Taking Pieces of a Good Idea

A friend who works in staff development sent me an article about how one can approach the school house once a bring-your-own-device policy has been enacted.  It's worth reading.

I have a tendency to sometimes jump too aggressively on an idea without really absorbing what pieces of it work and which don't.  I was close to forwarding this to my own principal when I decided to re-read it.  I'm glad I did, for while the author has good ideas, some I think are impractical in our situation.  I don't, for instance, like her idea that teachers should engage in conversations via text message with students.  The advent of a technology doesn't necessarily mean it's time to breach the formality that should characterize the adult-child relation.  Also, one of the blogs to which she refers advocates teachers taking cell phones from students engaging in misconduct, something we have been told is legally out of bounds.

Instead, it's worthwhile mulling over the provocative point she raises that it's time we revise our classroom management practices.  Students aren't going to learn how to courteously conduct themselves in an academic setting if we don't take the time to teach, model, and reinforce mature expectations. 

Are we afraid the cell phones are going to be more interesting that us?  Are we afraid the cell phones are going to be more interesting than our lessons?  If so, can't we and our teaching strategies win most of the battles with the cell phone?  I think we need to accept the dare. 

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Another good read I had recently was from a Chicago area English teacher who called for ditching the five-paragraph essay.  You can read this essay by Mr. Salazar here.  Again, I was ready to jump all over his idea, but then I wondered about the role teaching the five-paragraph form plays in the formative years of a writer.  Coaching a fifth- or sixth-grader to do this seems quite appropriate.  Building a middle schooler's ability to write it seems appropriate to.  I propose that teaching the five-paragraph form is critical to nurturing functioning skills as a proficient writer.  Where we make the mistake is when we fail to stretch the kids beyond that form in high school.

And with that I need to pat myself on the back, for I've been waging war against the five-paragraph form in high school for years.  I just didn't know it.  For years I've been teaching my AP kids to do more with the introduction and summary than they are accustomed to doing.  I've been coaching them to write two-part arguments in five-paragraph form.  I've been teaching them to go beyond the ABC thesis to create ones that are compound and complex.  I have fought many of these battles in my academic classes as well. 

Perhaps to sell myself it's critical that I find kernels in what others write, and sometimes seek vindication and articulation for practices that I have already adopted.