5-4-3-2-1 or, 1-2-3-4-5, or whatever...

I fell off the blog wagon a week or so ago… It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say, there has just been a lot of other stuff going on. I’ll be posting about the #edcamp918 later, but this one was tweeted at me and I feel like I have to respond. I was never a chain letter person or chain email person so it’s not one of those things, it's more of a “someone told me to so I have to”... So, here it goes…

1-2-3-4-5

What has been your ONE big struggle during this school year?

• Keeping up with grading. I’m a very lazy guy and being busy isn’t good for that. I have lessened  the assignment load on my students and I also do not grade everything… But still, I don’t like grading, I’ll get to some of it after this post tho.

Share TWO accomplishments that you are proud of from this school year?

• Google Classrooms:  I Love this application! I am slowly using more pieces and working with my students about digital citizenship and college and career skills. It is keeping the students accountable and me on top of things.
• Blogging and Twitter citizenship: I’ve always had stuff to say, but never really thought anyone would listen. I don’t think I have achieved any status or level of respect but I have taught for a while and I have ideas. Being active on these mediums have made me work and think. It has helped me grow and brought a lot of new ideas and learning into my classroom.

What are THREE things you wish to accomplish before the end of the school year?

• Have students create podcasts as a part of a lesson: I love using technology. As my students get more involved and comfortable with applying these platforms to their learning, I want to give them skills they will want and need. The more interactive the better and that is what I am looking for here.
• Work with other teachers: I love to learn and teach. I love finding new ideas I haven’t thought of. I love finding validation in my thoughts and opinions. I also like to learn when I;m wrong. I love sharing good ideas when I have them and they work. Our jobs are too big, and we have too wide an audience to think we can do it ourselves. I want to seek out other opportunities to grow and help the profession.
• Continue work on my masters degree and start looking at doctoral programs: I love learning. Last Fall my brother told be about a new master’s program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Native American Leadership. I’m a Cherokee citizen and have always appreciated that part of my heritage and how it intertwines with our state and country’s history. Given a chance to study it with focus and guidance was something I did not want to pass up. I began that spring and anticipate graduating this December. I have thoroughly enjoyed every class. It isn’t an Education course of study but I have become a better teacher because of it. It has rekindled that fire of learning and curiosity and I am now starting to look into doctoral programs. I will stay in education and want to do something effective while still being able to be a teacher and be an advocate for students.

Give FOUR reasons why you remain in education in today’s rough culture.

• The Kids: I love the kids. I saw how much my mother loved her job and I wanted to do something like that. I have always enjoyed helping with kids whether it was through church stuff or little league. I really enjoy it and love the enthusiasm and curiosity they bring with them.
• I’m good at it: I'm not someone who pretends I excel at things, or am an expert on anything. I like learning and I think that is part of what makes me good at this. I find out things with my kids sometimes. When we are where we can as a class I like to apply un-directed learning and let the kids try to teach me things. It’s really fascinating and fun.
• I’ve never cared much about money: It's not to say I don’t want it or need it. I'm not going to turn away a pay raise, but I'm not going to just destroy myself to "get rich". I just think there are other ways and forms of value that we should appreciate. I like spending time with people and building relationships. I keep in contact with former students and love hearing their stories and how they are making a difference. Knowledge and relationships aren’t things that will go away when banks misbehave, or a severe conflict occurs. I like to keep perspective and teaching really does that to you.
• I love it: I know, it's a cop out easy end of the list answer but I really do. I get to the building early. I have a white board with standards and objectives posted all over my wall in my apartment. I have atlases and maps as wall hangings. There are about a dozen articles and books strewn across my apartment floor right now related to teaching, geography, or my master’s program. I look forward to what I get to read next and what my students get to discover next.

Which FIVE people do you hope will take the challenge of answering these questions.

@Valariefarrow

@Ccherran

@FatCatArtist

@Jendoty7

@DossettFor34 (He was a teacher this year, perhaps he could reword four to account for his change in positions.)

Social Media, the Internet, and Schools...

