Neuf's+Blog


 * February 10th, 2010- "I Don't Mean Too!"

My name is Brandon. I love to listen to music on my mp3 player, especially Xzibit (the rapper from "Pimp my Ride"). Rap music is my favorite and then rock. My favorite television show is "Trailer Park Boys", and my favorite character is Jules. He is so funny and rude. I love to ride my bike when I visit my dad in Nova Scotia. Last summer I got to see the Stanley Cup, because Sidney Crosby lives in the same town as my dad. I don't really like school very much, because there are too many people I don't know, and it can be very loud. I hate doing work in my classroom, but it's okay when we go to gym. I like to shoot hoops the best, but only by myself. I hate it when other kids hit my ball, or their ball hits me. I makes me very mad. When I get mad I shout, swear, and sometimes punch and kick things. Last year I put a bunch of holes in the wall of the "quiet" room because I was mad about getting kicked off my computer time. I know that I am not supposed to swear at people, or threaten them, but lots of times, I feel like they are staring at me or too close to me. I makes me good when people are scared of me. The other day, my teacher saw me fingering another kid, again, and told me I had two minutes to decide if I was going to manage my behaviour or leave my computer. I really wanted to be on the computer but I still didn't like that people were looking at me. So I kept swearing under my breath and fingering the other kids and the teacher. My teacher kept counting down for me, and stayed pretty clam, but I couldn't get the thought of being stared at out of my head. When the two minutes was up I knew I was going to get kicked off, but I really wanted to stay on, so I blurted out to my teacher, "I don't want to swear!". My teacher smiled and thanked me for being honest, and thinking about my behaviour and asked me what our strategy was when I felt stressed out by someone yelling or looking at me. I knew it was to go for a walk, but I didn't want to leave, so I asked, "If I go can I go back on the computers when I get back?" My teacher told me that if I could calm myself down, and manage my swearing, we could talk about more free time on the computer. I really didn't want to get off, but I figured it wasn't a totally unfair deal, so I got up, swore a few more times at my teacher and the student, and walked out. **

Aug 10, 2009 - "Bye Bye Textbooks... Hello digital media!"

Another of the thousands of news articles about the shift in mind set of where and how we get information, as well as acceptable ways of demonstrating knowledge. [|NYTIMES]


 * Aug 10, 2009 - "Preparing for Storytelling"

I had the pleasure of listening to Kevin Amboe and his millions of links to getting stories started. We were afforded the opportunity to see some of his years of work, organizing and coordinating what is sure to be thousands of hours of on-line research and exploration. It reminded me of the talk by Chris Kennedy in that I can spend the next few weeks going through the links, messing with ideas, and trying to find things that work for me. This is the most useful way of presenting information to learners, intrigue them with examples, provide them easy access to experiencing things on their own, and then allow for support and feedback. I need to do more of this in my own practice.

I think there are several aspects and examples I am going to give a go, but the real value lies in the ability to go back to a month from now, two months from, or next year, and tap into the work that Kevin has done.

On a personal note, I always find the very start of a story the most difficult portion of the writing process. I think I want the perfect "reason" to write a story, to find a "shining eye" topic to build around. These are not growing on trees, desks, or any other object within my gasp, so I am often left searching the hollows and alleys for the spark that will ignite the torch. The same goes for our digital media story for this week. There are lots of options that have floated through my viscous conscience, non of which was the catalyst creating a solid mass I can take forward. The search continues... **


 * Aug 9, 2009 - "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" - Mark Haddon

"For Haddon to have created such a superbly realized autistic world-view is, in itself, remarkable. Brilliantly inventive, full of dazzling set pieces, unbearably sad, yet also skillfully dodging any encounters with sentimentality." The Times (London)

One of the things I liked best about Jason Ohler's presentation to our cohort was that he suggests "every lesson can be done in story format." Even Math. Why do I like this? Because I love stories, I live for others stories and to share my own with them, and I learn best when the "learning" has a context within which I can make my synaptic connections. When framed by a story, facts become magical, memorable pieces of my being, which can not only be brought to mind later, but become intricate, essential pieces of the whole.

