'Tis the season to be grumpy....

I thought for awhile that the articles and op-ed pieces against teachers in this nation were diminishing but apparently I was wrong.  All of a sudden a number of articles and opinion pieces showed up in newspapers, national magazines and the like.  I wondered why all of a sudden and then it dawn on me that legislatures around the country were dealing with budgets.  And in some cities, belt tightening was being enforced, particularly those school districts that are run by city councils.  Where is there a fair amount of money that can be cut?  In Education.  The goal is to cut funds, not provide education for our kids. 


As if on cue, another blog posted an article about the worst ten cities to be a teacher.  I found it interesting and looked to see if I could find some connecting link but for the moment I haven't found one.  These ten cities are all over the country in industrial areas as well as agricultural places.  You can read the article on the web at:  http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2012/03/26/the-10-worst-u-s-cities-to-be-a-teacher/.  Thanks to my friends at OnLine Colleges for the posting.


If that didn't get stuck in my craw, then I went to Amazon.com lately to look for some new books to read.  I thought I might skim a few educational textbooks.  Heaven's was I mistaken.  Textbooks range in price from $14.95 to $268.99 for a chemistry textbook.  Aw, come on now--$268.99?  But that was the price.  I am having problems looking at the prices of textbooks, particularly in the science fields.  If we want more science teachers we will have to figure out a way for those wanna-be-teachers to be able to purchase those books.  The price of most of the textbooks was high and then something caught my eye--I could RENT one of those textbooks for $32.95.  RENT THE TEXTBOOK!  Unbelievable.  


Perhaps as they say to some politicians I need to get out of my office and see what the real word is like.  


So my next spin off in my research was to find out how much school districts pay for classroom textbooks like pre-primers, social studies textbooks, and science textbooks.  I didn't look to question what workbooks cost, those newsprint soft copy books for spelling and mathematics, primarily bound work sheets.  School Districts are reluctant to give out the cost of these books as they are complicated by the fact that some textbooks last seven years, others are outdated in just a few years, i.e., software programming.  However, textbooks are a major part of a school district's budget in some cases right behind wages.  So back to the drawing board or in my case, the iPad.


I wondered how much it might cost to publish a textbook on the iPad (forget for the moment about brand specifics, such as APPLE or DELL).  According to one web site it would cost me $2.74 to publish my own book that was eight by eleven in size and a hundred pages long.  I not sure what they do for that money but it is a bit cheaper then the some of the costs I've seen published.


However, I then review the SMART BOARD which are in many classrooms.  I could write my own texts and project on the White Board.  BLACKBOARD, a software program that is formulated to allow professors and teachers to provide a basis for print material to a class room of students who have computer access. It is one of my favorite programs.  This would certainly cut down on the cost of textbooks for students if they could get the necessary material from the Blackboard.  


However, I went a step further and asked APPLE what they could do in this realm
of high costs.  They are already ahead of me...  Watch the following web site from Apple as to their new textbook idea:  http://www.apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/  Be sure to watch the video that is to the right of your screen--a small logo.  


Be aware that this video includes advertising material favorable to APPLE.  But I suspect that MICROSOFT is not far behind if not already pushing a similar product.  It is the idea that I want you to consider.  Put interactive textbooks on pads and let kids learn.  And an interesting point--these interactive textbooks on the pads can be up-dated and up-graded.  What a great idea.  Just like my computer software and apps now that get free up-grades whenever necessary.


You would think I'd be a happy fool given this idea of interactive textbooks for the iPad but there is a catch.  Apple appears to be willing to set the authors up but they will be charging a price.  And in reviewing some publishing houses they will be selling these textbooks for one year only.  You don't get to keep the books.  If this is true I will be very, very unhappy.  We have the technology to help students learn but we going to still make them pay.  


So what is the answer.  I don't have any answers at this point--I'm still looking and pondering.  I have downloaded two apps for my iPad and computer, the Khan Academy and TED.  However, I haven't made much use of them as yet but I shall.  I did skim the Khan Academy and even did several of the learning apps.  They are well done but I was overwhelmed by the mathematics selections--literally hundreds of learning programs.  "Which Knowledge is of Most Worth?"


I also reviewed a number of apps in the Apple App Store.  Lots of games and those that purport to teach something do so with little skill.  Once again I have people who write these programs who are not teachers.  Sad.  And a lot of the apps appear to be games, not a learning lesson.  But this will work itself out as the cream rises to the top.  I think that is where the Khan Academy has the edge--students have used their programs and have learned.  


