My previous three posts looked at ideas from John Spencer’s book Sages and Lunatics. I could go deeper because it is full of great discussion points, but I’d rather you just read the book. This is the final post.

It is incredibly difficult to spot the difference between a sage and a lunatic because at first glance, they look the same. The difference is that a Sage has some defining qualities the Lunatic lacks.

1. The Sage is retrospective. He or she recognizes that over the last few decades, the relational aspect of teaching has been lost. Sure, it went way too far one way in the 70’s and has since swing back to the assessment side in recent years, but we’ve lost sight of that middle ground. Students are pupils, not humans. Teachers are masters, not people. The relationship is exacerbated every day in schools with nary a peep. The Sage recognizes that education is much more than compliance and control…there is relationship – a dynamic that is special (sacred?) between teacher and student that we need to recognize. The Sage pushes back to that ideal while the lunatic screams in the background.
2. The Sage is unconventional. Confusion is a tool to be used strategically, not a pathogen to be wiped out through “educating.” Riddles and nuance flow freely during class with the intent of pushing students to just before their breaking point. A Sage rides the line between challenge and hopelessness in the face of discovering new ideas. Lunatics may often do the same thing, but for their own entertainment or indifference about the means used to reach the same end. Look carefully, and you’ll be able to see the difference between the two.
3. The Sage is humble. Classroom wins are local and celebrated with the community. Yes, stories and successes are shared, but all through the lens of the student and their growth. The Sage is always looking to serve others – be it parents, students, administration, colleagues…their own growth comes from helping others grow. The Sage recognizes that when everyone has an opportunity to succeed, the organization is healthier overall. This includes passing on opportunities to help a colleague. Selflessness is indicative of the teacher who gets it.

The really difficult thing about all of this is that the Sage doesn’t feel like one. They may feel like a normal teacher or even the lunatic. They don’t claim to have all the answers, just ideas which worked out for them. Remember these things as you meet and work with educators – you may learn something from a Sage without even realizing it.

This is the third post in a series reflecting on John Spencer’s Sages and Lunatics.

The time of the textbook has come and gone. Schools aren’t renewing subscriptions, moving instead to things like 1:1 programs or supplemental materials. Teachers are creating and sharing their own content on the Internet for anyone – including students – to find and use in their learning. Print isn’t dead, but its nature is changing.

At the beginning of Sages, John is lamenting the “Five Tips for [X]” nature of education materials in a bookstore. I remember purchasing my classroom management book, which was full of little tips and tricks on how to wrangle a classroom full of unruly teenagers. There was some theory in there, but it was lacking any recognition of the relationships that are also required.

I’m worried that popular blog posts have become our new “Five Tips for [X].”

creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-ND ) flickr photo shared by ebayink

Is there value in the quick list (I believe the new term is listicle) approach? Sure there is. It can be helpful to see some quick ideas when you’re in a pinch. The problem comes when every resource decides to take that angle. Nowadays, our culture has become so obsessed with the hyperbolic-headline listicle that it’s started to happen in education blogs. We’re a culture with a fixitnow! mindset…we want to try things out, and if they don’t work immediately, we move on. Call it perseverance or tenacity, but have we lost something in the resources we look to use?

On the other hand, perhaps it is in the content, not necessarily the format. There can be significant wisdom in brevity. Perhaps the quick look is what we need in order to feel inspired to dive in a little deeper. I think the danger in bashing educational print is that much of it is reproduced online in blogs, and we praise the best “Top 5” or “Top 10” posts when they come from photons.

Whatever the case may be, let’s focus on sharing wisdom, sharing background, and sharing depth as we all work to improve.

This is the second post in a series reflecting on John Spencer’s Sages and Lunatics

There is power that comes with learning. Ideas are born; worldviews are constructed. As we learn, we are forced to fit that new information into our existing perceptions and biases. As teachers, we have the ability to guide students and help them navigate and wield the power they gain. John uses the metaphor of a education being a machete: it can be a powerful tool as we explore and discover, but it can also be used to manipulate and destroy.

