The Price of Satisfaction

Last night my plan was to finish my comprehensive exam review course. It's a series of tutorials on Sophia.org to help four graduate candidates prepare for their comprehensive exams. Unfortunately, I have a weakness...I love watching Kate and Richard's comedy on "Castle". After that it was watching archery hunts for deer, something I dream of, but won't get to do for maybe another year. That story is coming up sometime in October.

Up to last night, I had three lessons completed. My plan was to complete all five before daybreak. At midnight I read several blogs and commented on students, many of you, who are trying to juggle life and school. There are millions of you out there. I was one of them. Your stories captivate my soul and I know that you struggle with trying to get ahead. You will, then you wind up like me, trying to get some entertainment, dreaming of things you would like to do, and knowing that the work you should have been done is waiting for the right or good time.

The reality is that there is no good time to do what you should. Action is more powerful than words. But, words set the stage for what we should do. Somewhere in the posts I read last night was the idea that nothing ever gets written until the pen etches words and ideas on paper. But what happens then...

Something magical! You get inspired only when you complete your work. This afternoon the two lessons that were, a thought last night, became a reality today. The video, presentation slides, narratives, website connections, and assessments were completed! It feels great! I'm satisfied!

The price we pay becomes our reward. To all of you who are at the beginning of your careers, have fun.

Don't give up the good things. Remember that when you do put pen to paper and when your dreams become reality, you'll enjoy life much more.

You'll smile and everyone else around you will smile with you.

Changes in Technology Affects Teachers, Students, and the Public's Future

It seems that every minute of the day I spend reading and thinking about how education is changing before our eyes. Many educators think that we haven't changed our practice in hundreds of years, but that isn't an accurate summary. Through the term remains, the "slate" has long left the classroom with the exception of it's use as a "metaphor".

When I left high school, I already had seen the disappearance of blackboards and the appearance of chalkboards. Later while at the beginning of my career dry-erase boards began to appear. Now Smart Boards are taking their place.

My teacher preparation courses were taken in the 1970's. Technology in those days was centered on the new technology of the overhead projector and film strip. Slide shows with 35 mm photos were modified and arranged to make presentations. In our teacher preparation program, our media instructor taught us many tricks to use with this bulky contraption (O.P.). They still exist in K-12 and higher education institutions, but they are being discarded over the use of digital projectors and PowerPoints.

Reel to reel movie projectors are now extinct. It's possible that some new teachers don't even remember these. Movie editing software on computers and tablets give us the opportunity to personalize. The students expect entertainment and as teachers we have to learn to skills to engage them. Some of you may be thinking that we weren't trained to be entertainers but rather as educators. But think again, the time when teachers must work harder to engage students is here and without question or hesitation.

Student response to our question is heard or seen by the teacher with a simple raising of their hand. Now electronic surveys, clickers, tablets, and smart phones make immediate response possible and visible to the teacher and the class. The ability to see individual and class responses places the teacher as a greater advantage. The anonymity gained with these devices allows the meek student to respond without fear of ridicule.

There is a need for all to enter and accept technology, especially in education. The educational environment is ready for teachers who can use the technology to reach students. School boards and administrators need to see the advantages of the use of classroom and web-based technology. They need to become smarter about making and implementing policies that protect children and promote learning with a medium that children accept. The public should put aside there fears of child exploitations to support safe and innovative instructional practices. We should go beyond teaching the basics, but integrating them in problem based initiatives that ask students to apply what they learn to become critical thinkers and innovators. We certainly need that kind of student to leave our classrooms in today's world.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

Being Proactive

Coming up with ideas is probably considered a skill that can get you places, but I encounter many people with many ideas...great ones! Unfortunately, many great ideas don't get done. I personally have a list of great ideas written down in my files. 99% will never get done. 

People that know me, know that I'm not idle. So what's the reason that ideas don't ever make it out of the box. One reason is a set of problems that plague ideas. Not enough time, money, resources, and someone to oversee the project to completion. 

My recommendation is to always come up with ideas and when the time is right act on them. Another way of getting ideas to action is to prioritize the steps to get the idea moving. Be proactive and take one of those ideas off of the shelf and start acting on them.

Hopefully you'll have a long enough life to see a few of them completed.

Ideas Behind Blended Learning

Today I felt like many of my students do with all of the information given to them in a short period of time. Regardless of all of the information I'm really only going to comment on one--blended learning. There are many ways of offering information and provide learning opportunities for students, but probably one that has become more popular over the last five years has been blended learning.

As technology has become more common, more and more people are losing the fear and the idea that it is going away is now quickly being replaced with enthusiastic acceptance. The business world knows that new products can only be produced and sold for a profit when the time is right.

