their methods. “If it ain’t broke….” #edchat

 I only partially agree. Some are too hard headed to change and admin won’t necessarily hear that argument. #edchat

 #edchat Q1Need to approach same way you would a releuctant student-empathy, encouragement, coaching, support/mentoring. Celebrate small wins

 You just perfectly summed up my point! Many are not even open to change. That is something that needs to be addressed. #edchat

 It’s difficult because you’re not their boss. Often, they have more years experience. Won’t help if they aren’t willing to listen. #edchat

It’s not about forcing change IMHO. It’s about ensuring Ts are always looking to find optimal practices. Too many don’t #edchat

If administrators are stuck in the 19th century, there is little incentive to be different. They also may perceive tech as a threat. #edchat

Parting Thoughts

There you have it. A sampling of tweets from the first 300 tweets of one #edchat discussion. Imagine how many tweets I could have collected from the 1425 tweets total in this week’s discussion. Imagine how many I could gather if I analyzed #edchat on a weekly basis. What about other educational chats?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why many of these comments are made. Some people are genuinely frustrated in their particular school. They’re excited about what they’re doing, yet they feel alone. I’ve felt this way numerous times in my career. We’ve found kindred spirits on Twitter and it feels good to find others like us. However, teachers are already criticized enough from businesses, news media, parents, and politicians. How helpful is it to criticize each other? Does this divisive discussion really serve the greater good of the teaching profession? From the tweets, it’s obvious that the “us” crowd wants other teachers to change, presumably for the better, but if the “them” crowd knew they were being talked about like this, would that really encourage them to join?

Family First

Source: dkwonsh (CC BY-ND 2.0)

I made a really hard decision recently. I decided to stay at my current job. While this may have you scratching your head, it turned out to be an extremely difficult decision. Real-life, adult decisions usually are. There isn’t a clear right or wrong choice. You just have to make the best choice you can and convince yourself it was the right one in the end.

To be blunt, this year has sucked at work. The work itself hasn’t been hard; it’s been pretty easy actually. Making myself do it day in and day out, however, that’s the hard part. For many months now, I have been upgrading existing content. The great thing about working on a digital product is that you can do upgrades more frequently than a print product. Unfortunately, this is generally not very exciting work. My usual work of scoping out a brand new year of curriculum, designing new features, and crafting new lessons are all fun and engaging activities. On the other hand, my current menial tasks of updating copious amounts of metadata, tweaking a few screens here and there, and repeating this for months on end is more like a private hell.

Source: movieposter.com

Have you ever seen the documentary Hands on a Hard Body? No, it’s not an adult film despite the title. It’s a fascinating documentary about what makes people break. Twenty-four contestants start the film by putting their hands on a new truck. The contest is simple: the last person to take their hand off the truck wins the truck. From the get go, the contestants are happy and assume this will be a piece of cake. Yet one by one you watch each contestant reach a personal breaking point. The simple task hasn’t changed, just keep your hand on the truck, but you can see that it wears each of these folks down until they finally admit defeat. That’s how I felt this year. I didn’t even have the promise of a new truck to keep me going.

Towards the end of August I was beginning to reach my breaking point. I started perusing job listings to see if there were any jobs out there that might entice me away from my current position. I wasn’t quite ready to put out any applications, but it felt good just looking to see what was out there. Throughout September and into October my patience at work diminished rapidly.  I checked job listings with greater and greater urgency until finally I saw a position I wanted to apply for. My old school district had an opening for an instructional technology specialist. This sounded right up my alley. I applied for the job and within a week I got called for an interview.

Long story short, I was offered the job. Yay!…Yay? Doubt started nagging me as soon as it was offered . As much as I was tired of working on upgrades, was I ready to jump ship and take a new job? The fact that I questioned it surprised me. Obviously I was ready to jump ship because I had been yearning for a new job for several months now! Why the doubt?

As I said earlier, this turned out to be one of those real-life, adult decisions. I hate them because they’re so nerve wracking. What I hadn’t been factoring in during my job search was the fact that my husband and I are becoming foster parents in the near future. In September we completed our home study, and just last week we signed our contracts. From this point on, we could have a child placed in our home any day now.

Up until now, I’ve always made career decisions based on my own professional growth. But for the first time, I was making a decision that would impact my future family. At first I was selfish. Much of my identity is wrapped up in the work that I do. Working in the education field is not a random occurrence. I chose this field and I love it. Being unhappy at a job is a huge blow to me personally. Having the chance to work in a school district again and to be given the opportunity to help that district launch a 1:1 technology initiative is exciting. I knew it would be challenging work, and I knew I would love it.