How often do we avoid the machete in our classrooms? Is it the role of the teacher to protect students from the danger that comes from learning?

creative commons licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Nina Matthews Photography

I wonder how dangerous my classroom was. Mine may have been doubly dangerous because of chemicals and pointy tools, but physical danger is easier to deal with than emotional. I had safeguards and policies in place to protect students.

I fear that my classroom may not have been intellectually dangerous.

Did I avoid the machete because I was protecting my students? Or because I was protecting myself?

It has become easier to avoid the tough questions because they “aren’t within the scope of the course.” Standardization has fooled us into thinking that we don’t have time to cover eugenics, genetic modification of crops, and the commercialization of our diets. Why talk about abortion or birth defects? Topic avoidance in the interest of covering the standards is accepted when it should be reviled.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and is an educator’s curse. I try not to think about missed opportunities with students, but they stay fresh. I’ve learnt to be aware of danger and more receptive to the idea of running straight in. Rather than fearing the gray areas, I want to embrace them.

This is the first post in a series reflecting on John Spencer’s Sages and Lunatics.

A report came out in early May with data showing college students saw teaching as one of the easiest majors to follow and said that teaching was the top profession for “average” people. In the wake of the report, there have been calls for more stringent teacher preparation, making certification tests harder, and encouraging alternative, more “rigorous” methods of teacher certification from the private sector.

Teachers are a strange breed. Heading into the job, we know that there will be long hours, little pay, and unfair expectations put on us and our students. Yet, we walk into the building every day, excited about the possibilities. I never considered teaching a “job.” It wasn’t just something I did to pay the bills.

John brings up an interesting idea in Sages: Perhaps we aren’t paid to teach. Perhaps we are paid so we can teach. (Actually, Brad the Philosopher brings it up, but John wrote it down).

I’ve written on this before, but even being out of the classroom for more than a year, I still jump to say I’m a teacher when asked what I do. It’s in my heart. I think about schools, curriculum, students, and instruction all. The. Time.

I got to thinking, would you still teach if you didn’t get paid? In other words, if you could do nothing but teach while not worrying about bills or other financial constraints, would you commit your life to doing so?

Teachers – whether you know it or not – you are some of the most trusted people in society. Parents send their children to you every day for instruction, for nurturing, for support, and they do so often without ever meeting you face to face. Aside from the obvious problems with the reality of parent engagement, this is an incredible burden. I’m also left wondering how schools, how communities, would change if we look at teaching from the point of view of the trust they’ve put into us.

Yet we take this burden without question. We welcome the happy, the sad, the hungry, and the lonely without question. In our rooms, we see the children and we pour our hearts into them. The time we invest with each child every year is second only to their parents…how are you spending that time? Teaching isn’t a job. Teaching is a lifestyle.

My name is Brian E. Bennett, and I’m a teacher.

Fingerprint icon by Yaroslav Samoilov on The Noun Project CC BY 3.0

No, not that Mars.

FlipCon14 is coming up June 23-25. This is the 7th annual event, and I’ve had the privilege of watching it grow from 35 people in Woodland Park (FlipCon10) to nearly 450 last year in Minnesota. This year, we’re in Mars, PA (near Pittsburgh) and we’ve got a fantastic lineup planned. Along with Jon and Aaron’s keynote, Molly Schroeder will be opening the conference with her Living in Beta keynote.

If you’re on the fence about coming, we have the full schedule – including all concurrent sessions – posted online for review. Hopefully, that will help tip you over the edge.

I can honestly say that this conference kicked off my interest in improving digital teaching and learning. Each year, I learn more about what teachers are doing to help students and how I can adapt some of the things they do to my own practice. I’m excited to see old friends, and meet new ones. If you’re also planning on heading to Pittsburgh, leave a shout out in the comments.