Disruptive theory proposes that innovations don't become a reality that quickly. We don't see many electric cars or all power grids using electricity generated by wind farms. Between the old and the future of new products is a gap filled by hybrids. A time when two extremes are combined into a blended form.

I believe that blended learning and flipped classrooms are a hybrid between what we use to do before and what may happen in the future. I know we say that teachers will never be replaced by technology and that face to face contact with students would never produce the level of knowledge.

There is no way that we can smell a rose or feel the heat of the sun through a flat screen. We may also ask the question about how the Internet could ever support content development? That may be something to think about. We have always lectured, but have we progressed in educating our populace?

Delivery methods to improve content knowledge are certainly under study. Should we teach large number of students all together or use the web to teach a large number of students at different times. Of course you could use both approaches with the web. The same thing can be said about working with individual students. Which ever method we use, teachers have there preferences. Also, there is little research to support one arrangement over another.

We will need to explore these approaches. I can certainly see that this is a topic to investigate this spring in EDCI 6344 - Current Issues and Research in Science Education. So we'll see this again later. For now, we'll leave it at that.

A Reason for Passing on Cautious Optimism

Yesterday was a day of remembrance. It was a day to take stock of where we are as individuals and as a nation, a day to think about the loss of life, a day to pray that our children can be protected, and a day when America lost it's innocence and naivety. 

What lies ahead for those that didn't go through the experience. What happens to those of us that did. I believe it should be a day to rise above our fears,  to serve others, and enjoy everyday with a promise that we will return to time when we fill free again.

Everyone remembers where they were on that morning...I remember. On that morning of September 11, 2001, I was visiting my mother. It was a beautiful morning and I remember feeling good about life and myself. Unfortunately, later that morning our lives would change.

The television was on and I caught a glimpse of  a scene unfolding that made me look twice. A building had just been hit by an airplane. The idea brought back a member when twenty years earlier a pilot had flown his airplane into the San Juan Cathedral. I figured it was going to be a similar account. A few minutes later another plane hit what by now was identified another building that made up the twin towers. At that moment things changed. Another plan crashed into the Pentagon and another plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The events were not coincidences, but planned attacks.

At the Trade Center the scenes were horrific and by the end of the day over 3000 lives were lost. All day and for several days, the images were repeated over and over again. The repetition forever etched in our mind buildings collapsing, citizens fleeing through the smoke and rubble. 

Americans lost family, friends, and something dear to us all...our freedom. We all continue to feel the loss. Human nature has us hope that someday we'll return to normalcy. I'm not certain that we will ever return to that place in time. Now what is important are our reaction to hostile events and what we choose to do after the events of 911. Should we believe that we're safe or should we always have to look over our shoulder? How can we make life better for others and ourselves?

There are no real answers. I believe that it is going to be many generations will pass. When those of us that witnessed the events are gone and only the history remains, shall we return to the feelings before 911. Of course, this is dependent on the end of violence on this Earth. Although improbable, it's important to pass on a cautious optimism to future generations.

 

Changing our Paradigm

When I hear things that I don't understand, at first I ignore them. When I hear ideas that change the way I have always done things, I think in my mind why this new way of doing things won't work.

I can go on and on describing my reaction to changes, but it's tough to do things differently when your day is full of new ideas that often add more work.

Human nature, and no one is immune, keeps us doing what we always do. For now I'm going to share one of those instances that helped me to be more open to change. I've encountered many mind-jerking instances in my life.

Early in my career, I was faced with a problem to which I couldn't find a solution. Fortunately, I had a mentor, Dr. Anacleto "Cleto" Cuellar, who would listen and offer sage advice. It was this simple analogy that offered a new approach to change. His words made me look differently at my insistance or stubbornness to do what I had always been doing.

His words were funny at first, but after a while they made so much sense. He simply said, "Rey, remember this..."If your horse dies, for God's-sake, dismount." These simple words provided absolute marching orders.

Think hard before you say "No" or dismiss something that isn't the way you've always acted. You may find, as I have, a way of thinking that will lead you to a better path...a direction that wasn't plainly marked.

Becoming a Questioning Fool

For years, I've been concerned with my ability to ask meaningful questions even after years of teaching. Coming up with a question that helps someone think about their learning has been a life struggle. Questions help keep students engaged and thinking about the subject under study.

Reading Plato's conversations developed my respect for asking a question, or in Plato's case, a series of questions, that led to a change in thinking. Socrates was such a great questioner that his questioning methods were given his name, "Socratic Questioning". Although we all hate to be questioned, the right questions and the experience often results in new ways of thinking.