But what would that mean for a foster child? This child is taken from their home because of abuse or neglect. He or she will need a tremendous amount of love and care whether they stay with us permanently or not. My current job affords me a lot of flexibility. I can work from home if I want to. I can leave work to take care of personal matters if I need to. I can generally work 8 hours and stop for the day; I don’t bring work home.

On the other hand, if I took the instructional technology position, I would be extremely busy. They made it clear in the interview that I would definitely have to put in time at home beyond my hours during the school day. I wouldn’t have the luxury of working from home if I needed. I also know I can get very wrapped up in my work, and with a project as large as launching a 1:1 technology initiative, it would require a lot of my time and energy.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there’s also the issue of salary. In order to take the position with the school district, I would have taken a 27% pay cut. Ouch! Thankfully, with our combined income and the subsidies given when we have a foster child, we could have gotten by. I would have even gained 10 or so weeks of additional vacation, so the loss of income was balanced by an increase in time off.

In the end, after lots of conversations with Tom and close friends, it came down to where I want to devote my time and energy. Remember, there are no right or wrong decisions in situations like this. You just make the best choice you can and tell the story to convince yourself it was right in the end. As exciting as the instructional technology position sounded, I do not want a child to compete with my job for my attention. I decided to put family first, even though that family hasn’t quite started yet.

Does that change the fact that I’ve continued to trudge through upgrades? Not in the least. However, I have slightly more patience for it now. I was given the choice to leave. That meant the world to me. Despite how I felt about the work I’ve been doing, it showed me I wasn’t stuck. I chose to stay. For some reason that made all the difference. Instead of feeling trapped in my current position, I know that I’m doing the right thing for my family. I also know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel; the upgrade process is going to end, soon actually. Within a month or so I’ll get to go back to designing new content. I can’t wait.

The Medium is the Message: (5) Other Print Curriculum Materials

In this post I want to consider the constraints and affordances of other print materials that are not textbooks. When I say “other” I mean other types of curriculums in print form. To make this clearer, I’m going to change formats for this post. Instead of listing constraints and affordances separately, I’m going to give a brief overview of several print curriculums I’ve used and discuss their constraints and affordances in context.

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space

Source: Pearson School

The Investigations curriculum was originally developed by TERC  and is now a Scott Foresman product.

I know this curriculum has a lot of controversy surrounding it. Whether you love it or hate it, we can still discuss the constraints and affordances with regards to the ways the materials are designed. So let’s get to it.

What makes this curriculum different from a traditional textbook is that almost all of the print pieces are for the teacher only. There is a textbook that comes with the curriculum, but it is more of a reference book. It does not contain any problem sets.

Instead of a student textbook, the core component of this curriculum is a series of teacher guides. Each guide represents a unit of content and contains all of the lesson plans for that unit. And when I say lesson plan, that’s exactly what I mean. While traditional print textbook “lessons” provide a few worked out problems followed by problem sets, a lesson in this curriculum, called a session, is 60-minutes of discussion, exploratory activity, and/or games that are completely planned out for the teacher.

A typical session goes on for several pages describing how to run the session. The description includes pictures of what you might write on the board, specific questions you should ask your students at various points, and sample answers from students. In the margins you will often find teaching notes designed to help the teacher be more successful while conducting the lesson or to point out an important math concept the teacher might not have considered. This is unlike a print textbook “lesson” where the burden is on the teacher to decide how best to present the concepts.

There is a constraint and affordance here. On one hand, you are given very detailed instructions for every single lesson. There is very little guess work about what you should be doing minute to minute. In addition, there is clearly a pedagogical flow from lesson to lesson. Where print textbooks tend to teach a concept per lesson, the Investigations curriculum is more concerned with short sequences of sessions within each unit. These sequences are appropriately named investigations. The collection of sessions within each investigation work together to build one or two important ideas.

Often the pedagogical flow has specific connections to other units in the curriculum. What this means, on the constraint side of things, is that you do not have a ton of flexibility. If you skip a lesson or make drastic modifications to lessons, it may very well cause you problems down the road. I’ve often heard teachers say they thought an activity was pointless until they got to a unit later in the year and realized how it was setting the stage for something really important.

Another constraint related to this type of curriculum material is that the teacher does not have much say about how to teach particular concepts. If you like teaching with two-color counters, and the investigation only uses spinners, then you’re out of luck. This actually has been the crux of a lot of the controversy surrounding the Investigations curriculum. The writers of the first edition of this curriculum avoided standard algorithms like the plague and there was no textbook at all. This didn’t jive with parents and teachers who felt these are important skills to teach. Regardless of your view on this point, the fact of the matter is that the curriculum was designed in such a way that it took a stand and if you use the curriculum, you are forced into its particular pedagogy.

