8:30
Mike graces us with bagels, munchkins, fruit salad and, ooh-la-la!, strawberry shortcake.
Katelin is busy writing on the board, titles of all our TIW’s
It is, believe it or not, our last full day at the New Paltz Campus!

8:35
Bonnie calls the room to order and announces that there has been a shift in plans (love it!)
Respectful of the reflecting mood in which we should all be now that our summer institute comes to a close, Bonnie asks us to write about the highlights of our TIW’s for us to discuss it in a Socratic seminar. She and Mary go over a kind of rubric to revisit and to rank a few of the TWIs from the perspective of how it
• Provides us with introductory and background information
• Describes and demonstrates the literacy practice
• Crafts real time aspects of the literacy experience
• Offers a rationale for the literacy practice

9:10 Barbara’s Digital documentation.

One picture of the duck cart (Barbara remembers having that very same duck at her Grandma’s?) and one picture of Lilah, posturing ( or, what is she doing?)

9:15 (A lot of things seem to happen in the next 10 minutes. Did I measure incorrectly?)

Katelin shares her log as a post card. It is beautifully crafted, creative. (By the way, does any one know where Katelin buys those oversized postcards? )
Swift aside: Steve shares his happiness about everybody doing what they had to do technology wise.
Cathy, and Lilah share with us our reflections about their TIW’s. Lilah tells us that many of us should improve our handwriting… (Sarah, Susan and I were discussing just that a few days ago. Someone has to bring back that Palmer method!)

9:25 Break

9:35 The Promised Socratic Seminar

Bonnie explains the rules and the focus of the seminar and for some reason expresses, rather eloquently, her views of what women did during Socrates times: “Stayed home cooking or whatever the hell they did then.”
We all speak. Mary starts, then Susan, Jose, Steve, Sarah, Marisol, Katelin, Mary…
And we share our thoughts about Kathy’s music, Marisol’s ELLs, Dianne’s tea party, Barbara’s recent modeling of some TIWs, Kathy’s delight at having all that input about her student work, Cathy’s advocacy and passion, Jose’s images of students working. Next, the exchange climbs up Bloom’s ladder and we discuss the experienced teacher as a facilitator, value of polishing activities, how one creates meaning in a collaborative way, the replication of student efforts, cross-grade adaptations, technology, research based pedagogy, theory, student-centered TIWs, inquiry and essential questions, need to create communities of learners, value of expository text structure, contrasts, conflict, intellectual sparks, coaching, interactive TIWs … (Did Socrates leave the room?…Need we say more?)

Yes!. Bonnie says she needs a bathroom break

10:30 Break…. We are asked to reconvene in the dim lit spaces where the future of pedagogy resides: the comp lab.

11:05 (was that a break or a happy half hour?)
Individual “clicking time” officially begins. To do: pick an article link in our edublog, read it and comment on it. Jose starts asking questions. Bonnie tells him to keep on task. Dianne tells Jose to keep a low profile. And we all click away….

12:15 Chow time

1:45 Individual comments and concerns about the e-articles we read and other in-depth stuff.

Paulette: Collaborative Problem Solving . Need to solve problem collectively in the Internet and join the “game” of technology, or strike out!
Katelin seems concerned about the Google article and attention spans.
Terri: what is the true technology balancing act?.
Gina: shorter attention span observed in K students from all the gaming experience.
Paulette: Use common sense- electronic devices when they are needed.
Katelin: how do we react to an adolescent saying: “you are removing me from a social network that did not exist when you grew up”
Mary: Not only the culture but their speech constructs are based on those games.
Steve: Teachers must somehow adapt to the culture or at least accept that is there.
Bonnie: If teachers ignore the evolving culture, the technology, students will feel ignored.
Jose: Don’t forget about the still-to-be-written book “Doing Mathematics to Learn Writing.”
Kathy: What is culture, today?
Bonnie: Globalization!
Mary: Multiple modes ?
Lilah and Dianne: New emphasis on reading speed. But where is retention, integration?
Mary: I am staying behind.
Sarah: Give her the broom!
Sarah: The Dominican Republic article would have been better as a visual presentation. It is awkward to ready it on paper. (Give her a tube!)
Gina: Can’t convince her grandmother to use the ATM machine
Lilah (gesticulating wildly): The world is just filled with stimuli!