This story is one such example which I take with me to work each and every day. I have read texts on the autism spectrum, I have autistic friends that I can use to improve my understanding of the condition, but when I read Mark Haddon's first person view of the world through autistic eyes (he is not autistic but wrote the book as though he were a young autistic boy) something changed inside my own head and heart that humbled me deeply.

The book has many great passages and qualities, many of which are a unique insight into how an autistic individual perceives the world around them. He personalizes the difficulty with language and subtle forms of communication. He explains the need for white noise and getting inside oneself (sometimes for many hours as we find out in the tube). But the image that resonates most deeply with me, and the reason I am citing this book as a foundation for my inquiry question is the description he gives of the cows. In Chapter 181 (thats right... 181) it reads like this. "I see everything. That is why I don't like new places. If I am in a place I know, like home, or school, or the bus, or the shop, or the street, I have seen almost everything in it beforehand and all I have to do is look at the same things that have changed or moved. For example, one week the ** **Shakespeare's Globe** poster had fallen down in the classroom at school and you could tell because it had been put back slightly to the right and there were three little circles of Blu-Tack stain on the wall down the left-hand side of the poster. And the next day someone had graffitied Crow Aptok to lamppost 437 in our street, which is the one outside number 35.

But most people are lazy. They never look at everything. They do what is called glancing, which is the same word for bumping off something and carrying on in almost the same direction, eg. when a snooker ball glances off another snooker ball. And the information in their head is really simple. For example, if they are in the countryside, it might be 1. I am standing in a field that is full of grass. 2. There are some cows in the field. 3. It is sunny with a few clouds. 4. There are some flowers in the grass. 5. There is a village in the distance. 6. There is a fence at the edge of the field and it has a gate in it.

And then they would stop noticing anything because they would be thinking something else like, 'Oh, it is very beautiful here,' or 'I'm worried that I might have left the gas cooker on,' or 'I wonder if Julie has given birth yet?'

But if I am standing in a field in the countryside I notice everything. For example, I remember standing in a field on Wednesday, 15 June 1994, because Father and Mother and I were driving to Dover to get a ferry to France and we did what Father called Taking the Scenic Route, which means going by little roads and stopping for lunch in a pub garden, and I had to stop to go for a wee, and I went in to a field with cows in it and after I'd had a wee I stopped and looked at the field and I noticed these things

1. There are 19 cows in the field, 15 of which are black and white and 4 of which are brown and white. 2. There is a village in the distance which has 31 visible houses and a church with a square tower and not a spire. 3. There are ridges in the field, which means that in medieval times it was what they called a ridge and furrow field and people who lived in the village would a ridge each to do farming on. 4. There is an old plastic bag from Asda in the hedge, and a squashed Coca-Cola can with a snail one it, and a long piece of orange string. 5. The northeast corner of the field is highest and southwest corner is lowest (I had a compass because we were going on a holiday and I wanted to know where Swindon was when we were in France) and the field is folded downward slightly so that the nortwest and southeast corners are slightly lower than they would be if the field was an inclined plane. 6. I can see three different types of grass and two colors of flowers in the grass. 7. The cows are mostly facing uphill.

And there were 31 more things in this list of things I noticed but Siobhan said I didn't need to write them all down. And it means that it is very tiring if I am in a new place because I see all these things, and if someone asked me afterward what the cows looked like, I could ask which one, and I could do a drawing of them at home and say that a particular cow had patterns on it like this. (Inset picture)" For some reason, this passage resonates in me to this very day, not only with regards to the amazing idea that autistic students, who seem to not understand anything and disappear into their own worlds, may actually be doing quite the opposite and seeing too much; but also in my own prejudice towards others view of reality. What an amazing difference in "reality" the little boy in this story has to the rest of us. Like all academic literature attests, coping skills of incongruent behavior often arise from a lack meaningful, successful skills in managing ones reality. So it is not surprise that a young man who has no mental filter, who sees as much in one glance as he describes, also hides in the closet and does repetitive math problems until hi mind his unwound.

