Month: December 2021

RETURNING THE JOY TO MUDVILLE

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“Yes, please order a pair of gloves for my daughter,” the email response read from a parent of one of our middle school softball players. Her confusion in not knowing only one glove was needed to play the sport was similar to the memorable and mildly entertaining scene the first day of practice. Our equipment included several gloves and the girls put them on every way but the correct way. Backwards, upside down and even on their dominant hands.  Once this was corrected, they began to toss the ball from the mitt, akin to a lacrosse stick. This pre-test of sorts was perfect because as coaches, we knew exactly where the team was beginning.

This was exciting. Known as America’s favorite pastime, none of the girls are from there. So, baseball or softball is as foreign as sepaktakraw was to me. Sepaktakraw, originating in Thailand, is much like volleyball but only with your feet! Such clarity of unfamiliarity was extremely refreshing. No knowledge would be taken for granted. Further, how rewarding to share the diamond with children that show up three times a week, simply eager to learn and play a “new” game.  The concept of ego nowhere to be seen nor felt on the field.  This beginnerdom, a melding of earnestness and joy, connects well with being a new teacher, yet the actual experience may run counter.

Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts?

This past week I chatted with a relative of mine who nobly joined the educator ranks within the last year. Before hanging up I pondered the probability of a first year teacher self-reporting that teaching is easy.  Leslie Gray Streeter  of the Washington Post writes about educators, “They’re more than the people who give math and science lessons: They might find themselves makeshift social workers to troubled students, surrogate parents checking if children eat, security guards breaking up fights and funders of the most basic of classroom supplies from their own shallow pockets.” Though the later may not so much be the case for teachers in independent schools or those working internationally, other roles surely are assumed.  As coaches and advisors, but likely also participating on  a slew of committees and assuming other duties. In effect, being extended so thinly that maybe even the phrase,“death by a thousand paper cuts” applies.  Literally, it is all the small actions added up which leads to “the bleed.”

Undoubtedly the pandemic negatively impacted educators’ experience.  Safety measures and lack of trust high on the list of unfavorable factors, as was adapting to emergency, remote, and hybrid models of education. Surveys and polls the past 18 months align with what is termed the Great Resignation.  Some predict an exodus so great that anywhere from one-fourth to more than half of U.S. educators  are considering a career change. Such potential crisis is not mirrored in international schools, however the start of 2022-23 academic year is already positioned for far greater mobility than seen the last few years.

Mindset Atop the List

Several reasons drive the decisions of teachers to switch careers. However, for teachers who are just beginning, why couldn’t their introduction to teaching be like the girls on the softball field? Frustration simply cannot take hold. Carol Dweck, a well-respected researcher in the field of motivation cites a poll of 143 creativity researchers, who concur that mindset ultimately tops the list of creative achievement.  And to educate is clearly to be a Creative.  No one, first year teachers included, must assume a sense of failure.  Yet, seldom do we “get things right” the first time and there remains inordinate power in reframing failure as something positive.  An example I often allude to, is learning to walk. Close to the ground, we as toddlers bounced off our backsides. Without even thinking, we simply popped back up and attempted to put one foot in front of the other.  A fine balance.  Akin to teaching! The mentality clearly one of, “I got this.”  Dweck contrasts fixed and growth mindsets by saying, “In one world (fixed), effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.” A network of support and both strong leadership and mentorship are essential for first year teachers to want to sign up for year two. Though it is not enough alone, to claim a teacher just needs to adjust their mindset or try a little harder, however resiliency definitely needs to be in the line up.

Play Ball!

As far back as 1888, Casey at the Bat, appeared for the first time in the San Francisco Examiner.  The first 12 of the 13 stanza poem foreshadow Casey’s success at the plate.  Yet, a twist comes the final line, “But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”

Failure.

Though the poem may have been about letdown, it might help to examine it from another angle.  Of its success. After Ernest Thayer authored Casey at Bat, a stage actor and comedian, by the name of DeWolf Hopper made the poem somewhat of a national heirloom. For nearly five decades Hopper performed it, upwards of 10,000 times. He just kept “hopping up.”

