homoLudens

An impending frabjous day. I just posted this news from Alan Levine over on eBN. It’s exciting because of what it might mean for deepening the roots of Gal’s and BAWP’s
(and other) teaching community efforts. MLX is, IMHO, the simplest,
cleanest and slickest Learning Object Repository I’ve ever seen:

Our legal department was supportive, even enthusiastic, about our plans to provide an openMLX, the proposed open source version of the Maricopa Learning eXchange??? We have been doing some redesign, re-programming of the mother MLX, the new packing slip featuring more useful display and posting for comments and “sharebacks.”
We have some bits to do inside the “Loading Dock” the package creation
area, but by next week we should be testing out the new, “vanilla”version???I guess most folks out there are waitng to see the “beef”. [cogdogblog Alan Levine]

And if you haven’t taken a tour of MLX, do it now and offer thanks unto Maricopa’s beamish boy .

Another instance of ether-eal partnering. Woke still pissed and surly and found two partner notes on blogs. Felt better immediately. Lesson: ‘Rant, then breathe. Rant, then breathe.’

The first from Karen, with the graphic of “Neferchichi ??? here to soothe your aching head. Since you are known to the Gods as a canine devotee, she will at your request, attack, mame or otherwise chase away those that dare to deter your spirit and growth regarding BLOGS.” Then she suggests that we just go for our own mlk Frontier install. Done, dear!

The other from ‘tucky Terry whose comment puts all the frustration into the big context of failing bureaucracies and disruptive technologies. One snippet: “Unaware and purposely so, these fine professionals are firmly planted in the concrete of previous expectations with no desire for change much less revolution. They may not know a disruptive technology when they see it, but they can smell it.”

cool. A snapshot from the abecedarianGeek Radio blog:

‘ The first two subscriptions are significant. Karen C. and I have started mlkReflections, a private site reserved for our thinking through blog-letizing mlk staff through our library and tech lab. Today, after filming a stunning performance by eighth grade poets accompanied by the SF Jazz Education Program in William Settles’ classroom, I suggested that we try to replicate such a performance as a culminating event for Library Lovers’ Month. On my Radio aggregator I found this news posting from Karen on ‘reflections’:

Let’s use the out-reach band to accompany students reading a passage  from a favorite book.  Students introduce themselves, read the title and author of the book, and state why they chose/like the passage they are about to read.  Jazz music accompanies the students reading! What a great way to promote reading and music appreciation.  An inter-disciplinary activity during the month of February (Love of Reading month!)

‘Jazz-ed Readers!’ Immediately after that posting, I met with sfpl Teen Librarian Marcel Twizeyemungu. He’ll be running a 10 week long “love your library” December through February program for all of our 8th. graders, emphasizing book talks on high school reading list titles and, assisted by us, ensuring that all mlk 8th. graders have valid and cleared library cards before graduation. Oh, and Marcel left with a blog - Jazzing Up Reading, also subscribed to on aG. We’d like to wind up with our ‘jazzed readers’ performing at the sfpl Main’s Koret Auditorium during National Library Week in April.

This is Net-networking at its best - locally rooted, digitally accessible from anywhere. And it’s also about partnering, an essential but overlooked ingredient of good learning and good teaching. 

From NY-er’s Malcolm Gladwell in ‘What does Saturday Night Live have in common with German philosophy?’:

What were they doing? Darwin, in a lovely phrase, called it “philosophical laughing,” which was his way of saying that those who depart from cultural or intellectual consensus need people to walk beside them and laugh with them to give them confidence. But there’s more to it than that. One of the peculiar features of group dynamics is that clusters of people will come to decisions that are far more extreme than any individual member would have come to on his own. People compete with each other and egg each other on, showboat and grandstand; and along the way they often lose sight of what they truly believed when the meeting began. Typically, this is considered a bad thing, because it means that groups formed explicitly to find middle ground often end up someplace far away. But at times this quality turns out to be tremendously productive, because, after all, losing sight of what you truly believed when the meeting began is one way of defining innovation.

Analogized to teaching, this would be ’partnering’ beyond the one-to-one, get-through-the-day-and-come-back-tomorrow aspect that is essential to urban (and rural?) school survival. Maybe call it ’developing professionalism.’ (Not - ugh - professional development.)

And note, esp. in light of scripted curriculum proselytizing, how much fun these thinking groups were having together. Fun! I didn’t get a teaching credential to be bored.

Terry Elliot on a Radio blog. His pointer to the Times article on upgrading old PCs inspired me to add a Tech tools, parts & reviews section to the mlk Library’s Virtual Office. (Got to ’blogJack‘ you again, Terry, into the blogWrite teacher consultant group.)

The above a welcome example of “digital partnering,” which is a part of “teacher partnering,” which is my next article/paper for somewhere. Been gestating since Translating, Tweaking and - Whoopie! - Making a Mess, but now I see a blog angle to it. Sent a hastily pasted together and inadequate (I do deadlines badly.)  version of it off to the Padua conference as PARTNER TRUST, TEACHER CHANGE.

There’s reference there to T’LoiR (Thunder Lightning or in Rain), the private blog where Karen, Albert and me rant and challenge and plot and scheme and prod and insult and forgive and just keep each other keeping on with the blog initiative we started for local Writing Projects.

But there’s more than blogging to it. During the BAWP summer institute, I felt uneasy using the term “coach” to describe what I was supposed to do with new teacher consultants when helping them prepare their solo demonstrations. At first, I thought it was my “sports suck” thing about the word “coach.”

It was deeper than that. I realized that my whole career was marked by a series of essential and sustaining partnerships and that those partners never “coached” me. We played together. It was a playground pick up game and not the NBA. And that’s the reality of urban schools. There really is no way to make things ‘professional’ the way frameworks and standards and state legislatures and idiot presidents would have them be. (If any of them were serious about change, good teachers would not continue to feel that the next “reform” is just one more thing added to an already impossible list of things to do.) So those of us who love teaching find partners to play with and learn from.

Marty Williams heard me dissing “coach” one day and said, “That’s very cool.” We chatted it up in Atlanta. Now Evan and I are thinking that we’ll do a BAWP eZine issue with that theme. When you add digital partnering to the mix - like with having Terry back to this blog community - the ‘teacher writing’ aspect gets really interesting

via SiT Excellent compilation of writings and model surveys of teacher tech readiness and integration. But??? what urban district  has the time? the necessary staff support for follow through? the money to meet the needs that are identified? sfusd IT just sent out an e-mail demand that all teachers fill out the CTAP tech survey. This from a department who responds to support requests within four weeks of delivery. Four weeks if you’re lucky. Almost nobody completed the survey. Teachers simply don’t have the time. And if they find time, they use it for something that will help their teaching. For most, there’s as yet no “culture of success” at their schools showing that tech helps learning.

That said, I’d like to find a job/library where I could really sink into an inquiry on this staff development aspect.