I just got back from speaking at a few of our state’s big conferences as put on by the CDE (California Department of Education). Invited due to my TOY status (California Teacher of the Year, 2007) and my reputation for caffeination when I hit the stage.

I think one of my biggest take-aways from speaking to these crowds is that administrators are genuinely hungry to hear the “teacher’s voice”. They really are interested to know what real teacher’s think.

But most of them also don’t believe they have a trustworthy teacher voice on their own school sites. Of course they are wrong but they believe what they believe. I mean before I was a TOY, I was a rebel, a kind of “he goes his own way, make waves, pain in the butt to some” type of teacher.

Ever since I was named a TOY, they call me innovative.

Go figure.

But since TOY winners have been “officially validated” listening to us and considering what we say feels “permitted” by the district types and admins who attend these conferences to hear folks like me speak.

Yet, do I think they go back and actaully try to engage in meaningful dialogue with their own teachers on campus? Let’s put it this way… I’m skeptical.

Part of the reason is that they seem to project this feeling that doing the job of a district admin or school site principal is like a game of herding teacher cats. And if they allow the teacher cats too much space, they have no means of implementing the mandates that rain down on them from up on high.

But if they try to herd the teacher cats in a responsive-to-feedback manner, the teacher cats often say, “Well, you should herd us all this way. Or you should herd us that way. Or you should herd us with more vigor. Or you should back off when you herd us.”

Since the teacher cats are not of one mind, the herder soon realizes that they’ll go loony if they listen to the teacher cats if they want insight as to how best to herd teacher cats.

So they stop listening.

But the thing is, it’s a catch-22 because unless you do listen to the teacher cats, you will not learn their secrets – and thus, you are doomed at your job of herding them. Yet if you do listen to the teacher cats they will collectively add up to a system that makes absolutely no sense.

So what’s the answer? Knowing which teacher cats to listen to, of course.

Thus, us TOYs.

(Not really in our own school districts, though, of course. What’s that saying, “No man is a king in his own house.”)

I guess at the end of the day, a teacher cat is still a teacher cat and all thy really want help with is herding the teacher cats in the manner in which they want them herded so by the end of the conference it’s back to the game of herding teacher cats while trying to tackle mandates from up on high.

But my caffeination keeps ‘em interested even if they are texting during class. (But give the students cell phones? Never! They wouldn’t know the first thing about audience/cell phone protocol!)

This whole theory is, of course, why 1) I could never run for political office – I’d put my foot my mouth time after time after time (even if I am making sense) and 2) why I need more sleep before I blog.

Herding teacher cats. You either get it or you don’t.

Sports saved me back when I was in school. Literally, they saved me. Many of my teachers were insensitive idiots, the textbooks bored the crap out of me and rote learning was the way of the world.
Sports gave me a reason to like school. (I always LOVED learning, but I didn’t always love school. And sadly, the two are not always synonymous.)

Now, do sports trump academics? Of course not. But I don’t think it’s an either/or scenario whereas one side needs to “win out” over the other. When I really think about it I realize sports have taught me things about dedication, teamwork, heart, tenacity, personal effort, dignity and so on that school – at least my school – hardly ever even attempted. But a coach, they live, eat and breathe these things. (At least, a good one, does.)

Sports can often mold young people in a way that we absolutely want and even though some schools seem to go psycho in their support of their football or basketball teams (baseball, volleyball and so on, not so much – those are the big 2) academics, when I really think about it is being prioritized by our schools to some extent. After all, it’s always supposed to be class first, then sports. And the city leagues do a pretty good job of insisting upon academic eligibility before they will let players compete.

(No, the system is not perfect. I know, I know.)

The thing is, for some of these players, sports are the only reason they will even bother to go to class. Now we can argue of the merits of that mentality, but it’s a different topic. (A failing of society, parents, the home life, the community, and so on.) But tossing athletics under the bus in the name of turning our schools into core curriculum warehouses seems like a really bad idea to me.

Our kids need exercise (America is plagued by overweight children) and our kids love sports. Plus, lately I’ve been on the “tech geek” bandwagon and I really feel as if some fresh air and outdoor activity is fundamental to a well-functioning human body. Sports is a great compliment to school and without sports, I do feel schools are lesser.

But I feel that way about the arts, music, industrial arts and so on as well.

