Greetings starfighters. It’s time for another edition of “10 Things” worth sharing with you. It’s almost the end of the school year here in the Bluegrass, and my thoughts turn to summer and to my daughter’s impending move to middle school. I’m old.
Anyway, I hope your life is just as interesting. Perhaps some of these shares will make it even more so.
10 Things Worth Sharing
-I read around 100ish books per year, but as a doctoral student, I’m having to read more. Here are some tips from two experts on how you can read more than you thought possible.
-Some thoughts on how we can avoid raising machines (hint: let’s stop standardized testing) and raise humans.
-I put together some quick resources on Juneteenth that you may find helpful. I know most schools aren’t in session by the time Juneteenth rolls around, but we can’t overlook teaching this important date.
-One of my elementary teachers (and Future Shift Fellowship cohort member) created a podcast with her students. Actually, the students did all the work. It’s pretty awesome.
-Friend and professor John Nash, Ph.D., has done some amazing work with AI in his classes. In a recent episode of his podcast, he talks about testing AI and what does and doesn’t work.
-Fun stuff: if you’re of a certain age, you may remember The Midnight Special. What you may not know is that the show is back, thanks to the official YouTube channel.
-Have you ever seen a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio? Here’s your chance.
BONUS: As I was compiling this list, I got the notification that you can now provide input on the National Educational Technology Plan. Polls are open for K-12 Educators and Families. Please take some time to let your voice be heard. This is the first time since COVID-19 hit that this important policy document is getting an update. You can access the links to either poll right here.
Thanks for reading. The end of the school year means we’re officially in the “dads and grads” gifting season. I’ve put together a couple of book lists for quick and easy gifting. Here’s one for dads and one for grads. Enjoy!
Professor and friend John Nash co-hosts a podcast on all things online learning. In a recent episode, he shared his work on coaching ChatGPT to write more “human” and the results are… interesting…
While generative AI tools are very cool right now, they are a long way from being truly disruptive and overtaking the world.
Here’s what’s interesting. Scaffolding the prompts, defining perplexity and burstiness, and then prompting an explicit increase of those measures made the text “human” to GPTZero. Still, it also made the text ridiculously flowery and inflated. Kind of like when a master’s student thinks they are supposed to “sound academic.” It was so bad that the ChatGPT output was immediately suspect to my human eyes, even though GPTZero said it was likely written entirely by a human.
Penguin Random House, the leading book publisher in the nation, has partnered with PEN America in a significant endeavor to challenge book banning. In an ongoing legal battle, they have joined a coalition comprising parents, authors, and concerned individuals who filed a federal lawsuit against the imposition of bans in Escambia County, Florida.
Escambia County, situated in northwest Florida, has recently enacted restrictions on or removed a minimum of 16 books from public school libraries and classrooms. The banned books encompass a wide range of literary works, including the debut novel of a Nobel Prize laureate and a beloved coming-of-age bestseller from the 1990s.
Among the contested books is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which not only achieved success as a novel but also gained popularity as a hit movie. Last autumn, a local high school teacher raised objections to this book and over a hundred others, prompting Christian activists to voice their concerns at multiple school board meetings.
One such activist, Aaron Schneier, a parent from Pensacola, defended the removal of books, arguing that it does not constitute censorship to exclude explicit or sexually provocative literature from school settings. School board member Kevin Adams supported the removal of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” from the optional 12th-grade novel study, emphasizing the need to establish standards of conduct and manners for students that align with his personal values.
Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of PEN America, expressed the organization’s commitment to defending free speech. Over the past two years, PEN America has meticulously documented more than 4,000 cases of book bans or removals. Escambia County’s situation was deemed particularly egregious, prompting the decision to file this lawsuit. The plaintiffs involved include affected parents, students, Penguin Random House as an affected publisher, and other concerned individuals. They collectively advocate for the intervention of the judicial system to uphold constitutional rights.
Among the plaintiffs is Ashley Hope Perez, an acclaimed writer whose bestselling book, “Out of Darkness,” depicts a love story between a Mexican American girl and an African American boy. Perez humorously remarks that her book is “super banned,” having faced bans in numerous locations, including Escambia County. She observes a recurring pattern wherein books like hers become targets for removal by groups such as Moms for Liberty, which offer pre-prepared talking points. Perez further highlights the lack of substantive engagement with the content of these books, often accompanied by repetitive typographical errors.
While Perez prefers open discussions over legal battles, she recognizes the necessity of utilizing the tools of democracy during this critical moment. She emphasizes that young people seek narratives that are not sanitized but rather provide opportunities to explore challenging issues and imagine lives different from their own.
