Tech Woes

Yesterday I got in early, which I pretty much always do. I have a workbook I use for homework, but I've now reached volume 2 and I haven't got that. Actually the school owns this book, but cleaned out our bookroom and the one next to it. The dual bookroom had a wall removed and is now a JROTC classroom. I think it's awful, but they claim to like it and who am I to argue?

Fortunately, I collected enough books for a class set before the conversion. But I've searched the new locations several times, and there is neither hide nor hair of any book I use. I'm sure the organization system, which entailed having a bunch of volunteers move everything, had some rhyme, reason or both. However, I cannot detect any.

So I wrote my own assignment, on my little Macbook, and tried to print it. But guess what? The printer didn't work. I loaded it with paper and it still didn't work. I went to another department office where another printer didn't work. Fortunately, as chapter leader I share an office with a corded printer that actually works. (I usually only use the office if I have a very private conversation. This happens rarely enough that I'm the best office mate anyone could want.) With my first success of the day, I went and made copies.

Then I went to the classroom to put up my PowerPoint. But my code didn't work on the computer. The little Apple wheel moved round and round, but it wouldn't let me in. Not being one who's easily dissuaded, I tried our generic "teacher" login. After all, I had the password and everything. But the machine, perhaps sensing I was trying to trick it, rejected that login as well.

Then I wrote everything on the board I'd prepared for the PowerPoint, and set out to check who'd completed the homework. I got on my little computer and logged on to Skedula--well, actually I didn't. It turned out the internet was down. Why? Who knows? DOE internet is moody and does what it feels. So I collected the homework, which I hadn't intended to do today, and the students will get it back tomorrow. My marking hand seems to still work.

These sound like little things, but they happen one after the other, and they seem to happen all the time. I'm not a Luddite, and I actually enjoy working with the computer. But the least they can do, if they want us to utilize them in class, is to keep them in reasonable repair and make them readily accessible.

We don't break. We plan every day and are ready for whatever. And for that, we are vilified by the press, the government, and as often as not, our immediate supervisors. What are the consequences for highly ineffective working conditions? Likely as not, someone lecturing the teacher on failure to adapt or differentiate.

When the Tech Doesn't Take

I was exiled to the trailers for at least a decade. Technology came, and technology went. There were rolling tables filled with laptops. There were other rolling tables full of ipads. There were little projectors that allowed you to show images from your computer. There were smartboards. There were manipulatives and there were workshops that taught me how to use all of the above.

Of course, in the trailer, there were four walls (most of the time) and a blackboard. At some point, while everyone else had smartboards, they wheeled in a Dell laptop with a projector. It was secured to the wall with a chain that made it look like something out of The Cask of Amontillado. It frightened me. And it had no speakers. I actually bought a set somewhere, and used it to show video from time to time.

In our school, the principal took a dim view of smartboards, as he'd grown weary of replacing lightbulbs at $400 a pop. So he started taking them down and replacing them with LED screens. Shortly thereafter, a smartboard was installed in the trailer. It was pretty imposing and impressive looking. Of course no one bothered to connect it to a computer, so as impressive as it looked, it was really more of a dumb board than a smartboard.

A little over a year ago, my AP kicked me out of the trailer. Sure, I'd been kicked out of worse places. But one good thing was that my new classroom also had a non-functioning smartboard, so I kind of felt at home. I took to hanging my jacket on it every day and pointing out to both the students and my supervisor that I was making use of the technology. I demanded credit for it on my observations, but you know how unreasonable supervisors can be.

But then the principal went and installed the LED screen in my room. Not only that, but he attached it to a computer that actually worked, a Mac no less. I was really up against it. I had our twenty-something Chinese teacher explain to me what to do. She was very thorough. Now I've got PowerPoints to accompany my lessons. They're really great for vocabulary. I'm not much of an artist, but I can find pretty much anything in Google Images.

The thing is, though, that once you get used to this, it's hard to do without it. Doubtless the Mac Mini in my classroom is equipped with Mini Memory too. Sometimes my PowerPoints freeze and die. When that happens I usually have to restart the machine. I pull my thumb drive out of the Mini and use my Macbook Air to display images. My computer, being non-DOE, seems to work all the time with no issue whatsoever.

