Transparency: Lessons from my Car

This is Maks:

Short for McKensie, she is a lot like me, loud, attracts attention, hard to ignore.  I love her because she is fast and helps me execute quickly made decisions.  Her big drawback, with her bright paint and orange wheels, is that she attracts the attention of other drivers (and the occasional law enforcement employee.)  So when I am driving... on the offense, I know that the other drivers will see me--and remember me.  Because of this, I am more generous and more forgiving than I would be driving a car that blends in with the rest.  She keeps me honest and in-check (although I do still make mistakes.  I accidentally ran a stop sign the other day.  I got out and apologized to the car behind me.  In my defense, I had just told myself a really funny joke.)

This is a lot like social media.  I hear teachers say they do not want to be "online".  They do not want their students or parents seeing what they do.  My question is, what are you doing that you don't want others to see?  A true leader is a model all the time, not just when he or she is at work.  It's true that it is scary.  I managed to skip Facebook, but I have Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.  I am out there.  I am open and honest.  My mother would say (she just said it today) that perhaps I am too blunt and that not everyone deserves the honest truth.

But I imagine a world much like the one in The Invention of Lying where people say exactly what they mean.  It's not always welcomed or appreciated, but you always know where you stand.

Although an extreme is not necessary (and I think most people would agree I am extreme), the basis still applies: GET OUT THERE!  Show your students how to use social media. If you don't, from whom will they learn?  Have you SEEN what is out there?!?!  George Couros would say that it is our responsibility to spread positivity on social media, to outweigh and drowned out the negativity.  

My husband hates it.  He avoids social media.  He also doesn't read my blog, so I get to say what I want.  I get his fears. He is scared of saying the wrong thing, having something taken the wrong way.  I say things that are not popular.  I overshare.  I admit I would not have wanted to grow up in the days of Facebook.  But I am open and honest and when you meet me in person, you will find I am exactly like my blog, my tweets, my pics.  I am passionate about learning, shoes and life.  I am funny, smart and empathetic.  I have high expectations of myself and those around me. And yes, I get disappointed.  And yes, I have haters (but they gonna hate.)

I do erase sentences I start and tweets I compose, but that's the great thing about social media: you can see it before it goes out!  If my brain to mouth connection worked like my fingertips to internet connection, I would get in a lot less trouble.  If I had a verbal filter like the one created when I can type out my messages ans see them before others do, maybe I wouldn't be so... blunt. 

Take the plunge.  Go for the risk.  Get out there and tell your story.  If you don't, someone will.

Jargon, Rigor or Fancy Talk?

I am a dreamer.  A believer.  I love to believe in people, ideas, visions.  I love to believe what I hear and what I read.  When I was a sophomore in high school, my teacher introduced an activity by telling us a dinosaur egg had been found and we had been commissioned to build packaging for it.  I was all like, NO WAY!  It only crossed my mind after I had embarrassed myself with excitement that if a dinosaur egg had indeed been found, they (whoever they were) would not ask children to build a package in which to ship it.  I am simply in love with possibilities.

So when I read the article "Don't Confuse Jargon with Rigor", I was ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater and start over (no babies were harmed in the writing of this blog post).  I pumped my fists in the air determined to use words my students understood.  Who cared if I called it a whats-a-ma-jig as long as my kids could complete the task or skill?

But then something happened to make me stop and think (and it was much less embarrassing than my classmates shouting, "It's not a REAL dinosaur egg, you moron!")

Actually three things happened.  I was teaching students in the 4th grade about genre and theme using Google Docs and the Chrome extension Note Anywhere.  We had read a story and some song lyrics and a poem.  When I was asking the students about the genres, one of them answer, "I think the story could be considered prose."

I froze.  "Uh, I think so?"  I realized I didn't even know what exactly made a writing prose.  The students, use to discovering things with me and not from me, went to the web to find out if indeed, the story (realistic fiction) could be counted as prose. (I won't spoil it for you.)

In that same school with a group of 5th graders, we were reading the same story.  We predicted using our text features and had read the first 2 paragraphs.  "But what do you think the conflict of the story will be?" I asked, wanting some deeper inferences.

"I think the conflict with be character and self." Beyond my expectations, but I was skeptical given that the author warned that what comes after regurgitating standard-talk is usually superficial or incorrect.

"Explain yourself, young one!" I demanded.

"Well, the character says that she has all of these ages bottled up inside of her.  I think she will struggle with turning eleven but feeling all of those other years."  The story we were studying was "Eleven", by Sandra Cisneros.

Hmmm...  The third thing that happened was in a kindergarten class.  We were using Plickers to review and expand our understanding of 3D shapes.  As the students were identifying shapes, I asked, how do you know?

"It's a cube!"

"How to do know?"

"Because it's like a square with 8 vertices."  That could have counted as regurgitation expect that when she tripped slightly over the word "vertices", she brought her two index fingers together to form a corner.

Wow.  I mean WOW.  It was like the third ghost visit in A Christmas Carol.

Using smart words helps me feel smart.  Are they smart words or are they better words?  Is it better to say decomposing instead of breaking it down? (Although if you use "breaking it down" you could also dance...)

A wise man (James Kimbell) once told me, while my class was studying that super fun list of words to say instead of "said", if "said" works, just say "said".  Don't search for fancy when plain will do.  He said it way better than that...

So, where does that leave us?  Do we expect students to use standard-talk?  Do we teach them the jargon?  Other than English teachers, professors and other like-professions, will they ever use the word "genre"?  Or are these tier three words?

In the end I am left with more questions than answers.  The baby is back in the bathwater.  And I am draining the tub...