Some years ago there was a computer program developed by the Learning Company called, "Oregon Trail."  It was (and is) and interactive learning program that has student go from St. Louis to Oregon.  The student has to make decisions as to how many oxen, how much food, who is to go along, how many bullets for hunting, etc.  It was basically well done except in the first edition of this program one had to circle the wagons when indians attacked.  My problem with that was that I had student teachers teaching in schools with a high percentage of native Americans.  Those students doing the program immediately were on the side of the indians.  "Get those white people!"  So I told the programmer of Oregon Trails and his response was, "Well, just don't use it."  I have always thought this was a teaching moment as to the clash of the two cultures.  What an opportunity to teach cultural differences.  By the way, you can now by the fifth edition of Oregon Trail for very little on Amazon.  


I suspect we'll see more of these problems as the technology develops.  


I suspect if I had a point to all of this is that there are too many people who think teachers are costing too much but are overlooking $269.00 textbooks.  I am still concerned that people who are just getting by in this society will have poor schools.  The rich people will send the kids to private schools.  It has been that way for ever, hasn't it.


Thanks to all those teachers who still want to teach, even those in the ten worse cities for teachers.  They are indeed a breed apart.  

A Potpourri of Thoughts....

"Potpourri" is an interesting word that I always misspell on my first time around wherever I tend to use it.  It generally means a "collection" and most frequently it means a collection of dried flowers used for a nice smell.  Found in many ladies'  drawers.  But it can also mean a collection of songs, as in, "a potpourri of melodies."   In my use today it means a collection of thoughts about the use of iPads in the schools, as in iPads being used by students to learn....even old students like myself.  


I suppose I could have used the word, "Smorgasbord" in place of "Potpourri", both have about the same meaning...collection, and I have trouble spelling both of them.  Hmmm.


Many years ago (Once upon a time?) i took an initial course in "research" which included a very good section on how to write about research.   One of the assignments in the class was to understand how to use citations and footnotes.  I haven't heard the term, footnotes, in years.  I'm beginning to understand why.  We also learned a fair amount of Latin, as in:  opus sit. (as often as necessary) and et al. (and others or and elsewhere) and op cit. (already cited).  There are a lot more latin citations that I have totally forgotten.  Even the style of citations has changed from the bottom of the page to the end of the chapter to the end of the report or book.


And hence to another changing.  But for the moment put this aside.  We'll come back to citations in a bit.


Another thought....   I have been reading the three books of the Hunger Games by Susan Collins.  You know which book it having been all over the news about the new movie of the same name.  I think I wrote on this blog several years ago after reading the first book that I would not read the rest as I dislike violence and this book had been very violent.  Why it was a young adult book I had no idea but I did have an idea of why it was popular.  Teenagers like things that we adults dislike.  And I think many adults who were raised during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were just plan tired of war.  So when we, as teachers, pursued this book we opted to say it wasn't for kids.  Somehow the kids picked up on this and all have read it.  It is one of the most popular books on the market for young adults.


But given the fact that I write about education of children and young adults and I am as well concerned about what they read, I had to finish the trilogy.  I did finish the books with a black heart and a more ugly disposition.  My wife wanted to know what was wrong with me.  Humph!   But as a researcher I still would like to interview a number of young adults and see what they saw in the books.


In an effort to cleanse my mind, I have been also reading another trilogy of books by E.L. James...."Fifty Shades of Gray."   It has been cleansing all right.  From killing and war (The Hunter Games) to Sex and BDSM in the bedroom (Fifty Shades of Gray).  My inner being is saying "no, no," to the former and "yes, yes, to the latter.  My brain is reeling.  "Good Morning, America" described the "Fifty Shades of Gray" as pornography for the American women.  Huffington Post suggests that the book is a new level for Women's Literature.  They didn't say whether it was up or down.  However, it is one of the hottest properties at the moment for the e-readers.


Permit me if you will to say that I have enjoyed all three books by E. L. James as she is a very talented writer.  I have smiled, laughed, groaned and worried as the characters in her book developed within the story.  Well done, Ms James.  The only biography I could find on her was that she lived in West London and has two children.   I seriously suspect that she is a Seattle native as she is very cognizant with this city and the surrounding area of Bellevue, Kirkland and the rest of the Pacific Northwest ( i.e. (more of that Latin) Portland).


While I haven't finished the third book in this series, I am closing in on the final excitement but before I get to it something happened to make me put this book down and write this blog.  As you know this blog about "Teachers and Teaching" is a way for me to organize my thoughts, an autobiography of my inner brain on teaching.  


This book is considered by most a women's literature genre.  Now stick with me...this is going to be some wild leaps of courage in my thinking.  Let's go back to Jane Austen, one of my favorite authors who wrote of the landed gentry in the early 1800s.  Her novels were widely popular and furthered women in that society.  [an aside:  for further reading, see books about Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman doctor in the United States, near the end of the 1800s and early 1900s.]


From Jane, lets make a magnum leap to a present day author, Lisa Kleypas, who writes historical romance novels in England at about the late 1800s, again on the status of women in society.  She's done her research.  Women still do not have equal rights even those who are of the privilege class (watch Downton Abby on PBS as an example).  