My Personal and Organizational leadership class (Grad student in Native American Leadership at SEOSU) tasked me with discussing an issue or situation where “a decision” had to be made and what leadership it took to bring about this change. It got me thinking about the tremendous impact social media and the internet has had on how we do school. I’ve lamented before, my generation began school with Big Chief tablets and ended with laptops and wireless devices. Students today have wireless devices and are internet fluent before they enter school. Our digital native student population does things alot differently because of this.

There is definite and valid concern for such a radical alteration to how we do school but if we are going to remain relevant we have to be recognized in the culture as relevant. We cannot expect what we have always done to work for these situations.

I came to the realization I didn't want to stop learning, and it has been an interesting journey that has helped me personally and professionally, in a number of ways.

I like looking for the positives, and one of the things I have found is social media in general, and twitter in particular has made me a better writer. Let me explain, brevity is the currency of twitter. You have to care about each letter, not just each word. It is the epitome of Edgar Allen Poe’s rules for a short story. Everything has to count.

If you haven’t noticed I have the immeasurable gift of saying (or typing) words. I’m from the school of thought that if you only used 4 words when you could’ve used 10, you just weren’t trying hard enough. Having a good focus when I am writing is critical. Otherwise there are worlds of rabbit holes I can go down (just ask anyone who has to listens to my stories…). Keeping focused on a singular message or few main points allows me for more specific investigation and analysis. I’ve often found myself prior to sitting down to write, perusing a number of people I follow on twitter to get into the mental minimalist mindset I have to have in order to focus.

My experience on twitter has created an even more accepting nature to cultural and linguistic change. For instance, I am a real big fan of this. But I still have an “accent” when it comes to this new language. To this day I still cannot abbreviate in text and email communications. Terms like LOL, BRB, IDK, LMAO, ROFL are weird and awkward to me. And they make my teeth hurt. And because of this there was a period of time I all but embraced my digital death. I remember xanga.com MySpace.com (yeah its still around, I was surprised too) and of course, Facebook. I was mostly done after that. The decision was mostly out of comfort and laziness. I didn’t want to learn anything new.

However, as I waded back into the cultural and social/restorative justice issues, as part of my academic and professional career, it all but demanded I grow with the times. If I wanted to know what issues were happening with social movements across the country I was not going to get any information from my TV or any mainstream media outlet. Egypt is one of several countries that have shown the power of effective social media usage. And we have seen it in social movements within this country. I’ve jumped into Twitter. If you haven’t as a teacher you should, if only for the #oklaed encouragement. I’ve even been know to send back an LOL every now and then (it is still painful, but characters count).

                                

#BlackLivesMatter has changed the focus of discussion and has brought about awareness, reconciliation, and healing opportunities. Our own #oklaed helps connect teachers across the state with ideas, plans, and encouragement. Whether it is rallying for causes or provoking revolution, the ability to connect, communicate, and act via social media makes those movements mobile, efficient, and almost omnipresent. And we are fools if we voluntarily sit out these chances at engagement. It means we have to get out of our comfort zone and try new things. We make the kids do it every day, shouldn’t we do it too? Finding the comfortable discomfort zone is key.

These are chances we have to do good things. We should take as much advantage as possible. And of course if you’re curious you can follow me on Twitter @MrWilliamsRm110.

Where I think we should start...

While I am not long on solutions I do have ideas that could create activity and lead to solutions. My political nature has been hinted at in earlier posts. I do not pretend to be an expert in any way but I have seen what can and cannot work. Unfortunately, the easy stuff (complaining, name-calling, blaming, etc…), aside from sometimes making our egos feel a bit better, ultimately produce few results.

In order to produce effective change we have to do more. Voting isn’t enough anymore. Thomas Jefferson spoke of what he envisioned as the “office of citizen”. Here are some of his quotes on the subject. As teachers and members of our communities we have a responsibility to do this and to teach this. Regardless of the discipline, our goal as teachers should be to facilitate this growth within our students.