Twitter mailase has set in big time. Twitter is dying! No, it’s just beginning!

• *I’m not sure I can really explain my own confusion or mixed feelings. The power in any network is in how it allows you to connect with people. Part of the reason I’ve started to migrate away from Facebook is because of the backend filtering of which posts you see based on “engagement.” I have no control over that filtering, and it doesn’t sit well with me that I can’t change the way it works.

Twitter, on the other hand, shows everything. I can choose what to work with and what to ignore. I’ve gone through the stages, but now I’m trying to figure out what’s next.

Deep discussions happen. Off-the-cuff questions are answered rapidly. But I’m feeling a lack of connection. I feel a lack of purpose. I’m afraid that Twitter is become one of two things: A) A place teachers go because Twitter. B) A place where people talk all the time but don’t do anything different. Ideas stop when they hit your eyeballs. But, you can justify the time as “idea-searching.”

Maybe I’m following the wrong people, but it seems like a lot is put out by the bigfolk. I want to see new people, but how do we discover the new thinkers and leaders? I feel like there’s a lot of echo without much growth. And if that’s the case, it may be time to move on.

But where do we go?

Short post tonight. For the final assignment this semester, we were asked to read Thomas Friedman’s OpEd on Passion Quotient and Curiosity Quotient as the big need moving forward in the world (the previous need being IQ – intelligence quotient).

I have to admit, this particular assignment really stumped me. I wasn’t sure about what I thought or how to best communicate those ideas. In the end, I thought about a world without passion or curiosity, and when I landed myself in that spot. Rather than telling here, on the blog, I used my absolute favorite iPad app: Storehouse. The preview below will jump you to the story.

Post Updated 4/27/14 9:15PM – Since writing this post, my group has finished our project. Rather than adding a separate post, I’ve updated the links below to the final recommendation.

The semester is winding down and that means final projects are wrapping up. In Applying Edtech to Practice, my group tackled the problem of “rethinking teaching.” Essentially, we came up with a suggestion for how teachers can improve their practice based on The Danielson Group’s teacher evaluation tool.

The Framework for Teaching has four components:

1. Planning and Preparation
2. The Classroom Environment
3. Instruction
4. Professional Responsibilities

The instrument breaks each area down into indicators which we used to outline our proposal. Using the TPACK framework as a guide, we looked at each subgroup in the Framework and linked them to simple tools teachers can use to move toward the distinguished level of performance.

To organize everything, we’ve created a Popplet as a graphic organizer. From there, you can learn more about The Danielson Group, the TPACK framework for applying technology as well as see our white paper recommendation and video of the process we used to create the final product.

Any feedback in the comments would be appreciated.

Blog readers, I come to you again asking for help with a survey.

As many of you know, I’m working on a masters degree in education technology through Michigan State University. I have a short survey in circulation looking at technology integration and the associated professional development. It will take 5-10 minutes, and your help would be greatly appreciated.

I was working on a Chrome Extension (feel free to download and use it) this evening and I noticed something awesome.

If you right click on a webpage in Chrome, one option in the menu is “Inspect Element.” It shows a lot of programming mumbo jumbo which is extremely useful in programming, but not necessarily for anything else, especially if you’re not programming.

At the bottom of the window, I noticed a new tab that said “Emulation.” So, I clicked on it.

Lo and behold, in the latest Chrome update (M34 stable channel) you can view any webpage as if it were on a mobile device. How. Awesome. Is. That? I was able to select one of dozens of Android devices and then emulate the page (after a quick refresh) to see how it would behave…including any JavaScript you have in there as well.

Click any image to see it bigger.

I used to have to resize my browser window or put the page I was working on up on a secure testing server or something. Gone are the days of trying to test for mobile on anything else because I can do it right in the Chrome browser. It even reads custom CSS based on media queries (if you use those).

Now, do note, that if you’re developing across multiple browsers (and if you’re doing web development, you should be doing that), so you’ll still need to test for compatibility in Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc. This is just one way to easily knock out some mobile responsive design from your browser.

