Elephants

I think the first two elephants in the article are the most important to remember no matter who you are, and especially as a teacher.

1. We know that most of our students will forget most of the content that they “learn” in school.

First and foremost, this elephant shows why we shouldn’t be focusing on content instruction in schools, especially in a class like English Language Arts.  Of course social studies will focus on content.  It’s vital to know history in order to learn from it.  In English though, forcing our students to read Shakespeare isn’t going to educate them very much.  That’s a prime example of placing content over process.

It’s way more beneficial to teach students HOW to construct effective pieces of work and HOW to use language in an engaging way.  Those skills will benefit them for the rest of their lives.  Whereas Shakespeare, as well done and respected as it is, isn’t going to give students concrete skills that will help them succeed in the real world.

2. We know that most of our students are bored or disengaged with school.

When this happens, the learning process all but grinds to a halt.  Disinterest applies to all aspects of life; if we become disengaged with various parts of our life, we aren’t going to be as happy as we could be and we definitely aren’t going to get as much mileage out of our lives as we could.

As teachers, we have to keep the classroom as lively and varied as we can so that we can keep students engaged.  Bored and disengaged students are pretty much direct results of the teacher not being able to hold their interest.  While this is fine if a teacher is trying out different methods, it is NOT okay if it persists for extended periods.

I don’t think there will be any discourse on this, but I believe it’s way more important that students are actually learning rather than doing well on tests.  While tests can be indicative of certain skills and knowledge, it doesn’t apply equally at all.  Tests can be aced my memorization.  Producing a biography of a local hero requires a student to use a variety of different skills to get to that point.  Assignments like that will always be the better option compared to a test.

 

Reflecting

Much of the curriculum in this class, and of course specifically the ILP, gave me a chance to flex some learning muscles that I hadn’t in quite a while.  I was given free reign to learn about something that interested me.  Even better, I didn’t have to pass a test to prove that I had learned specific things and a I didn’t have strict parameters on what I could and couldn’t learn about or how I should go about it.  In a way, as it related to my ILP, I had the world at my fingertips.

I’m not here to dog on past professors and classes; I had a lot of good experiences with them and have learned a lot.  However, I never felt like I was in control of my learning quite like this.  Even when I enjoyed the class and learned from it, I wasn’t able to put much of myself into any of my work.  Even if I could have, I was too worried about the grade and therefore adjusted my work to just get a good grade.  I wasn’t thinking about a grade with this class, and especially with the ILP.  I truly was focused on the learning.

I think this applies a lot to my future life as an adult and as a worker.  (I plan to be a teacher, but who knows if life will work out that way).  In almost any job, I’ll be on my own to learn more and improve.  I won’t have the bubble of school/college anymore.  The stakes will be real.  A grade in the real world might mean a promotion or a cut in pay.  The ILP helped me find ways to motivate myself to learn by myself.

As students get older, we can and should offer them more choice in freedom in how and what they learn.  It’s a no brainer that they’ll be more engaged in the process and learn more from it.  As a side note, I think contract grading is a great step in that direction.  It allows for more wiggle room in how a student completes an assignment.  They might not do it the same as most or they might go off of the rubric, but if evidence of learning and effort is evident, we can still give them a good grade.

The Movie Machine Will Never Stop

As I stated in previous posts at the beginning, I have loved and enjoyed movies and TV shows long before this ILP started.  I had never done anything with this passion though.  Even though I would always pay attention during movies, it’s a “passive” experience.  Watching them with the goal of reviewing them changed my whole experience and mindset.  I was pausing and rewinding more; I was turning on subtitles more often and obviously taking notes more often.  While these might seem like little adjustments, they came together to create a whole new experience with the media I was consuming.

Since I watched plenty of movies already, carving out time to watch them wasn’t the hard part.  The hard part was knowing I couldn’t just watch a movie without taking notes and really paying close attention.  I love to pop in a movie and just veg out, but I couldn’t do this as much during the ILP.  Sometimes I’d have a long day of homework/class/work, and when it came time to watch a movie in my predetermined chunk of time, I’d have a hard time swallowing that pill.  I was definitely craving that passive experience.  So sometimes, it made something I loved feel like a chore, BUT in the end it gave me a greater appreciation for movies and the times when I can watch them without having to think about them too much.