Some of this is a complete re-hash and I totally understand that. Teachers have been organizing and fighting for their students and their profession decades before I was born. I do have some deep roots in the culture as you can see from the photos.

       

I have to say I rocked that yellow poncho with my mother and thousands of other teachers, students, parents, principals, and community leaders, as we marched at the state capitol for the passage of HB 1017. The remnants of that political era are all but gone. The problems we intended to fix are still around, and in many cases worse.

For much wiser commentary on the fiscal, administrative, and legislative side of these issues I will ALWAYS defer to those who understand it much better than I. I would be remiss if I didn’t direct any readers of this towards their counsel as well. Between Rob Miller, Rick Cobb and Claudia Swisher, The matters are very well covered and I cannot thank them enough for their work.

As for the ideas, well, I’ve always got some of those. I want to propose something. As teachers, parents, and citizens, the legislators in Oklahoma City are our servants. Their responsibility is to ensure our state government is operating, and the people of Oklahoma are served by their government. This is not an easy order, and I do not want to pretend their job is simple. But there are times it seems like they forget we are a part of their constituency. This is somewhat our fault as we have become complacent and are just “too busy” to pay attention. We have to re-engage and remind those that have forgotten what our profession means to this state and its future.

It begins with simple actions. Everyone in the state of Oklahoma can go here, type in your address and find your State Legislator. You have two, get to know about them, then get to know them. They have emails, postal addresses and phone numbers. Use them. Get to know them personally and professionally. Don’t ambush them in an attempt to create a “gotcha” moment, take the time to make time. Show them how important this is by making an appointment or sending a personal communication. This isn’t easy, but it’s what we are going to have to do.

This can’t just be teachers either. Parents, students, grandparents, neighbors, business leaders (they want smart employees, I would think) can all help out here. We have engaged students and parents. Let’s get them involved. Ask them for their help. This is something they all can do and it is remarkably simple.

If you have a personal relationship with any of your state legislators, please make them aware of how personal and important education is. We are not a lobby that can influence with money but we can with numbers. I know many of us have already done this, but we have to keep at it.  

We have to make an effort with everyone, never underestimate the power of personal stories and relationships.  Session starts in a month or so, take a few minutes to start the process. This is one thing WE ALL can do, so let’s take the opportunity and make some new friends…

As a social studies teacher and political science major I enjoy following politics and the theater that is our discourse. I’ve gone through whatever stages you want to call them. From pre-teen “I don’t care, and I never will” to hard-core activist and campaign organizer. I see the world differently now and the fun is somewhat still there, but it would really be a lot more fun if we knew what we were talking about.

I would never assume I know “what’s going on”, or to have many answers. And regardless of your views, there is an element of emotion and identity in our political views that cannot really be measured equally. Specific issue debates will always be divisive and unpersuasive. The tragedy of our political theater today, is the level of animosity is so high, there is no persuadable Middle. Our political process is an exercise in mobilizing enough informed, angry voters to stand in line on a Tuesday in November.

I don’t have the slightest clue how to fix this, but I do know unless we make an effort to get smarter, it is not going to get better. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has spent a large amount of her career and her retirement championing the cause of civics education. Unfortunately, we have diluted our discourse to the point, we avoid it or discuss it less and less. She could be onto something.

The less informed we are, the easier we are to control, and that usually isn’t good for us. It can also lead to severe misunderstandings such as this, and this  Often leading to a path riddled with tragic results. The delusion so many can be sold is much easier when there is no understanding. Tierney Sneed’s article here gives us a great example of this lack of understanding in action.

The basic understanding part is nowhere near as "fun" as the controversial part, but it's where we have to start. I was a big fan of The West Wing. It was on as I was in college and was just good tv. (The eerie similarities of its last season and 2008 are for another discussion.) In a discussion with Donna about their opponent Gov. Rob Ritchie and what he expects of a leader. The setup is Gov. Ritchie has some self-help guru as a “consultant” and Josh wants to exploit that. I couldn’t find a video clip but it’s from the Red Mass episode The discussion is on the self-help guys books and how he’s just cribbing from old philsophers and dumbing it down. It culminates is the lines spoken by Josh below:

What does this remind you of? "I believe in hope, not fear." "I'm a leader, not a politician."

