The only constant is change - Part I

There wasn't a lot that happened today. Blogging, though I suspect, is no different than any other task you wish to "stick to". Once you do it consistantly for a period of time, it will become part of your routine. So... to ensure my blogging does not end before it has even had a chance to start, like so many people's new years resolution to "work out" or "get in shape", I will do my best to make a meaningful post on very slow day.

I expect I will be giving a presentation to my fellow teachers at our next faculty meeting on what I learned at the MACUL Conference; assurance that I did more than just walk around the exhibitor area trying to get as many free T-shrits and pens as possible.

What I plan to say simply comes down to this: The only constant is change. It would be nice to say I thought up that great title on my own, but it is a fairly common cliche. I have noticed in my own class, as have other teacher I have spoken with, that the number of failing students and below average grades has noticably gone up. Why? Why is it that the same lessons we taught years ago, successfully mind you, are failing miserably today? After all, isn't it a reasonable assumption that if lesson X yielded a class average of 76% ten years ago that lesson X would again yield a 76% this year? If the instructor doesn't change the lesson, why do the result change? If the factors remain constant, then the results should remain constant as well; so why don't they? By Einstein's definition, this is INSANE! Well, it would be if ALL factors remained the same. If my lesson is the same, and my outcome is different, then something else must have changed to alter the end result. Here it is: the students in our rooms today are not the same as those we have had in the past. They are different in so many ways: they talk differently, they dress differently, they communicate with their friends differently, the games they play are different, their home lives are different, the television shows they watch are different; we can't expect 21st century kids to miraculously change to 20th century students for 7 hours a day, 180 days in the year. Since the students refuse to downgrade to their 20th century counterparts (and yes I do mean downgrade... we're not talking Window's and Vista here), the only other factor that can be chaned to get my desired outcome is me.

Here's where that MACUL thing comes into play: The first speaker I went to see was Lynell Burmark, the President of the Thornburg Center in California. Her presentation entitled Visual Literacy: Equipping Students for a Visual World was the first of many enlightening presentations. She reminded her audience about the old Burma-Shave roadside billboards. Why doesn't Viagara do the same thing, wasn't it a highly effetive advertising campaign in the early to mid 20th Century (back when student's knew what it took to be successful in the classroom). Those types ads don't send the message or envoke the same emotion as do the graphics filled billboards we see today. A picture's worth a thousand words is another cliche (I use them quite a lot, don't I - by the way if you missed the second cliche google Einstein insane definition), but it does not give pictures the credit they deserve. If pictures can spark emotion, trigger us to analyze, envolk questioning, and make mental connections; all in just a few seconds, then lets use this in our lessons. Lets show an image, trigger all these great things I just mentioned, and then follow it up with words and make a meaningful, and memorable, experience to our students. Lynell Burkmark has a new eBook entitled Visual Literacy, I am in the process of placing my order and I look forward to getting my copy and seeing what else she has to say; that which she could not fit into her hour long presentation. If you're interested, you can check our her sight at http://www.lynellburmark.org/.

Well, this has gotten to be quite lengthy; I'll pick back up tomorrow and share with you what Liz Kolb taught me about incorporating celphones in the classroom and ideas for utilizing social networking in your clasroom from Steve Dickie.

I hope you haven't gotten tired of hearing me mention these names, but I want be sure to give credit where credit is due - these are some very bright indivduals and they have a lot more to offer than what I can pass on to you, so check out their sites and blogs and see what else they have to offer.

Regarding tomorrows post, don't expect anything quite this lenghty, I have track practice after school and following that I plan to take my three year old daughter bowling (last time, her first time, she bowled a 85 and followed that with a 102! - gotta be a prodigy)