thesisthoughts

When I see that my last post is from the end of August I feel that time is running away from me. We went back to school on the first of September and since then I have been on the run. I have been trying to get up at 4:00 am every morning in order to sit and work on my doctorate. I can’t say that it happens every day and there are days when I do get up but have some urgent assessment or planning to do for school and I do that. Most days I manage to take a few baby steps forward.  

I am working on three different things at once. My ethics application is being read by GP and I already know that there will be many changes made to it. I wanted to get the application in and authorized before starting this years’ courses but I understand now that that was unrealistic. Once I have the forms in, I need to send similar documents to the Israeli Department of Education, to get their approval too.

In the meanwhile, I have started working on the literature review, according to the recommendations in Destination Dissertation by Foss and Waters. I feel as though I am progressing and am enjoying the work so far.

In addition, I started teaching the first of my four professional learning groups yesterday. As part of my big effort to write a lot about my experiences with the groups, I returned to blogging this morning.

http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=266493

The clock is ticking all the time and I must write a new post, the one I got up to write, about my session yesterday.

Often when I read Faultlines, Ward’s informative blog on writing a PhD, I encounter inspiring materials which help me as a writer and as a researcher. I have written here before that I began blogging after reading an article by Ward on her blogging experiences.

Today I read about Lilia’s honest post on publishing a PhD which is both exposing and highly personal.

Another wonderful source of information I discovered through Ward is the inspiring How I write series from Stanford – transcripts, videos etc.

This week, school holidays for Passover,  I met with the teachers from N for a full day seminar. As we couldn’t meet at the teachers’ center, we met at my school. There are many benefits in this, including the use of our wonderfully equipped computer room and the friendly, educational environment (which we certainly don’t have this year at the center which is always “just about to be done up”). There is much to discuss about where external PL meetings take place and how the surroundings can contribute or hinder learning. An interesting comparison I should make is the experience I have this year at the two teachers’ centers, K and N.

Anyway, this time we met at my school, we began with hot coffee and cakes I brought with me. With 100% attendance (very rare, especially in school holidays) we began the seminar.

The day was divided into two parts – the first dealing with the digital text and the effect of the Internet on writing and the second on connections between reading and writing.

We began with a brilliant piece from You-tube, one I was introduced to by Ilana Snyder in the course I studied with her at Monash.

This piece has so much in it that I could have based a whole two hour workshop / lecture on it and still not touch all of the information and messages contained. The workshop was successful with very lively participation from all the participants (including those closer to the web and those that are barely computer literate).

My frustration with the Hebrew language surfaced again. Why aren’t there materials such as these being developed here daily? Why isn’t more material being translated?  When I bring something in English (even a cartoon), there is always tension in the air. Israeli teachers as a rule are threatened by the English language and would prefer not to use their knowledge in their learning, despite the fact that most have a fairly good grasp of the language.

Together we explored what our curriculum has to say about digital texts. I was surprised that most of the participants had not noticed these pages before. Then we moved on to a document that none of the participants knew existed, the standards booklet for  learning in an ICT environment. The necessary link between literacy teachers and the digital world out there is just not being formed. I got the impression that even the teachers who are technologically independent and do use computers and the Web in their teaching, have never dealt with the changes occurring in written language.

They were all interested and active and one of the senior teachers from my school commented that I must do the seminar (or at least part of it, with all the teachers at our school). I was satisfied that the questions were raised and that the topic is now “on the table”.

Two questions that need to be addressed, and of course were raised in the group are 1. the digital divide: “It’s not such a big deal at a school like this which teaches children from well off homes…” or “At our school there are no computers in the classroom and we don’t have lessons in the computer room…”   and 2. The expectation that teachers become more computer literate: “We have many teacher at our school that don’t know anything about computers, they are scared of them. How can they be expected to teach these things to the kids?”.

We then moved on to discuss the positive impact technology can have on student motivation to write. When I discussed blogs (explaining from the beginning as most had no idea what I was talking about) they were shocked by the possibilities. I could see that some of the teachers began racing in their minds what they can do with this new option, but others concentrated on the “why nots”: “My class is too big”‘, “I don’t have time to read all the writing and comment before it is posted”, “Who has time to check a blog every day and run it?”

I proudly presented the blog I am running for my students, I can’t wait to use blogging in other groups and classes next year.  

The second part of the day was dedicated to the connections between reading and writing. For a moment I was disappointed that I couldn’t show the powerpoint presentation I had prepared and then I realized that I didn’t need it. As a result the teachers talked more and I talked less – always a better situation.

As a starter they worked in pairs and prepared a venn diagram to present how reading and writing are similar and different. The discussion was very fruitful and the diagrams were very varied. I will scan them and post them on the virtual campus. We then opened up the discussion in the whole group. Later on I presented the research that has been done in the field and presented examples of work that can be done in the classroom, every day, to strengthen the connections between reading and writing. The aim is of course  to reinforce both writing and reading, and of course, thinking.