Why is this useful? If you teach any kind of web development class, this will make your life much easier. Also, since 50% of the world accesses the web via mobile as their primary method, responsive design is a must for any design course. This is one way to help make that process easier for quick cross-platform testing as students learn.

Not all GIFs are created equal. Some just need a little help.

I haven’t posted more than once in a day in a while, but I’m really excited about my little interactive images kick from earlier.

I got links to work on top of an animated GIFs. After cracking my knuckles, I decided to see if I could push myself a little more. Now, I want an image with some instruction text to play an animated GIF on the hover, not jump out to a link. This is all hobby for me, by the way. Lots of coding and refreshing going on to get it working.

The first thing I needed to do was lay out my HTML tree and CSS skeleton

Now, I needed some more information. Problem number one: get the first frame of an animated GIF to use as a static placeholder in the page. Not too hard. I hopped into GIMP, and then copied and exported my first frame as a jpg image to hang out on its own.

Now, the hard part was to get the text to show up in the right place. You can use absolute positioning, but then your div elements can get all wonky. On a static HTML page, it isn’t too hard to do because you control everything. On a blog, it can be messy because you’re fighting with your template’s CSS and if you don’t use the right attribute names or calls, you can end up with a poor layout. So, to make things easier, I just used GIMP to throw some instruction text on to my first frame placeholder.

Now came the tricky part. I had to make sure I layered my images correctly in the HTML and CSS. After adding the correct links and the correct frame sizes, I had the following code:

And the result is:

One thing I’m still trying to work out is how to get the animation to pause when you move the mouse. Because a GIF is just an image, I don’t think there is a way to have the loop paused without some serious coding in the background. I’ve already poked through StackOverflow a little, and can’t seem to find anything promising. With this method, the GIF will continue to loop in the background after the initial hover, so you’ll see a little jump.

Why? Animations can be annoying in the corner of your eye. Giving people control over whether or not they want to see some moving pictures is a courtesy. Plus, I wanted to see if I could do it. So there.

I have a permanent item on my to-do list which says, “make pictures better on the blog.” I don’t really know what that means in the long run, and that’s the point. I want my content to be more dynamic. WordPress is great for that, but it still feels cumbersome for me. I have to think about a lot of other items like plugins, widgets, and having to dig to get something like custom CSS applied to a post. I’ve looked into switching over to another open-source CMS called Anchor, but I haven’t gotten around to migrating yet. It’ll happen eventually.

Either way, one thing I wanted to experiment with the other day was giving an image a mouse hover overlay which would link to something else. I have a working sample on a post from the other day, but the gist is shown below.

I tried to do this with inline CSS, but as it turns out, using the :hover pseudo property inline is a big no-no.

The reason you can’t do it inline is you have to add some extra div elements to the blog content, and then style each based on it’s id. Not too hard, but the code editing in WordPress really stinks, so it took me a while.

I had an idea of how to do this, but couldn’t figure out how to stack my new div elements. I found a demo that gave me the HTML structure and accompanying CSS. All I did from there was apply my own image URL and tweak the size of the box as well as the padding applied. My final code ended up as:

HTML

CSS – put this in style tags at the end of your content in the WordPress HTML editor.

So, it isn’t perfect, but it works. If I ever make the switch over to Anchor, I know this process is much simpler. Until then, I’ll keep posting tips.

I’ve done a lot of writing this past week. I mean, a lot. Many late nights, cups of coffee, and pints of beer went into my body and magically flowed through my fingers and into my paper.

For class, we were asked to create a personal manifesto which outlines skills essential to teaching. Along with a narrative of why we chose those skills to highlight, we pulled articles, blog posts, journals, videos…anything we’ve used in the past for growth to share with our readers.