I do appreciate that in the second edition a textbook was added. Now when students are learning about arrays and other multiplication strategies, they have a reference that they can use themselves and even share with their parents so their parents will understand what the student is learning in class. I think a lot of discomfort from parents was from lack of information. Students came home with homework sheets in the first edition, but the parents had no idea what the students had been learning about in school so it made it difficult for parents to help their children. Frustrated parents are generally not happy, supportive parents.

Units of Study for Teaching Writing

Source: Lucy Calkins

This is another curriculum that is basically a series of teacher guides.

Each guide is a unit of study related to writing. In one unit students might learn about writing personal narratives and in another unit they tackle nonfiction writing. Similar to the Investigations curriculum, each lesson is multiple pages with specific instructions for the teacher about what to do with the students.

The author, Lucy Calkins, is very clear that it is not a prescribed script. What she is actually providing teachers is her script and you are encouraged to adapt the script to your personality and class. The lesson plans are essentially modeling writing lessons for a teacher so he/she can learn how to teach writing instruction in the way Lucy Calkins does.

You might say the series is just as much professional development as it is curriculum. Lucy has written numerous notes in the margin of the lesson plans to give you insights into why she said what she said or why she did what she did at particular points in the lesson. The purpose of these in-line notes is to help teach the teacher more about Lucy’s methods of teaching writing.

In terms of an affordance, I think this is wonderful. You basically have books containing someone else’s lesson plans along with their notes to help you understand their plans even better. You have to decide if her methods are methods you want to mimic of course, but if they are, you are given a great window into the mind of another teacher.

Now, there is a constraint here as well. This constraint applies to the Investigations curriculum also, but I saved it for now. The teacher has to do a LOT of reading in order to familiarize themselves with these materials. Each lesson plan goes on for pages. I’ll be honest, there were days that I did not have time to prepare well enough. On those days, I basically had to read the book as I was teaching the lesson to the students.

Let me tell you, this is not how the curriculum was designed to be used. You really should read the lesson in advance, reflect on it, and jot down your own plan for how the lesson will go in your room with your students. I want to believe that every teacher will take the time to do this, but I’m evidence that it doesn’t happen all the time.

One of my teammates said it was just too much reading for her. According to her, a lesson plan shouldn’t be more than two pages. If it’s longer than that, she wasn’t going to use it. She also didn’t believe that she should have to spend a lot of time prepping before each lesson. As a teacher with 8 years of experience, she felt that she should be able to skim a 1-2 page lesson plan, get a sense of what to do, and then teach the lesson.

FOSS (Full Option Science System)

Source: FOSSweb

This is a science curriculum that is known for its large trunks of materials. Each unit contains detailed lessons plans (notice a pattern?) as well as 1-2 trunks of materials that you will use with your students to do hands-on science activities.

I feel like I’m covering a lot of the same ground here, but I wanted to share this curriculum because I feel it is the opposite of a science textbook. Where a science textbook gives the impression that science is all about reading and learning information, a curriculum like FOSS gives the impression that learning science is about experimenting and doing science.

This is a really important point! This is a prime example that the medium is the message. Imagine a curriculum whose primary component is text – chapter upon chapter of science information. Imagine the type of activity and learning this lends itself to in the classroom. Now imagine a curriculum whose primary component is trunks of materials and binders with instructions for leading hands-on activities with those materials. Depending on which curriculum you use as a student, what is that telling you about what it means to learn science? What is that telling you about what it means to do science? I believe the materials we use with our students have a profound impact on how they perceive the subjects they are learning. I would go so far as to say that the primary materials used in the classroom and the activities that result from using them may have a profound impact on students’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge, in general – whether it is something that can be created, and whether its something that they can create themselves as students.

Going back to my discussion of FOSS, the last time I used the curriculum there was a text component in the form of science stories, which are collections of fiction and nonfiction articles related to each unit. These science stories are by no means a textbook, however. Generally they provide additional context to the concepts explored in the hands-on activities.

A constraint with this curriculum is that it is expensive. In order to do hands-on science, you need a lot of hands-on materials. The materials can be kind of specific, too. Certain sizes of cups and straws were chosen to work with other materials in a kit, so you can’t always run to the store to buy extras if you’re low. In my old district we only had one of each kit so we had to share materials. This added its own constraint because it made it almost impossible for all of the classes to teach the same science concepts at the same time.

Social Studies Alive!