The most disturbing part of the discussion for me was when teachers who know how to combine the two spoke of how after “The Reading Wars”, they believed (or were specifically told) that everything they did in their Whole Language classrooms must be disregarded. As a result, they have been teaching reading very differently and writing has been totally separate. Some of the teachers in grades 1 & 2 commented that they thought that they weren’t allowed to ask the children to write until they “finished teaching reading” (Is that ever completed?). As the pendulum swings backwards and forwards, it seems that the more teachers are confused, and the less time is spent in real teacher learning, the results in the classroom are more destructive.  

 That’s it for today…

During the recent school holidays I gave a two and a half hour presentation on my thesis to the literacy leaders of professional development, here in the north of the country. I was extremely nervous and hardly slept at all the night before. Some of my jitters were connected to the fact that this was really the first time I was presenting my own research to an audience and the rest were language related. It was a strange experience thinking and then talking my way thorough my material in Hebrew. The audience was extremely enthusiastic and I received many compliments, both on the day and by email afterwards. This was a group of 30 or so close colleagues and I felt that they were truly interested in what I have learned. The second part of the lecture dealt with blogging in general, edublogging and my own blogging experience. Many of the participants had never even seen a blog before.

This week we had a professional learning day at school. The grade six pupils taught the younger classes for four hours and the staff all met in the staff room. Apart from my lecture on blogging, two other teachers discussed their recent research. It was a fantastic day and again I had a wonderful response. Two of the teachers took the details for wordpresswhich is the most suitable site for Hebrew bloggers (as far as I can tell) and one of them has already signed up to open a blog herself.

I am constantly aware that I am very lucky to have the opportunities I do to share my learning and my conclusions with my peers. Maybe lucky isn’t the word I am looking for, maybe privileged?

I can’t believe that my thesis has been handed in and that this enormous task is behind me.

It has been over a month since I blogged because I was just reading, writing and revising 20 or so hours a day. I was exhausted but more than that, I was riding an emotional roller-coaster. The closer I got to finishing, the more excited and nervous I became. On the one hand I was waiting to submit the piece and be done with it and on the other, I was upset that I was leaving this incredible learning experience behind. Tears of joy, achievement, pride, frustration and worry all joined, I found it hard to describe my feelings.

Now I have many questions to explore. After a year off school and my job as leader of professional development, I am going back to work full time. How will I manage to keep up my professional learning in formal and informal frameworks? Will I continue this blog which was essentially a study tool or will I begin a new work blog? I imagine that this will all become clear to me in the next few weeks.

This blog has taken on a role very different from that intended at the outset. I thought I was opening this site as a means of recording my study notes but it has become far more than that. Blogging has helped me develop my identity as a teacher and as a researcher, it has helped me think and reflect. My writing here has brought me into a community of edubloggers, wonderful people who, as I wrote in my thesis “have let me into their hearts and into their classrooms”.

I want to thank you for reading my work. I never imagined that anyone would find this blog and would take the time to read it. You have all made a great contribution to my study and to my thesis on professional learning for teachers. I appreciate you giving me your precious time, the flowers at the top are for you! 

 The next step is preparing my thesis for journal publication, another step in this wonderful endless journey of professional learning.

But… today I am on lifeguard duty at the pool… an exhausting experience of a totally different kind.

 Image from: http://www.fromyouflowers.com/images/products/new_large/TFWEB165.jpg

Wonderful slideshow on blogging as PD made by Graham from Teaching generation Z blog. I would like to do something similar for the teachers at my school, looks like a great way to introduce them to the idea of blogging as a way to organize and develop teacher reflexivity.

http://www.slideshare.net/grahamwegner/melbblogging

“We are not positing that writing a weblog will change the articles we publish in scholarly journals. We do argue that blogging influences the way you think about thinking, and that it may change the process of research. To some extent it might even change the method”. (p. 254).

 “Both of us however experienced that writing the thesis became easier and the writing more focused after we started blogging” (p. 273).

Mortensen, T., & Walker, J. (2002). Blogging thoughts: Personal publication as an online research tool. In A. Morrison (Ed.), Researching ICTs in context. InterMedia Report, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, March, 2002. Retrieved from http://imweb.uio.no/konferanser/skikt-02/docs/Researching_ICTs_in_context.pdf

This afternoon I was introduced to a new blog set up by a teacher for her students and colleagues and also to a new term “concept scrapbook”.

http://www.mycontextfile.blogspot.com/

In her blog, Mrs H. invites her pupils to explore the various images she has chosen to present on her site and to read the accompanying texts she has composed. She urges others to begin collecting “imaginary landscapes” which interest them. Mrs H’s opening paragraph is both explanatory and invitational:

“Here’s my ’scrapbook’ of images and materials related to the VCE English Context of “Imaginative Landscapes”, along with some thoughts about the materials I’ve chosen to include … I hope this inspires you to start pulling together your own Context Scrapbook, either in hardcopy or online – Mrs H from Waverley Christian College, Victoria”.

I imagine this invitation was also extended in classroom activities and discussion.