This passage makes me wonder with excitement at what pictures my BASES students might take of their surroundings. What do they see in the school that I take for granted each day? What intrigues them, makes them smile, scares them, or teaches them each day in the classroom and hallways? What could I learn from them about finding a new point of view? How will they feel when they get to show their work? When others appreciate it? Could they learn to use an image to demonstrate learning?

In researching various technologies that have been used to assist Disabled people of all types I came across a program called IMILS (Intelligent Mobile Interactive Learning System) which utilizes mobile phones and unique software to allow for assisted decision making on the go for mentally disabled people. The paper written by the developer, //"Intelligent Mobile Interaction: A learning System for Mentally Disabled People"// was published in the above collection of human-computer interaction papers. While much of this program has to do with helping people with disabilities by providing a step by step process to making decisions with the assistance of cell phone software, the premise of the invention is that people with disabilities need to be independent, and that they need to "learn" while interacting with the world.
 * Aug 9, 2009 - "****Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction - Addressing Diversity"** //Pub. Springer 2009//



I think using digital cameras to capture the world as they see it will serve a similar function. By having the BASES students out of their seats, their separate classroom, and their directing teachers, we provide them an opportunity to explore and learn from the world and themselves, while getting direct feedback from the environment and the camera with which they are attempting to capture what they perceive as their environment. Rather than picture books, worksheets, and reenactments, students will be able to share their point of view about the rest of their world through digital media. I have seen a steady movement towards this model of teaching throughout the world in the last few years, as businesses and universities move towards an eye for creativity and ingenuity, rather than memorizing masterminds. If the world's most intelligent and successful people see the value in changing their patterns, perhaps it is time I start to change to model in my own classroom.

I love the idea of learning being dynamic and continuos, rather than a static document possessed by a teacher. If we can change our "workplace" to encourage self inspired, individual learning, outside of the classroom walls, engaging our students in the possibilities and rewards of learning, we will be sure to find a reduction in the incongruent behaviors we are hoping to reduce and huge leaps in the skills and behaviors we hope to instill.


 * Aug 9, 2009 - "Severe Behavior Disorders in the Mentally Retarded: Nondrug Approaches to Treatment" // Pub .// //New York [u.a.] : Plenum Pr., 1986.//

I want to take the learning we are doing in LATTE and apply them as best I can to my BASES class and the most challenging students in our school. My class has a variety of disabled students, from MID kids who you wouldn't distinguish from any others save for their academic ability, to non verbal wheelchair bound CP students, and of course the ever rising class of autistic spectrum kids. As a result, I began my research from the perspective of becoming a better teacher of BASES students, and helping them to become more successful (sans technology). I found this book (excerpts of key chapters actually... several chapters are not applicable) on-line and found it to be archaic in name and methodology, but quite modern in spirit. Much of the book deals with institutional situations and very science based approaches to behavior modification but many sections and quotes made me smile as they seem to be part of the more recent perspective on behavior modification, mental illness, and mental disability.

One of the areas that is discussed in length in the book is the various forms of reinforcement vs. punishment. I think that using various forms of media to help BASES students tell stories, and share learning, rather than forcing them to write poorly spelled, unreadable, incoherent paragraphs about their summers, follows this statements basic premise. Encouraging students to share of themselves and their learning in a way that they enjoy will not only provide more opportunities and work, but as a result reduce off task and oppositional behaviors caused by feelings of inability and failure.

When considering the community integration habilitation programs for severe behavior disabled students (a major goal of all BASES programs) they recommend keeping in mind various aspects and options for changing the "incongruent" behavior. We struggle in today's classrooms with many of the concerns raised in 1986, in that we still do NOT have a consistent ecobehavioral framework (ie.home and school requiring the same behaviors and using the same strategies). We are constantly evaluating the necessity of various behaviors based on individuals and their current/future environments, and we work with community organizations to attempt to adapt the environments as well as student behavior.