Sometimes we ask a question to make sense of an idea or a process. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People asks to seek understanding before reacting to situations or people. To do so one must often ask clarification questions. Simple asking why someone said what they said will go a long way in maintaining relationships. The answers will help us make better decisions about the actions we take.

Often I find the need to ask questions that consider other alternatives. Many "What if?" questions give us the opportunity to explore whether something would happen one way or the other. This also extends the need to develop questions that give us more information and allow us to understand the possibilities of a new skill or process.

We often work or teach individuals who have a perspective that is different from ours. A good idea is to compare how what they think is different from ours. This type of questioning, I feel, allows others to help us become more worldly, thus helping us gain a diverse understanding of many concepts. Questioning can also be used to understand what may happen to us or others by asking others for their intent or perspective on a subject.

Finally, we also need to ask questions about the questions we ask. Is what we're asking worth asking? Will certain questions offend others or are the questions appropriate?

This will be a constant struggle. I hear questions from others and I envy their ability to inquire. I should be so skilled. To do so, I will have to think of the audience, their concerns, and the difficulty of the topic or subject under discussion.

What do you think?

Redefining Oneself

Is it possible at our position in life to reinvent ourselves? I've never subscribed to the adage that "you can't teach a dog new tricks". In my case I've never been one that doesn't want to try or risk trying new things. However, reinventing is a term that says we have to reprogram our lives or ways of thinking which may prove difficult.

However, there are a few things that I'll try to do. Let's consider a few "I will" statements and what they may mean.

I will...

• come to the realization that multi-tasking will become more difficult in the future, so therefore I have to develop a new trajectory to complete important tasks.
• work on promoting my personal agenda and promoting myself more since it's at this point in my life, leaving a legacy.
• not fear to express my ideas about who I am as an educator that believes in innovation and continual improvement, but with a realization of one's limitations and recognition that there are strengths that have not been fully explored or used.
• develop a personal trajectory that takes into account what I do well and that others can use as they find their way in their professional and personal lives.
• recognize that our personal agendas change over time and that reflection allows for us to keep track of where way are and what we may become.

Having written these "I will" statements may mean that the words will somehow guide me as a formal and informal educator and as a family member.

As these words are written, they provide a time stamp of my current thoughts. Time will be the only barrier standing in the way of progress. 

Why start this blog and entitle it "Journeys in Science Education Innovation?

The brain changes both physically and physiologically as we age. At this point, I'm hoping that my mother is an indication that my brain will remain youthful indefinitely. At 94 years of age, she is has a sharp mind.

However, I walk in to a room knowing before I stepped through the door what I was entering to get, and past the threshold, completely forget. As my Aggie son would say...YIKES!

I'm 64 years old! Research says that the brain begins a downward path after age 50. In fact, the decline begins as early age at 20 or 30. It hadn't occurred to me that I wasn't as productive as I was when younger. 

I have been proud of my ability to come up with ideas, but how long will this last? Or maybe, I haven't realized that innovation was left behind some years ago?

As an educator, being creative and a critical thinker are essential. These entries will serve as an experiment, an opportunity to document the ideas I have to help prepare future science educators. Hopefully, this is also a way to collect data about myself and my ways of thinking. Possibly, through this exercise improve my instructional design and delivery. 

Making it a point to find the time to put words on this blog is going to be difficult; although I certainly feel that it's a worthwhile endeavor. A little time spent in the morning, periods of down time, and the evening will be used as opportunities to write. What has to be done is making writing like finding time to eat. Eating has alarms and writing doesn't. So when the stomach growls or the need to satisfy hunger comes to mind, the stimulation causes one to stop and eat. Writing doesn't have this "dinner bell effect", but I'll think of something.

We are educators from a different era preparing teachers to teach in a different one. Even the teachers that we're preparing have not experienced the changes in technology that the students they teach already know about. Many of my students never grew up without a television. Remember those first TV sets were black and white. They have never heard or seen a 33.3 or 45 rpm plastic disc, a transistor radio or an eight track cassette player. Everything now is digital. The children our current teachers teach have never seen a rotary phone.

Times are changing, but are we? Today educators must continuously keep up with changes in technology. Unfortunately, human minds resist change. To be innovative we must continue to learn. Although dinosaurs became extinct, some dinosaurs exist today in our classrooms. It's time to get off our butts and discover new ideas around the other side of the bend.

I started this blog for my own personal growth, but also for the purpose of improving my ability to think, learn, and innovate. Others reading this blog may want to take stock of their personal situation and consider the good and bad of what is written. Comments and ideas or welcome! So use this venue and visit often.