Like I said, sports practically saved me back in the day. Supporting them does not have to come at the expense of class. One should, in an ideal world, walk hand-in-hand with the other.

The past few days I have been riding the “Schools must go high tech!” horse as if I am some kind of tech geek.

I am not. Yes, I own an iPad and I blog and I have a cool website for all of my books, free stuff, and so on, but really, I don’t view myself as cutting edge.

I view myself as just doing the bare minimum of what I need to do in order to keep pace so that I can continue to professionally evolve and remain critically responsive to the aims I hold for my career.

Matter of fact, I still don’t know how to work all the functions on my phone, my camera or even my laptop.

I’ve been using Microsoft Word for what, 20 years now? I still don’t really know how to do about a million things in that program.

Truly, the capacities of these machines boggle me. I just kind of know what I know and seek to stay comfy in that realm.

Essentially, I don’t prosper; I survive.

However, I am perpetually feeling forced to either evolve or be left behind. Trust me, a big part of me is WAY more conformable working at a whiteboard with novels using oration and paper and pen to navigate my school year. (Bubble tests and scantrons… forget it!)

Yet, I also know that literacy has become so diverse and there are so many genuinely legit projects to bring into my classroom which just rock the house and demonstrate aptitudes which allow me to meet my goals in so many ways that I believe in my heart that if I do not better embrace technology in the classroom I am doing a disservice to my students. (The degree of this slight is up for debate… but to simply not use any tech at all feels to me as if the kids are being short-changed – especially because the only real reason I would not bring some tech at some point into my classroom projects is my own inability to work in this realm. It’s never the students that inhibit me from bringing tech in the classroom… it’s me! My own inability prevents kids from using their abilities. That’s a thought worth taking note of for, does it not, ring true, for many, may teachers? Why are we so afraid to admit our shortcomings and also say, “Hey, I need help!”?)

Matter of fact, I think a driving force in me buying an iPad was a feeling of being left behind which is ironic because, when I look at public education on the whole, people must think I am at the far end of the technological competency curve.

That is scary because in many ways I am an outright oaf with tech tools!

It just goes to show how far behind our schools are. I guess the old saying is true: In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

Tech has a definite place in the 2010 classroom. It’s not the end-all, be-all and it isn’t the panacean answer that people would want you to believe (probably because they are trying to sell you something when they say it)… but technology can help us evolve.

A lot.

And when you look at how much room for improvement there is in public education today, it’d be great to see the common core standards tethered to the idea of project-based learning as opposed to it being tethered to, what we all fear will be, standardized bubble tests.

No, I am not a tech geek. And I’d be laughed out of one of those tech conferences if ever I was forced to show how little I actually do know.

But I understand the idea that when we preach “you must be a lifelong learner” in our schools, the first person that must embody this idea is me, the classroom educator.

Yesterday I blogged about allowing my students to fiddle around with my new iPad. One additional insight I had as I watched them play around with the remarkable device was that, like it or not, seeing the ease with which all of them were able to navigate a tablet computer cemented for me the idea that giving our students tablets trumps outfitting them with printed books for many, many, many reasons.

In fact, to cite the reasons why it makes sense to convert to digital texts in the world of academics strikes me as an argument not even worth making. Remaining anchored to paper, however, is an argument I’d like to hear.

Because I am not sure how, on balance, the comparison is even close.

If money wasn’t the option – or rather, if you looked at the degree of actual savings we’d be able to incur should we measure everything based on a cycle of ten years ROI (return on investment) versus solely the first year’s expenditure of making the initial technological purchase – a tablet that has access to the web which is pre-loaded with class curriculums and software for productivity (i.e. MS Office or another version thereof) seems to be able to dominate the way we currently do things much like the way a high-end laptop computer dominates having twenty filing cabinets full of paper divided by tabs as a system for keeping track of all my work.

From speed to sharing, depth to complexity, multiple perspectives to the latest current thought on a subject matter, what can be done is beyond remarkable with tablets in a student’s hands… and what we can’t do, and what we are not doing, and how we are almost being short-sighted like Wall Street by focusing only on the next quarter instead of our long term growth (can you say year-to-year bubble tests?), well… I may be late to the party/bandwagon but I just got my iPad last Friday so cut me some slack.

The device has let me see the light. Theoretically, I had heard the arguments. But seeing my iPad in the hands of my students really re-shaped my thinking.