Why is this important to what I am trying to accomplish this year? Well my goal is to help BASES students become as successful and adapted to life away from the school system as possible when they graduate. Much of this has to do with basic "congruent" social behavior, along with functional communication and life skills. One of the most important factors in creating a ** **"**//**'minimum level of reinforcement'**// **is likely to be a social interaction between staff and client."** ** One of the best ways I know of to create real human connection with students is to listen to, and become involved with their thoughts, opinions, and stories.

I am hoping that digital media helps me connect to my BASES students stories, thereby creating positive reinforcements for desired behaviors, and increasing their self regulation of both necessary and socially congruent behaviors. **

On our first day of summer camp I had the pleasure of being a part of Julia Leong's seminar on telling stories through photos, challenging perspectives, point of views, and using media to demonstrate learning. Having never owned a camera it was fun to think about pictures outside of the family portrait. I have seen and appreciated many cool pics, from my sister, my wife, and professionals, but I have never been forced to look for "perspective" myself. I took a bunch of photos, mostly garbage, but messing with the setting and trying to evoke a memory, story, or emotion in a picture, (taken in a school hallway) was fun. ** I am a huge believer in the value of sharing oneself with others, and I want to explore photos as a way to do that. With my special needs class, who don't write much of anything, I am hoping pictures (and audio) will allow them find a "voice", and help teachers learn about their kids. They can do storytelling, blogging, problem solving, inquiry, and demonstrate learning all through photos, audio, or video.
 * Aug 9, 2009 - "Critical Photos"

I am sure this process of introspection, and critical reflection will lead me down many a wrong path, getting tangled in branches and webs of confusion, but I am super excited to see what my autistic students take photos of. In a few minutes the teacher group has already taken some really cool pics.


 * June 6th, 2009 - "Technology Lessons" Review

Semester one is complete, and my own high school semester is drawing to a close as well. As I think back on the multitude of lessons I have taught (or attempted to fumble through as it were) I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I had grand ideas about how important the shift to a techno classroom was going to be, and how amazed the students were going to be with the new and improved gadgets and tricks. But just as a house of cards must come down, so too did my little vision. The students were only excited about using laptops because the wanted to surf You Tube for hockey fights, or write a new status about how boring my class is on Facebook. A projector? Exciting? Other teachers use the Smart Board. Keynote presentations? Looks just like Power Point to them.

Afloat in a vast sea of salty tech boredom reality I happened upon an island I had visited before, and found solace, renewal, and happiness in its familiarity. That island was the realization that a good lesson, that good teaching has very little to do with the technology you include, introduce, or implement. It is not the tone of your voice, structure of your lesson plan, or the number of instructional and behavioral strategies you have mastered.

What engages students in learning most frequently and at the deepest of levels is a sense of purpose and value in the learning, often inspired by a teacher who exudes that same passion and excitement for learning. If a teacher has built a relationship with his class, based on mutual respect and trust, honesty and truth... the students take down some of their guards, and allow themselves the see the teacher as a person rather than a beaker full of facts. When they see this "person" live the example of thirsting for learning and enjoying the exploration and discovery of new ideas and discoveries they can't help but be a little intrigued.

Indeed, I found with technology lessons (both learning the technology and simply using the technology as part of a bigger lesson) the same thing I have found with all of my lessons. The single biggest factor in my lessons success was my own sense of the value of the lesson and the spirit with which I presented that value. If I believe in what I am doing (even when I don't know what exactly I am doing) the "purpose" of the lesson is accepted and achieved far more often.

So how did my technology lessons go? Great...sometimes... My class and I loved the wiki format for writing, posting links, pictures, and movies, and the various smaller assignments that were included on our wiki had varying levels of success. The cell phone movie was a huge it and fairly well done on the whole, though the final product leaves a little to be desired, (This does show me that students CAN get past the marks and appreciate something for the process though.) The podcasts took a little too long but a few of them provided me with insights into students and their motivations/lives I may never have gained standing at the front of the room.