"It's time for an American leader." "America's earned a change." "I before 'E' except after 'C'!" It's the fortune-cookie candidacy! These are important thinkers, and understanding them can be very useful and it's not ever going to happen at a four-hour seminar. When the President's got an embassy surrounded in Haiti, or a keyhole photograph of a heavy water reactor, or any of the fifty life-and-death matters that walk across his desk every day, I don't know if he's thinking about Immanuel Kant or not. I doubt it, but if he does, I am comforted at least in my certainty that he is doing his best to reach for all of it and not just the McNuggets. Is it possible we would be willing to require any less of the person sitting in that chair? The low road? I don't think it is.

I don't think that's too bad of a place to start. 

In a piece for The Atlantic Scott Samuelson makes a passionate argument for teaching the liberal arts. As he says, they are called The Humanities for a reason. We have real problems in this country. Problems no one is going to fix on their own, and we need ideas. Those ideas aren’t going to produce themselves. It’s up to us as teachers, and up to us as citizens to engage each other honestly and intellectually. That can’t happen until we get a little more intellectual and our politics to get a lot more honest.  Here’s hoping...

A thought or two on Generational Conflict.

First of all… WOW, if you didn’t catch the OU KS game, watch the replay. One of the best games in a while… Now I have to follow that performance. It’s not gonna, but I‘m hoping it can help someone anyway…

I have a feeling as I find my voice the concept of culture in education will be a strong theme in my writing. I am a geography teacher, with a social science degree after all. The eclectic collection of so many cultures within our school walls provides all kinds of complex opportunities. Inter-Faculty cultural relations shape a school’s culture much more than most factors. I read a couple of stories today related to millennials and how they are perceived by other generations. It never hurts a profession have an honest discussion about how we can be better. Hopefully some of these ideas can help if help is needed…

Sometimes you read an article and agree with it, sometimes you don’t. Then sometimes someone says something to wildly off-base and ridiculous it requires attention. I don’t have a lot of commentary on this article that hasn’t been said before. I will say the tone of both this article and the TIME article loaded with “statistics” and “proof” carry in the grand tradition of taking the kiddos out to the woodshed. This isn’t any new controversy or any new excuse. Younger generations “hearing it” from the oldies is all but a rite of cultural passage. And while portions of Stein’s assessment are backed up by “facts” and “numbers”, an incorrect interpretation of those facts and numbers can grossly misrepresent the makings of a large group of people. A rebuttal to such cultural commentary can be found here.

Each school and each relationship is unique. I would encourage you to look for more on this topic as it will clearly be a large part of our collective environment. The Millennial generation is entering the workforce and a number of “us” are in the ranks of teachers now. Several are in college and the babies of us are rounding out their formative years as Obama’s administration draws to a close. The First President they helped elect, both in 2008 and 2012.

A critical element to the Millennials as a group is their diversity. Their remarkable diversity. This is a result of the immigration waves from the past several decades predominantly coming from Latin America and Asia. While diversity is a good thing, conflict is going to occur if the culture and institutions are not prepared. As Ana Swanson points out here. She states:

“Part of the reason could be that younger Americans are far more diverse than older generations, and race- and ethnicity-based disadvantages continue to loom large in the U.S., the economists say. White and Asian families are far wealthier than black and Hispanic families in the U.S., across all age groups.”

Just as an aesthetic critique the article, while doing a decent enough job at assessing the problem, the solutions provided still lie in the models of the past. This is not shaping up to be a good plan in the voting booths. (That is an issue for another several dozen blog posts).

I’ll say this for now, decisions are made by the people that show up. Until the younger generations become engaged politically that table will continue to be dressed and set by a party that won’t be around to pay the tab.  These past several years, as more and more incidents involving police and people of color are brought to light, the Millennials are finding out, sometimes in painful and fatal ways, that Obama did not end racism.