I boiled mine down to nine skills essential to teaching. I outline this in the introduction of my paper, but I approached this from behaviors or attitudes rather than “hard” classroom skills like instruction and management. I did this partially because I think skills like Balance and Compassion are oft overlooked in teacher preparation programs. I also think the way we approach the relational side of teaching dictates our effectiveness in the classroom. I have no way to support that claim other than it’s been my experience, but I’ll stand by it.

I’d also like to thank Karl Lindgren-Streicher, Lindsay Cole, and Christiane Schicke for taking the time to leave comments as I was still writing.

Have you ever tried to read an article or paper but gotten so bogged down with the vocabulary that you didn’t understand what was going on? This happens to students every single day in schools, and especially to ESL, ELL, or reading disabled children. There is evidence showing that this is due to an overload on their working memory and can be addressed with some simple interventions in the classroom and with therapy outside the class.

Chrome Extensions are a great way to improve the web, including speech-to-text. I used them in my teaching to help students focus on the context of the entire article and not necessarily on the vocabulary on it’s own. What I saw was an improvement in comprehension and summarization of the text as well as a more open approach to scientific literature.

You can read the full Google Doc and, as always, comments are welcome.

Everyone is connected. There are reports of so-called “disconnect anxiety” afflicting our society because our desire to know what’s happening all the time. I have to admit, I’ve suffered from this. When I had a flip phone, I felt like I was missing out on the flow of my PLN and missing out on great ideas being shared. I have a smart phone now, but I’m ready to take it to the next level.

Tomorrow, beginning at 8AM, I’m going to begin my Connected Life experiment. For one entire day, I’m going to broadcast my life through a Google Hangout on Air.

Want to know what it’s like to work from home? Tune in to the Hangout. Want to know what my house looks like? Tune into the Hangout. Curious what I wear when I work from home? Tune into the Hangout.

This is an unprecedented look into my life, and I want my PLN there. Feel free to share it with your friends, turn it on in the background, or just hop on to see what’s up. I’ll also be doing a live Q&A through Twitter all day, so if you want to know more, hit me up at @bennettscience.

Looking for the live stream? Here’s the link. It’ll go live tomorrow morning at 8AM!

I went to CUE 2014 this year in Palm Springs, Cali. If you’re not familiar with the conference, it’s the largest regional education conference on the west coast with over 5,000 people in attendance. As I was preparing to go, I took a look at the keynotes.

Day 1: Dan Meyer. Solid.

Day 2: Levar Burton. Advocate for literacy since the 80’s. Plus, he was on Star Trek: TNG. Pretty cool.

Day 3: Salman Khan. Oh boy.

I’ve tried to remain positive, giving the Khan Academy the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the journalism covering the Academy has been poor…perhaps it’s all media spin that can be ignored for the most part. I resolved myself to go to the third keynote even though I had a pretty good idea of how it was going to go down.

Observation one: the first half of the keynote was a history of Khan Academy. Seriously. Watch the TED Talk if you want to see it. Khan is a gifted speaker. He’s charming and endearing. His story is really remarkable. He didn’t go looking for all the attention he’s been given since 2011. The problem I had with this section is that it was all about him. You can tell a story about your life without sounding self-indulgent, and he wasn’t able to do that effectively.

Observation two: World-class education is defined by…?. The stated mission of the Khan Academy is “providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” But, repeatedly, Khan seems to define that education within the scope of the Khan Academy. Why didn’t a room full of teachers get upset about the fact that he didn’t compliment teachers in this section at all? The entire premise of the Academy is that schools aren’t doing enough. As a teacher sitting in the audience, I was offended and really in disbelief that very few people had the same reaction.

Observation three: He’s kind of short. And Dan Meyer is a giant. It surprised me, is all.

Observation four: Khan missed an opportunity when it came to the SAT. This is the kicker for me. The SAT is a test that promotes rote learning and regurgitation. Even the essay. I’ve written about the changes before. In 2011, Khan Academy reported $11.8 million in donations and other income. That’s the latest information I could find, and considering corporations like Comcast and Bank of America, that number is surely much higher. They have clout.