And no, printed books are not dead. That’s not what I am saying. What I am saying is that we can do school better. (i.e. I am talking about replacing the notebooks, the physical books, the memos, the physical tests, and so on.) We have the tools to do it better.

And we have them now.

But are we willing to pay for it? Impossible, right?

I say we cancel all the bubble tests for the next 3 – 5 years and use all that money to make all our schools one-to-one laptops/tablets.

I am absolutely convinced public education in the United States of America would be immensely better served by this idea. And if we can’t convert all of them, let’s start with 50%.

Or 25%?

At some point, we are going to begin. After all, the only way to eat an elephant is to start with a first bite.

One day we will have made the leap. And we’ll be better institutions because of it. Let’s start now by using the money we are virtually peeing away with tests everyone agrees are inferior measurements of students aptitude and instead, go right for the goal of actually improving student achievement by providing them with cutting edge tools for the classroom.

After all that’s the “alleged” purpose of the tests anyway: to help us better educate our kids, right?

Better tools do that better than weak tests.

And the sound the rest of the world would hear would be that of America’s students roaring with excitement about the possibilities of what can happen inside a school house.

Our country must make the leap!

I brought my iPad to school yesterday and let my students play around with it (after I gave a small demo). I gotta admit, it was a bit nerve-wracking to let a bunch of kids play with my new tech toy. I mean if they end up breaking it (through goofing around, an accident, and so on — hey, they are kids) what am I gonna do… ask them to pay for it?

My students can’t afford their own iPads much less afford to replace their teacher’s iPad if there’s an accident.

And really, I knew that score when I passed it around and let them handle it anyway. But still, I did it.

And why? For a few reasons.

1) I want to let them see the future. It’s my opinion that one day all of our school desks will be made of material like this, where kids intellectually operate on desktops that are really touch screens that can do all sorts of amazing things. I literally told them that. “This,” I said. “Is the school desktop of the future.” Not a one of them doubted me either. And every last kid in the class thought the idea was wicked cool. Part of teaching in this day and age is showing glimpses of what is possible. (This, I believe.)

2) Allowing them to hold it, fiddle with it and so on communicates and adult-like trust in them. It’s like I imply that I believe in their ability to behave in a mature fashion and handle an expensive personal gadget in a responsible way and POOF! it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy… they handled the iPad in a mature and responsible fashion. These are the baby-steps of growing up… when grown-ups actually treat you like grown-ups instead of treating you like children. (i.e. walking the walk instead of merely talking the talk, as many teachers often do.)

3) Just turning pages in a book on the iPad is, what I’d consider, a real “literacy moment” because the experience is just so unique. I will never forget the the first time I did it. (It’s way different than a Kindle.) I want my students to experience that… and somewhat marvel.

Because indeed it is a Brave New World and the discussions we have had all year about things like the impact of technology on our lives, privacy in this day of openness, sexting, piracy, 21rst century skills, veracity of info online, the need to be able to navigate the tools of the next era and so on and so on… all of them are re-inforced by a moment such as this.

Nope, ETS and their bubble tests can’t measure this moment. Nope, when they tie bubble tests to my salary and try to demonize me for test scores through lower pay and public shame, I might not be able to prove the value of this lesson but for any real classroom teacher, days like this are days you know that your kids have learned something.

What? Well, it’s hard to exactly quantify. But does all learning have to be quantifiable?

Anyone who says it does is someone I am not sure I trust.

The iPad: already teaching me and my kids a whole host of things.

As an author, I am both terrified and thrilled by e-books.

I think the reason I am most terrified by e-books is because I saw the piracy that rampaged the music industry. I mean my students, most teens today (yep, I’ll stand by that statement; not all but many) just don’t view music as something the really ought to pay for. Sure, some of them buy music through iTunes and the such, but most of them just use Limewire (or something like it). And then they pass along the song to a friend and voila… off they go.

I am not even sure if they view this as an entirely illegal activity. To them, it’s, at worst, like jaywalking on a street that has no traffic. Are they really expected to follow the letter of the law when no one else is doing it and there is no real enforcement of the law anyway?

Paying, when it’s free, is for suckers.

