Month: February 2006

OK! I’m lilly-white, southern, unsophisticated in the ways of the world, and I’ll bend over backwards for a good barbecue chicken. I say, “Sir!”, and I talk slow, so that people can savor what I’m saying (plus I think pretty slow).

So what am I doing, speaking to educators in an inner-city school in New Jersey?

I had supper last night with an old friend, Greg Farley, and a new friend, Leslie Blatt (NJ Association of School Librarians) — and I heard some startling stories about teaching in these schools. I’m sure that they are not unusual stories, but I confess that total lack of experience with schools that can be extremely challenging.

I do believe this, however. I believe that just like in Kansas, the key to a student’s love of learning is empowering them to learn. The key to keeping teachers is empowering them to teach. I believe that if you can figure out how to take the stories that are in the children’s lives, focus them through multimedia it to the fundamental experience and the wisdom that comes from that experience, and then tell that story to the world in compelling ways, kids, like everyone, will feel worth, and the inclination to invest in themselves.

I’ll be promoting blogging, podcasting, digital story telling, and a healthy mix of contemporary literacy and new shape of information, for seasoning. A tossed salad, that I hope, will not be too irrelevant to what these embattled educators do.

It’s one of those analogies that has stuck. It says a lot for us — and about us. We’re immigrants to this new digital world. Our students are native-born. We speak with an accent. I’ve heard these phrases for years now, and have used it myself.

I’m an immigrant and proud of it. I owe my dress, mannerisms, entertainment choices, political leanings, and the way I wear my hair to a time before the digital had spoken. I suspect that I saw this most dramatically at MacWorld, where the hair, speech (I could never talk that fast), mannerisms, and clothing all set me apart. Sure I dress in dark colors, but it’s because I would reflect too much light otherwise.

But I believe that it is time that we stop hiding behind our immigrant status, and start acting like natives. We need to stop making excuses and start leading. We are teachers, after all. It’s our job to lead, not follow. Sure, we’ll never be able to keep up with our kids in lots of ways. They have the luxury of time and their brain cells are fresher. But it is our job to look into the future and then plan and lead the way for our children.

You may say, “but who’s going to teach me to do that?” That’s an immigrant question. Natives teach themselves. They work with each other to grow their knowledge and skills. We’ve got to figure this out!

2¢ Worth

Typically, I wake up early in the morning with my mind already working on ideas. I don’t really know when the focus on what I’m going to blog this morning clamps off that mushy thought flow that is my dream state, but the ideas start to emerge. It usually begins small, “So what exactly does a classroom look like, where ‘finding’ digital information has been integrated as a basic literacy skill?” But then they start getting bigger, and more ominous, “Is this country going to be able to afford the retirements that my wife and I hope to enjoy?”

Anyway, the real challenge is for any of these ideas to survive my first round of e-mail, the tasks that must be addressed immediately. Today it has…

I hate when I feel that I have not sufficiently answered a question. Part of it is being a teacher. Teachers must have good answers to questions. It’s part of how we define ourselves. But a few days ago, I was asked, “Should we be going to a 1:1 arrangement in our schools?”

My initial (and too glib) answer was, “It isn’t a matter of ‘if’. It’s ‘when’.” That being said, it’s a task I wouldn’t wish on a friend. First of all, it won’t work in a 20th century classroom. The formula is much more complex and the questions are too deep to think that simply putting laptop or tablet PCs in the hands of your students will make them smarter, and better prepare them for their future — and these very smart people knew that already.

The issue is, “What does tech support for a 1:1 environment look like?” It should be at the same time, completely reliable and completely invisible. But what does that look like. Also, the staff development is the real iceberg that will sink the ship, but what does the professional development look like. Do we teach teachers to integrate laptops into the teaching and learning, or do we help them to become so thoroughly literate in contemporary information skills, that they become inventors of their own integration strategies.

Perhaps one of the most important questions is, “What stories do you go out and tell your community to convince them that being ready for their future requires that children have convenient access to networked digital information?” This is the part that I most hope I sufficiently addressed for them?

The main bugaboo is the responsibility. I have no doubt that we will be going to 1:1. We have no choice. The alternative is to be so lacking in vision and dedication to our children and our future, that it would borderline on the criminal. I would rather it happen sooner than later, and there are certainly those loathsome among us who would latch on to any excuse to quash the expenditures that I believe are essential to our future.

But that’s just me and the 2¢ in my pocket.

You’ve all heard by now that our president’s budget proposal is out for 2007, and that with the exception of military and homeland security, programs are getting cut. A third of the 141 programs to be scaled back or eliminated are in education. He proposes cutting department of education funding by 3.5 billion dollars, zeroing out educational technology funding (E2T2) all together.

I think that Bush should propose a 25% increase in education adding 15 billion to the approximately 60 billion that is currently available for national education programs.

If you agree, why? What are the top 10 reasons why George Bush should passionately be calling for congress to increase education spending by 25%?

Please comment, and limit each comment to only one reason (unless you can’t help it). If you blog about the top ten reasons to increase education funding by 25%, please put the words reasons, education, budget, and warlick somewhere in the blog entry. I’ll install an aggregator here that will attract and list those blog postings.

$15 billion worth!

“An Inside Look: President Bush’s 2007 Budget.” NPR 6 Feb 2006. 10 Feb 2006 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5192631>.

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