More Coffee, Please

I’m posting this on the sixth of June, 2009. Sixty-five years ago today, more than 150,000 men, not much older than the children who sit in my classroom, stormed the beaches or Normandy.

Many did not come home.

What we do every day, we’re able to do because of the sacrifices of those who came before us. Someday, there will be individuals who will look back at what we’ve done, and evaluate the decisions and sacrifices we’ve made.

It might not be as grand. It might not have a page in the history books. But I’m convicted that, to someone, it will be vital.

Some who said it better than I.

I love a strong and powerful lecture. I try very hard to deliver the same—some of the moments I remember most fondly are when a group of kids would wander by my classroom, hear something interesting and poke their head in, and end up staying the period. It happened more than once.¹

As much as I might strike gold now and again, there are people who are doing it much, much better—and about far more important things. I’ve mentioned TED talks before, and many of them are amazing ideas presented by amazing people in amazing ways.

Finding good ones is easy. Finding ones appropriate for any particular lesson is much harder—there are so many.

So I jumped up and down a bit when Kim Carter sent me an email with this link—and I’m hoping it causes the same reaction for other teachers.

Thursday night was the MC² mentor dinner.

There’s no doubt that getting a kid out in the real world and doing real things is one of the best things we can do in education. For the district and the high school—and the state as well—this is a major priority, and extended learning opportunities (ELOs) are making their way into the school and will continue.

But it’s not only an opportunity for the kids—it’s also a chance for businesses. So many of the kids who go out there and do real work end up working for the business—and that’s good for both. Just as important, businesses are also thanked, also have a role in education, also realize they are helping prepare people for the future—and that’s valuable. Not everyone can say that, and to give something back makes life a little better for everyone.

Last Saturday, Evan Barlow presented his documentary, Swanzey Rural Character. It was (from all reports—I was in Manchester) amazing. Those interested in picking up a copy can get one from the following locations:

Friday afternoon, June 26th and Saturday morning, June 27th $3 at Swanzey Town Hall

June 28 to July 19th: $5 only at 24 Carrots Farmstand

$5 at The Old Homestead play July 17, 18 and on Old Home Day the 19th

After July 19th: $15 only at 24 Carrots Farmstand, Route 32 Swanzey

for $15 plus $4.95 shipping from www.SwanzeyRuralCharacter.org

Upward Bound has posted every document they have, their staff calender, and all the rest to a Google Docs site. Boom, everything I need to know is there.

I hit the “subscribe” button on iCal, and suddenly it’s in my desktop calender program. A few minutes later, it’s synced with my phone—and from there, I make a small change, and I get up every morning on time, and I’m holding in my pocket every day’s work.

That’s just cool. But it’s even better.

Rob,

Can you come see how so-and-so is doing. I have told him not to goof-around and he’s having trouble focusing on work.

Teacher’s Aide~

I’m kneeling next to another student, looking over their shoulder, checking their work, in another room and the phone buzzes. A surreptitious click and I’m across the hall into the other classroom and touching base with another student—quietly enough that the rest of the class doesn’t even know there was a problem.

It gets even better. Whenever I log into my school mail account, there’s this little icon in the bottom:

Which means (when they get it all up and operating—which I’m hoping will be soon) that every computer in the building can see what the school calendar is—right there in the email. Everyone can have a list of contacts. Everyone can have access to it from home, or their hip with even a basic phone—certainly any of the PDAs or smart-phones roaming around.

Need a practical application? Every morning, an email goes around the building with the day’s events. No need for that anymore—it’s right there on the phone, and about fifteen minutes before you need to know about it, set an alarm on something you need to do, and then forget about it—and get back to teaching.

Email in real-time. I thought it was high-tech when the administration had walki-talkies to stay in touch. This will be much, much cooler—set it up so that only emails that show “urgent” as a status cause a buzz, and anyone can contact anyone in the building when they need to—quietly, without a single student needing to know what’s going on. There’s no need for a loud announcement over the intercom—this will all be done discreetly and quietly.

It does beg the question, however: Is any of this really necessary?

No. Not at all.

It’s simply that the technology is convenient, and increasingly cheap. That’s a pretty powerful combination, which means that, whether we find it needed or not, it will continue to come into everyone’s lives. Right now, it’s tech-nerds, those on the leading edge.

But that will change. It’s going to be everyone—including our kids. Right now, it’s a fairly rare student that’s walking around with a Blackberry—but that level of technology will come in cheaper and cheaper phones. Two of the graduates from this year’s class asked me for help setting up the email this week—and sitting among the shoes at the prom, I spotted this:

That’s a Blackberry Storm—not a cheap phone, by any means. In addition to the standard world of texting, picture messaging, and a million other possibilities, it also full internet access—including everything that might be lurking on Wikipedia or can be found with Google.

They even make an app for that.

My point? All of this is incredible opportunity, incredible innovation. It’s all a very good thing—now the question becomes, how do we train our kids so they can all take advantage of it² and make certain they are prepared for it. I should not need to help a teenager make their phone work—they should be helping me.

But technology is not like that anymore—I grew up when it was simple. There’s a blithering array of technology out there now, and it’s hard to leap right in.

Which is where research skills and teaching them how to find information will be so important… and that includes on their smart-phone.

Some background information about the above.

With any school the size of MRHS, there are groups within the larger group. I’m not talking about the “cliques” that make so many kids so miserable, but rather the groups that will form around the interests of the student. The parents, support staff, graduates, and others of those groups are like family—whether it be the ones that form around Destination Imagination, Drama, the choir, or (in this case case) band.

Not being a terribly musical family—my wife sings, but the world is a better place because I don’t, and neither of us play an instrument—I don’t have much cause to get to band related events. However, one of the “might-have-beens” is graduating this year, and for a variety of reasons I’ve been blessed to get to know the family—which means when the band had their BBQ this year, I was gifted with tickets.

I was fortunate. Partly it was because the food—courtesy of the many parents and other individuals who help out with band boosters—was excellent. Partly it was because of the company—in addition to a great many of my coworkers, I had a chance to meet some parents—and some potential parents—and I think the more we can know those in the community we work for and with, the better off we will be.

But most importantly, I managed to see another side of the amazing things that go on daily inside that school. My wife graduated from MRHS—as I did—and thought the band BBQ was a new event. When Mr. Crotto announced that this was the 19th annual event, she was shocked.

To some extent, so was I. I’ve worked in the building, taught these kids, and had no idea it was so large, or so wonderful.

The more we get that word out to others, the more we chance the perception of MRHS as “just as a school” and into “a community of learners” the better it will work—and this is one more way that it happens.

English teacher humor.

This seems like something worth finding out.

1Ask a 2005 graduate about chapter 2, section 2 of 1984, or a graduate of 2006 about Plato’s Republic. Good days. ↺

2 Especially when so many adults are so uncomfortable with it… “Push email? What is that?” ↺

Gregarious

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