Monitoring performance

Though techie in nature, I am not app crazy like most. I really prefer to use non-tech means and making my own decisions (rating matter a bit to me but are not the sole reason for purchases, etc.)

So as I look at all the fitness devices and apps out there, I think often about buying them but haven't. I do not have a heart rate monitor or other various devices (I don't even use the ones that are on my stationary bike.) I do however know that biofeedback is important and will probably purchase a device (not two or three) that will give me some feedback in how I am doing health-wise.

So I read with interest an article about Keeping Detailed Health Records and one person's experience with these devices and apps. In particular the brief discussion about the Hawthorne effect whereas a person or organization improves when they know they are being evaluated or observed. As a teacher. I know how my behavior changes a little when an administrator is in the room. The article gives a perfect example of how sports performance changes when we know the coach or instructor is looking.

The article details how perfection can cause us to try to obtain new numbers and get more data. A quote from the article caught my attention:

That's when I realized my tracking had veered seriously off track. Gary Wolf, co-founder of a user's group called Quantified Self, had warned me this might happen. "The magic is not in how many numbers you collect or how devoted you are to collecting them," he told me over the phone. "The secret is using the data in a meaningful way." Tracking, he explained, should help you reach your goals, not be a goal unto itself. Not only had I lost sight of this, but I had crossed the line into obsession.

That's when I realized my tracking had veered seriously off track. Gary Wolf, co-founder of a user's group called Quantified Self, had warned me this might happen. "The magic is not in how many numbers you collect or how devoted you are to collecting them," he told me over the phone. "The secret is using the data in a meaningful way." Tracking, he explained, should help you reach your goals, not be a goal unto itself. Not only had I lost sight of this, but I had crossed the line into obsession.

"The magic is not in how many numbers you collect or how devoted you are to collecting them, the secret is using the data in a meaningful way." Tracking...should help you reach your goals, not be a goal unto itself.

As I think about data-driven anything in schools, I wonder if we have crossed into some obsession. Our school schedule is disrupted 25 days a year for testing. Lost time with students. From the top down (No child left behind/race to the top), data (tests) have been the goals and not data to help us reach actual goals that matter.

I still intend to purchase a device to learn more about my body and my health. It will inform me in order to help improve my health and fitness, but I will not use the data as the goal itself.

Now about the train wreck that is the current education reforms...

Focus, focus, focus...

Focus... As we are collaboratively planning one of the classes I will be teaching next year, I need to remind myself of 3 things:

1. Rigor - It is easy to lose sight of all that needs to be done when working on PBL or authentic activities (I still have to cover x amount of material and not all work well to authentic learning)
   
2. Relevance - Everything needs to be relevant to the students life or future. Just mentioning why it is important is not enough. Their work through the material needs to be as personal as possible
   
3. Relationships - Repeat after me: Learning is not accomplished in isolation, learning is not accomplished in isolation

I know these, we all know these, but we need to remind ourselves of the simple things before we delve into all web 2.0.

Life long learners and life long teachers

Darren Draper at Drape's Takes has written an excellent post about lifelong learners and weaker teachers. He provides a great quote from Michael Pressley:

Let me tell you about one of the most consistent findings in our interviews of teachers over the years. It is always the most effective teachers who have told us that they have much more to learn. They are always the ones seeking the professional development. The weaker teachers are often very confident that they already teach well. So, I think that rather than simply providing professional development, it may be necessary to select teachers who know they need to get better and are open to getting better, actively seeking ways to do so. (p. 6)

What I like about Darren's original post and his eloquent comment is that he is not afraid to say what we need to hear: We may have proved ourselves to be lifelong learners and not just lifelong teachers. We read and blog because we believe this. But, we are an echo chamber discussing the same things. Not being inventive and innovate and thinking and blogging about the students we profess to care about. I think we are all guilty and jump at conversations and beat them to death. When innovators (I would put Darren here) have something to say we blog and discuss to no end.

Now that I am comfortable with what I have learned, what will I do now to continue to learn?

• Break out of the echo chamber and search for information outside of my field.
• Discuss what others are saying only to record for my own benefit.
• Understand that lifelong learners may be there, just not discussing what everyone else is.
  