In response to the mounting pressure, the Escambia School Board announced a temporary halt to book challenges, extending indefinitely. NPR’s attempts to obtain comments from the school board went unanswered.
The joint efforts of Penguin Random House, PEN America, and the coalition of plaintiffs underscore a broader fight against book banning, advocating for the preservation of intellectual freedom and the exploration of diverse perspectives.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
While the bureaucrats continue to ban books, undermine progressive education, and attempt to influence a generation on the necessity of backward thinking, the business world continues to think of new ways to get people into jobs more quickly by cutting out the traditional paths to careers.
We’re only going to see more and more of this type of shift to training usable skills that allow more flexibility for young people, or those who want to start anew.
Meanwhile, public education will continue to slug it out with pompous gasbags who don’t want anything to change yet continue to blame public education for all evils.
To become an expert at something, you have to practice that something.
Doctors and lawyers often use the term “practice” to describe their daily work.
Educators are the same. We practice every day. And we get a little better every day.
So do our students. Provided we allow them to practice.
This idea is at the heart of student-centered instruction. We serve to guide them along their path; they choose the path.
And they choose how long they stay on that path. The more passion they have, the longer and harder they will work.
The more we walk all over their practice time with test prep and meaningless teacher talk designed to keep us in control, the less engaged our students will be.
Less engagement means they practice other things. And so begins the cycle.
Let them practice; let them learn.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
It’s testing season as another school year comes to a close. The time when students get to demonstrate just how well we’ve trained them to be little machines.
We’ve covered the content, given the testing tips, and passed out the booklets or the Chromebooks.
We’ve done everything we can to prepare them for the relentless battery of standardized tests they must endure, all because someone who knows nothing about learning needs evidence that teachers have done their jobs.
They want to know how well we’ve trained our little machines.
There’s just one problem: we don’t train machines. We teach human beings.
Trust and vulnerability are two essential elements for a productive and effective learning environment. In schools, teachers, coaches, and administrators must establish trust with their students and colleagues to achieve academic success. Trust is a crucial element in creating a positive and safe learning environment. It can be defined as the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. When teachers trust their students, they provide them with the freedom to take risks and make mistakes without fear of judgment. Vulnerability, on the other hand, is the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. When teachers are vulnerable with their students, they create a connection that can lead to more profound learning experiences.
Why Teachers Must Trust Students and Be Vulnerable
Establishing trust with students is critical in creating a positive and safe learning environment. When teachers trust their students, they provide them with the freedom to take risks and make mistakes without fear of judgment. Students who feel trusted are more likely to take academic risks, which can lead to deeper learning experiences. Trust also allows students to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings, which can help teachers better understand their students’ needs and respond accordingly.
A student who trusts their teacher is optimistic that the teacher will act in a certain way even though the student does not know whether the teacher will do so. If the student knew that this would occur, no trust would be necessary. The intriguing thing about trust is that it makes us rely on other people without knowing whether this reliance is warranted. We often find ourselves in situations in which trust is needed. This is also true for students at school. In many cases, students do not know whether what the teacher teaches is worth knowing. They simply trust that the teacher will select relevant content and appropriate learning methods for their lessons. Also, when it comes to testing their intellectual competences what they have learnt in class, students trust that the teacher will provide them with helpful and encouraging feedback, that the teacher will not make fun of their errors and that the teacher will recognise the effort and progress that the students have made.
Additionally, teachers who are vulnerable with their students create a connection that can lead to more profound learning experiences. By sharing their own experiences and struggles, teachers can help students understand that it is okay to make mistakes and that learning is a process.
Your students need to see you struggle. They need to know that it’s ok not to know everything. When I’m visiting classrooms, the number one idea I try to convey to students is that it’s perfectly fine not to get “it” right on the first try. There is a benefit to the productive struggle.
This can help students develop a growth mindset, where they believe that they can improve their abilities through hard work and dedication.
The Significance of Teachers Trusting Other Teachers
Trusting other teachers is crucial in building a strong professional community. In a school setting, teachers should be able to rely on each other for support, brainstorming, and collaboration. When teachers trust each other, they are more likely to share ideas and resources, and they can provide each other with constructive feedback. This collaboration can lead to improved teaching practices, increased student engagement, and, ultimately, better academic outcomes.
When teachers trust other teachers, they are more likely to seek out feedback and support. When the #observeme movement began, it was all about teachers being open and vulnerable with each other. It wasn’t some teachers believing that they had it all together and were experts.
