Showing posts with label best students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best students. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Monday, April 18, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Teachers in the Clouds
by Ron Samul
"So what’s better? A teacher who waits in the wings till students need them, or one who “softly and silently vanishes away” when they are no longer needed? Or, rather, which is better when?" -- Sarah Honeycurch
In higher education, I've been actively trying to reposition myself self in terms of my role as the instructor in the class. I don't think lecturing and traditional content delivery are viable. When I saw this questioned posted on NoMadWarMachine website, and I connected immediately with some of the students I worked with last spring and into the fall.
It is inherent in my teaching style to foster collaboration with student writing and research. I want them to be good researchers, better writers, better thinkers -- I also think that I have to step aside and let them write and be effective in their practice. It might take some students a few tries to format, argue, and research their work, but that practice is good work for students. Teaching overview skills to the entire class and then working with students one-to- one is important to fostering an individualized yet pedagogical approach to their writing. And there I am, "a teacher who is in the wings till students need them." While I know they are writing their research papers, I am waiting to assist, collaborate, and redirect students to resources, motivation, and other elements of the writing process. In Star Wars terms, this is Yoda in the swamp teaching his pupil the ways of the Force.
In recalibrating my purpose and interaction with students, it is clear that sometimes (with a few students) it is more important to disappear and be the whispering voice. In many ways we are in a contract with the student. They are taking the course and we have an obligations to instruct in the subject area. But how and why we do that is constantly transforming. More and more students come to me asking -"when am I really going to use this in my career." In some cases, they have a point - but not everything we learn we use in our jobs. That is where the transference of skills and ideas needs to be fostered. And perhaps, like Yoda, we need to show how important some of the transferability of their skills are across many jobs and skills they will be using. You will need to be proficient at formatting documents, finding effective articles and research, and they will have to communicate clearly. Students want individualized education and I want them to experience their educational path as an individual. But I also want them to be well versed in taking skills out of the classroom and turning them into assets in the real world.
The beauty of our job is that we will disappear, but the hope is to have an echo caught in the ears of the students - a voice that says you need to write, think, and express yourself. It is everywhere - and that is why you don't think you need them.
"So what’s better? A teacher who waits in the wings till students need them, or one who “softly and silently vanishes away” when they are no longer needed? Or, rather, which is better when?" -- Sarah Honeycurch
In higher education, I've been actively trying to reposition myself self in terms of my role as the instructor in the class. I don't think lecturing and traditional content delivery are viable. When I saw this questioned posted on NoMadWarMachine website, and I connected immediately with some of the students I worked with last spring and into the fall.
It is inherent in my teaching style to foster collaboration with student writing and research. I want them to be good researchers, better writers, better thinkers -- I also think that I have to step aside and let them write and be effective in their practice. It might take some students a few tries to format, argue, and research their work, but that practice is good work for students. Teaching overview skills to the entire class and then working with students one-to- one is important to fostering an individualized yet pedagogical approach to their writing. And there I am, "a teacher who is in the wings till students need them." While I know they are writing their research papers, I am waiting to assist, collaborate, and redirect students to resources, motivation, and other elements of the writing process. In Star Wars terms, this is Yoda in the swamp teaching his pupil the ways of the Force.
 |
| Yoda to the left. |
In recalibrating my purpose and interaction with students, it is clear that sometimes (with a few students) it is more important to disappear and be the whispering voice. In many ways we are in a contract with the student. They are taking the course and we have an obligations to instruct in the subject area. But how and why we do that is constantly transforming. More and more students come to me asking -"when am I really going to use this in my career." In some cases, they have a point - but not everything we learn we use in our jobs. That is where the transference of skills and ideas needs to be fostered. And perhaps, like Yoda, we need to show how important some of the transferability of their skills are across many jobs and skills they will be using. You will need to be proficient at formatting documents, finding effective articles and research, and they will have to communicate clearly. Students want individualized education and I want them to experience their educational path as an individual. But I also want them to be well versed in taking skills out of the classroom and turning them into assets in the real world.
The beauty of our job is that we will disappear, but the hope is to have an echo caught in the ears of the students - a voice that says you need to write, think, and express yourself. It is everywhere - and that is why you don't think you need them.
