Think Like a Teacher

In the 1940s, a young woman with a college education was often the first in her family. If she became a teacher, she worked until marriage and was then asked to leave. In some very enlightened schools, she might have finished the school year with a ring on her finger or even worked until she became pregnant. Then it ended. After she had children, she did not return to work for many, many years, if ever.

But a few women returned to the classroom sooner. This was the adventurous generation of bright, energetic women who had much to share. These were women who shared brilliance and flexed remarkable power in the lives of both their own children and the futures of thousands of “kids” before any breath of women’s rights or feminism was heard. These were working women before the term “daycare” was even coined.

Last week I attended a memorial service for one such woman and listened to her grandchildren and children tell of the school “kids” who came to the house, even on Christmas Day, to show their affection and respect, singing Christmas carols. Many of these respectful visitors were in the congregation at the memorial service, now grandparents themselves.

Now our nation has a new leader who has declared a call to service, and I stop to think about the adventurous generation of women who heard that call not long after their soon-to-be-husbands returned from WWII. Their service went unnoticed by most, except the young beneficiaries of that gentle power and willing, brilliant spirit. These women shared not only within their own families but with year after year of their “kids” at school. They were considered strange to be working full time — probably even regarded as “bad” mothers for doing so.  But the service they paid to the next generation and the next should not be forgotten.

It is so much easier to become a teacher now. Yes, the “kids,” the testing, and the political pressures are tougher. But no one kicks them out for marriage, pays them less for being female, or criticizes them for being working moms. In fact, becoming a teacher is considered “easy” (HA!), at least compared to becoming a rocket scientist or investment banker.

So I salute the adventurous generation of teacher/moms who spawned the next generation of women who broke the glass ceilings and said things out loud. So few of them are left, but those who are around are probably still befriending teenagers at church and organizing something.

I just have to give a blog-cheer from this life-long teacher to a sixth grader in California whose science fair project discovered something real world scientists and agricultural experts did not know. Science fairs are often maligned as a chance for parents to do projects for their children and gain bragging rights, but in this case it appears that a student had an idea and was lucky enough to have a parent who allowed him to pursue it. (Of course the student also had a parent who could connect him with a real world facility in which to DO the research…). The fact that the student was the son of a professor tells me that modeling is key. If students see and hear scientists thinking aloud, they will act like scientists.  What power all adults have as teachers.

So I cheer for an eleven year old who asked a question and went after the answer. Isn’t this what we want education to be all about?

And Gabriel,  I personally prefer pistachios, too.

The greatest luxury I have in this job since leaving the classroom is permission to play. After 27 years of completely scheduled or overscheduled time, I can dedicate a morning to comparing tools in search of the ideal one for a given technology task. I can play at will and seek answers: on my own, from help screens, among online forums, or from my PLN (personal learning network). What a luxury to have “permission” to learn from play.

This week I spent several hours comparing different ways to deliver the upcoming OK2Ask sessions on TeachersFirst. I started with a desire to model entirely free tools that any teacher could use without TOO much trouble. I played with all sorts of freebies, all with jibberish names that are de rigeur these days. I embedded myself, recorded myself, shared myself, chatted with myself (on several computers at once, rolling my chair back and forth), gave myself tours, denied myself privileges, gave myself control (and took it away), took polls of myself, clicked myself, made innumerable profiles of myself, moderated myself, muted myself, dragged and dropped myself, tagged myself, explained myself, reverted myself, and even broadcast myself looking stupid as I played on Mogulus.com. (I guess that was “channeling” myself.) It was pretty funny when– for a bit — I could not figure out how to STOP channeling myself.

But I learned. And I found what I sought. In the process, I refined my search, defined my criteria, and even articulated them several times to  complete strangers. I was so glad to have permission to play and learn. And teacher-guilt made me feel bad that others are not allowed to do the same.

Our kids play this way all the time. They play with any available tool and toy. They may not be systematic, but they are comfortable. They know how to play. [At this point the early childhood people I work with would be yelling ,”Of COURSE they do. Play IS learning!]

As the OK2Ask sessions approach, I wonder if we should have named them “OK2Play” instead. I also wonder if teachers have forgotten how to play because they are simply never been given the time to do so.  I have a fundamental belief that teachers try to do the best they can for and with their students. They have been schooled in the Best Practices, research-based methods, etc. But I hope the denial of play time has not removed it from their repertoire.

I don’t really believe they have forgotten how because I have run innumerable inservice sessions where teachers have been as excited (and disruptive) as little kids as they have played with a newly-introduced technology.  I have always given them permission to play. This may not appear to be the most cost-effective, responsible, mature adult thing to do while being paid taxpayer dollars, but I would assert that these same teachers, give a meaningful mission such as I had in selecting a tool for Ok2Ask, would make permission to play into permission to learn. All it took was a focused goal.

I will find out in a couple of weeks whether my recent play time went between the goalposts or veered wildly out of bounds. Either way, I will learn from the experience.