Now lets jump to the early fifties.  The World War (II) has been won and the men have returned to their jobs pushing out the women who have built the tools of war for the past four years.  Interesting time.  Rona Jaffe wrote, in 1959,  "The Best of Everything" which is considered by some to be the beginning of Women's Literature (note I didn't include the word, romance).  The movie, Mona Lisa's Smile, depicts that era.


Before we make the final leap, a research book that I have mentioned on this blog was released in 1986 called "Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind", by Mary Field Belenky, et al.  I think this is a landmark book on at least half of our society.  This book and the "Dyslexia Advantage" should have an impact on our educational system.  


So.... the final leap of my dreaming (thinking?).  As I mentioned I'm reading E.L. James' "Fifty Shades of Gray" in which the trilogy agonizes the beginnings of a relationship and marriage.  But for the moment forget that this book is very popular and remember my comments on footnoting earlier in this blog.  


On the last page (because I'm reading this on my iPad I can't give you a page number) before chapter nine, there is a FOOTNOTE!  Yes!  In a romance novel!  A honest to god footnote.  I was delighted.  But here is an important point.  The footnote is about a quote in the story by William Shakespeare's King Lear. Ms. James quotes the original source as digitally reprinted by Project Gutenburg.  This project is replicating everything that does not still have a copyright note.  So James has this footnote about King Lear and because I am reading it on my iPad, I can touch the footnote and it takes me to the work by Shakespeare as he intended it.  I don't have to go to the library and get works by Shakespeare and I don't even have to google it.  It pops right up for me after I touch it.  I can even hold my finger on Shakespeare's name and get a full biographical report on him should I for some reason not know who he was.  Amazing.


Finally, my point to all this drivel I believe that the use of iPads (forget brands for the moment) will revolutionize education as we know it.  It is already teaching me new things, primarily words, and I'm an old dog.  What a total delight to go from a novel to the dictionary to a web site and back to my novel or to other materials in a matter of a "finger pointing."  New educational word, "finger point."  


"All right, boys and girls, put your finger on the word, "Blood" on your pads and find out how "blood works."  "What does it do?"  "When you get an idea, tweet me."


Oh my how the world is changing. Science education.


How about this one for the high school?  "Using your pads found out who was the first Time Man of the Year that was not a Man?"  History come alive.  No, I'm not going to tell you the answer.  Find you pad (Kindle Fire, Nook or iPad) and find the answer.  It has to do with a woman.  That's your clue. 


To be truthful with you I ought to be able to include links (the new footnote) to all that I'm reading and let you get the answer for yourself.  You get the ownership of the learning.  I should only be a guide...a coach...a reference in finger pointing.  Links in this blog ought be ones that you can touch and get to other places in the new iCloud of learning.  But i don't know how to do it yet.  But if you are patient, I will continue to try to get this blog up to standards of the young.  


And thanks to John Dewey who gave me the framework of thinking to hang my ideas on for this blog.  Have you thanked a teacher today?  Do so, they will appreciate it.

My New iPhone and iPad

An apology to this group.  All the time I've written about smart phones and iPads recently I have been observing friends of mine using the devices.  I was happy with my Kindle and I have to admit I have read a lot more in the past two and a half years then I might have just using books in print.  But my experience with a smart phone connected to either a Wi-Fi or internet signal was minimum.  And I did not have an iPad or any make or model.  So how could I make recommendations about a product in the schools that I hadn't used?  I couldn't.


So I went out and bought my wife and I two middle grade iPhones.  I thought about going to the top of the line for them but my thoughts recently have been on the concept of "cloud" computing.  I really don't know much about it except somewhere they are storing all that information in what might be called a "cloud".  So the middle iPhone was selected.  


But then I also went and bought the top iPad available, Wi-Fi and Verizon wireless.  Over the years my home system has been Apple and I wasn't going to change at this juncture.  I can and have used Microsoft computers--actually taught on them early on.  I like computers, forget about the brands.  There are some amazing machines on the market today.  What is predicted for the near future is awe inspiring. So I don't want to get into a debate as to which computer, iPhone, or pad is best.  I suspect someone is going to see the potential market in the school systems and design and produce a pad that will be beneficial to the kids....   I'm only sorry that I will not be in the classroom when that happens.  John Dewey and I will be cheering them on.


So, apology accepted?  


But now I am going to make wild statements that have only a few weeks of experience to back them up.  THE IPAD WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN.  Throw out the curriculum that we have now, it is a new ball game.  The No Child Left Behind tests are totally without value now.  We need to start all over in designing education.  I suspect it must be much like when the automobile was first invented/manufactured.  Those that owned stables must have looked down on this device and said it could only run on roads and we have few roads for it to run on.  It was a changing time in our society.  Well, my friends, it is a changing time in our educational system.