A similar spirit of just hopping up is to be assumed by teachers.

Batter up!

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POSSIBILITY. PURPOSE. ACTION.

matthewpiercyInstruction

I am not an old man.

10 print “Hello, I am cool.”
20 goto 10
Run

“Hello, I am cool” would cycle down the screen.  Early days of coding with BASIC in my later elementary years on an Apple 2E.

In high school my relationship with the phone was a bit adversarial and yet I dreamed of a day when I would see on a sort of screen, my aunt and uncle as I spoke with them on the phone.  Likely this was not entirely of my own imagination but influenced by the popular animated sitcom, “The Jetsons.”

During six years of university I borrowed a friend’s Brother word processor to type papers before toting around both floppy and hard diskettes, external writable storage devices. These were helpful when I managed to reserve computer time at the only computer lab on campus, a university with 16,000 enrolled students.

Imagine 16,000 students sharing 15 computers today!

For the first few years of teaching I did not have a personal or laptop computer.  There were no projectors in the classroom, aside from an overhead projector.  Next to it were printed transparencies to share and a stack of blanks for writing notes for the class to copy.

I am not an old man.

A few years into the 2nd millennium and classrooms began to be retrofitted for the digitization that was underway. Digital projectors began to be mounted on classroom ceilings and in one school I worked, SMART boards debuted. The interactive white boards all the rage before they quickly fizzled out.

The intention is not to look fondly back as if to say, “These were the days.”  All the contrary and instead, this short bit of history points at how far and fast we have come. Moreover, might we imagine what is next?  Anything is always possible, as I was reminded of this past week in class.

Oculus Provides a Glimpse Into the Future

“Ten years from now, everything is going to be virtual,” proclaimed one of my quieter eleven year-old students.  Her shyness overcome by both her passion and resoluteness.  We were preparing to have an introductory experience with virtual reality.  The device, the Oculus, aptly named for it means, “eye” in Latin.  Further, oculi are architecturally structural elements that are round openings at the tops of domes or cupolas. The Pantheon in Rome is one of the best examples. Originating in antiquity, the oculus is the perfect name as we begin to challenge ourselves in learning from the future.

The actual VR experience proved stimulating for students, the connection being one linked to our current unit on innovation and how access clearly is a social justice issue. More provocative than virtually dancing with a robot, was the captivating conversation that ensued. One which reflected how students need not wait to create their own reality and how entrepreneurial mindsets  can drive transformative experiences in our schools. A definitive juxtaposition from the default where educational models often result in teachers and students senselessly passing back and forth assignments.  Free of audience and purpose.

An Entrepreneurial Spirit Remains Alive

“So much is already virtual. I am selling my art as NFTs,” voiced probably my second most reserved student. He went on to broadcast the platform where five of his digital art pieces are being auctioned. Students enquired about the cost and the artist further imparted what he understood about non fungible tokens (and though English is his second language, he pronounced this perfectly), cryptocurrencies and Ethereum in particular.  In effect, between the five pieces of his artwork, the value was equivalent to more than $18,000USD.  I remind you, this is an eleven-year old.  So, it’s possible he could enter school, sit all day being talked at by teachers, and exit at 2:30 with thousands of dollars in his virtual pocket, or wallet.

Why not tap into this?

None of the art was done at school.  None of the computer platform learning or marketing if you will.  None of the background on cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Yet, he and so many other students, find a way to learn.  To follow their passions.  In this case, business and art.  But what about the child studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, ensuring a clean and stable water supply and effective water sanitation for all people?  Is she effectively contributing to making a difference so this goal might be realized in the next eight years?  Or, might she simply be researching, taking notes, and making a Google slides presentation?

Possibility.

Purpose.

Action.

Seems these three words might best become a mantra of sorts in our schools.

10 print “Possibility. Purpose. Action.”
20 goto 10
Run

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