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MARSHA
RATZEL
Diary #1
Lots
of Small Victories
and the Planting of Seeds
So
here am I at the end of my first full-fledged week. And I am tired. I taught
a digital photo class with only three teachers. As I met with the high schools'
integration specialists, I am reminded that I am replacing a bastion of
help and knowledge at the high school level. And while they were very friendly,
all expressed concern over my lack of knowledge on high school. Don't take
it personally, I remind myself.
Back to the
office to catch my breath, eat lunch at the desk, answer emails and voicemails,
and back out into the buildings. I'm feeling pretty desperate to be out
among my classroom colleagues. So I am delighted to go to a brainstorm with
eighth grade teachers on infusing technology into beginning of the year
units --- 1/3 who are techno-nerds, 1/3 techno-phobics, and 1/3 somewhere
in the middle.
My game plan
was to share only 2-3 ideas and build on traditional lesson ideas. We'll
use the PBS Kids Democracy
site. The most techno-phobic teacher told me she felt empowered and all
the rest of us were enriched by her dissertation on Hamilton and Jefferson's
ongoing disputes. Hurray, we all had something to give to each other. A
real success.
The Tapped-In
Carnival ran on Wednesday and I cajoled district curriculum teachers to
break free of the school start-up insanity to peek at this potentially important
staff development piece. Sitting side-by-side with the science curriculum
teacher and helping her learn how to navigate cyberspace, chatting away
about National Science Standards, inquiry, and WebQuests.
Later I sat with more teachers as the Carnival visited PBS's
Teacherline. This was a real hit. The excitement was contagious; several
teachers logged on from home that evening to participate in the American
Memories chat.
I worked on
the QuestChannel and American
Memories presentation for the district's Library Media Specialists: a PowerPoint
explaining the virtual field trips to the Amazon
and Greece. Then I
realized I had to throw out what I'd done because it didn't meet my objectives.
Duh!!! I was doing what I always hated about the district office people
--- not explicitedly addressing the classroom issues. Too much time invested
in the wrong thing.
So today I restarted
focusing on less is more. And restructuring the presentation to focus on
not only giving information, but also gathering it. A basic thing I had
learned about assessment when I was in the classroom. I'll need to figure
out why I didn't make that cross-connection sooner so I can save myself
work in the future. Later.
I presented
to the Library Media Specialists this morning. I hoped for five buildings
to say "yes". Hurray!!!!!!!!! All 17 elementaries and 7 middle schools,
and 1 high school are willing and anxious to discuss the "hows" and "whens."
They caught a piece of my vision to blast open the walls of our schools,
do authentic research, and integrate a unified technology piece, K-12.
What will it
be like if 10,000 of my kids are in the Amazon during the day for those
six weeks? And what if those same kids came into contact with photos, diary
entries, letters, and all the other 7,000,000 primary source documents housed
at the Library
of Congress. They could use technology as a gateway for experiencing
history firsthand. Well, almost firsthand. I think a pivotal point was anticipating
the "what ifs"; drawing from the collective well of teacher experience to
invent ways around barriers. Wow, again. I am humbled.
All in all this
was a terrific week. Lots of small victories and planting seeds. I'm still
learning political paths and realizing that I needed to zoom in on just
a couple of areas. Just like everything that I know about teaching---know
your objective and then do everything to meet that objective. No wasted
motion, no wasted efforts. I'll get it ---eventually.
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