The problem is that changing education is akin to moving a cemetery (many have made this statement so I acknowledge them all).  It takes a long, long time.  I have been a school board member and even among my board peers there was a certain amount of "in my day we didn't have these things in school" attitude.  Our school system moves slowly.


Believe it or not, the slowest part of change in our education system is the colleges and universities.  Cambridge and Harvard, in many cases are still teaching the way they did it in the early 1600s.  Higher education takes pride in resisting change but they will have to face the future at some time.


Recently in the New York Times, there was an article by Lawrence H. Summers entitled, "What You (Really) Need to Know."  (New York Times, January 20, 2012)
Mr. Summers was president of Harvard before becoming Secretary of the Treasurery.  He is presently a current contender to become president of the World Bank.  While I disagree with Mr. Summers on his analysis of women's intelligence I do believe he has said important things about the future of education.  Here are six assumptions (Summers calls them guesses and hopes) that he says will effect education.


1.  "Education will be more about how to process and use information and less about imparting it"  Sitting in my easy chair holding my iPad, I have more information that I can access then is in the library at my local university.  I can find out data instantaneously.   I now talk to my iPhone and to Siri and ask, "what is the temperature in Bellingham?  And this voice comes back and tells me the precise degree.  I can google (now a verb) and ask how many people were killed in world war II and find the answer in nano-seconds.  The answers are there before I finish the query.  But how to process this information will be the objective of tomorrow's education.  


2.  "An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion is that tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration."   YES!  I've been saying for years that learning ought to be done in groups.  My euphony was when I was teaching fourth grade and put the kids into seating groups of four or five students and LEARNING INCREASED even though I required only one paper from each group.  Learning is a process, not a destination and we are a social animal.  I see future learning being done on iPhones with Facebook and tweets being the carrier of that knowledge necessary for the learning objective.


3.  "New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed."  My new ipad has already altered the way I read.  In the technical writing of my present favorite book, "The Dyslexic Advantage" I am constantly holding my finger on a word until the definition is available at the bottom of the screen.  It is soooooo easy.  I have learned many new words.  Yes, I could do that with the mouse on my computer but given the fact that I am comfortable in my easy chair reading it is doubtful that I would get up and go to my computer.  If I want to see a diagram or a picture of some device more closely I just double tap the picture and it becomes bigger.  I can see kids doing this all the time in the near future.  They want to see detail.  


4.  "Not everyone learns most effectively in the same way."  And yet the major type of teaching at Cambridge and Harvard is the lecture method.  In many cases students are asked to use the knowledge that they have just acquired.  This bothers me.  Testing is not the same as "using" the knowledge.  Still percolating in my memory bank is that story in "The Dyslexic Advantage" of the student who obtained his degree from Stanford University by listening to all his books--audio books if you will, and listening at a faster rate then normal speech so that he saved time and still learned.  We have known that students learn differently but we have not changed our teaching methods to any great degree.  It will have to change in the future or the students will by-pass us and learn it somewhere else.


5.  "The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever before."  I wonder if we have looked inwards toward ourselves in our curriculum and have become sated.  While I have championed  the learning of a foreign language in the grade school, Summers thinks that the use of digital translators and the fact that English is becoming world wide makes that point mote.  Perhaps.  But he does say we need to know more about the world and that our education should mandate our students going to other countries to learn.  That i agree.


6.  "Courses of study will place much more emphasis on the analysis of data."  Interestingly enough in the book, The Dyslexic Advantage one of the advantages is that of dyslexic students being able to see things in data that others could not assertain.  Straight facts are not important......if you don't know how to interpret them.  Just knowing facts is not intelligence.  Making use of those facts is.


I hope this has made you think.  Better yet, go back to the New York Times and read Summers' article.  Well said and well written.  I might not have paid as much attention to it had I not be reading it on my iPad.  


Thanks to all those teachers who question what we are teaching and saying to themselves, how can I make this better for my students.  Nice job, teacher.

New Technologies in Education--Some Thoughts

[Before I start commenting on new technologies, I need to say a word about how sorry I am about the three teenagers killed in their high school and for the young girl shot in the stomach in her second grade. [just added: and the girl who died from a beating on a school bus and another child who died from a stabbing in the school]  While there are no reasons for a gun to be brought to a school we teachers need to be ever watchful on our young charges as to their personality needs.  We try and sometimes they get past us and the damage is done.  It is sad. And I'm sad that I have no wisdom to offer in these cases--just tears.]


I have been a devote of technology in the school system since my high school days.  I was the young audio-visual kid that brought the film projector to class, set it up and in most cases ran the projector for the teacher.  I can also remember setting up the first tape to tape voice recorder in a classroom--it was a marvel.


I've never looked back (except for this moment) in the use of technology in the classroom.  It can be a valuable tool if used correctly......if used correctly.  Ah, that is the rub.  