My first reaction to the blog was simply to enjoy the incredibly clever visual and multimodal texts featured on the page. I was especially  fascinated by the sidewalk chalk creations as they were done by hand. I can’t believe anyone has the talent to compose such intricate 3D images on such a harsh “canvas” with the simplest of materials. Maybe this is one of the connections between landscape and imagination – the idea/dream/illusion far exceeds what can usually be created by man.

This blog is meant to be a showcase for work done by the teacher (as a model for her students) and as venue for generating discussion.  I will be following the development of the blog to see whether this written conversation does eventuate, I hope it does! 

Teachers writing for their students, with their students and in front of them has interested me since I wrote my diary/story about the 2nd Israel-Lebanon war as an assignment in Graham Parr’s course. At that time I read quite a few articles on whether teachers who write make better literacy / writing teachers – the answers to this question aren’t hard and fast.

For most of my teaching years I have felt very self conscious about my writing skills and until recently hadn’t dared to bring any of my texts to the classroom. I admire Mrs H and her initiative, what better way is there for a teacher to explain what a “context scrapbook” is and to set her pupils off exploring landscapes of their own?

In chapter 1 of ”Learning how to teach writing”, Atwell (1998) writes about the importance of presenting her own writing in the classroom, she also relates to the difficulty in doing this.

“I have almost overcome my anxiety about revealing to the world how hard and slow writing is for me, and how wildly off-base my first attempts can be. I learned that I only have to write a little bit better than my students for them to learn from my demonstrations…I can only become their mentor, someone whose advice carries weight and truth, because I know writing from the inside, and I’ve shown them I do” (p. 26).

Atwell encourages teachers to write composition tasks they give to their students. From my own experience I know that this is the best way of really knowing what I am demanding of my pupils, discovering where different pupils are likely to experience difficulty and determining what kind of instructions and explicit instruction are neccessary. I am sure that Mrs H will be well prepared to support her students in their journey if she maintains her personal blog along the way.

I’ll try my hand too:

An imaginary landscape which accompanies me in my teaching and in my personal life while facing challenges (like now starting my thesis), appears in Dr Seuss’s brilliant book  Oh, the places you’ll go!

 There are so many inspiring quotes in this little book which can be particularly motivating for students daunted by a big project or challenge. Each page presents a different colourful imaginary landscape as the reader joins the main character who is simply (and cleverly) called “you” on the way to realizing personal aspirations. On You-Tube some of the landscapes have been animated.

Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading and learning.Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

This morning I started with Jill Walker’s chapter in Uses of blogs. She writes about the differences she experienced blogging about her research and other topics before and after she entered the “ivory tower” (in a permanent position).

There are other chapters in the book on blogging in academic work.

From here I peeked at Walker’s blog and found some relevant publications which are due soon:

Rettberg, Jill Walker. Blogging. Cambridge: Polity Press, forthcoming 2008.

 Rettberg, Scott, and Jill Walker Rettberg. “Narrative and Digital Media”. In Approaches to Teaching Narrative Theory, eds. David Herman, Brian McHale, and James Phelan, MLA (forthcoming, 2008).

Worth reading:

“Blogging Thoughts” by Walker, available online at:

http://imweb.uio.no/konferanser/skikt-02/docs/Researching_ICTs_in_context-Ch11-Mortensen-Walker.pdf

Walker, J. (2006). Blogging from inside the ivory tower. In A. Bruns, & J. Jacobs (Eds.), Uses of blogs (pp. 127-138). New York:  Peter Lang.

This morning I read an article by Fanning and Schmidt from the latest edition of the English Journal. The article is relevant to my thesis in several ways:

• The article was written by teachers and describes a process they underwent through professional development and collaborative inquiry.
• The article contains the kind of reflective statements I expect to hear from teachers: “I trudged on, hoping that no one would catch on that I wasn’t sure of what I was doing when it came to assessment” (p. 31). “I have used point systems and rubrics and that cursed ‘gut feeling’ but often had the nagging sense that if anyone looked too closely at my system, the lack of system is what would be seen” (p. 31). Both comments show the confusion and the insecurity I believe are common in teachers of writing.
• The article deals with how teachers see themselves as professionals.
• The article stresses the importance of listening to teacher stories. Inquiry into these stories can lead to neaningful change in schools. Teachers are integral to educational reform.
• The authors propose that it is important for teachers to see themselves as writers. (When I was studying Graham Parr’s unit and was required to write a story I followed up this question for personal interest. There is no consensus on this issue. I will dig out those old articles. I wonder whether as soon as you are blogging you are actually a writer?)
• The authors recommend rubrics similar to those I use in the classroom.
• The authors stress the impact collaboration had on their professional development. This is important in the building of successful PD programs but also in the methodology of my thesis. If I go in the direction of blogging, I must emphasize the reading of other blogs and commenting on them.
• “We know how easy it is for any of us involved in education to fall into despair. The frustrations are plentiful and run deep. Yet, we must realize that for a multiplicity of problems facing educators there are also a multiplicity of answers, and the answers lie in each of us and in the collective wisdom that comes from the inside of education” (p. 35).

Fanning, M., & Schmidt, B. (2007). Viva la Revolucion: Transforming teaching and assessing student writing through collaborative inquiry. English Journal, 97(2), 29-35.