Now, I do not think reasonable people believed that racism was “over”. It is worth noting both Generation X and Millennial’s are the first two generations to not live through Legally sanctioned segregation in this country. The distance these generations are from those incidents, coupled with enough conscience-soothing examples showing the contrary, did make it possible for things like this to happen.   The majority culture in America is slowly coming to the realization minority communities have known all along, racism is still around, we just found new ways to hide it.

This brings us to the difficult part. What do we do? Can we at the very least admit there are problems that need attention? I bring this up because teachers have to be aware and understanding of how those around them interpret the world. For some this means a shift in paradigm. There are parts of our profession we must rethink. The generational conflict is always going to be in the classroom but, the retirement of the Boomers and the entrance of the Millennials into the workforce could possibly pose a problem within organizations and the culture as a whole. Cummings article ends with an assessment that schools should listen to:

Whether these claims are entirely accurate, everyone seems to agree on one thing: To Gen-X, Boomers and Millennials are incomprehensible in large part because they seem to waste time on things that don't further one's self-interest or one's career. But Boomers and Millennials seem to understand each other just fine. We want the world to be a better place when we leave it than it was when we arrived. Gen-X needs to keep that in mind in order to understand what makes us tick.

Again, none of this is a perfect assessment and each person is unique. But we are shaped by our culture and have to understand the other generations were shaped by theirs. This is difficult the larger the generational and cultural divide, and something schools are accustomed to. All groups could learn from one another. Ultimately, as teachers we must make a decision. Whether we know it or not, admit it or not, get credit for it or not, we are always going to be a part of the culture’s development. Understanding that can help us do our job more effectively, as father time so inconsiderately continues to move us further and further away from the emerging generations.

Where the Name Comes From

I’m going to go ahead and get the “where the blog name comes from” post out of the way. 

Depending on which set of numbers you look at I am either one of the older Millennials or one of the youngest Generation X members.. I like to think I get to pick the best of both since no one seems to know where to put people my age, as this blog discusses.

There is very little music I don't like. I was raised on Neil Young, CSNY, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Joe Cocker and the like. Throughout my formative years as a teenager my music tastes were impacted by both generations. I lived through the evolution of “Grunge” to Modern Alternative Rock to the popular music today, some of which my children and I enjoy together.

My daughter and I at an Of Monsters and Men concert this past December.

I listened to music on vinyl, cassette, CD MP3, and now I’m back to Vinyl. I have Nirvana's Unplugged album serenading this entry, and is an album I’ve owned in all of the above mentioned formats.

My taste in clothing, TV shows, my sports heroes and teams, and my political views were equally mixed by the confusion of my generational ambivalence. I left High School and entered college with our country having a surplus and functioning economy. Our generation had everything to look forward to, we were going to inherit this amazing economy and be more successful than our parents (that whole American Dream thing). Well, I entered the workforce with my degree and the rumblings of the housing crisis and Recession. I fully understand the older generations wanting to know where their jet packs and houses on the moon are. We feel like we are missing something we were promised too, specifically jobs and access to capital. Those are critical to a country's economy and its ability to keep the promises to the future generations. Oh, and we STILL didn’t get jet packs and moon homes. I’m not mentioning hover boards here but I will leave this gem because you need to see it if you haven’t.

My choice to identify more with millennials has a lot to do with my students and how the generation as a whole is treated in our culture. Kids always look lazy to older generations. And I’m not about to say we are the first to be ridiculed, looked down upon, and blamed for things remarkably out of our control. But we are the first to have this happen to us in our country’s history. I absolutely abhor the litany of articles, op-eds, and commentaries belittling, degrading, ridiculing, and dismissing the Millennial generation, not taking into account the changes in our economy, and putting this new world in context.

This video is in that last link but I’ll put it here too because it’s too good for you to miss. Also, I’m sure you have seen this one. Some of the numbers are already outdated, which further shows the rapid pace of development. But it also gives some perspective. It’s good to keep what we are preparing our students for in mind. It also serves as a better conclusion to this post than I ever could.

