Beyond School

Google Reader keeps formatting - italics, picture resizing, etc. Bloglines doesn’t. I work on those italics, blast it. (And Bloglines readers, that “work” was italicized.)

Why I don’t like any reader I know of right now:

1. They don’t include comments (I know you can subscribe to comments, but it ain’t the same).
2. Readers miss coComments and other side-bar widgets. It’s like entertaining guests without furniture.

Anybody know any readers that show the whole blog, not just the post, in its window? Please drop a comment!

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St. Sebastian, c. 1480

If you like this post, please spread it: (But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)

I love the edublogosphere’s international perspective on education. It helps me justify doing things against the American grain. Case in point: Cindy Barnsley and I were comparing the American Advanced Placement (AP) English Lit exam and the Australian system’s advanced English Lit exam in comments on her blog, Thinking 2.0. Cindy wrote this:

Hi Clay,
Can you explain AP Lit - is it the Seniors’ Course? Do you have control over what texts you study, or is it mandated. Education is controlled by the states in Australia and in the state I live in (New South Wales), we have a list of mandated texts for senior English courses (2 courses, Standard and Advanced) and you can choose a sequence from a set of thematic units (i.e. Journeys, Telling the Truth, the Individual in Society, Transformations etc.).
Just curious about how your coursework is structured in comparison to Australia
C.

I replied:

You’ll hate me when you hear: no mandates.

AP is Advanced Placement. As long as the syllabus is approved by the College Board/ETS (the same lovely bureaucrats who bring us the SAT) for rigor, teachers are free to design whatever year of study they like.

There is an external exam at the end of the year, so it factors into the course design. Multiple choice and timed essays. Score higher than a 3 on a scale of 5, and you get college credit for first year university classes.

So it’s basically your college “Intro to Literature” course. Poetry, drama, novels, and short stories are the focus. Lamely de-emphasizes nonfiction.

For the record, I’d much rather be at an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. Much, much more global and authentic than the US-centric AP. No multiple choice garbage in its external exams.

And Cindy replied:

You’re right I hate you - just kidding. Our course is very structured in terms of content and outcomes that have to be met but the assessment is fairly open and formative (60%) with an external summative exam (40%) with a range of writing, interestingly less and less focus on essays - more scripts, diary accounts, more personalised response - even web page design (thank god that question hasn’t come up yet because no one really knows how you do this in an exam situation). We don’t have any multiple choice so I guess that’s something. I have heard that the IB is a much better course… Thanks..

Now - look at the learning and food for thought in that simple conversation on a teacherblog. Comparative pedagogy as authentic conversation.

And adding mischief to the mix, look how that supported my response to my AP workshop teacher’s decision to give me that B+ because I didn’t include a literary analysis essay in a lesson plan:

Of course I’ll ease them into formal essays later, as you suggest. The AP exam makes that necessary. Interestingly, a colleague who teaches Australia’s version of AP tells me that Australia’s exam is moving away from formal essays and toward less academic modes of writing. Interesting “comparative national pedagogy.” The Aussies and Kiwis I team-taught with in Shanghai generally tend to favor constructivist, project-based learning. I’ve loved working with them.

If this quibbling seems childish, it’s just evidence that I haven’t changed much since high school, where I didn’t drop out, but did my own “unschooling” by skipping more classes than any student in the school’s history (I was bullied for two years, and that was the best solution I could find).

But it’s not being mischievous for mischief’s sake. Instead, it’s rebellion with a cause.
–
*Interesting context, by the way. It’s part of a longer conversation in which creating global classroom collaboration is less “flash-dazzle” and more “matter of fact,” which is the kind of normalization of flat classroom projects I’ve written about wanting to see.

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An email from Anthony, a grade 8 (for non-Yanks, that’s 13-14 year-olds) teacher at my school. Anthony is so curious about web 2.0 in education that he enrolled in a Masters in Educational Technology program at some university I’ll spare the embarrassment by leaving unnamed.

This is from an email he just sent me responding to my link-share of NECC’s webcast page. Print it and put it in all your colleagues’ mail boxes at work. It’s funny, sad, and powerful in its own way:

Thanks for the link Clay. I’ve decided to suspend my Master’s work for now so that I can put more attention into the learning and assimilating all of these new tools into my classroom teaching. When considering I was paying $2,000 to be taught how to create slides in PowerPoint and use of Microsoft Excel I said forget it. There is plenty of professional development available online to learn from as well as a host of people who can teach me things and with whom I can have discussions.

Just thought I’d share. Anybody know Master’s Programs (preferably distance) that aren’t stuck in Powerpoint?

And now I have to run, because I have homework for my own for-pay “professional development” course. I just got a B+ for two poetry lesson plans incorporating iLife to engage students in exploring poems. Teacher told me I it would have been a higher grade if I’d included an analytic essay in the assignment, instead of a collaborative film exploring two sonnets.

If I thought it would help, I’d send her a link to the Mabry Middle School video in which a student says, “We learn so much more making films than we do if we just write a paper.”

But like Anthony, I’m just going to do my homework, get my 20th century B+’s for 21st century lesson plans, collect the certificate that labels me competent for $500, and focus on “learning and assimilating these new tools” by doing my authentic homework right here on this blog.

Reader feedback, though it doesn’t give me a nice alphanumeric grade with each comment, still teaches me so much more.

Comments on those poetry lessons, by the way, really are welcome. I ran out of gas at the end of them, and am sure some of you could improve them.

If you want, you can add a grade too.

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A pleasant update or two, and more convergences.

Six days ago I acted on a whim to try to make more international connections. I saw subscribers in my SiteMeter’s daily stats from Russia, Belgium, and Turkey, and posted a friendly “shout-out” asking them to introduce themselves.

That two minutes of effort was so worth it. Belgium sent me an email, and we’ll be Skyping soon for a podcast; and the Reinventing Project-Based Learning website had a link that led to Tom in Turkey, who I invited to be my “friend” on one Ning or another, and who ended up being the subscriber in Turkey I wanted to “meet.”

Not only is Tom a PBL guy, he’s also blogged about Illich and unschooling on his Tryangulation blog.

Then the “Four Convergences” post with the “Voices from the New American Schoolhouse” Sudbury video resulted in a very nice comment from the video’s creator (including a complementary DVD of the full 80-minute documentary from which that clip was an excerpt), and after a couple emails, a decision to Skype again for a second podcast.

All from acting to follow up on a moment’s desire based on an attractive “what if?”

It all amazes me, this new form of “summer vacation.”

(Photo: 7.10.2007 Luggage by j-blocker on Flickr)

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