The best part about this ILP was that it has enhanced my passive viewing.  Now, even when I’m watching a movie and just vegging out without doing any note taking or extra focusing, I find myself appreciating the movie/TV show and its elements even more.  I have a bit of a deeper understanding of the work that goes into these productions and how the creators use the medium to affect their audience.  The really nice part is that my brain hasn’t been “switched” to only being analytical when watching.  I can still have just as much fun and relaxation when watching a movie; I’m just getting a more significant and rich experience no matter what.  I think if I continue to develop my reviewing chops, the experience will continue to improve in new ways.

I think there will be lots of opportunities for using ILPs in my future classroom.  They are great ways to keep kids interested and engaged in the learning process.  They could definitely end up learning more from it considering they’d be pursuing something they loved.  Even if one of their passions didn’t quite line up with the ILP, they could still be creating/learning about something that would be useful to them.  Connecting assignments to personal lives is essential so that students see the importance of education, and ILPs are great for that.

Nearing the End

I thought the process of creating this was going to be a lot harder than I thought.  Templates are definitely my friend when it comes to these kinds of things.  Whether it be a PowerPoint, graphic like this, or something else, I struggle to be original with the design.  I like to add my own flair to a lot of PARTS, but if I have to come up with the entire product, I get a little overwhelmed since I just don’t have the ability to see it in my brain.  This worked really well, however.  I found a template that I found attractive and easy to read, and then I was able to add my own mini graphics and pictures.  It also helped that the website was really easy to use (Canvas).  I was pleasantly surprised.

As for content, I didn’t really struggle with coming up with anything to put in it.  That was the fun part.  I had some pretty unique and stand out obstacles during this semester as I reviewed, so I used them to help me with the process.  I think the hardest part was deciding what I wanted my infographic to be about.  Obviously it was going to be about movie reviewing, but figuring out the point of the graphic was challenging.  Informative?  Persuasive?  I’m happy with the result.

I think this would be useful in the classroom to a limited extent.  I think some students could utilize it really well, but others who aren’t as tech inclined or who don’t learn very well from making these wouldn’t have much fun and wouldn’t benefit as much.  Even though it was easy for me, I would worry about how much time students would spend on the technical parts of the project instead of the actual content.

I do think there’s a ton of value in presenting information like this though.  I think it’s going to be evident in these blog posts.  People are going to be eager to read the graphics because they’re short and digestible.  A four hundred work blog post isn’t that long, but it can be a slog to read depending on the attitude and circumstances.  Graphics make it easy to get what’s most important out of the topic.  When I am finding papers to use for research, I love when they have graphics or bullet points.  I end up reading the whole article, but graphics or bullets help me quickly decide if this article has what I’m going after.

While graphics can be a bit simple and surface level, they work really well to accomplish certain goals.

Don’t Roll Your Eyes or Laugh Just Yet!

I know what you’re thinking.  BELIEVE ME, I know.  I was definitely one of the people who had a biased view of anime and how I considered those who watched it.  And I’ll be the first to admit I understand why some of that negative connotation exists.  As with any medium, there can be some REALLY weird stuff going on in various parts.  We just learned about podcasting; should we judge podcasts in general based off of one podcast we listened to?  Absolutely not!  The same is true for anime.  While some of it can get quite weird and out there, there are plenty of shows that are “normal” and still immensely entertaining.

It took me a while, but once I got on the train, I didn’t get off.  Now, it’s not a huge or very fast train.  I don’t ONLY watch anime, but I’ll usually watch a couple episodes or week, sometimes more, sometimes less.  Sometimes I take a break for months.  All in all, it’s just become a rotating category for my viewing schedule, just like every other show/movie is.

One of the first hurdles to enjoying anime is realizing that these shows aren’t being made in a country with a Western culture.  They are made in Japan, which is decidedly different from America, and is evident in the content they produced.  We grow up with shows produced here in America, which is totally fine; there are tons of great shows that I love that are quintessentially “American”.  But if we are basing our enjoyment of media produced in other countries based on our enjoyment of media in our home country, we are going to struggle a lot to enjoy it.  Watching an anime with an open mind is the best way to enjoy it.  It’s going to be different, and there will be elements unfamiliar to you, but just give it some time.