They genuinely wanted feedback from their peers. You can’t get better professional learning than this. Peer-to-peer feedback is a huge boost to your teaching practice.
Whether teachers are working on instruction, developing curriculum, or discussing students, they value the opportunity to collaborate. In our school, the literacy coach held periodic workshops with teachers from all departments. These volunteer workshops focused on different techniques and were always full. Teachers saw the workshops as an opportunity to work with colleagues from other departments and to learn new strategies and protocols. In an atmosphere of trust, they were willing to take the risks that new learning requires. Once teachers experienced the value of this kind of collaboration, they began to use the new strategies in their own classrooms with their students.
Vulnerability can lead to a culture of continuous improvement, where teachers are constantly looking for ways to improve their practice. This can lead to better academic outcomes for students, as teachers constantly seek to improve their teaching practices.
The Importance of Coaches and Administrators Trusting Teachers and Being Vulnerable
Coaches and administrators play a vital role in creating a culture of trust and vulnerability within a school. When coaches and administrators trust their teachers, they give them the autonomy to make decisions that benefit their students. This can lead to a sense of empowerment among teachers, which can lead to better academic outcomes for students.
Additionally, when coaches and administrators are vulnerable with their teachers, they create a space where teachers can share their thoughts and feelings without fear of repercussions. I am the first person to admit I don’t have all my ish together at times. Especially when trying something new. I’m learning right alongside the teachers and students I work with most of the time. Communicating your own faults opens so many doors with others.
This communication can lead to improved teaching practices, increased teacher satisfaction, and, ultimately, better academic outcomes. When coaches and administrators are vulnerable, they demonstrate that it is okay to make mistakes and that learning is a process. This can lead to a culture of continuous improvement, where teachers are constantly seeking to improve their teaching practices.
Conclusion
In conclusion, trust and vulnerability are essential components of a productive and effective learning environment. Teachers must establish trust with their students and be vulnerable to create a safe and positive learning environment. Trusting other teachers is critical in building a strong professional community, while coaches and administrators must trust teachers and be vulnerable to create a culture of open communication and collaboration. By prioritizing trust and vulnerability in schools, we can create an environment where everyone can learn and grow together.
As educators, it is our responsibility to create a culture of trust and vulnerability in our schools. By doing so, we can create an environment where students feel safe to take academic risks, and teachers feel empowered to improve their teaching practices. When prioritizing trust and vulnerability, we can create an environment where everyone can learn and grow together.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
I had no idea that Wil Wheaton graced my home state with his presence back in March at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. I can’t tell you how bummed I am that I missed seeing him speak.
Neverminding my failure to stay on top of cool things, Mr. Wheaton was nice enough to post a copy of his remarks on his site. I’m just a few years younger than Wil and not only empathize with his childhood experiences but can say I had my own version of them.
I also totally agree that “the library is a safe place” for everyone.
In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That’s where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It’s where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, “What do you like? What’s important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?”
That moment was so special and meaningful, not just then, but for years after. When I got older, I began to learn that so much of what had been presented to me as truth in school wasn’t just false, it was propaganda. I remember the first time I saw a banned books display at a bookstore in the mall when we were on location for Stand By Me. I wanted to read all of them, because I’d figured out that if They didn’t want me to, there must be something pretty great inside.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird, and began thinking about racism and injustice.
I read 1984 and Brave New World, and began thinking about autocrats, and what it meant to be truly free to choose our own destinies.
I read Johnny Got His Gun, and All Quiet on the Western Front, and saw firsthand the horrors of war.
Hey gang. It’s been a bit, but life has been… crazy. However, I’m rounding the bend on a number of projects and have breathing room again.
I did manage to find about an hour each week to watch the final season of Picard—by far the best season—and a quote from Captain Shaw in the final episode really struck me. His recorded review of his first officer, Seven of Nine, described how she was reckless and a rule breaker. But, very often, the rules she was breaking were probably already broken anyway.
My message to you, keep breaking the rules that are already broken. Trust me, there are plenty of them out there.
And now, for this week’s 10 Things…
10 Things Worth Sharing
Somehow, I’d never watched Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” until I had to do so for classwork. What a shame. Of course, Daniel Day-Lewis is superb, but so is just about everyone else in the film. If you want to catch a small glimpse into what it took to get the 13th Amendment passed, spend 2.5 hours with this film. Or read the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin that goes into much greater detail on Lincoln’s political brilliance.
In other classwork explorations, I’ve read Joseph Rost’s Leadership for the 21st Century. His idea of a “new school of leadership” has me thinking about how digital learning coaches like myself should apply this thinking to our jobs. Promising stuff I’ll talk about more soon.