Are you a lifelong learner just because you blog about what everyone is talking about? Or are you a lifelong learner when you continually take yourself out of your comfort zone?

Tags: darrendraper, teachers, learning

Sometimes you need to step back...

...and look at how it is going. I am too bust, I keep adding more to my plate. Maybe I should say balls in the air. As long as none of them drops, then I am doing well, right?

Well, now I am thinking. Hy husband has high cholesterol and now some serious side effects from the statins he is on. His chest pain makes me think of how stress can take its toll and sneak up on you pretty quick. My 43rd birthday is also Monday.

You must know that I enter the holiday season with a list. After all I can get a lot done during the break and I plan on this. This season is no exception, but I have had to rewrite my list. I suffered an accident on the 15th that dislocated the pinky of my right hand. The temporary splint gave me movement in 3 fingers (I am right-handed). Using it though was a problem. Turns out that I tore the ligaments in my hand and now have a cast that prevents movement of any finger in the right hand. That has changed my list completely.

So I will start out with a mission statement so to speak. After all I have been thinking of this but need to make it more formal and write it down. The fact that I now have more time to read blogs and peruse websites has me thinking more.

The touching and eloquent writing of Vicki Davis always leaves me thinking. In her last post Blogs are not the death of writing but the evolution, she says:

However, as we move forward to a society that can send and receive education any place any time from anyone, the best teachers will become SuperTeachers and the worst schools, districts, and teachers may find themselves completely without a job.

You know, I thought I was a great teacher. I am in the sense I use critical thinking and I motivate students. But anyone can walk into my room, take the activities I made, and teach them. Yes, some of them are original but anyone can do it.

That makes me replaceable. Doesn't it? We all think we are irreplaceable. But we aren't. If the activities are reproducible by anyone, then you are replaceable.

So, my point: I want to be irreplaceable. I want to use technology to its full ability and continue to change with it. I want to make connections with other teachers in order to collaborate. I want to be an example of what it should be.

Sure it would be easier to take a paper out of the file drawer and just do that activity. I think I can do better and will be using this time to craft some great lessons using technology, authentic activities, publishing, and collaboration. I want to show that this is more than just using word, creating powerpoints, and iMovies. One of my students posted a discussion thread on my wiki about tech use in the school:

Macbooks-- threshold to the future or finale of exploration?
I love the all of the new technology in our school, I just don't understand why Mrs. Maine is the only one who's challenging us to use anything other than Microsoft Word. I feel that half of the teachers who have laptops in their rooms don't even fully deserve them, only because I honestly don't think they even remember they are in their rooms. I don't understand why almost all of the teachers that have them give us work to do on them that could easily be done in the Mac Lab. Why is it that there are so many programs on the computer that I've never even heard of, none the less opened before? We have the opportunity to explore, but if someone were to see us we'd probably get our computer privileges taken away. I think that if we could just take one day, just like the C4F teachers do, and have some sort of 'training' just to let us grow a little in our Macbooks, all of us would be a little more satisfied. And don't get me wrong, I do fully understand that this is only the second year in this program and that it will be growing, but don't you think that using them in the first place is the only way we can activate? And the educational part of it? If all the teachers got ahold of some type of discussion board, like the ones on Tiged, we would maybe learn something other than the vocabulary words in our textbook. I think that the only way we can learn something is by interacting with others and communicating, without being restricted by our Proxy Server.

I replied that the learning curve may be steeper for others. That really is not the whole story.

Cool Cat Teacher also references a blog post from Jeremy Zawodny: The 10 habits of highly annoying bloggers. Funny, but I must be one of them. Which ones have I modeled? Not creating all my own content. After all, I am just learning and finding my voice. Some bloggers get me thinking.

I also did not have a blogroll for some time but had one up there before I read his post. The last is an rss feed. I had one with atom but wanted to update this. Remember the balls in the air? Not all of them were being juggled smoothly.

So, now what? Better planning and management to keep track of all the great things I have seen and want to do. And finish what I start. After all, I am a list maker!