I've watch a elementary teacher show film after film on Friday afternoon because she was tired and the "kids learned from film, didn't they?"  At the college level I had a major argument with a colleague that showed a film of an education professor from a California college lecture for over an hour.  A talking head the whole time.  Worst film I've even seen.  I got my colleague to not use it after that.  How do you evaluate educational films?  It's a moving target.  


And I watched a major Library Science professor, well noted around the country for his analysis of reference books hold up his beloved books to a class of one hundred students of which none, I do mean NONE could see a thing about what he was talking about. He felt, he told me, that by bringing the actual books to class he was doing a better job of teaching.   Reference books have small print.  Sitting at a table with one of those books, you still need to lean forward to read the material.  How this professor thought that students in the front row could see much less then students many, many rows back could see I have no idea.  


I was a graduate student at the time and telling a full professor that he was doing it all wrong was not something one should do.  But I did.  I give him credit.  He looked at me, thought for a moment and then said, "How should I present this material?  How can I make it better?"  I then had him mark everything he wanted to show and then with the help of some of my colleagues we photographed hundreds of examples in those reference books into 35mm slides.  With a light table he and I organized his slides and put them into those familiar Kodak treys.  He was actually giddy with delight and couldn't wait to make his first presentation.  He then wrecked all our work by saying, "Next slide please."   I finally got him to use a hand device on a long cord to actuate the slide projector.  He really got into himself making these presentations on reference materials.  I'm sort of glad that computers and PowerPoint had not yet been invented--he would have been a terror.


Another heartburn activity that I use to endure was sitting in a college classroom and having that professor put down transparency after transparency that had been copied from a book and then made into a transparency.   Perhaps the first row of students could read it but anyone further back was unable to see the material.  But even if all could "see" the material, the large amount of print material overwhelmed you.  Have you ever heard of the "pall" effect?  It comes from the word, "appalled"  when students are actually appalled at how much material there is to learn and just shut down.  They quit.


Another major mistake with the use of overhead projectors and transparencies were the number of professors who might put a "good" designed transparency on the overhead, show it, use it and then leave it on while going on to other material.  When I've asked some of these professors why they left it on, some appeared befuddled, others would tell me it was better for the light bulb.  My response was always, "who are you trying to help?  The Student or the Light Bulb?"  My sarcasm generally went over their head.


I offer these examples of poor use of technology to make a point.  We are now in the age of exploding tecnological use in our world--not just the classroom but in homes, cars, work, recreation--everywheres.  I've already heard of a school that is prohibiting iPads and laptop computers in the classroom.  Oh, and no cell phones.  Apparently the teachers collect the phones.  I hope this is just a holding point until teachers can figure out ways of dealing with this new technology.  And school districts need to start looking at the new learning material and approving the good stuff (Khan Academy?).  How should we use the Smart Board in the classroom?  I hope not like a blackboard.  It will take time for all of this confusion to settle and certain types of teaching behavior using technology correctly will emerge.  I have a lot more thoughts about technology in the classroom but I won't appall you at this time.


And thanks to all those teachers who made an effort to use technology in their classroom in a way that added the student in learning.  Hey, and thanks  to all those other teachers that told the students to use the technology in their presentations in class.  Nice going.

The Ups and Downs of Dyslexia, Part 3

[My eye after the operation is coming along.  I may get the stitches out in two weeks--can you imagine stitches in your eye?  And don't rub it if it itches. Yeah, !]


I'm almost through the book, "The Dyslexic Advantage" by Eide and Eide, MDs, (2011).  In quite the same way when I read John Dewey's book on Education and Democracy, I read several paragraphs in the Dyslexic Advantage and then have to stop, recollect and ponder what might have been in my life.


It has become increasing clear that we have to teach our wanna-be teachers in new methods of dealing with children and students that have different learning styles.  Phonics is not the only answer to teaching of reading although I have taught phonics, I did teach other methods of reading.  And I believe we are on the brink of a new education in our society.  The iPad (regardless of the make) will revolutionize our teaching whether we want it to change or not.  It just will and we teachers will have to catch up.  


For example, I've been reading some children's stories on my iPad.  Now remember some Dyslexics can see better off a screen then on regular paper.  Let us imagine a second grade student reading in a grade level reading book.  The assignment by the teacher is for the class (or reading group) to read the stories and answer the questions written on the blackboard.  Sound familiar?    So our young student does just that--she/he likes to read.  However she comes to a word which she/he tries to sound out phonetically which she/he does but still doesn't understand the meaning of the word.  Seeing in context also doesn't help this student.  What to do?  In an ordinary traditional class, the proper behavior is for the student to raise their hand in the air, indicating a need for teacher's help.  However, teacher has a few other hands to assist before getting to our young student.


Now consider this same student reading the same story on an ipad.  Same sentence and same stumbling block--same word.  Only this time the student places her index finger on the word and holds it there for a short moment.  Quickly a dictionary explanation of the word is popped up over the reading page. It will even say the word out loud if requested.  Still don't understand?  Here is another pop-up frame showing, doing or examples of the word in action.  It is better then a hassled teacher.  Hey, this even works for us adults.  There are a lot of words I just don't understand--some of which have been invented by the younger crowd.  I want to stay connected.  