Movies, too. Piracy has plucked billions from the people who make movies. A new release is available the same day it hits theaters. (Yep, Limewire, again; why can’t they shut them down?) And a DVD is available on the streets of L.A. before lunchtime on the day of a new release for five bucks. Movie tickets cost almost triple that for one person… a DVD in the living room can provide entertainment for 1, 3, 8 or 80… no problem!

And so, why not my books? I mean google already plans to scan them all anyway and post them online. (Not sure how they got the right to do with; the argument of being an online library seems frail to me… I mean libraries are not “for profit” companies that make money off of my content. They buy my book and then they loan it out. Google hasn’t bought a copy of my book and even if they buy one, why do they get to loan out 10 zillion at the same time? If a library wants to loan out 10 zillion copies, they have to re-lend the same book 10 zillion times. Google can do it simultaneously. Good thing I have agents and lawyers… though there’s supposedly a mass settlement, I think it’s gonna be in the courts for years.)

So e-books freak me out because my work can be so easily stolen… and the market to whom I am trying to sell my books has very little stigma about the illegal downloading of copyrighted materials.

Do that math and it’s a bit scary.

On the other hand, e-books mean more ways to access my books. And with more channels of distribution, there are greater potential audiences. People thought TV was going to kill movies and now TV has proven to be a a huge subsidiary revenue stream for movies to be re-sold once their run in theaters is done. Between HBO, DVD’s and Netflix, movies have so many additional streams of income – and so many more potential viewers of movies – that what was once feared as an enemy is now considered a great friend.

Perhaps this will be true of e-books for me as well? Perhaps piracy will not win the day in the e-book market and e-books will prove to be my best financial friend in ways I still can’t even see right now.

Do I see my books in paper form disappearing? Certainly not for quite some time. (And I mean QUITE some time!) Do I see my e-book sales growing? Well, considering that none of my books are yet available in e-book format there’s really only one way sales can go: up! (Note: My agency has been holding back the rights for a few years – for many of their clients – in order to make us a fair deal… one that doesn’t leave us screwed in a way like the writers in Hollywood got screwed when they signed away VHS tape rights for practically no royalties because, at the time, no one ever thought that VCRs would ever really be a factor in the world of film-making. A boffo misjudgment that cost Hollywood writers hundreds of millions in royalties over the subsequent decades.)

So yes, I am spooked but yes, I am thrilled. E-book sales might one day pay for my daughter’s college tuition. Or, they might also be the college tuition that couldda, wouldda, shouldda been paid but due to piracy, never became a check written to me.

Like I said at the start, as an author, I am both terrified and thrilled by e-books. Here’s hoping the thrills win out.

Each year the students have greater and greater access to technology. I remember a few years ago when I wanted to do things involving computers, issues of equity and access were always an inhibiting factor for me.

If kids didn’t have the technical skills to do something, that really didn’t stop me from assigning projects that required technology. That they can learn/I can teach/we can mutually fumble through. But if they don’t have access to the technology itself, (i.e. they do not have computers) that’s an insurmountable hurdle.

Even as little as 3 years ago, I faced this at a fairly hefty clip. (I teach at a Title I school.) But this year, I didn’t have one issue of access to technology.

Cameras, computers, software programs… not a problem. Now, I am not ready to say that these things are ubiquitous in urban education… but they are available in a manner that is unprecedented for me as a teacher who is working on ways of weaving in advanced PBL into my English classroom.

After all, the more tech tools the students have access to, the more technology we can try to incorporate into the classroom.

It’s like a watershed year for me in that regard. What used to be a sticking point (i.e. some kids just did not have computer access) is now almost a non-hurdle in a way.

And next year, I only expect that the gap in access will be diminished even further.

I am literally bearing witness to the great revolution. And benefiting as well. Interesting times, indeed.

I gotta give kudos to my VP. Earlier this week, I walked in to the front office – by the reception desk, no less – and heard a parent SCREAMING at the top of her lungs.

Dropping F-Bombs like a belligerent sailor.

All while wearing a baby on her back.

I swear, it’s all true.

Let’s start with the baby. It was in a carrying sling, a baby bjorn of some sort. Yet even though the kid was about 8 months old, I’d guess, it was being shuttled around our campus like a biology textbook.

(Note: I didn’t see milk, diapers, a hat for the sun, or wipes. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Perhaps there was a diaper bag filled with junk in her car. I’ll cut her some slack for a moment.)

