Wk4 Publishing_Leadership Project

The two publications I selected were National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) publication English Education and Association for Educational Communications and Technology.  These publications, while academic, both accepted articles exploring innovative strategies in a more reflective or informal style.  Their readership is by definition dedicated to improving strategies for designing and implementing instruction, and such teachers would find a lot to think about in an article exploring the use of cell phones in a classroom.

Here is my article link:  

Atherton_Debra_PubLead_Project.Docx

Here are my blog links:

Publishing & Leadership "Thinking out loud" Blog 1 

Publishing & Leadership "Thinking out loud" Blog 2

 

  

Wk4 Reflection: Publishing_Leadership Project, Part 2 of 2

POST 5

Years ago, I took a 4-day seminar at UCLA extension on writing the personal essay.  We spent an entire morning—1/8 of our time together—addressing the question of where to publish.  Because fun as it is to write something and polish it till it’s all shiny, it just stays an empty vine if you don’t put it out there and let it bear fruit. 

But therein lies a huge risk for those of us who haven’t been risk-takers:  REJECTION!  So my first impulse is to start someplace small.  But I find myself stopping and analyzing my first impulse these days!

So I checked out one “Big Name” publication and one that seems like an easier fit.

The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) is a well established and prestigious group that actually runs several publications.  The one that seemed closest my project’s idea is English Education, which, to quote their website (http://www.ncte.org/journals/ee/write) “serves those NCTE members who are engaged in the preparation, support, and continuing education of teachers of English language arts/literacy.”  I’m really not as interested in publishing “traditional theoretical and research articles,” but the second type of article is described as “shorter, innovative/nontraditional ‘Extending the Conversation’ articles.”  That would give me some fluidity in my style, as well as shortening the part of the lit review I’d need to include.

The second publication is Association for Educational Communications and Technology, one of many Springer publications, which could be just as prestigious as NCTE, for all I know, which isn’t, in this arena, much.  This publication also has a Research Section, which is looking for rigorous research-oriented articles, as well as a Development Section, which, in addition to instructional design research papers, welcomes, according to their website (http://www.aect.org/intranet/Publications/index.asp), “papers that report outcomes of innovative approaches in applying technology to instructional development.”  That sounds like me.

Having to pick one, as each publication requires that all articles be submitted to theirs exclusively, I will probably go with the one I’m more familiar with first, but I’m not sure how open NCTE is, in spite of their “innovative/nontraditional” description, to technological advances like cell phones in the classroom.  (I’m afraid I speak from experience—previous experience, I should say!—here.)  But now that I am an innovator, in addition to being a proselyte, I’d of course like to start changing the world in the very bastion of traditionalism!  Well, at least I’m not pretending to not be who I am…

Wk4 Reflection: Publishing_Leadership Project, Part 1 of 2

POST 4

Um…. Do I really have to do this one?

OK, in the spirit of Zanderism, let me analyze that impulse that says, “Push yourself, Deb!  Get outside your box!  Do a presentation!”

Why?  This entire year has been all about that.  And one thing I’ve learned is that people should learn new things, but they should also honor their own gifts.  And I’m a writer.  I think by writing.  I understand and get insights by writing.  What is, is.  The presentations and videos I’ve done that I really was proud of, well, what they started with was good writing.  I’m pretty sure it was a blog earlier this month in which I commented that my AR pitch, a work I’m pretty proud of, basically got written in the half-hour between my mammogram and a nail appointment—and then took another 40 hours to turn into a video.  Now, it was a great educational experience, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but if somebody were paying for it, they should pay me for the writing and someone faster to do the visual!

So that voice is not, at this time, coming from an exuberant, adventurous place, but from the place that says, “Your gifts aren’t good enough!  Try harder!  You need to get better!”

Bite me.

So I’m going to stick with what I love, enjoy, and am good at.  Let’s do publication.

Wk4 Response 3: Anne Alsup’s Anecdotes

POST Extra

I too felt indignation at the thought of blaming myself for what was done to me, but Zanders is right, the blame game doesn’t make the world a better place.

Indignation.  Righteous anger—yep, that’s what it is. 

I’ve had to deal with several things the past few years that haven’t just seemed to me monstrously unjust but been documented by “Impartial Observers” to actually BE monstrously unjust.  (Ask me about the Batmobile some time.)  And this stupid book has me asking—not for the first time, but maybe with a touch more courage to hear the answer—what the heck I’m doing to precipitate this.  I still don’t know.  It doesn’t make sense to me.

But that’s where my calculating self has taken over; see, if I could get it to make sense, the unfairness would surely have to give way to sense, wouldn’t it?

Talk about stupid—how do we manage to cling to nonsensical ideas like that????

I’m not editing that out because I am making a—not a commitment, but an effort—toward transparency.  And that’s what I said to myself.

What is, is.  I cannot control the forces that create injustice and unfairness in the world.  What I can control is my commitment to Rule #6.  What I can control is my thoughts:  “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” has been the “watchman to my heart” this last 6 weeks, and I am beginning to see fruit.  (I heard a nurse explain once that emotions are chemical responses to our thoughts—and that we absolutely could not control the chemicals, but we COULD control the thoughts that produce them… with some practice!) 