Another problem many people have when it comes to watching anime is believing that it’s all the same or really similar.  People may have seen some Dragon Ball Z or an episode when they were channel surfing late at night.  They may have hated it, and since that’s their only experience with the medium, they decide the medium isn’t for them.  As with Western shows, there is a huge variety of the types of anime there are: sitcoms, romances, comedies, action, thrillers, mysteries.  They have all of the genres one has come to expect from their own TV shows, movies, and books.  Think of your favorite show and I can promise you there’s a great anime that is somewhat similar.

I’m not saying you should watch anime.  All I want is for people to be more educated about it and not write it off without giving it a chance.  I am confident everyone, if they watched it without fear of judgement, would find an anime show or movie that they love.  They are plentiful on Netflix and Hulu, so the opportunity is there.  If you’re ever in the market for a new show to watch, just consider looking up your favorite genre and then the word “anime”.  You might not like it, but there’s a good possibility you might.

Also, many animes are dubbed (English voices replace Japanese ones), so if subtitles really bother you, there are still plenty of options!  Here’s a website that might help you get started on a series.

Podcasts: What Get Me Through the Week

I remember when I first started listening to podcasts.  It was my sophomore year of college and a I heard about the podcast called “Serial”.  The episodes laid out a murder case in extreme detail and did its best to point out inconsistencies in the case.  Sounded cool to me.  I binged through “Serial” in a couple weeks.  I’m sure people have done it faster, but I was haunted by that podcast.  If I listened to it late at night, I would often have to stop it and wait until the next day.  It was just too creepy.  After that, my interest in podcasts soared.

I got into movie podcasts first, and then after that I pretty much just started to listening to anything that sounded interesting and ran with it.  If I liked it, I’d keep going.  If I didn’t, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt when I stopped listening.  It became such a good way to fill minutes in the day where I was bored but couldn’t watch a movie or play a video game.  I have learned a lot from podcasts and gained some new perspectives.  The image I used for this article is from my favorite podcast.  It’s just three guys talking about whatever.  They had a podcast before this, but they all got laid off from the company, so they decided to try one on their own.  You already know I donate money to that Patreon!

Podcasts in the classrooms presents some great possibilities for varying the learning process.  There are so many podcasts about so many different things that they can be really useful when talking about topics a teacher might not have the most expertise in.  They are easy to access and usually free.  Each student can access them at home with no problem (if the school is 1:1 or they have a phone).  While I don’t think teachers should use them as substitutes for actually presenting information, I think they can be a great supplement to their learning.  A lot of studies have shown that certain types of homework are ineffective; I think assigning a podcast to listen to would be a great way to get students engaged in individual work.

I also think that podcasts are great for students to create as well.  Every single student is interested in something.  They may devote their lives to it outside of school; it might make up their entire identity!  Allowing students to pursue their interests is important with any assignment, but creating a podcast makes them consider an audience and how they should present the information in a way that will make others want to listen.  I’ve tried my hand at podcasting myself, and it is not easy.  It’s easy to talk about something you like for five to ten minutes, but creating multiple episodes?  You have to have a good game plan to keep a podcast going.

Possible pitfalls of using podcasts in the classroom are disinterest and frustration.  I don’t think the podcast format interests everyone, and I think some people probably hate it.  The main issue I would be concerned about is the frustration.  There are some good editing programs that are free, but they can be tricky to figure out.  Educating students on how to effectively use programs like this to edit their podcasts might prove to use up too much of class time.  And failure to edit exactly how they want it could prove annoying to students.  A lot of times while podcasting, you have to just roll past mistakes and not focus on it; I think that could be difficult for a lot of students to do and it could result in a lot of stress.

King of the Hill and my Heart

When I was around 12 or 13, I started to disobey my parents a little more, specifically in the form of watching shows that I wasn’t technically allowed to.  There was a program that aired on Cartoon Network late at night called, “Adult Swim”.  I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with it or have at least heard of it.  It airs adult comedy that isn’t appropriate for younger kids.