Decording words and then understanding their meaning is the basis for reading.  If you can't read well you are in trouble in this society.  I can attest to this fact personally.  


When I entered the doctoral program at the University of Washington my mode of operation was to write all my papers on a small electric typewriter.  [side bar: did you know when they first invented the typing machine, the people, mostly women, who learn to type were called Typewriters.  Over the years the name has moved from person to machine] I would rough out my paper on paper and then sit at the typewriter and begin to compose my paper for whatever class i was taking.  After the first draft, I would go back and redefine it and smooth it out the best I could.  Then I would hand it to my wife who would mark it up--primarily with two types of markings, one for understanding (this sentence doesn't make sense) or spelling errors.  The latter were numerous.  She would put in the correct spelling for me.  I then re-typed the paper and returned it to her for final checking.  Once approved, I would then use 26 pound water marked paper for my final work.  Yes, yes, it had white ink on it as my typing was not always that good.  Lynn would do a final reading and then I'd used the  three holed punch and put it a hard folder.  


I had done some simple research during my masters program.  I handed a stack of student papers and asked a number of professors to grade them without reading the material in them. They (the professors) were to look at the papers but not read them for content.   Papers in folders consistently got higher marks, probably because they were easier to write on the paper--hard material behind them.


So that was my modus operandi.  You with me so far?  Writing papers was time consuming operation.  Fast forward with me to the early eighties and I'm now a professor at Western Washington University in media communications (in education).  I was the preverbal audio-visual guy.  But I was still fascinated by computers and had already bought a 16K Processor Technology computer.  Very, very simple, it didn't even have a form of saving your work.  I basically learned to program on it--and not very well at that.  We gave it to the university and they in turn gave me a letter saying we donated this machine and it was worth so much money in kind.  But that gave me some saving on my income tax and Lynn and I went to Seattle to buy our second computer.


I remember driving down I-5 quite excited.  We were going to buy a Osborn 1 computer that had good write-ups and was a next generation microcomputer.  The shop and it indeed was a small shop was just outside the university district had a stack of these computers in the store window.  They came in a case that looked much like a sewing machine but when the top was folded back it looked more like a World War II radio, black with a little green screen perhaps five inches.  It had two slots on either side and a keyboard.  

I remember the salesman saying we should buy a large screen since if you used the little screen on the computer you could write half a sentence and then would  have scroll to the other side to type the rest of your sentence.  Weird.  He also had us buy ten floppy disks for a rather expensive price.

We got the computer home to Bellingham and set it up in the living room on the coffee table in front of the couch and Lynn proceeded to read me the instructions.  We first made copies of the software, the first time I've ever done that task.  

We then loaded "WordStar" one of the first word processing programs ever written.   One could write a paper, make corrections, cut and paste, check spelling, change the size of the font and do many other tasks not available on a typewriter.  At one point I typed something in the computer and then had the spell checker go over it.  It blinked on the screen that I misspelled fifty four percent of the words and it included the exact number of words misspelled.  It was humiliating. And yet, I saw something else--freedom.  And I started to cry.  Really hard.  I was letting go of some of my dyslexia although at the time I didn't realize it.  I HAD a spellchecker!  As some teens today would say, "OMG!"

Gentle reader--this is one of the major points in my life, right behind getting married and getting drafted.  I saw instantly how my life was going to change.  I now could write papers for presentations, for publications, for internal reviews.  There was just one problem.  We had nothing to print on.

So the very next day we returned to Seattle, went to the store and the salesman was waiting for us.  "Need a printer?"  And we acquired our first Epson Dot-Matrix printer.  Compared with today's ink jet printers it was horrible--noisy, not very good looking, with a ragged top and bottom.  "Besides the printer, you'll need a carton of fan fold paper."  Gee, thanks, anything else we've forgotten? 

We came home with our "extras" and that evening I wrote my first grant request for the College of Education for our first computer laboratory.  I proposed my idea, justified it and wrote it up on my new Osborn 1.  I handed to the head of the committee on computers at Western.  It was accepted--almost.  They didn't give us all the money for the first Apple computer lab for the College of Education, but most of it.  They also "copied" my request, changed the word Apple to IBM and gave the first laboratory to the College of Arts and Science.  

Politics as seen within a university.

I still have the Osborn 1 computer and that dot-matrix Epson printer.  I'm emotionally attached to them and they sit dust covered in a closet in my office here at home.  My iPhone is far more powerful and useful but I still love that old Osborn.  Some day in the future someone will be cleaning out this house and wonder why I kept that old computer and printer.  A dyslexic person might understand, then again if they are young, they might not.