2:40 Break

2:55 Book Reports. From the nontraditional to the more traditional:

“Raw materials for the Mind” by David F. Warlick. Steve gives a multimedia introduction. The team (Dianne, Susan, Sarah, Steve and Jose) shower us with a multitude of technology quotes, from the profane to the philosophical. Audience is asked to select one quote and pour discuss it. Cathy wants to explore MacLab. Wikispaces look like the (compulsory!) cool thing to do according to Katelin. Mike wants to get hooked on the Smart Board. We all agree this book is best used as a “how to” source.

“Radical Reflections” by Mem Fox. The Foxy Five team reports (Katelin, Mike, Lilah, Gina and Paulette). The books seems to be about good and not so good teaching practices. They make us follow a modified tea party format, break up in groups according to certain quotes and discuss them. They close the report with a two voice poem. What can I say but “that is FOXY.”

“Other People’s Children” by Lisa Delpit. The team (Barbara, Bonnie, Marisol and Terri) read excerpts from the book. It is all about accepting and embracing cultural diversity and language modalities in the classroom. “We’ll talk like them when we have to,” a voice tells us. Heritage, not title or position is the essence when returning to the family nest. Different places different identities: “I teach the way I was taught not the way I learned.” “I know my culture and that is how I teach.” A member of the team shares a personal anecdote about how she was victimized by racist behavior from a teacher. We experience the power of a personal story. Finally, we are asked to remember this book as “a kind of aspiring for a lack of self-awareness.” And we are given souvenir book markers!

“True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall” by Mark Salzman. As an introduction, the team (Mary, Cathy and Kathy) tells us why they were attracted to this book and we hear: I lacked empathy towards children with such experiences. Some of my students have been behind bars. My husband has been a PE teacher in a maximum security prison for many years.
The team reached the conclusion that our legal system is inept at treating this population that seems to march at its own beat. These children, most of them victimized by gangs, grow up without fathers but love and respect their mothers. We listen to some quotes. “There’s no North star for me,” everything being constantly moving and changing for this young man. Susan reads us a poem written by the same child, which she feels speaks of hope in what seems as a hopeless situation.

3:35 Day adjourns… tomorrow is graduation day!

* I am undermining job security in that computers could replace teachers. To that I respond, if you can be replaced by a computer then you probably should be! The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.

* Teachers will need to accept the fact that even with all we have invested, the pace of change is going to demand us to unlearn and relearn.

* teachers need to be driving these discussions and this change- not policy makers. However, it will require you to redefine yourself. It will require you to unlearn and relearn which means an implementation dip in terms of personal power and knowledge– but oh well, you are in this for kids remember? This will be messy, but you can’t give away what you do not own. You have to own these tools and concepts before you can give them (empower) your students with them. However, once you do- get out of the way and let them show you all the ways to use them to learn that you never dreamed possible.

* Professor Calvert reminds parents that electronic devices should be used to “supplement rather than replace real experiences,” and encourages them to “make sure there’s an overall sense of balance” in activities

Think of ourselves and encourage others to refine themselves. Solidarity, Brother (brotherhood of educators)!

What would a book with the title “Doing Mathematics (or Science) to Learn Writing” read like?

The other day I heard one of us say that a math director had stated that he would have his teaching make their math students write as soon as the English teacher had their student solve equations. Or something similar to that. We all agree that that is just profound stupidity, but perhaps “creative writing” could help SS, Math and the Science by engaging students in writing creatively about topics similar to the book “The Number Devil”
http://www.maa.org/mathhorizons/supplement/mai_Devil.htm
or about the ecology, like in “Changes in the Land”
http://www.ecobooks.com/books/changes.htm