The final meeting of my teacher fellowship happened this past Tuesday, and we began planning the professional development event we’re hosting for our district in June. As my fellows struggled to come up with session ideas they believed were “good enough,” I reminded them that what may be obvious to you is amazing to others.
Career and competency-based education programs continue to grow here in the United States. My own district is remodeling our old elementary school into a new CTE center with multiple pathways for students to explore, many of which may lead them directly into a career right after graduation. College isn’t the path for everyone, and I’m excited to see that apprenticeships are on the rise here in the US.
Personal news: I’ve pretty much abandoned Twitter. I still check in with the folks I want to hear from, mostly professional connections. I’m moving to Mastodon for many social interactions. Also, I’ll be adding ActivityPub to my blog to better syndicate content. Come hang out with the cool kids 😉
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
One of the teachers in my teacher fellowship asked me about introducing the process of developing and marketing a mobile app to her third-grade students. They are working on a unit about economics.
I’m a fan of the 5E lesson planning framework. If you’re unfamiliar, The 5E lesson plan is a widely used instruction model consisting of five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
During the engage phase, teachers can use various strategies to encourage students to discover more about the topic, such as an attention-grabbing hook, a thought-provoking question, or a hands-on activity. The engage phase’s goal is to create an atmosphere of curiosity and excitement, as well as to set the tone for the rest of the lesson.
I thought about creating something for the first part of this 5E framework to get the students interested in the topic of mobile app development. Perhaps a little video of a mobile app developer giving students an overview of the process?
I know access to mobile app developers is easy to come by for schools in large cities, but my schools aren’t in a large city. And I don’t have any contacts immediately available to speak to a class, whether in-person or remotely.
Which, if you weren’t aware, is the situation that so very many schools deal with every day. Access to experts in some fields isn’t readily available.
But there’s a solution.
With a little help from a few AI tools, here’s what I did…
Writing a Video Script with AI
I began by using a tool I had just learned about called TeacherBot. The folks at TeacherBot aim to “build the tool every teacher deserves.” You enter an idea into the prompt space, and TeacherBot gives you a useful output.
The TeacherBot user interface
I aimed to create a script for an overview video of the mobile app development process. Here’s the prompt I gave TeacherBot to begin:
You are a software programmer. You need to introduce the concepts of coding an app for Apple’s iOS to a group of third-grade students in the United States. Create a story talking about the different phases of mobile app design and development.
I asked for a “story” and specified third-grade students to hopefully keep the response at an appropriate grade level for the students
Here’s what TeacherBot gave me in return:
TeacherBot response to prompt
Is it rudimentary? Yes. But, it is designed for a 3rd-grade audience. And it’s just an overview. If I had the learning objectives for the lesson or the unit, I might have been able to craft a better prompt or tweaked the response myself. I wanted a female speaker, so I should have indicated that in the prompt. However, that was an easy fix.
Now, I needed to create my speaker.
Creating a Speaker Image to Deliver the Script
To create an image for my speaker, I headed over to Midjourney and entered the following prompt:
minority woman, photography, depth of field f2.8 3.5, 25mm lens, 8k, ultra-realistic — v 4 — q 2 — v 4 — s 750 — uplight
I won’t go into the crafting of prompts for Midjourney here. Linus Ekenstam inspired this particular prompt, and he has a wealth of knowledge on his Twitter feed on crafting prompts.
Here are the initial results from Midjourney:
All of these images would work perfectly for this task. I wanted female minority representation for this project. Why? Because students need to know that jobs in computer programming and software development aren’t just for white men.
I choose this image from the four at random:
Now, I have my script and my speaker. Time for the final step.
Creating a Video with AI
For the final step, I turned to D-ID. After creating an account, I opened the “Create Video” tool and added the image of my speaker, and pasted my script in the script box.
D-ID interface
I changed the language settings to give the speaker an appropriate accent but still speak in English. Here is the final result:
Now, we have a little something to use to engage our third-grade students.
Is it perfect? Of course not. Do we still have a long way to go in the world of AI? Yes.
Will we ever get to use this tool to its fullest potential if we block it in school because we’re worried about cheating?
No.
AI is a tool, just like anything else. Use it. Be aware of what it can be used for, both for “good” and for “bad” — and keep in mind that what defines those terms is highly subjective.
Thanks for reading. You can get more articles like this as part of my weekly newsletters. I send out two per week: Tuesdays are deeper dives into education topics for paid subscribers, and every Friday, I share “10 Things” I think are cool and worth your time for free.