Ron Samul is a writer and educator. For more information or to contact him, go to www.RonSamul.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Unquestioning Writing - When Good Is Good Enough
by Ron Samul
As writers, we are constantly thinking about the audience and the impact of our writing. It is a fundamental element of teaching, thinking, and writing. It made me think, when I saw this tweet by Maha Bali, when she mentioned this moment.
This is a complex idea, and from a writing standpoint, it is also a brave idea. Writers as communicators and creative generators always seem to humble and diminish their craft. In this case, Maha is confident and sees that sometimes - no one comments because of the "powerful". I really admire the confidence and the realization that sometimes - that the power of writing can overwhelm. Why?
Social Media
The concept of finding something meaningful and important on social media is relevant to me. Online courses, MOOCs, connected learning, creative spaces -- all interact through social media. For me, learning, thinking, and listening to very smart and creative people comes from my interaction with social media. However, not everyone comes to social media to find that kind of connection.
Some people are connecting with family and friends, some are just passing by while they watch their favorite TV show, some are broadcasting on Periscope as they walk to work. Why people use social media is tailored to each person. The depth of reading and interaction really comes down to the user. And it isn't happening in real time, it is happening along a timeline that could be shifting through time zones and cultures. Sometimes, the most important statements or blog posts don't get the attention I think they deserve, merely because I posted them on a Friday afternoon before a holiday (fail).
But more importantly, people are looking for an interaction that is quick and reactive on social media. Things that make them stop, think, and experience deeper level thinking, (which relates to selective solitude, pausing, and deep reflection), may not fit into the "Like" or "+1" world of immediate reaction. This has spurred the age of important, meaningful quotes on stunning images.
In this scan and click age, deep thinking and impactful ideas sometimes need a difference venue. It sometimes needs a blogpost, or some area where things can be expanded and slowly unpacked. And sometimes, the "Like" or the "Share" simply doesn't relate the importance of meaning at that moment. Sometimes, I see an image or a concept and I want to keep it. I want to hold on to it. But where would I keep it? Social media lets you keep it on social media terms. But when something is meaningful, we want to do more than just throw it on our timeline. Perhaps it is merely my personal need to embody ideas, art, and writing in tangible ways. Social media isn't going away and perhaps a thirty-year archive of my Facebook posts will allow me to go back and find that poem I recall so sweetly. But I want to make moments my own - outside of the screen. I want to print them out and save them. I want to fold them up and leave them in a book to discover them in a few years.
Student Writing
Being a writing teacher is a complex beast. Following syllabus standards, rubrics, college standards, your own vision, and the student's vision - we create a position where we are looking for the right answer to the assignment. Writing is subjective and I am looking at process, not the right order of words in a sentence. I am looking at critical thinking, how you cite sources, how you can create a document that convinces me. There is some excellent writing that comes by in terms of student writing, but I find that those elements are the product of good thinking, critical research, and planning. It comes from students who engage the learning process. And sometimes, compared to the whole class or the entire writing section, you have to acknowledge excellence as it comes to you. And sometimes, after two or three rewrites and a clear process of thinking and learning - there comes a moment when you don't need it better. They have learned - they have more than met your requirements, and they deserve to stand in that moment and feel the significance of their work.
Creative Writing
Creative acts are a different beast. When you apply rubrics and grading schemes to a poem or a short story, it gets awkward and complex. The "powerful" concept that Maha tweets about can be emotional, formative, and change the way we see the world. That is what art does. And sometimes, from a creative writing mentor point-of-view, you have to judge something that isn't vetted through a rubric or a course guide. It comes from emotion, it comes from form and content magically aligning to make a moment (perhaps in time if read or spoken) that matches our time and space with the ideas of someone else.
I always question my role in interfering with the creative process. It isn't my story to tell, it is my job to make the writer think about making the story better. That is complex. And my suggestions are never - "throw this out and start over," because I would be devastated if someone told me that. But this "powerful" part of writing and speaking is fascinating to me. And there has to be a moment when we realize that expression and time meet you when you need it. There are so many poems, books, and important things written all the time. When I need them (personally), they will be there. I don't always see them now because I am looking at different things that I need now. We are all on different paths and moving in different ways. We find those moments that are "powerful" because we are looking. We need to stop counting "likes" and stats, and imagine that if one person moved forward because of the power of our words, it is always... always worth it.