Well, when Cartoon Network would switch to Adult Swim late at night, I began to not change the channel quite yet.  The first block of Adult Swim was always an hour of King of the Hill.  I began watching little snippets and loving it, but I always changed it back for fear of getting in trouble.  Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and asked my dad to watch a few episodes to see if it would be okay for us to watch.  He eventually did and gave it the green light.  Ever since then, my life was changed for the better.

That sounds like some hyperbole, but it really isn’t.  This show has been my rock ever since I started watching it.  I’ve seen each episode four or five times, but I always enjoy getting back into it; I never stop laughing.  As I was writing down ideas for this review, I couldn’t really come up with a lot of the usual reasons I recommend shows.  While I still love it and think it’s hilarious, a lot of my love is also strongly fueled by nostalgia.  I watched Friends during this time as well, but it was more passive viewing.  Any time King of the Hill was one, I was paying attention and really engaged with the episode.  I grew up with the show, plain and simple.

Its format isn’t anything unique.  It’s an animated sitcom with a variety of interesting characters that bring their own element to the comedy, which is how the majority of sitcoms are set up.  I suppose one of the reasons is that the characters always feel pretty real.  Even the ones who have outrageous antics are grounded in some way, and the “normal” characters treat their crazy behavior as exactly that, crazy.  With a lot of characters in this show, I think a lot of people could find many examples where they would think, “Wow, I know someone exactly like that in real life.”

Friends was an easier review, and this one wasn’t hard, but it was more personal, which made it harder to convey my thoughts.  If you have the chance, I strongly suggest you give King of the Hill a chance.  It’s on Hulu.  Be sure to practice mindfulness and put your phone away, because it isn’t a loud and wild show that will capture your attention in that way.  A lot of the humor comes and goes without acknowledging itself, which is one of the reasons it works so well for me.  10/10

My Struggle with Technology

The issue of being mindful with technology is very personal for me because I have actively struggled with it for quite a while, especially these last few months.  As of right now, I absolutely do NOT use my devices mindfully, and I truly hate it.  I’m not going to try to get deep here, but if my story can help anyone reading this, it’ll be worth it.

As I have mentioned in past blogs, I am in my fifth year of college and won’t graduate until next May.  That will add up to six years.  I have really stressed myself out about this fact and haven’t dealt with it well; in fact, I’ve used technology to try and cope.  I hated being alone with my thoughts because they would always stray back to hating that I was still in college and had over a year left.  I ended up looking at my phone and laptop more and more.  Reddit has been a black hole for my time and attention.  I’ll find myself cycling through four or five apps several times an hour.  The worst part is I know I’m doing it and actively hate it, but I still do it.

One of the reasons it’s so difficult to break the habit is how much I need my computer and phone for school work.  I use it as an excuse in my head.  I have to be available to see emails or need to take a break from homework, so I’ll open up a new tab real quick.  It has caused me to be so much slower at homework because I’m constantly distracted.  I wanted desperately to give up my phone for Lent, but I realized I needed it.  I have group projects and other stuff that require my ability to communicate throughout the day.  This makes me realize how technology has changed the foundation of class work.

One of the best things I got from the readings is being present.  I have this advice, somewhat ironically, many times on Reddit.  We go through so much of life on autopilot.  Unless it’s something truly important that captures our full attention, so much of our technology use involves mindless scrolling.  Sometimes I’ll stop and ask myself what I just read or saw five minutes previously, and many times I can’t remember.  Making a true effort to be present in my actions and thoughts makes a huge difference for me.  It takes a lot of willpower to not go on autopilot.  I found this article to be helpful.

I am very ready to be done with school so that I can be off technology more, but there are plenty of opportunities to begin that process now, at least somewhat.

I Love (My) Friends

I struggled all last week on how to put my thoughts into words about how I feel about this show.  I’ve been watching it for around half of my life, and really enjoying it for the last seven or eight years.  While there are movies that have been in my life for longer and that I’ve seen more times than any singular episode of “Friends”, they still don’t have the same impact.  That’s not to say that they have less of an impact, but the fact that I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my life with these characters sets this show, and other shows, apart from movies.