So, if Khan Academy is for kids learning and exploring, why, why, would they team up with the College Board for some PR media about changes that mean nothing? Because Sal Khan is not an educator.

Sal Khan speaks for Khan Academy and for his own story, not for a free, “world class” education. Not for students. If he were for students, why hasn’t he reached out to leaders in education? When he’s criticized for poor content, why has he been so defensive? Why hasn’t he answered a single, to-the-point question about education practice in any interview anywhere?

Khan has missed opportunities constantly since 2011. Teachers and education professionals have reached out over and over, offering to help, to make videos, to design lessons…all to be turned down. Khan had an opportunity – as the “leader in world class education” – to take a stand against bad education policy. But, because it’s about the Academy and achieving it’s own goals, that will never happen.

Now, where CUE missed the opportunity was in offering a Twitter question submission from the audience using the #cuekhan hashtag. As soon as it was announced, I went for it. You can see the archive of the entire hashtag.* CUE had an opportunity to ask some more pointed and meaningful questions, and they missed that chance. I understand the PR agreement and that they were probably bound by some kind of speaker’s contract, but I still wish someone…anyone…had the gumption to finally get to the point.

*I removed RT’s from the archive for clarity. You can see the entire thread – including RT’s – here.

I’ve been reading James Paul Gee’s book, The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning. Without diving too deep into how I feel about it, let’s just say it hasn’t been an enjoyable read for me. I find myself disagreeing with Gee a lot and struggling to find his point in the narrative. I haven’t finished yet, so I’m holding out hope that it will eventually improve. Time will tell.

The middle of the book is about institutions of thought and their tendency to become “frozen” in practice. Legal systems, city planning, and the QWERTY keyboard are all discussed, but Gee points to the stagnation of universities as his main point. Originally, they were places of religious training, then secular training, and now, research with schooling on the side. Yet, we talk about them as if they are still mainly places of education.

I’m in marginal agreement with Gee’s assessment, but I differ on the way to improve the situation. Local connections are absolutely essential to growth, and the Internet can help us create and maintain those connections.

Rather than posting the full text here, I’ve written it in a Google Doc which will allow anyone to comment in context rather than at the end of this post. Please jump over to get the big picture.

…is that it’s kind of hard to teach.

Sorry for the click bait…I couldn’t resist. This is an update for my master’s class on finding solutions to instructional challenges in the classroom.

One of the hardest things about teaching in a science classroom is the abstract nature of many topics. One of my favorite teacher-isms from chemistry was introducing atoms: “This entire unit is based on our best guess. We don’t actually know what atoms look like, but we can make a good guess from observation.” I would get some funny looks from students, but they need to know that what they’re asked to learn isn’t always “hard” science.

I chose to tackle evolution for this particular assignment. Without getting into the philosophy of evolution, the task of teaching the mechanics is a well-defined problem. The principles are documented and observable, but students cannot conceptualize major changes in populations over time. That’s where the amazing simulations from the University of Colorado – Boulder come in.

The PhET Simulations have been around for a long time, yet not many people know about them. They’re interactive models of topics like evolution, but also chemistry, earth science, and physics, among others. Most of the simulations are still Java based, which means they don’t play well on Chromebooks or mobile. But, the HTML5 library is growing, and it is definitely worth checking out if you’re in a science classroom.

Let’s not forget the why. For me, it was simple: repeatability. The simulations are so simple to use, students feel like it’s a game. Playing with conditions (like trying to kill all the rabbits or blow the box of gases up) leads them to making general observations about their world that would be difficult to do otherwise. Mess up completely? No problem, hit reset and start again. Can you reproduce those results? What about getting an opposite result? Coming from multiple classrooms with limited resources, these simulations were invaluable to me each and every year.

If you want to play, my favorites were Natural Selection, Build an Atom, and Gas Properties. Have you used the PhET sims before? Which were your favorites?