Sometimes the Mac restarts before I finish, and I'm able to continue using the large display. Sometimes it doesn't, and I walk around with my 13-inch screen like an elementary teacher showing children pictures from The Cat in the Hat. But now that I've started with this stuff, it's really hard to turn around. I used to explain words and draw pictures. Sometimes I'd hear the words repeated in various languages I didn't want to hear in my English class. But pictures are the best.

When young teachers would complain to me about the tech crapping out, I used to think how lucky I was to not depend upon it at all. Now I understand their complaints and have pretty much the same ones.

I can't tell whether I'm moving forward or backward.

Are You Afraid of Tech?

I can't say as I blame you. Principals can't wait to install another Smartboard, put out another iPad, hook up WiFi to the boiler room, and incorporate computers into everything and everyone.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love computers. I love the internet. It's like the public library right here on my laptop. Why deprive anyone of that?

On the other hand, there are some things we still need to do ourselves--like writing. How many times have you received a paper with the internet address still on top of it? How many times have you googled a sentence from a student composition to find it's copied word-for-word from Wikipedia or Sparknotes? How many times has the next composition you read been identical to that purloined essay?

That's why, especially in writing classes, I demand almost all work be done in front of my eyes. I've given up on assigning writing homework. "My brother/ cousin/ girlfriend/ dog helped me." I don't want to know how your brother/ cousin/ girlfriend/ dog writes. I need to know how you write.

I have nothing against the use of tech in the classroom. For a time last year, by mistake, I was temporarily assigned to a classroom with a Smartboard instead of the barren, too hot, too cold trailer. I used the thing every day. On a computer, I have excellent handwriting, and kids no longer laugh at my miserable indecipherable scrawl.

Scrawl notwithstanding, I don't need the Smartboard. I don't even need my little iPad (though you'll pry it out of my cold, dead hands). They're here to help us. They are tools that extend the activities we've already planned. We'd be silly not to use them. But while machines break down, we don't. We need to be able to do without the machines.

And despite the cartoon, despite the rantings of Bill Gates, machines will never take our place, never be able to answer our students' questions, and never be able to give the guidance we provide--unlike the "reformers," we always look at more than test scores.

It doesn't make you a bad teacher if you don't use tech, even if your admin gives you a hard time. But if you can't do without it, there's something other than tech missing from your bag of tricks.

I Am Educated by the DOE

I was called to UFT HQ in Manhattan for a discussion on the Izone. What the hell is the Izone? Well, it has something to do with innovation and/ or technology, and they showed us a flowchart that describes three ways it's used. Me being a mere mortal, I barely understood any of them, nor did I have the vaguest notion which category my school fell into.

Nonetheless, we got to hear Michael Mulgrew comment on how rarely the UFT and DOE get to do co-presentations.  He mentioned that education was the only area in which we get technology and it actually makes our lives more difficult. Any special education teacher dealing with SESIS, and any general education teacher performing their convoluted and idiotic attendance procedure can attest to that.

Then we heard from the DOE rep, who said it was all about the kids. He was careful not to use the usual crap about how it's usually all about the teachers, and instead said things centered around administrators. His goal, he said, was more personalization. For example, you'd be able to approach your student and say, "Hey, you look a little down today. What's bothering you?"

That's a worthy goal, but his very DOE has reduced the number of working teachers by 10% over the last three years, while also cutting budgets to the bone. This has resulted in huge numbers of oversized classes, and many, many more at absolute contractual maximum. I couldn't help but wonder, if they really want kids to get more personal attention, why the hell do they load them like sardines?

He discussed flexible learning settings--for example, do we really have to have a 45-minute period? He discussed various SBOs that had permitted innovations, and stated, "If it works well, chances are there are positive relationships." I agree with that.

Nonetheless, his boss, Mayor Bloomberg, has been systematically poisoning the relationships between teachers and admin for a decade. Over a year ago, he announced that teachers would not be getting the raise NYPD, FDNY, and everyone else got, despite his insistence on pattern bargaining when the pattern was crap. So yes, positive relationships would indeed help things to work well, and why on earth does the DOE work so hard to ensure so few exist?

The DOE rep said blended learning, entailing online activities as well as live teachers, was not intended to replace working teachers. I wondered then, why the hell Joel Klein would land working for Rupert Murdoch on some online learning enterprise. I'm afraid I would have to ignore quite a bit of history to believe this rep, even if he himself believed what he was saying.

However, his mention that the DOE had applied for "seat time waivers to enable students to receive accelerated credits" suggested to me that the DOE was indeed trying to replace working teachers. It's unfortunate they have fostered so much fear and loathing that nothing whatsoever they claim can be believed.