I think this is the end of my discussions on dyslexia in the schools.  We've come at least a short way into understanding that learning style.  And we've come a long way in the use of technology to accommodate different learning styles for a lot of students--but not far enough.  We need to do more

I am interested that as I continue to read John Dewey's Democracy and Education, written so many years ago in that he favored different teaching methods to accommodate individual students. All students are different--one size doesn't fit all.  Unfortunately because of budget cuts, we're trying to fit all humans into the same box.  And dyslexics tend to think outside the box.

Thanks for those teachers that try to accommodate the different ways children and young adults want to learn.    

The Dyslexic Advantage, Part 2

[my apologies for not writing sooner--my excuse is that I had an eye operation. I'm better now.]


My emotions are all confused and I laugh at times and I cry at times.  I can report that while having breakfast at a restaurant and reading The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock Eide and Fernette Eide, both MDs, I find it hard to cry when reading an important point in this book that has in the past effected me.  You just don't cry in a public restaurant.  


But this is a powerful book.  Based on it alone I think we need to make major changes in our education systems.  What I am finding is that I am not alone.  There are many people who have dyslexia and have become successful people in our society.  Indeed, some have done quite well if what the authors Eides have written.  But there are many who struggle with the problem and wonder why they are so dumb.  Of course, they are not but given our school systems, too many teachers do not recognize those that may and have dyslexia.  But there is nope in this textbook.


I am making a formal request to my old Woodring College of Education that every faculty member be given  a copy of this book.  I doubt if I could expect all to read it but enough will and I believe will see that the education system needs to be changed.   I also think that ALL teachers, from kindergarten to twelfth
 grade be required reading.


I have bought both the Kindle edition and a hard copy edition.  Easier to take notes on the hard copy


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As you recall I was teaching in a grade school when I realized that I had dyslexia.  It certainly explained why I had so many problems in school while I was growing up. Interestingly enough I find that other people have used the same "coping" mechanisms that I did....like always be polite to the teacher and look like you are trying your best.  Make your work neat.  Never turn in something scribbled.  And participate in class discussions.  Actually I think that became one of my fortes in high school was class discussions.  When you do all of these things then when your test doesn't measure up, the teacher comments that you are just a bad test taker.  Boy, were they correct.  Still, in spite of my problems in school I graduated from high school in the upper ranks of my class.  How come?


I took a lot of music and art and civics.  I stayed away from classes that had a lot of rote memory such as chemistry, mathematics and history.  I could never remember dates or names.  You see, dyslexic students by and large have a terrible memory for data.  Ask me the capitals of the states and I would flunk. But ask me about the western movement and I could go on for days explaining how our country was developed and how technology helped improved it.


According to the Eides there are two types of memory, data or facts and episodic    In my case it is indeed true that I can recite whole folk tales but if you ask me when it was written and by who, I couldn't tell you.    Most dyslexics have episodic  or declarative memory.  The facts are embedded in the telling.


The Eides tell of a young woman who wanted to be a geologist but she had a very difficult time in high school and in college.  She managed by sheer effort to graduate and to get a position with an oil company.  From there is was all success as she was able to look at the terrain, rocks and sub-soils and predict with great accuracy where the oil and gas would be located.  Her method in doing this was to recreate how the land had been formed, episodic if you will.  But she could not look at the data and make predictions from mere numbers.


One of the factors that has affected me in the reading of this book is that dyslexic people "see things in their head."  My oh my, that was scary when I read that but it is true I can visualize and predict.  


I've already told you that when I was working on my doctorate at the University of Washington I was given the task of playing with an IBM 360-40 computer that they put in my office.  Well, they put the teletype that connected to that computer.  That teletype became one of the most important episodes in my life.  From that moment on I knew that computers would become a powerful force in education.  My whole career has been centered on that epic moment.  I use to say that my predictions were intuition but I now realize that my brain was already looking at scenes  that contained computers.  


There were many problems I had during my time in studying for my doctorate.  Of course they want you to write in all your classes and I was a poor writer.  I have gotten better but i still consider myself a poor writer although I am considering writing a novel.  We'll see.  But in those classes where thinking outside the box was considered valuable, I did fairly well.  It was interesting that I did well in philosophy of education.  I couldn't write it but I could articulate it.  I could see where decisions in educational policy could affect the system and I speak to those points.  So like most dyslexic people I had strong point and weak points.  On the weak points, i coped.  That is what most dyslexic students do, cope.  Find ways to get around or how to dazzle so that the other person doesn't see your faults.  Or to hide in a group.  


One thing that I noticed in this book on Dyslexia and that I have read in other books on the same subject is that dyslexic people know they are smart but they are not sure how they are smart.  But many of us have this drive to succeed in spite of what the world thinks of us. 