Effective TV shows develop characters and relationships throughout the duration of the show.  While we love to see our favorite characters respond to situations in an entertaining way, we don’t want to get the feeling of, “Oh I’ve seen this before.”  For me, “Friends” rides this line this extremely well.  Our six main characters maintain their core attributes and heart, so instead of loving seeing them change throughout the show, we enjoy watching their unique reactions and how they deal with a variety of situations.

I started actively watching this show on NickatNite when I was probably 14 years old.  Having just turned 24, that means I’ve been enjoying this show for a DECADE.  That’s one way to make myself feel old.  That means this show has been a present factor in my life through almost all of my adolescence.  While I may not have watched the episodes in order and therefor didn’t “grow up with the cast”, I did grow up while consistently being entertained by Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, and Phoebe.  As I grew and tried to discover my place in the world, they were right there with me, whether they knew it or not.  I have grown to truly adore the show.  Even if I’ve seen an episode many times and know it backwards, I still love seeing the interaction of the characters.  That’s one of the extremely unique things about this show for me.  While there are some great stories throughout the series, the main thing I enjoy is just watching them play off of each other.

I really don’t think the effect of the age I started watched this can be understated, and I think that applies to a lot of TV shows.  No matter what, “Friends” is going to be enjoyable to me for the rest of my life.  As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that I objectively enjoy the show.  It’s not all nostalgia.  I think the age and time in which we watch shows has a big effect on our attachment and enjoyment.  I couldn’t find an article that really fit my thoughts on this, but this one was pretty close.

Next week, I’m going to talk about favorite show of all time: “King of the Hill”.  I enjoy it for different reasons than “Friends”.  See you then!

Activism: Just as Good on the Net?

Teens are using the digital sphere to promote activism because it can reach a large number of people very quickly.  Gone are the days when the only way of addressing mass quantities of people was through radio or TV.  We all have a way to talk to millions of people, and it’s at our fingertips, whether in the form of a phone or computer.

Social media is a great medium for activism because you can share text, photographs, videos, links, and a number of other connections to more information on the topic.  On Twitter especially, I’ve seen a number of posts that I would consider a form of activism.  Global warming and climate change are very real, and I see a lot of tweets about it with thousands of retweets come across my feed.  They often include graphs that show temperature change and/or pictures that show how much of a detrimental effect humans and our byproducts have on various aspects of the environment.

Another example happened very recently with the Super Bowl.  Stephen Hillenburg, creator of Spongebob Squarepants, died of ALS in November of last year.  There was an Internet campaign to get the NFL to include the “Sweet Victory” song from a popular Spongebob episode in the halftime show.  There were a ton of tweets about it, and a petition gained well over a million signatures.  While the campaign originally started out as a way to pay tribute to Stephen Hillenburg’s legacy and battle against ALS, it kind of just turned into a pro-Spongebob thing.  It got super popular either way, but it might stretch the definition of true “activism”.

Personally, for issues such as climate change, I don’t think this kind of online activism does much.  It’s not tangible.  Sure, we can see a tweet or post with thousands of shares and likes, but that’s all it is: a post.  Even if it’s reflecting the views of a lot of people, we can easily put our phone down or get off the computer and it’s not a problem anymore.  We also live in a unique time where, at least from my general observations, only about 30% of voting age people use social media regularly.  This is obviously going to change more and more, but I think social media has yet to see its peak influence on issues.

I have not participated as a digital activist, mainly because I don’t think it’s very effective on issues that really matter.  Sure, a restaurant might add a menu item after the Internet pushes for it, but oil companies aren’t going to change their habits just because the Internet is in outcry.  Pardon my French, but I think the saying, “Money talks, bullshit walks” is very relevant to this discussion.  People can spout off their opinions and get lots of people to agree, but without something concrete and tangible (like money, but not just that), the majority of these comments get buried eventually.

Beyond the key issues we should be activists about, we need to think about how best to invest our energies for these causes.  Is tweeting 24/7 going to change something?  I can’t say no, but there’s a pretty big chance it’s not.  What about going to a public official’s office and demanding they answer questions about their stance on something controversial?  It might not be a ton better, but they can’t ignore you at least.  Other people will see you, and it might put a bug in their ear.  I think this general kind of activism has proven, and will prove, that it is superior to digital activism.