NECC 2009

We're getting ready to practice and I'm a little nervous!! Please let me know if you need a copy of anything we shared with you today. You are welcome to join our discussion on ning but as Bill will tell you, there are many ways to find us online!

Information Literacy

A friend requested a hard copy of this video. I'm going to try to attach it or link it up here somehow...


This was a project for ITEC 521 at UMW-Information Literacy in the Digital Age. This was a very small class and the four of us worked together to make this video as a culminating project. We also had to write a paper to go with it that was published in the VSTE Journal.

Enjoy! I especially love the music! :)

lovely snow

The weather outside is a bit frightful but the fire IS delightful...I was glad to see that school was canceled and a bit disappointed that the doctor's visit I've been anticipating for over a month and a half was canceled. Hmm. Guess you can't get everything you want out of a snowstorm! I have to take my dog outside into the wind and the snow for a pee break, but before I do let me say that I haven't really changed my approach to my team since last I wrote. Things are still as up in the air as they were a few weeks ago. I've seen more evidence of competition on the team and people rushing to be first. I would like to think that the rushing is really a matter of doing what is expected or asked of them and not communicating with all involved. But I'm not sure. My friends at work are being really supportive. We're all sort of living in this atmosphere of uncertainty. I don't know what my job will be next year. One of our 'group' will be transferred to another school next year. The rooms and teams are being shifted around. There is a clear misunderstanding about what is going on in the county in our school. People seem to think that the transfers are going to be replaced by veteran teachers and they're not. That's just not going to happen. But I guess they will have to see it to believe it. But in the meantime, we're all trying to laugh about it.

The snow day is a welcome break from the routine. As my mother in law just told me on the phone, it will all work out. Don't fret. So I won't fret.
No links to share today...so get off your computers and go help your neighbors by shoveling their sidewalks or something.

Puzzling

I sat through a meeting on Friday and found myself in a downward spiral of thought. The pulsing in my brain that was subtle enough in the morning for me to pocket a tylenol for 'just in case' became a raging rush of frustration personified by the end of the day. By the conclusion of the meeting my face and my words reflected the pain (literal) and frustration pulsing through my being. And here's what was on my mind...
Towards the beginning of the meeting, the most recently accepted scenario of who would be reduced from our team as part of the budget cuts was challenged. An entirely different scenario suddenly was put out as the 'new reality'. I had to laugh only because it put me in a new position, possibly more favorable. I wasn't relieved or excited, only laughing because the change was unexpected. It took the reality that was once so comfortable for some people on our team and made it uncomfortable.
I realize that in this time of economic distress that self-preservation is often the first and then final concern. And maybe it's my personality or my over sensitivity, but I felt the air of competition rise up. The hiring dates versus school board confirmation dates were suddenly important. I just didn't want to think about it.
I guess I was raised to not take my situation for granted, ever. As soon as I heard that my position was in jeopardy, though not my employment I accepted it as a true possibility. I guess that I wanted to see a sort of selfless acceptance on more faces on my team instead of the picking and worrying in a public forum about decisions and details out of our control.
I felt the competition in the air and it made me angry. I don't understand why it's difficult for people to understand that in this situation, the change in our team could be completely arbitrary as people in higher positions will let it be. We can't control their decision-making process. Those who want to be involved with the influential side of it all-that might just be the way to go. But the feeling in the room was not constructive, it was competitive and I hated it.
So the theme for this writing is puzzles. I want to just put the thought out there that these times are puzzling. The pieces will all come together(eventually) into a picture that makes sense. In the meantime, we have to do what's best for our schools, our teachers and our students. That is our piece of this crazy budget puzzle. We have to keep in mind that there is a larger puzzle to build and that our team is a part of that puzzle. If we must serve to preserve something, perhaps it should be the TEAM. The focus on self and away from the team may lead to self-preservation in the short run but what will happen in a year when things are not better and we're fighting the same battle or even more likely-fighting to preserve the idea of the team's entire existence. If we fracture into teeny tiny pieces then we make the puzzle that much more difficult to solve. We lose the idea of team as the key to success to the individual need for self preservation.

Don't get me wrong, I worry a bit about where I will be next year. I am not sure that this blog post helps me out too much! But I do know that I will succeed at whatever it is that I am asked to do and I know that I will do my best to reflect well on our team. So I'm going to go work on a puzzle and relax for the rest of the day...tomorrow will surely present its own opportunities to fit into my part of the puzzle.

Blech Ech

It is the time of year when teachers face the decision of either going to work sick or staying home. Unlike many other jobs when there is an additional person to fill in the gap of a missing employee, the teaching job doesn't allow for an absence quite so easily. You would think with a job like mine that I could miss without too much guilt but it's not so easy. I went to work today under a certain amount of stress and feeling quite green. I needed to not be around the eighth grade classes I was working with in the varying temperature environment of our building. I looked around and while working on the project, I was also evaluating my effectiveness in that room versus out of the building.

We face a great deal of guilt when we miss work. There are loads of people that need me for one thing or another as each day goes by but I don't know how truly helpful I was today. Was it better for the overall project that I was there? Was it better that I didn't miss a Monday? I really dislike missing work, almost as much as I hate the internal debate of effectiveness in the face of illness or life's errands...Blech Ech!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Yo Gabba Gabba is a show on Nickelodeon. It is a little bit psychedelic, at least the characters are! I had never heard of it until one of my teacher friends was supposed to dress up as one of the characters for Halloween. I think the premise is that music and dancing helps build the confidence and expressiveness of the characters and the viewers. I don't remember the trippiness of children's shows from when I was little. Did I block it all out? Or was puppetry enough for our imagination?

As crazy as it is, I love how it gets the children to sing and dance. It helps me remember that the way I learned is not how all children learn. I need to keep that in mind-even when teaching the adults. I don't think I will wear crazy costumes and dance, but the thought will be there to modify as needed!

What's Your Secret?

I think I've mentioned this community art project before. It's fairly well known and I've seen reporting on it in mainstream media. I occasionally peek in on the blog to see what kinds of things people have to share and the thoughts that are trapped in their minds. Some are quite frightening though others are not that unfamiliar. Tying it all back to education :) a teacher could do a project like this with their students where they write post cards from a character in a novel, a person in history, a caricature of an idea and share that character's secret in an obscure but artistic way.

My favorite post card up there right now is the one about how self-help books haven't helped, but Tupac is. I had to laugh a little, but I identify with that one a bit more. I don't agree with somebody seeing a post card on the site and taking it as a sign (it's okay to leave your partner and take off) or fate. I really do like to look at it like I'm in a gallery of art work. It is all about expression and I suppose artwork can be about interpretation. But I prefer to put the value of a piece in the intention of the author rather than the perspective of the reader.

I'm an English major so that argument bears a little more weight with me than it might with others. I'll try to be better about updating my blog!