It has been said before, and I admit sometimes it takes me a while to figure stuff out, but my first semester of LATTE has reminded me that the technology is a tool, used for opening up lessons and creating new ways of showing ones learning and expressing oneself. The lesson must have merit and value on it's own (unless the lesson/class is technology I suppose) and the foundation for the acceptance of all of this wonderful learning and the new fancy gizmos remains the teacher/student relationship. **


 * June 4th, 2009 - "Choices for Children"

I have to admit... while reading the article by Alfie Kohn, I flipped back and forth between finding ways to contradict some of his concepts or comments, and being pleasantly surprised when he would address some of my concerns. After finishing, I spent some time rewinding my own classroom sample clips and reviewing how my own practice reflects my beliefs about student autonomy, and the role of a teacher. I think where I stumble in my own teaching is the same place I had trouble while reading Alfie's ideas. In short, the extremes are easy to dismiss as poor practice, or less than ideal, and the reasoning behind the use of either extreme can be found faulty without much insightful effort. However, Mr. Kohn does not zero in on what the balance between teacher and student control should be, or which model produces ideal results. How, when, where, and who should have control of different situations?

I suppose the easy answer is that it is always different, with the students age, ability, class size, and safety issues all acting as variables; and yet, I find myself wishing for more discussion or reflection about the push and pull of the control. I believe that as an instructor I provide many opportunities for student choice, both in how they display what they learn and what they are learning. I am conscious of the changing role of a teacher and actively discuss these roles with my classes, but I also find myself caught in the grinding cogs of the machine that is the the public education system (with all of the pressures Alfie describes but quickly dismisses). I catch myself teaching the way I way taught because it is not only faster, easier, and widely accepted, but also because after years in the education system it is an internalized and learned behavior despite my cognitive assumptions and reflections. **

I have found myself frustrated so very many times already in my short teaching career, with myself and with the system which I must work within. I have fought battles at the highest levels of School Districts both for students and their teachers. Sometimes I leave feeling excited and refreshed, other times I am left gutted and contemplating my continuation in the field of education. This constant push and pull of success and failure, new and old, assumptions and reality, vigor and exhaustion is clearly part of the job, personal growth, systemic change, and life in general, but I worry that I will eventually slow to a stop and find a comfortable accepted happy place.

The cliche that "It is the journey, not the destination" holds so much truth, and yet, if there is no end to the race, how does one keep running? Some of the best teachers I know have contemplated or actually walked away from the profession because they tire of paddling against the current, and eventually choose their own health and that of their families over the fight. I wonder if perhaps NOT always challenging myself will allow me to teach longer.

These issues will never go away, and I wonder if there is a solution? Then... right before I feel like bashing my head against the wall i remember a few words from Einstein (I think)... it goes something like "You cannot solve any problem if you are in the same frame of mind as when you created it."

Then the process begins all over again. :)

May 20th, 2009 - **Information Revolution Response

How is Web 2.0 changing the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information?

If we are all teachers contributing to the creation and spread of "knowledge" then the skills that students need to engage with the world and learning change. They need to know how to sort and organize the massive load of information they have access too, and be critically selective in the data they choose to consume. They need to know how to evaluate the credibility and authenticity of the the author's of their learning, and be careful to maintain the credibility of their own contributing voice. They need to be able to interpret and strip down all sorts of presentation models, to find the essential learning in a wide variety of media and literary format. They need to know how to present their own learning effectively using new formats and modern technology. Indeed, the students must learn the skills once possessed by their teachers, because every day they will be exploring, sorting, selecting, and modifying the "facts" from others and presenting their interpretation, opinion, and perspective of these facts to others in an attempt to spread the learning.