Source: TCI

I’m not going to go into depth about this one, but like FOSS, I believe this curriculum is quite opposite from traditional social studies textbooks. There is a textbook included in the program, but like the Investigations curriculum, it is secondary to the teacher lesson plans. The curriculum uses a lot of role playing, discussions, and simulations to teach important social studies topics. There is a middle school program called History Alive! I’m not familiar with that one so I can’t speak to its use of textbooks.

In Closing

So to summarize, I get the feeling that non-textbook print products tend to focus more on providing teachers detailed lesson plans. The affordance is that this can be extremely helpful guidance and support, especially for novice teachers or teachers who are trying to change their teaching methods. On the constraint side, rigid lesson plans can rub some teachers (and parents!) the wrong way if the teacher isn’t sold on the pedagogy. In addition, using these materials successfully may require a lot of reading and planning ahead on the part of the teacher. Just because the lesson plan is written for you does not mean the lesson is going to teach itself! Teachers still need to take time to become comfortable with what is being asked of them from the lesson so it feels natural. They also need to plan ahead to adapt the lesson for their students to ensure it meets their needs.

After several posts about print products, I’m finally going to shift gears in my next post in this series. It’s time to talk digital! Join me next time.

The Medium is the Message: (4) Affordances of Print Textbooks

Source: travestyalpha (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In the previous post in this series, I analyzed a few of the constraints of print textbooks. Today I would like to look at some of the affordances. Remember, an affordance is a design feature that enables. In this case, what about a textbook enables a teacher to teach? Enables students to learn?

Affordances – Print Textbooks

• The scope, sequence, and pacing are done for you. Before you ever got the book, someone made difficult decisions about what topics to include in the book and how many lessons to devote to each topic.
  • On the surface I know this rubs some teachers the wrong way. “How could someone else know better than me how to plan for my students?” My answer is someone with a lot more time than you to devote to planning the scope and sequence. One of my first posts talked about the differences in workload between being a teacher and being a curriculum designer.  Teachers can definitely be curriculum designers, quite effective ones in fact. But they are required to also do a lot of other things that make demands on their time. Teachers have to make many more decisions daily about how to use their time wisely and think about the trade offs that entails. A curriculum designer, on the other hand, needs to be good at curriculum design, and that’s about it. There are not many more facets to their job. As a teacher, it can give me peace of mind to know that one aspect of my job is already done. Now, as the expert of my particular class, I can and should make modifications to suit the needs of my class, but the textbook scope and sequence at least gives me a starting place.
  • This point might be even more important for novice teachers. They haven’t taught an entire year of anything yet. They might have ideas of how long to spend on various subjects, but they’ve never seen it in action. Having a plan from a textbook can help those teachers as they develop a sense of appropriate pacing. “Let’s see, I have spent 4 weeks on fractions. The textbook has 2 weeks’ worth of content. Maybe I should be moving on…”
• Practice, practice, practice. For math textbooks in particular, print textbooks are basically just pages and pages of problem sets.
  • Again, going back to the demands on a teacher’s time, it can be quite a time saver to have so many problems already written. And you can do whatever you want with them. If you’re determined to skip the textbook and teach math concepts through exploration and discussion, go for it! But you might realize one day that your students just need some practice before taking a test or moving on to a new topic. Lucky for you, your textbooks are sitting there full of problems that your students can use to practice. While it might not be a central component of your instruction, don’t ignore its value as a resource.
• Textbooks as a reference. Speaking of textbooks as a resource, they can be a valuable reference source for teachers and students.
  • While textbooks can be heavy, that doesn’t stop them from being portable. Students can take them home and use them as a reference as they are working on homework and don’t have access to their teacher. While the worked out examples at the front of a lesson can hinder teaching, they can enable students to figure out why they’re getting stuck in their work. Looking at an example, walking through the steps, and looking at any diagrams might help the student figure out where they are going wrong.
  • Textbooks also usually include glossaries, which I know helped me numerous times in high school when I needed to look up the meaning of various literary terms.
  • My math textbooks also included answers for the odd-numbered problems. Obviously the teacher avoided assigning us many odd-numbered problems, but assigning a few is helpful. If I solve those, check my work, and see that I’m right, then I feel more confident moving to the even-numbered problems. If I see that I’m not correct, I can keep going back to my work until I figure out what I was doing wrong. This requires some motivation on the part of the student, but the fact is that this feature does enable this interaction to happen.
• Modeling questioning and differentiation techniques.
  • I mentioned in my last post in this series that textbooks are light on teaching. One thing they do provide, that I have to give credit for, is modeling questioning techniques. Throughout the teacher’s edition, there are questions the publisher suggests the teacher ask at many different points of the lesson. This does not mean the teacher can’t come up with questions on his/her own, but they are a resource that can help improve the discussion. Not all teachers are created equal. Some are great at fostering discussion with rich questions, and others honestly need help.
  • Textbooks also usually offer multiple resources for differentiation. It may take the form of differentiated practice activities. For a teacher strapped for time, it is awfully convenient to have three leveled worksheets for every lesson. The teacher’s edition also usually includes suggestions for small group activities that can be done with different ability groups. These activities tend to be hands-on and provide more pedagogical guidance than I’ve seen anywhere else in the textbook.
• Textbooks are usually just one component.
  • If you’ve ever witnessed a textbook adoption going on at your school, you’ve likely seen the large display cases advertising one textbook. While the textbook might be the core of a publisher’s curriculum, they are by no means the only component. Textbook publishers tend to offer a multitude of additional workbooks and resources to accompany their books. I’ve met some teachers who ignore the textbook, but they rely heavily on specific supplemental components. These components may include additional practice workbooks, additional hands-on activities, songs on CD, games, differentiated instruction/practice, suggestions for working with English language learners, etc. All together, these resources provide teachers additional choices for how they work with their students.
• Cost = $0
  • This isn’t entirely true. Someone is footing the bill for textbooks, but the important point is that it is not the teacher. (I’m speaking from my experiences teaching in Texas. Maybe this does not apply where you live.) It doesn’t mean you have to love them, but you can’t deny that you are getting a lot of materials for free. The system where the state pays for textbooks enables every teacher and every student to have instructional materials in their hands.