Greetings Interwebs!

So, if I were to begin a blog and discuss my thoughts about my personal profession of education, would anyone listen? I guess we can find out. It might help if you knew me, which is what this post is for. I will get to issues and topics later. The abbreviated version is as follows, my name is Cory Williams. I teach 7th grade Geography at Carver Middle School in Tulsa OK. I’m a lifelong resident of Northeast OK and a proud continuing product of Oklahoma public education (Master’s graduation Dec 2016). I have eight years of teaching under my belt. I’ve taught in high school, middle school, alternative and traditional settings. I have three kids that are way cooler than me. And I absolutely love being a teacher. There’s a lot more but that’s enough for now. You can also  find me on Twitter @MrWilliamsRm110 or Facebook, I’m there a a lot.

I don’t have enough fingers to count the teachers in my family, and I’m in the third generation wave. My mother was a teacher and a principal (mine for some of those stints). All four of her sisters were teachers. Their father was a teacher, principal and country superintendent. 

Growing up as a Teacher’s Kid (TK) I saw the good and the bad. I developed an appreciation for education and learning. Because of that, I love my job so much it isn’t a job. There isn’t much of a line between Mr. Williams and Cory (as my family and friends can attest to). I have allowed this job to consume me in a number of ways and I am okay with that.  I tend to get consumed with stuff. Aside from teaching I have a passion for the culture and sociology of politics. My bachelor's degree is in History and Political Science. I clearly can blame my mom for my teaching gene. My father gets the blame for my political animal gene. He loved to learn, read, and discuss ideas with me and my siblings. His wit and wisdom will never leave me (even though died three years ago), Our discussion rarely stayed on simple topics. My father taught me to discover the “why”. He loved to say “Knowing the answer is not enough, when you know why, you’ve learned it.”

But that's enough about me, now why am I doing this???

Over the past few years Oklahoma has made significant political changes in a number of areas. Education seeing more than most. There hasn't been much positive change in these recent actions. And there are not a lot of altruistic motives behind those advocating through the plethora of current “fix our schools” campaigns. Most of these movements have little or no professional insight or contribution from teachers. And don’t make the mistake, that IS by design. 

It does no good to mince words and pretend. There are those in the state legislature that do not like public education. And it is no surprise public education in Oklahoma has been under siege by business and private interests that cannot possibly understand the value of something they can’t package in a box, bundle it in a financial boondoggle, or pump in a tank to sell. Our kids aren’t widgets or commodities to be sold, they are citizens to be trained. These interests are all over the country and have really awesome names and long lists of important people that are involved and on their side. Again, there aren’t a lot of teachers or principals on those lists. These groups are big, but they cannot do it alone. These interests have spent obscene amounts of money shoring up influence at our state Capitol. We have our work cut out for us.

Let’s talk salary real quick. I have a feeling we will have plenty of time to go wildly in-depth into the lovely talk of living wages, and teacher pay but for now, just a quick thought to end this post.. Our state legislature makes $38K a year plus a daily per diem during session to cover travel, food and housing. Did you get that? They get a per diem during their “work time” to cover living expenses (and here we are using our salaries like dummies…). And their work time is roughly 75 days (M-Th 1st week of Feb thru last week of May with the last two Fridays being workdays). I’ve got a few years until I reach that scale (I’m 8.5 years in now), and that’s a big “if” as to whether we get those step raises. I’m not going to ever plan on receiving a per diem (but it would be nice). Are there legislators that work tirelessly to advocate for our profession and our children? Are they away from their homes and families? Yes, there are. Do they deserve to be compensated for their work and expenses? Of course they do. The point is, we do too.

I tell you that to say, I think it’s time we made them earn that money a little bit. They are counting on us being disengaged, apathetic,  too busy, or too lazy. As I lamented to a colleague of mine as I was drafting this “I want to do this but I’m kinda lazy.” I don’t think our students and communities can allow for us to be lazy anymore...

The blog will probably flashier as I go. I, however, will remain my usual non-flashy self. Let me know what you think.