Take a look at the rest of the post. What do you think? Are you beginning to see a safe space for documenting and sharing your thinking? Can you be professionally vulnerable and take a learning stance through blogging?I guess I value weblogging mostly because it is a place where I can share my struggles and brainstorm solutions with others. My blog is a space where I can open up my own line of thinking and invite feedback. My blog is a place where valued colleagues and I can reciprocally reflect on dilemmas. It’s a space where we can learn together, a space where I can learn from my mistakes and make adjustments in my personal and professional practice.
Finally, my weblog is a space where I can be vulnerable and yet still feel safe and supported. For some odd reason, I’ve never been maliciously attacked for my points of view. Instead, I have noticed a wonderful sense of decorum among fellow educators that is truly remarkable if you think about it. I guess that’s why I still feel surprised when professional colleagues tell me they are afraid to blog because they are concerned about not being taken seriously or being overly criticized for their thoughts and feelings. Of course, there is no guarantee they won’t be. I guess it’s a matter of trust in the kindness of strangers.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Some Relevant Reading
I know everyone's got plenty to read and think about right now, but part of my role here in the AI is to help you think further about how and why blogging is a skill set that I think belongs in the classroom and in your own personal learning. This post by Christopher Sessums is one that might help you further your thinking a bit about how blogging works. His post is specifically about a study about mentoring student teaching, but it seems to me that there's some useful info and research in there for all teaching/learning situations. Here's an excerpt that is really a summation of the post. His writing closely mirrors my own thinking on the subject:
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9 comments:
I have to admit, this is an issue I've thought about a lot. I have a tendency to write things and then look at what I've written and think, whoops, I probably just pissed off every teacher who's unlucky enough to stumble across this blog o' mine.
You're right, though, the response has been great. I think we're lucky too be teachers, though, I'm sure you've seen the kinds of comments that get posted all the time on the web. Absolutely brutal at times, and completely unwarranted. I was once privy to an exchange that included not only name calling, but actual physical threats between people who taught together at CSU (I was in no way involved, except that I subscribed to the same web mail list).
Jason, hmmm, in rereading my comments below it occurs to me that I'm WAAAAYYYYY off base as far as where you intended to lead us with your conversation. For that I apologize :). But now that the words are down, I'm just going to keep them - perhaps they'll spark an idea with someone else.
Now, as to what goes into the blogging. My assumption was always that #1 this is a public forum; and #2 the climate of research invites controversy and questions.
As for #1...used to be when words were put to paper one had the opportunity to discard ideas transcripted in haste. Worry about wadded up papers coming out of the trash to haunt you were put aside with the advent of paper shredders. Then the computer was born and I realized that nothing is ever 'really' discarded. Hitting the delete button simply wads up the offensive words and dumps them into the little trash-can icon. A place that is much like the wicker can under my desk, easy to access if you know where to look. People well-versed in computerspeak assure me nothing is ever lost, it can always be retreived one way or another - there is no real word shredder in cyberspace. So knowing that, there is a degree of censorship that naturally flows from my fingertips to the keys.
Now on to #2 ... having recognized that this is indeed a very public forum from which mistakes cannot easily be snatched it is also one in which each perception is valued. I've already experienced some conflict on my own blog, but personal biases cannot be questioned unless there are colleagues willing to push the envelope and make you take a hard look at yourself. If the research is to be valid don't our biases need to be set aside so that we can thoroughly examine the problem?
So, I look at what we are doing and recognize that we don't always have to agree - but we do need to be honest and give our input without undue judgement.
I don't want this to be a "safe place" where everyone tells you how great your ideas are. Instead, I view this like a good writing group - where people listen with an open-mind and give honest, real, critical feedback. I feel fortunate for this opportunity to share findings, ideas, and yes biases in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Both 1 & 2 below are really, really useful reminders, Natalie. Jason's point about the climate of teacher conversations is also helpful. In fact, the good climate is what allows for the conflict that you describe. I have not found all bloggers to be open to challenging ideas and purposeful conflict -- but the bloggers that I respect and learn from the most certainly are.
You guys are really, really helping me think here -- keep it up!
Oooh! At the risk of making this all about my own research question :), are blogs occasionally "tough texts" in that they are difficult, controversial, challenging in some respect?
If so, why do teachers who are using them for professional growth manage to wrestle with these texts in mostly constructive ways that stimulate further thinking?
I think that teachers are unique in that we are using this forum for professional growth, which gives us a different perspective on controversy.
When you post a video blog to YouTube (which I've never done) and someone insults your looks, or makes some senseless idiotic remark, it doesn't help anyone. But when someone challenges an assumption or idea that you've expressed in a forum like this and you're seriously in it to learn from it I think you're more likely to appreciate it than to freak out and block comments, erase your site, or write flaming responses (which just egg them on).
I don't know that it's because we're teachers. Lots of non-educators use blogs for professional and personal growth reasons, and have few problems, too, with controversy turning silly or ugly. In fact, many teachers have trouble with controversy. At the risk of losing the thread here, Cindy, can you explain more about what you're saying about tough texts and how they might not lead to constructive reception/feedback?
So if blogs are "tough texts," which I think they are, I think Bud is saying that it has less to do with who you are (ie. teachers) and more to do with why you are here, and the nature of the community you are interacting with.
Looking back to my original comment, those two teachers probably did "cross the line" in my opinion--which actually seems to support Bud's point, though at the time I wrote it I saw it more as an example of the fine line we walk in these discussions and how these forums can generate a lot of heat, which is OK as long as they are also producing light.
I think this thread may be played out anyway, so I echo Bud's sentiment about continuing Cindy's idea--I wonder if the fact that these texts are tough is one of the reasons that they're constructive (or is that not what you mean?)
I've written quite a bit on my blog about how I'm defining "tough texts" for the new book, so I won't repeat that here, but Rebecca has been using this language with her 10th graders that I think is helpful. Tough texts are those that are "controversial, difficult, or challenging" in some way. May be content, issues, density of text, whatever.
Sounds like it could apply to tough texts to me, and what I'm interested in my research right now is how to help people (kids, mostly) persevere through tough texts in the company of others.
I really, really like (and, in fact, will probably steal) what Natalie says in the last paragraph of her comment above because I think it applies both to blogs and tough texts in general.
Jason, maybe this thread ain't dead yet...
I went back and read your entry "personal pep talk" and I find it fascinating because of the way it fits in to my own ideas about how important controversy is in generating genuine discussions and critical thinking in the classroom.
Do you think that it is the fact that blogs are tough that makes them so productive, or do you see the fact that they're tough as an obstacle that has to be overcome?
Personally, I see tough texts as the best texts. That's why I choose to teach evolution and creation when I don't have to. That's also why I choose to teach _Go Ask Alice_ and _The Basketball Diaries_ when I could teach something less controversial.
I recently did a whole week on Malcolm X and had them journal on the question, "Is violence a justified response to oppression"?
Once you establish that your class is an open forum for ideas and you show the kids that you respect them, and that you will demand that others respect them too, it is amazing what kids will do with tough texts.
I think most teachers are afraid of these texts, but I don't understand why. Maybe I'm just naive, but I actually go out of my way to find as much controversy as I can. I'm confident, though, that I can handle it in a professional way, that I can connect everything I do to the curriculum, and that I can justify everything I do with parents and with my administrators.
As long as you let the students say the controversial things, and you just mediate, there's no danger of falling into the Jay Bemish trap. I agree that it's a book that needs to be written!
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