Waxing Wisconsin

"The next time you're puzzled by the behavior of a colleague or prospect, consider the reason might have nothing to do with the situation and everything to do with who is making the decision and what they bring to it." Seth Godin

This quote resonates with me as I think about the situation occurring in Wisconsin. What do the Republican governor and Republican politicians bring to the table in this ongoing dispute? In a word? Control.

This dispute seeks to strip public employees of their right to collectively bargain or negotiate their employee contracts. The collective bargaining process is a regulated series of steps, a process. There are legal rules in beginning the process and in how the entire process is carried out.

The governor of Wisconsin seeks to strip the rights of employees to bargain, collect dues from constituents or form a union in the state of Wisconsin. In effect this turns the clock back to the early 20th century when employees could be mistreated in any fashion by their employers. The 8 hour workday, weekend, vacation pay, sick days, health care and more all came about through the collective bargaining process.

It's not the law abiding American union public employee who works a 40 hour week, pays his taxes, raises his children and votes who is the enemy here. The American union worker is not the villain who caused this economy to tumble and almost crash.

Collectively bargaining for better working conditions and pay is not the reason America stands at the crossroads of becoming a #2,3,or 4 power in this world. The decisions of a Gov. Walker and those like him who have shipped American jobs to China,India and other third world countries who don't pay their workers a living wage that is the culprit here. It's not the teacher, fireman, custodian, janitor, policeman, sanitation man or any public employee that keeps this nation running smoothly while you try to pull the rug from underneath their feet.

If you think we're going to stand by and let this happen, you better think again.

Never Retire

The title of this blog entry, "Never Retire", is in tribute to the late NY Times columnist, William Safire. In his last Op-Ed column for the NY Times in 2005, Safire extolled the reasons why citizens of a certain adult age should never retire. At that time, Safire, then 75 was writing his last column for the paper and going on to another chapter of his still busy life.

He wrote,"never retire, but plan to change your career to keep your synapses snapping - and you can see the path I'm now taking. Readers, too, may want to think about a longevity strategy."

I'd like to extend that exhortation to my professional colleagues in NYSUT, UFT, AFT, NEA and public educators everywhere who have retired from active service in the classrooms of America. As lifelong master learners, teachers who have served in the nation's schools have a lot to offer learners in this next phase of their lives.

As all of my veteran teacher colleagues know, new technologies and strategies are at the forefront of education now. There are NCLB concerns and professional development activities schools must meet for students and faculty.There are new health concerns facing schools and administrators are trying to ramp up new techniques to head off large school wide absences. How will schools meet these challenges?

One way to meet this challenge is to develop a cadre of teachers to deliver instruction in an online environment. These online instructors could provide additional resources for schools in meeting:

• NCLB and Testing requirements for k-12
  
• Meeting instructional needs in event of Swine Flu outbreaks
• Meeting Professional development obligations for faculty (NY state)
  
• Preparing students for Regents preparation or credit recovery
• Shortage of experienced math, science and language instructors
  

This five point challenge could be met by the legions of "retired" educators in New York State and elsewhere in the United States. These experienced veterans could make a significant contribution to learners without leaving home or their vacation abodes. Their synapses would still be snapping and their brains, active as ever would not atrophy!

"Retired" teachers have time. They have the ability to devote significant time in developing courses for learners. Many of my "retired" colleagues continue to teach courses in local colleges, teacher centers, other education providers and for their union colleagues.

Last year some of us took a hit in our 401B accounts or were newly inducted members of the sandwich generation. These sandwich members were caught between paying college tuition, supporting new graduates while they look for employment in this economy and managing their own elderly parents who may have meager means to pay for their own care. Some are caregivers to grandchildren. Some newly retired lost their spouses through death or divorce and the economics of their life has changed. Money in is fixed. Money out continues to rise.

So for my colleagues in" retirement", here's an option for additional compensation : learn how to design and facilitate online instruction, sharing your wealth of expertise from the confines of your boudoir, your den or poolside at the club.

Two myths I'm going to dispel over the next weeks are that veteran teachers are technophobes with nothing to offer the 21st century classroom. The second is that online learning is inferior to f2f instruction. I beg to differ.

In 2005 I retired from the Amityville School District in New York and my local union affiliate, the Amityville Teachers Association . In 2005 I "unretired" and co-founded an online learning company, Moodlerooms.

Please join me and add your voice to this blog. Let's have a conversation !

ID- Instructional Design-Do you have one and if so, what is it?

It's that time again! School is about to be in session and teachers are organizing their materials, gathering their thoughts, preparing for the upcoming in-service meetings, thinking about lesson plans and trying to squeeze in their last bits of summer fun.

Whew! Just the thought of juggling all of those proverbial "balls" is giving me a headache! As a 34 year veteran of the Long Island, NY middle school classroom, I know just what teachers are feeling right about now all over the country and I don't envy them!

I "retired" in 2005 and in my "unretirement", co-founded an e-learning business called Moodlerooms. We offer training, hosting, support and customization on the open source Moodle platform (Learning Management System). If you want to instruct others in an online course in k-12, higher ed, corporate training, government,faith based or small business, Moodlerooms is the vehicle.

Instruction..., that's been my raison d'etre for so many years, I can't abandon it it now in my un-retirement. Veteran teachers, never die , they multiply! I just read a recent article in the eSchool News, "Let retiring Boomers transform schools", which made the case for not letting a significant knowledge base walk into the sunset with their considerable skills unavailable to new teachers and their former students.

So how do we tap into this gigantic pool? How can they help our newly hired teachers?How can we use this pool of talent to retain and sustain new teachers as they hone their skills in America's classrooms? This article, though focused on the STEM areas, does emphasize 21st century skills of collaboration in the classroom; students and teachers learning from each other.

This collaboration could begin with the most basic of tenets in the classroom; that of instructional design. ID or instructional design is normally not a familiar term in schools of education or in school settings. Teachers are more familiar with terms like:

• lesson plans
• objectives
• aims
• curriculum mapping
• observations
• NCLB
• AYP

Instructional Design is the analysis of learning needs and the systematic development of instruction. One commonly used ID model is ADDIE:

• Analyze
• Design
• Development
• Implementation
• Evaluation
  

In a f2f classroom or an online learning environment, the greatest objective or outcome of instructional design is to serve the learning needs and success of students through the effective presentation of content and the fostering of interaction among the course or classroom participants.

In an online environment instructional design is transparent. You can monitor and track competencies. You can "see" the interaction of participants. In a regular brick and mortar classroom, instructional design is not transparent or may not be there at all. The class participation or collaboration is not seen, outside of the view of the instructor.

Objectives, aims, curriculum mapping, standards,ayp, NCLB or other educational jargon rule the day in regular f2f classrooms. There may not be one design platform used to achieve specific learning outcomes in the f2f classroom in a specific school. Teachers are given guidelines, state standards and information to use to achieve their learning goals for the year. There may not be a trackable system in place in a brick and mortar school to monitor the achievement of these targeted goals for each teacher in that school.

Why am I writing about this now, at this juncture of my life? Good question and one that I'll continue ruminating about in this blog, the UnRetired Teacher.