Now Mom was obviously livid. And why? Because her daughter was being suspended from school. Why? Because her daughter popped off to a teacher in the middle of class. Literally EXPLODED on her teacher, dropping F-Bombs like, well… dropping ‘em like a belligerent sailor.

Hmmm, I wonder where she ever learned this type of behavior?

Our VP though, was a real pro. She tried to speak calmly. As the mom escalated, she de-escalated. She courteously asked the mom to lower her voice, watch her language and mind the fact that there were 25 other people around including a bunch of students.

“F-Bomb that!” was the reply.

At that point the VP explained that she was going to have to call campus security because discussing complaints in this fashion was not appropriate nor in accord with school policy. (And she did it without the sarcastic bite I probably would have applied.) The fact is, this mom was reckless and almost seemed on the border of violence.

And that’s with an 8 month old on her back! The 16 year old daughter, of course, just stood there next to her mother as if she were the real victim – and her mom was entirely right.

See, the thing is, my school gets run through the mud of the media in terrible ways and if you were to simply read the headlines or view our standardized test scores, you’d think all of us on campus were a bunch of unprofessional oafs who couldn’t teach a fish to swim.

Yet, do the bubble tests measure any of the extenuating circumstances which play a definite role in academic performance? Do the tests that ETS produces take into account a mom with a mouth full of F-Bombs?

Clearly, in my opinion, this lady was on the border of needing social services to intervene. Based on what I saw, I think there’s at least a reason to investigate whether or not this person is actually fit to be the guardian of her children.

Yet my school, we take all comers. If you were to look at this kids IEP I have a feeling you’d find a troubled history in school from way back when. A high school that wanted to elevate its test scores would try and re-route kids like this to “other” institutions. (Trust me, it happens.) But we don’t pull that nonsense. We try to provide all comers with an education. Of course we could do a better job of it – but who couldn’t? Yet, it’s the end of the year and some of our seniors are making plans to go to some pretty heavy-duty 4 year colleges… so at least there’s a path within our school for those who are determined to find it to actually take something from the time they spend in our halls.

Clearly, though, we’re not miracle workers. And even more clear is the idea that there are about a zillion factors that go into “making a student”.

And one day, when that 8 month old turns into a 16 year old, well… we can only pray, right?

These are the kids of our city. And this is what we, the teachers are facing, in trying to educate them. Nope, we don’t bat 1.000. Not even close.

I just spent a whole bunch of time talking about PBL (Project-Based Learning). Yet, at the end of the day, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Just one question: Where were these cutting edge-thinkers back when I was in elementary/middle/high school?

Okay, college, too? (Think about it… people who majored in English Lit because they loved the Romantics versus frat boys at keg parties… you do the wedgie math!)

If this isn’t worth an A in some class at school then really… what is?

The Brilliance of Wedgie-Proof Underwear needs to be academically validated!

There’s a part of me that is just tremendously old fashioned.

I believe in the value of hard work.
I believe in the potential of kids.
I believe in saying please and thank you.

Therefore, when it comes to the end of the school year, I really feel as if the professional effort we give to them boils down to one simple question: don’t our students deserve it?

Don’t our kids deserve the right to be challenged these last few weeks of school?

I mean really, aren’t our kids being short-changed enough in these tough times? After all, none of this is really about us anyway; it’s about serving them. (At least, it’s supposed to be.)

Now sure, it’s exhausting. And most of us are exhausted. But as much as we need new tools, expanded resources, more money and heightened brain-power in education, these last few weeks really only require one thing to be successful.

A dedicated teacher who holds the intention of ending the school year with a BANG!

If you want to get something done, you will get it done. And if you don’t, you won’t. At this point, I am not sure how much “teacher effectiveness” can be legislated. Or student participation. This time of year is about looking into your own heart and deciding what type of teacher you want to be.

Sure, you can coast. At this point of the school year, shortcuts seem more obvious and tempting than ever. My advice is to reach down deep and GO FOR IT one more time.

Assign a passion project. Something meaningful. Something meaningful to you (because you feel strongly that kids need to learn “this”). Something meaningful to them (so that the students feel empowered with a sense of self-directed choice).

Indeed, we are on summer’s doorstep. My advice: don’t just survive the school year, finish it!

Finish strong.

(FYI, I am going to host a free webinar on Finishing Strong tonight from 6:30 – 7:30 EST. If interested, you can sign up here.)