I suppose then, that a teachers job is to help our students become better teachers. I believe this runs even deeper than the use of technology and the sharing of learning, touching the very core of the human experience. We are the best teachers of students when we are living, breathing, examples of our beliefs, pedagogies, and learning. If I want to teach my students the skills of the new literary world, the new technological world, the human world, I need to let them watch me struggle, stumble, explore, succeed, and live these skills in front of them each day. **

May 11th, 2009 - **Technology @ Work**

Today I had the pleasure of using a very simple technology, available to me for $0.99 in the app store on my iPhone, to reach new heights in my BASES room. At about 1:30am I was still not asleep and decided to surf for new apps on my phone. I found many new and interesting developments, including a TED talks app which I am loving, but in the Educational apps I found a reader version of Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I downloaded it think it may come in useful at some point and eventually fell asleep.

By third period, I was using the new technology and getting results no amount of "teacher expertise" had yet achieved. Brandon, an autistic student who suffers from numerous behavioural conditions. In the year that I have known Brandon, the best we could get from him during silent reading was to flip through car magaizines, looking at pictures, and trying to keep his swearing and violent outbursts to a minimum. Today, I offered up my phone, which we have used for math games and other things in the past, and told him he could listen to a story. He hesistated at first, as per usual, but within a few minutes he had his headphones plugged in and was not only listening but following through the text as it iscrooled down the screen with the reader. He sat in silence for about forty minutes, until the story was concluded, and retained far more about what he had heard/read than was his norm.

I would bet that he read more words/sentences today than he hasin the past several months. But what's more, he was calm, engaged, and self regulated for the better part of an entire period. This is a huge accomplishment for Brandon, and I can;t help but wonder what we could do in BASES with a bunch of iPod Touches instead of the booklets we are currently using. The possibilities seem endless... like a translator for our ESL/MID student Gagan, or a bone memorizing game for Marcus an MID student in 3 "out" blocks including my PE class.

//May 9th, 2009// - **Inquiry Question Thoughts

In the attempt to come up with an inquiry question for a field study we have been asked to reflect on the purpose of our teaching, our theme, our underlying beliefs about education and teaching. This foundation of belief about the teaching practice will serve as the spring board for our new exploration of the role of technology in our classroom.

When I look at my practice, the classes I teach, the subjects I have chosen, the methods and "rules" of my classroom, it is a hodgepodge of different pieces. I wear many different hats during the course of a class, day, semester and I use different tactics and strategies for different situations but there are a few common themes.

1) Be real... students can see through the "image" that is a teacher and appreciate/connect with the person you are, with all of your glorious faults included. It also allows them to feel like their real selves are good enough and worthy of sharing.

2) Students need a ever changing combination of information and opportunity. Learning the facts (which often includes or is others stories) and learning to tell their own stories is an essential part not only of education but life. As such, helping students appreciate and respect the stories of the world and contribute their story to the collective is a focus of my energy.

3) The best way to teach students the "moral skills" of the human experience is to be a living example of it every day.

My love of stories and belief in their value and power, across culture and time, makes this course and the new technology developments very exciting. For the first time in history, the "common man" is becoming an active and meaningful contributor to the community of knowledge. Until the development of Web 2.0 and it's multitude of options for sharing ideas, the only place an "average joe" could share his story was the local watering hole and his own dinner table. The vast majority of the public works of knowledge and even the public sharing of stories was the reserved realm of the the academic, political, and celebrity.

In today's classroom, the students are communicating their stories with the entire world, through texting, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging, personal web sites, and more. They have the power of the internet in their phones in their hands, facts about anything just waiting to be googled, and the lives of the rich and famous side by side wit those of their classmates. While this is scary for the older generations (and rightly so) it is also an awesome opportunity to create a new way for us to share our stories and build a new community.

With this in mind and the inspiration of [|Jason Ohler] and the power of digital storytelling I will be attempting to focus on the variety of ways we can use technology to have students share their stories and show their learning.

Check out the full details of my Inquiry Questions and background.

**