I don't think I am done defining Maha's "powerful" because I think there is a lot to the creative elements here. There is an important conversation here in defining the "powerful" in our writing, in our expression, and in our ideas. We need to value them - make an earnest and important effort to value those words and ideas that can change lives. It may not make you famous or popular, but it is a rich and deeply thoughtful life, one without regrets.
by Ron Samul -- want to know more about me... go here.
As writers, we are constantly thinking about the audience and the impact of our writing. It is a fundamental element of teaching, thinking, and writing. It made me think, when I saw this tweet by Maha Bali, when she mentioned this moment.
This is gonna sound funny, but I think sometimes one can write something that is SO powerful that no one comments. Because it's that good!
— ℳąhą Bąℓi مها بالي (@Bali_Maha) December 15, 2015
This is a complex idea, and from a writing standpoint, it is also a brave idea. Writers as communicators and creative generators always seem to humble and diminish their craft. In this case, Maha is confident and sees that sometimes - no one comments because of the "powerful". I really admire the confidence and the realization that sometimes - that the power of writing can overwhelm. Why?
Social Media
The concept of finding something meaningful and important on social media is relevant to me. Online courses, MOOCs, connected learning, creative spaces -- all interact through social media. For me, learning, thinking, and listening to very smart and creative people comes from my interaction with social media. However, not everyone comes to social media to find that kind of connection.
Some people are connecting with family and friends, some are just passing by while they watch their favorite TV show, some are broadcasting on Periscope as they walk to work. Why people use social media is tailored to each person. The depth of reading and interaction really comes down to the user. And it isn't happening in real time, it is happening along a timeline that could be shifting through time zones and cultures. Sometimes, the most important statements or blog posts don't get the attention I think they deserve, merely because I posted them on a Friday afternoon before a holiday (fail).
But more importantly, people are looking for an interaction that is quick and reactive on social media. Things that make them stop, think, and experience deeper level thinking, (which relates to selective solitude, pausing, and deep reflection), may not fit into the "Like" or "+1" world of immediate reaction. This has spurred the age of important, meaningful quotes on stunning images.
In this scan and click age, deep thinking and impactful ideas sometimes need a difference venue. It sometimes needs a blogpost, or some area where things can be expanded and slowly unpacked. And sometimes, the "Like" or the "Share" simply doesn't relate the importance of meaning at that moment. Sometimes, I see an image or a concept and I want to keep it. I want to hold on to it. But where would I keep it? Social media lets you keep it on social media terms. But when something is meaningful, we want to do more than just throw it on our timeline. Perhaps it is merely my personal need to embody ideas, art, and writing in tangible ways. Social media isn't going away and perhaps a thirty-year archive of my Facebook posts will allow me to go back and find that poem I recall so sweetly. But I want to make moments my own - outside of the screen. I want to print them out and save them. I want to fold them up and leave them in a book to discover them in a few years.
Student Writing
Being a writing teacher is a complex beast. Following syllabus standards, rubrics, college standards, your own vision, and the student's vision - we create a position where we are looking for the right answer to the assignment. Writing is subjective and I am looking at process, not the right order of words in a sentence. I am looking at critical thinking, how you cite sources, how you can create a document that convinces me. There is some excellent writing that comes by in terms of student writing, but I find that those elements are the product of good thinking, critical research, and planning. It comes from students who engage the learning process. And sometimes, compared to the whole class or the entire writing section, you have to acknowledge excellence as it comes to you. And sometimes, after two or three rewrites and a clear process of thinking and learning - there comes a moment when you don't need it better. They have learned - they have more than met your requirements, and they deserve to stand in that moment and feel the significance of their work.
Creative Writing
Creative acts are a different beast. When you apply rubrics and grading schemes to a poem or a short story, it gets awkward and complex. The "powerful" concept that Maha tweets about can be emotional, formative, and change the way we see the world. That is what art does. And sometimes, from a creative writing mentor point-of-view, you have to judge something that isn't vetted through a rubric or a course guide. It comes from emotion, it comes from form and content magically aligning to make a moment (perhaps in time if read or spoken) that matches our time and space with the ideas of someone else.