So there you have it, some of the constraints and affordances of print textbooks. If you have any more you’d like to share, feel free to do so in the comments. I’d love to hear what other people come up with. In the next post in this series, I will take a look at print materials that are not textbooks.

EdCamp Dallas 2012: Twitter in the Classroom

Source: edcamp Dallas

The final presentation I went to at edcampDallas focused on the use of Twitter in schools. There were two presenters – Amber Teamann and Matt Gomez.Both of them were actually two of the edcamp organizers. My hats off to them for putting together a great event!

I was hesitant about going to a presentation about Twitter in the classroom, but since I’m still a Twitter noob myself, I thought I might learn something. I did!

First, Amber presented about Twitter from the side of an administrator. Twitter is a great way for schools to keep parents notified of a variety of announcement in a timely manner. For example, the principal can tweet reminders about early release days, picture days, and special events. They can also keep parents informed during emergencies such as tornadoes. The best part is that programs like HootSuite allow the user to schedule tweets. So if you know the schedule for all of your early release days, you can set up the tweets in August so that they’ll go out a day or two before each early release day. Now you don’t have to worry about forgetting to send them out as you inevitably get swamped during the year.

What I liked was how the school can get around parents who are too cool for Twitter (or is it that they’re not cool enough?) Either way, what Amber does is ask the parents if they prefer receiving text messages instead. Most of these anti-Twitter parents are happy to receive text messages. So what Amber has them do is a fast follow. The parents text “Follow @[handle]” to the number 40404. This signs them up to receive tweets as text messages. The parents may or may not realize they’re essentially following a Twitter feed, but either way they’re happy because if someone asks if they use Twitter, they can still honestly reply, “No!”

Matt represented Twitter from the side of a teacher. Since he teaches Kindergarten, I was surprised to hear that he uses Twitter with his class, but he has found some clever and effective ways to use it. For example, at the end of the school day the class sits down to summarize their learning for the day. They think about what’s important enough to share in a tweet. I love this because the students are reflecting on their day, but they also have an audience that they’re thinking about. They want to share interesting things that others might want to hear about. I also like that the students are forced to practice short summaries since tweets can’t be very long. They’re learning to “get the gist”. I love it.

In addition to summarizing, Matt’s class also follows other Kindergarten classes. To ensure internet safety, Matt only connects with a select few classes; otherwise his stream is closed to the outside world. In the morning the class will read through their Twitter feed and decide what they want to respond to. He said it’s funny how opinionated they are. Sometimes they just say, “No, we don’t want to write anything back. Move to the next one.” Again, it gets back to having an audience. They are learning how they want to communicate with other people. It’s empowering that they have a choice in the matter.

So was driving 7.5 hours round trip worth it for a little over 3 hours of PD? You bet! In addition to learning valuable lessons from real teachers, I also had a chance to meet and get to know some great folks. I ended up having lunch with Cynthia Alaniz from my first session as well as Martha Lackey and her fun crew from Midlothian ISD. It was energizing to hang out with passionate educators and talk shop. If I don’t see them again sooner, I can’t wait to learn from and with them again at edcampDallas 2013!