I’m a little irritated at myself this afternoon that my “responses” to other people have been—just say it like it is, Deb—all about me.  But then I heard another thought:  that when something I say sparks learning & insight in someone else, I feel satisfied; I feel I’ve succeeded at my job.  I hope you feel that way now.  I’m having a hard time today, and you just made it easier.  Thanks.

Wk4 Response 2: Tricia’s Tech & Art

POST 3

"Trying to remember myself in each other person’s shoes will help me to react with a more enlightened attitude, just as Ben did when his students partied in South America. What would it have helped to “go off” like so many of us teachers are expected to do. Instead, the kids understood, felt enabled, apologetic, regretful, and still valued. Amazing."

Oi, Tricia—why is this such a hard thing?  It’s obvious that appealing to the best in young people means a different thing than I thought it did—that it means seeing the vision they’ve already got for themselves, NOT implanting the vision I’VE got for them—which is certainly why I “go off”! 

You know, I think of myself as a kind and giving person—that people feel better about themselves when I am around.  And there are a lot of instances where that just isn’t true.  Because there are an awful lot of instances where I’m all about me.  Even when I’m trying really hard to be all about… “not me”!!!!  LOL!

What is, is.  “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”  But it’ll surely beat the heck out of you first.  Hmmm… getting the “heck” out is kind of the point, though, isn’t it?………….

Wk4 Response 1: Jeannine Berube's Bodacious Blog

POST 2

"Am I willing to live in the Universe of Possibility?  That is the most honest question I can present to  myself as I finish reading this book.   Knowing now not only of this new universe, but also having been given the tools to navigate, am I ready to embark on this new adventure, to learn to be the “BOARD” on which my life is played?  Am I willing to enroll others in the “game” rather than scare them to death; to begin to create new frameworks of possibility, to truly tell the story of WE instead of me?"

My calculating part says “I’m tired”—my central self says “I’m scared.”  “STOP!  You’re BOTH right!”  (Was it a Doublemint commercial?)  Yes, having wrapped up my school year last week, the usual exhaustion is enervating me, making the much that is going on both personally and academically feel a lot harder than it is.  But I’m also very afraid of giving up some of my old roles and old rules.  Sure, they haven’t worked very well, but they’re the only roles and rules I’ve got.  I had.  I don’t have to choose to walk that way any more. 

You know what else you don’t need to do, Debra Jo?  You don’t need to undertake a revolution right now.  Just love yourself—give yourself the compassion and understanding you’d give someone else in your position!

Excuse me, Jeannine, I just took a little aside in our conversation to have one with myself, which was a little self-centered!  (Ha.  Ha.)  Uh oh.  How do you manage to constantly open me up to truth?  In fact, that’s all I’ve been doing—writing about me.  This morning, talking about being vines & branches, the pastor said something about producing fruit being about caring for the other person more than you care about yourself, and between that and the book, I’m open to seeing what I’m seeing, and hearing what you’re saying. 

I’m a little irritated at myself this afternoon that my “responses” to other people have been—just say it like it is, Deb—all about me.  But then I heard another thought:  that when something I say sparks learning & insight in someone else, I feel satisfied; I feel I’ve succeeded at my job.  I hope you feel that way now.  I’m having a hard time today, and you just made it easier.  Thanks.

Wk4 Reading: "WE are here to change the world..." --Captain Eo

POST 1

I want to make my curriculum a WE story.

The most revolutionary insight I’ve had in this year of insights was the idea that students are hungry—starving—for learning that is meaningful to them, that enables them to experience accomplishment and contribution, to solve problems and make their world a better place.  And the society we live in allows very little room for them to do so.  I’ve shifted my perspective on that last statement, so that it is no longer a hopeless complaint but a “What is, is” observation. 

What I think I can do about that is NOT tell my students how to get out there and solve problems but to make my classes next year an opportunity to define the relevant problems we have together and together construct activities that will accomplish solutions to those problems.

 This is not as easy as it sounds in a senior English class.  One problem is that we are required to experience some writing and reading, including some of that dread nemesis, “literature”—and I would like to discover some way those activities could turn out not to be “problems” but instead solutions to problems.  I got a glimpse of this with some things we did last year, and I begin to see some ways to grow those seeds into seedlings.  Approaching storytelling as a culture’s attempts to solve some of the problems of their shared humanity seems to offer possibilities.

I always start my classes each year with a journal writing on what each student wants to get out of their senior year, and right this moment I am observing how self-centering that question is.  So what if I start asking what problems they define as important to solve?  My immediate response is that if I ask that question in a brand new class without having established trust and respect, I’m just going to get “nebulousness” (that’s my English-teacher word for what my Daddy used to call “Baloney Sauce”).  And that might be perceptive; or it might be my calculating self afraid to fail.  Perhaps I could begin with the “A” letter; I can’t actually give them a guaranteed A, but I can ask them to imagine how it would be if I did.  (No, this is public high school; I seriously can’t.)  But I think I’d want more thought spent on that than a 10- or 15-minute quickwrite.  Another avenue is posting, for homework, an excerpt from The Art of Possibility on the class LMS and assigning a discussion—but that has logistical issues that may take some time to resolve, so it might not be a good 1^st night assignment.  Or…

Deep breath!  These are good seeds to plant; Graduation was last night, and I have a whole summer to fertilize them and see how they grow.  Toward a light of Meaningfulness, in a greenhouse of We.  That’s a sappy metaphor.  I’m going to use it anyway.