I always question my role in interfering with the creative process. It isn't my story to tell, it is my job to make the writer think about making the story better. That is complex. And my suggestions are never - "throw this out and start over," because I would be devastated if someone told me that. But this "powerful" part of writing and speaking is fascinating to me. And there has to be a moment when we realize that expression and time meet you when you need it. There are so many poems, books, and important things written all the time. When I need them (personally), they will be there. I don't always see them now because I am looking at different things that I need now. We are all on different paths and moving in different ways. We find those moments that are "powerful" because we are looking. We need to stop counting "likes" and stats, and imagine that if one person moved forward because of the power of our words, it is always... always worth it.
I don't think I am done defining Maha's "powerful" because I think there is a lot to the creative elements here. There is an important conversation here in defining the "powerful" in our writing, in our expression, and in our ideas. We need to value them - make an earnest and important effort to value those words and ideas that can change lives. It may not make you famous or popular, but it is a rich and deeply thoughtful life, one without regrets.
by Ron Samul -- want to know more about me... go here.
Ron Samul is a writer and educator. For more information or to contact him, go to www.RonSamul.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
QR Code Project on the Ground / Leftovers from #DigiWriMo
Part of #DigiWriMo, I explored the idea of QR Codes and the potential for them to become keys to other information, ideas, and interconnections. Because I can't just leave things in hypothetical, I decided to attempt this in real time.I asked the students in my Graphic Novel course to write reviews of graphic novels that are in the library. Then we created QR Codes to print on a bookmark that was inserted in the books. When students at the college find these bookmarks in the books, they can scan the code and see what people are saying concerning the book. The students wrote an introduction, a commentary on the artwork, the comparative landscape, and (of course) their own verdict of the graphic novel. Adding cover art, links and vidoes, the students completed the assignment. The objective of the course was to allow students to create an artifact (bookmarks), while drawing interest to the graphic novel collection in our library. It was the librarians that supported our efforts in creating the design, getting them into a display format, and adding them into the books.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Reflections On Mentoring / "Only connect..."
This week, I've been thinking about the role of the mentor. I understand my official role as a mentor. But I feel like it has taken me some time to develop what I can do for students who connect. I am not the line editor, although I can pick out places where I think the writing needs work. I am the mentor who connects. Perhaps it is partly from the obsession I have with E. M. Forster's epigraph at the beginning of Howard's End that says simple "Only connect...." and he adds three pesky ellipses that just don't connect. Ugh! That idea is like a hand grenade in my brain. It is such a simple puzzle: elegant, beautiful, and sad. This relates to my mentoring philosophy. I want to find ways to enhance the likelihood of the writer writing. That is my job.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
#Rhizo15 / Yup, Did It Again
Part of the problem with rhizo thinking and learning is that I always come across a few students every semester who needs to go on a rhizo learning experience. I have to say, at the beginning of the semester -- I didn't think I would have anyone to even consider this type of learning, thinking, and writing. As the semester made it to midterm, I found two people. Both future educators, both ambitious, both ready to take on something bigger than the class.I am so excited to give them the opportunity to push and do something outside the traditional lines of the classroom. One will be doing a case study on a school system and investigate what it will take for the student to get on the local board of education. The other student will be working on a study that defines Native American access to local waterways including catch limits, licensing, and other issues with waterway usage for Native Americans.
I am very inspired by their ambitions - and I am very excited to see them move forward. It should be mentioned that a student who went rhizo on me last semester just emailed me sample chapters from a book of essays she is writing on ambitious in women. It was good. It was rhizo. And it was great.
It should be mentioned that a rhizo writer -- or in my case a rhizo writing teacher is someone who is able to see the moment when a student is ready to go rhizo. Not because they are the best students, or even the most ambitious, but because they need something more than what everyone else is doing. They need to go rhizo. This also ties into the Digitial Writing Month and how important it is to consider the right tools, the right mode to tell a story, write a book, or propose epic legislation. Part of the experience is listening to what the student wants to do and guiding them through some possible tools. They will have to find their way through digital writing like we all have - sometimes it is just typing on a word document, but sometimes, it is a collaborative - connective statement of who we are and what we can do as writers.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
#Rhizo15 / Where Did My Artifact Go? / Week 6
The metaphor has been a powerful tool for this experience. We search for metaphors when we have trouble understanding that intangible part of our experience. In this case, some of the metaphor is built into this experience. The metaphor is a very powerful resources for people searching for the intangible. Poetry is about the intangible: love, freedom, fear, and the spiritual. Those things are only brought to beauty by way of the function of figurative language.
