tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post5291526362056559742..comments2024-03-26T04:19:38.862-07:00Comments on kitchen table math, the sequel: Skunk at the partyCatherine Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-30965171463875187372013-10-29T17:51:11.479-07:002013-10-29T17:51:11.479-07:00English teachers are not valued for their technica...English teachers are not valued for their technical expertise because such expertise is no longer a focus.<br /><br />English teachers are hired based on their "love of literature" and how they may help students make "meaningful connections" between literature and their own lives.<br /><br />In my case, we're talking about trying to convince a community of rural teenagers, farmers and hunters and commuters, that they are anything like people such as Elie Weisel, Guy Montag, Antigone, and the rest.<br /><br />The comparisons are superficial at best, when we probably should be talking about how very <b>different</b> these people's lives are, whether or not we could make the same choices, can we foresee a time when we might be presented with such choices?<br /><br />I'm telling you this from the trenches of a 1-to-1 school (laptops for everyone!) where my evaluation as a teacher is based on any and all technology I use - a neighbor teacher has received high marks in her evaluations for having students write a personal poem based on a template, then creating an iMovie using the Ken Burns effect. This has been going on for 3 weeks.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in 4 days I asked my students to write me a casual letter (rather than a stiff essay) in which they discussed their reactions to <i>Lord of the Flies</i> after discussing the biblical and Greek allusions in the book, as well as symbolism.<br /><br />I have this in front of me right now:<br /><br />Dear Ms. Redkudu,<br /><br />I had no idea how this novel would make me think so deeply about stories I already knew.<br /><br />Dear Ms. Redkudu,<br /><br />If I had picked up this book to read on my own, I wouldn't. But I was compelled because you kept telling me there was a deeper meaning. You didn't tell me how dark that deeper meaning would be.<br /><br />And:<br /><br />Even as I write this letter to you, my thoughts are still processing what human conflict has been about from the start: power.<br /><br />But I get no points for this because I didn't have them make it into an iMovie, an Animoto, a Prezi, or anything animated and visual.<br /><br />My students, and I, are failures at this because they wrote fantastic prose with a heartfelt message on a Word document. I'm not evaluated by my students' words, I'm evaluated by what's on the screen when my evaluator walks into the room.<br /><br />Paper and pen writing is not integrating technology into the lesson. Which, apparently, is more important than what was said in words.<br /><br />We don't need grammar. There is no need for beautifully structured words. Even in English class students are expected to express themselves visually - and you don't need grammar for 12 slides and the Ken Burns effect. That's <i>poetry</i> - taken the broken words of a broken sentence and setting them to music.<br /><br />That's integrating technology, and it's good for them and it's good for us all.Redkuduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756085609311571044noreply@blogger.com