Teacher? Blog well or look for new work.

Alternative Title: "NEWSFLASH: What you post on the web is not private!"

Remember this one from last school year about Pennsylvania teacher Natalie Monroe:

Her blog posts calling students "frightfully dim," "whiny," and "utterly loathsome" prompted her suspension in February.

You might also recall that her, well, 'punishment', was that she was not fired or reassigned. She's right back in the same school where she was then.

Well, she's not out of the woods yet as more than 200 students have dropped her class this fall requesting to be reassigned. While not available for comment, Ms. Monroe did say:

she "will teach in an empty classroom if I have to."

Now, maybe I'm no expert, but WHA?

Which also makes me think: HUH?

This is like if a tree fall in the forest and no one is around, right? If she's teaching to an empty classroom, is she still teaching? My favorite corollary question is: "If you're teaching and no one is learning, are you still teaching?"

That last one could apply to too many folks.

Facebook Use and Drug Use Correlated for Teens

Education Week: Study: Teen Users of Facebook, Myspace More Likely to Drink, Use Drugs

"When someone constantly sees photos of parties, they sort of feel they're missing out," he said. "It sort of glorifies the whole thing. Especially if you haven't done it before, it could be a gateway to make them think it's all right."

"...he regularly sees Facebook posts about drinking and partying. And it's not just images, he added: Status updates that say things such as, "I can't remember what happened last night" get the message across as clearly as any photograph."

Montessori on NPR. Listen NOW!

Listen now to the President of Association Montessori Internationale, André Roberfroid, on Dallas station KERA. (Missed it? Listen here.)

"What is most important in the early and on-going education of a child? We’ll spend this hour with André Roberfroid, President of Association Montessori Internationale and former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Program and Strategic Planning. He’s in town for the Educateurs sans Frontieres Third International Assembly, which ended today."

Mom kills son, self, citing school system and costs...

So what's the lesson here?  And we better learn one.  (Caution: Tragic Article)

While perhaps an extreme reaction to challenging circumstances, it's no stretch to assume that many families in our country are facing similar if not identical challenges.  Certainly many of them have also considered all means possible to alleviate the burden.

Too many schools are set up to process children through the assembly line.  In that regard, young Ben is too often just a folder on a desk.  Then on another desk.  Then on another desk.  Then a "family that has to be met with."  The bureaucratic pressures to move kids along, quantify their growth, or cut them loose are enormous.

Marginalization or bullying exists where those in power accept it as part of the status quo.  Was the system serving Ben or just hosting him:

"He used to say, 'Mom and Dad, I don't want to go to school. I don't want to deal with those people. They're mean to me and they hurt me,'" recalled Jamie Barnhard, Ben's father and Jensvold's ex-husband. "It broke both of our hearts."

Here, now, young Ben, marginalized by his peers at age 13, has his life extinguished.

IWBs and Montessori

There are a lot of interesting opinions on the web regarding IWBs (Interactive White Boards).  They can certainly be useful, but I'd first be asking what do students and teachers want to be able to do in their curriculum.  

The IWBs could be a big help or a huge timesink.  There is also the question of who uses them?  If it's just a glorified felt board with the teacher still at the center of the classroom, that's not a Montessori implementation. 

"The teacher must thrust herself into the background."  -Abs Joosten

(Just look at that photo at right.  It's so awkward and staged.  It gives quite an uneasy feeling, right?)

What's Montessori?

IB MYP and Montessori

I'm not a fan of the MYP for Montessori young adolescent programs.  I'm not extremely familiar with all the ins and outs of IB at that level, but I think there's a mismatch there between what IB requires and what is developmentally appropriate based on a Montessori (developmental) approach to education.

You can learn more about IB MYP here.  Then come back and tell us if you think it's a match or not.

Students and Technology...

Technology abounds.

Time to take our own inventories.  What is your typical daily use look like?

1. Time on computer while alone
2. Time on machine while others are in the room
3. When do you open your laptop to look something up (e.g., in a meeting)?
4. How often do you mention something you've read online (news, article, blog, email, etc)
5. etc

So what are we modeling for the adolescents?  What do we expect them to be doing?  What do they need to be prepared for in their future adult lives (flashing 12:00 on their VCRs?)  In my experience, the issue is not with too little technology used (although that's also common), it's with GROSSLY unprepared and unknowledgeable teachers (i.e., Unprepared Adults).  Many teachers still rely ONLY on depth of content knowledge or are seminar masters and fail at understanding the role of the medium, the adolescent vernacular, and what they need to prepare themselves for life.  What ensues are boring handouts and lame digital slideshows that fail to inspire.  Dialogue/Seminar and socialization–yes.  But not 'only' sitting around in chairs at a table.  The WORK that people do is varied and changing.  Adolescents need, above all, to be adaptable (MM, C2A).  This is not an argument for iPads INSTEAD of seminar.  (Could anyone argue that?  Not even: http://bit.ly/17O4o6).  It's the suggestion that both are needed and that schools and teachers must be experts at both.

Check out these interactive whiteboards: http://bit.ly/bLJZQI It's not what you think! (Or it's exactly what you think.) ;-)

If teachers can understand that computers are great for typing papers and spreadsheets for lab reports then they are certainly on the cutting edge...of 1990 technology.  As Steve Hughes might tell us, "It's just a better 1.0 School."  Students need to be having 2.0 School experiences.  A 2.0 School is the beauty of concepts and application together (cf. http://bit.ly/hhT7Yz).  You know: prepping for seminar at home (or wherever) using lots of technology (golly, this research is easy to do, what with the Net) and coming ready to talk it out, ask critical questions, and defend a position.  Maybe even to share a little on-the-fly visual support for her position by quickly flipping through some graphs or headlines on her tablet.  (What?! They're not bringing their support to class on a clay tablet?  They're not drawing figures in the sand?)

Adolescents are ready to do!  But!  What does DO look like?