In thinking about creating an artifact, I thought about poetry because of the impact that the metaphor can play in explaining this process: a whimsical poem about Dave, a serious poem about being lost, a passionate poem about the power of finding your own learning path. I thought about my novella about a student who attends class that isn't happening and finds out she is in the rhizome (a bit Black Orphan inspired I'm afraid. Those two came about together. Sorry.) But I thought about all the blog posts and how they might connect and how important his space has been to me. I thought about all the other blogs out there where people challenged my thinking, my way of teaching, and even made me ask those tough questions like what are we really doing?
What artifact would show people what happened at Rhizo15? What would give people the insight? Something concrete? I was drifting for awhile. Then, it hit me.
 |
| Ron looking for his Rhizo15 artifact. |
It wasn't what I wrote or said - it is what I did. Two students were cut loose from my class on the last two weeks. They were sent out to do something - learn something, and come back. Those two students took the risk and the challenge - which was far more work than writing my last paper, and they defined themselves. My artifacts are the two potentially new members of the rhizome community. They went out and defined their own path, they went out, sought answers that weren't for a grade but for themselves. They were driven, passionate, and they got it. We have always been in the rhizome. We have always been thinking this way. The best way to foster a community: sustain it, and these two students went beyond my hope and they went from students to scholars. They are my artifacts, not as something left behind to pick up and referenced, that is what the blog is for, but people actively walking around looking for answers, asking questions, and getting lost so they can be found. I will leave you with this comment from one of the students, "I do plan to be a professor someday and have been analyzing teaching styles and class participation throughout my college experience. I will definitely be taking what I have learned from your posts and teaching, into my whole life, my learning, my leading, my parenting, and my teaching."
_________________________________________________
P.S. Thank you all for your support and vision. It was amazing. I am up for any collaboration or projects. Please keep me in the loop.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Confessions of a College Educator: Why I did what I didn't do...
In my previous post, I discussed the decision I made to let a few students who were doing well in the class, be cut free from the last few weeks of programmed course work so that they could do some rhizomatic exploration - or what is now being termed "free-range-learning". I discussed some of the student reactions, ideas, and the impressions they had moving into this new place of learning.Dave Cormier mentioned in the Facebook group, "there must be at least one person in that room that you're worried about. Maybe someone who is overly passive yet a good student? Someone else who might not be all that self driven?" And it got me thinking.
The reason I selected the two students came about because they were safe. I knew they were academically sound and if they didn't do another stitch of work this semester they would be in great shape. They were proven to be motivated and focused, their research papers were focused and well executed. So, I knew that they would understand the idea and run with it.
But to get to the heart of the matter, why didn't I ask someone less accomplished, someone not doing well? Part of it was not being able to see that perhaps the method was the issue. If I am being honest, perhaps I thought lazy, lack of motivation, and lack of perseverance was a "student" problem, not a "design of the course" problem. Now, it might seem evident that a student allowed to "free range learn" might prove all of those assumptions on my part as false.
At this point, I should sit on this idea. Part of my thinking process wants to set up a basic engagement process - a student must understand what I am asking them to do; the student must be able to work independently; the students must be.... Yeah, that is where it gets conflicted - why shouldn't they have the same experience, the same opportunity, the same possibility to learn?
Taking the best students sets up better rate of success, but it doesn't gives us a true vision of what is possible. I was never the A student - but I was the person who would have really benefited from doing things differently, thinking differently. And when it came down to it - and no one gave me those options, I created them myself. I wrote a novel in my junior year of high school because I wasn't being challenged, I made my teachers read it and talk to me about it, and that was my own rhizome learning exploration. I wasn't in the honors society, or the top of my class. But, I knew the value of work and refining what was important to me as learner. I can't believe I missed that in bringing this concept to the classroom.
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