But that's Mayor Bloomberg's vision, and Lord have mercy on all of us if we can't put a stop to it soon.

Do Smartboards Make You Smarter?

There's a lot of controversy in my school over who gets rooms with Smartboards. Some people love them. Some fear them. Me, I can't afford to care one way or the other. After all, I'm trailer trash, and the only technology out there is the iPad I carry in my bag. And yes, I use it. I can't draw my way out of a paper bag, and when an ESL student asks me what a fax machine is I can pull out a picture on Google images and there you go.

If I had a Smartboard, I'd use that too. There would be an advantage in that I wouldn't have to walk around like a kindergarten teacher with a Dr. Seuss book showing the picture. And I'm sure with time I'd figure out other ways to use it too. But I don't need it. I don't need the iPad either, though I love it. I've drawn preposterous things on the board and then had kids come up and improve on them, showing me what they could do. They're usually delighted to mock my lack of artistic ability.

If I did actually need a Smartboard, I'd be less of a teacher. What the hell would I do in the inevitable instances the ancient DOE computers went down? Well, I could write on the board. And if I didn't have a board, I could buy some tape and tape paper to the wall. I think being a good teacher requires being able to improvise, to think on your feet. All the great teachers I've had were very smart, could argue their subjects in great detail, and none had or even imagined such a thing as a Smartboard.

How many crappy Powerpoint presentations have you been subject to? How many times have you sat through some tedious presentation of Lord knows what while some insipid so-called educational leader read it aloud to you? How many times have you wondered, "Geez, why doesn't that idiot print out this nonsense so I can read it in the 2 minutes it likely doesn't even merit before throwing it in the trash?"

Technology is a great tool, and I'll use it if it comes my way. I've seen creative and funny uses of tech. But it doesn't make you a better teacher. And it's still garbage in, garbage out if what the presenter offers happens to be garbage.

Yes you can use it. And yes, if you use it, it may help. But you can do well without it too. For those who can't, it likely won't matter what they come up with, no matter how cool they think it is.

Technology in Mr. Bloomberg's New York

Thank goodness we agreed to come in on Election Day so we could get down to the important work of--well--whatever it is that we're supposed to get done on that day.

At our school the focus was on technology, and we learned many things. First, we got a lecture about computer tablets from the very same guy who lectured us about computer tablets last June. There were a some minor differences. For one thing, he didn't trash smart boards, as we were due to receive instruction on smart boards that afternoon. Once again, there was no time to actually use the things as he spent the entire session repeating all the important things he'd told us the last time. Naturally we, the exact same group, were thrilled to sit through this crucial lecture a second time.

Technical glitches abounded, and I watched seven minutes pass as he booted up his computer. I wondered what an observing supervisor might write about me were I to do that in a classroom. But I didn't need to worry.

One new nugget the guy shared with us was that a TV had been stolen from the trailers, and that my students and I would never, ever be able to actually use any of the technology I'd spent all day being lectured about. I've been teaching over 24 years. Only once did I have a computer in a classroom. That was when I was assigned to teach word processing. On the first day of that class, only one computer worked, and not all that well. On the second it joined its companions in death.

We have wi-fi in my school, even in the trailers. I asked if I could bring my laptop and hook it up to the school network, so that we might have internet access--we could look things up in the encyclopedia or the dcictionary, for example. I was told that was too dangerous. I could infect the whole system with a virus, and then we'd have to blow the whole school up and start from the beginning (Oddly, Holiday Inns let me use their networks whenever I wish). I told them I practiced safe software, but it was a no-go.

If I don't go to the trailers I'll be assigned to half rooms with no room for my kids, let alone technology. So it's the dark ages for me and my kids.

Thanks, Mayor Bloomberg. It's just one more feather in your cap.

What I fantasize about is a whiteboard, a low tech marvel on which I can use a pen rather than chalk. I find my handwriting is actually legible on a whiteboard for some reason. I had one for a short time, but the guy across the hall from me, a high-level, key-toting assistant to the social studies AP, claimed he was allergic to chalk and had me booted out. It was disappointing because his room didn't have AC--only a noisy fan. The second day I was in the room he stole the noisy fan for his air-conditioned room.

I often wonder how he survived that deadly chalk allergy during his first twenty-five years of teaching. Alas, he retired at the end of the year and now I'll never know.