In another book, I'm not sure which one, there is a story of a young boy growing up in the prairies of central Canada in a strict environment.  Everytime he missed an answer or got something wrong he was told to hold out his hand, palm up,  and it was hit with a ruler a number of times according to the wrong answer.  I remember the person telling the tale saying that at times he had calluses on the palms of his hands.  But in spite of the hits with a ruler over the years he consistently knew he was smart.  He just didn't know the material they way they wanted him to know it.  Rote memory and he wasn't good at that.  


The more I read in The Dyslexic Advantage the more I know that the policy of "No Child Left Behind" and the testing that went on within that program was doomed to failure.  There isn't a dyslexic kid out there that could pass one of those tests.  I'm not sure I could even now.  Those tests are based on data  which we can't fathom.  Our memory doesn't work that way.


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I did promise to tell you how "I came out" and explained that I was dyslexic to the world.  I was teaching at Western Washington University in the Woodring School of Education--very new to the position and wet behind the ears so to speak.  But I remember in one of my Instructional Technology courses showing how machines can help students learn.  I forget now what machines I was working on, it could have been an early computer but I said something like, "Since I have dyslexia, learning from this machines is much easier and helpful to me."  It wasn't anything important, just emphasizing a point.   However it was at my next office hours that two students showed up, not to talk about technology in the classroom but about being a dyslexic.  Both wanted to know how I got "this far" and what could I tell them that would be helpful.  We talked for quite awhile and I believe that all three of us felt better after the discussion but I'm not sure I gave them any succinct help.  But a curious thing happened.  From time to time I would get a student in my office that wanted to know about how to cope with dyslexia.  Some of these students weren't even in my class.  Word had gotten around that there was this prof who understood being a dyslexic.


In fact word had gotten around far enough that a librarian in education contacted me and said she, too, was a dyslexic and she was quite delighted that I had let the student know about it.  So the two of us formed a bond of friendship on being dyslexic.  We sometimes sent a student to the other for further counseling or help.


There were sad times in all of this.  A young female student came to me in tears one day saying she was flunking a basic mathematics course--required.  I wrote some numbers down on sheet of paper and asked her what they were and she couldn't tell me.  She really couldn't see numbers.  She could read the story problem but she quite often got the numbers either backwards or mixed up.  I then attempted to get the Mathematics department to allow this student to have a reader and/or to use a calculator. The Mathematics department was against all attempts to deviate from the norm. Either she did it the same way as other students or she would fail.


She didn't fail.  She dropped out of college.  I think she was smart but she didn't have enough coping mechanism to know what to do in math.  I still have problems wondering how we should teach mathematics to students.  I believe irt is a major problem in our society.  I wonder what ever became of that young female student--did she succeed at something?  Did she always feel bad about herself?  


This is an intense subject for discussion.  Those without dyslexia need to study it as much as those that have the thinking problem.  But if I am to believe what the authors Eides have written, this world needs dyslexic people to see things as they might be.  These are our entrepreneurs of the future.  As President Kennedy once said, "I see things that are and say why.  But I see things that are not and say why not."  (paraphrased) 


My best to you all and to all those teachers who saw something in me besides problems I give my heartfelt thank you.

The Dyslexic Advantage..Part 1

Over the holidays I have been reading, between wrapping packages, decorating the tree and visiting with friends and neighbors, the book, The Dyslexic Advantage:  Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain," by Brock L. Eide and Fernette F. Eide.  While reading this book I have yelled in enthusiasm, cried real tears, wondered what might have been, and have been sad and positive in the same moment.  It is a very positive book about dyslexia.  It's about hope and opportunities for those that have this type of brain.  I'll write more about this book in a future blog.  What i plan to write today is an individual's background being a dyslexic--me.  Problems, hopes, techniques, the sadness of it all...


The earliest I remember being in school was in second grade in Harrison, New York.  I knew early on I was different--I had troubles with spelling words, with reading and in doing "my numbers."  That's all I remember of the class except that the female teacher was big.  Not fat, but a large grandmotherly type who was not friendly.  That's what I remember.  I also remember wanting to do well.  


One of the subjects was spelling where we would get a number of new words on Monday.  I forgot what we did during the week but there would be a test on the words on Friday with special paper, a thin strip with lines big enough for each word.  We would write our name on the top and then print the words as the teacher spoke them.  I guess most kids did well--I didn't and I would get "D's" and "F's".    I remember asking my Dad to help me learn the words.  He helped me each night for a week to write my words and he would make games of how to spell each word.  I think there were twenty words.


On Friday I was ready.  During that week I probably wrote those words at least a hundred times each!  So when the teacher passed out those slips of paper for our spelling words, I was ready.  She would say the word and I would write it down.  When the test was over the teacher who had been walking around the class reciting the spelling words, looked at my paper and said that I had cheated.   Then she had me clean out my desk looking for how I had cheated.  There was nothing of course, but she was sure I had cheated.  I don't know if Mom or Dad ever came to the school about this -- I doubt it.  But at that point spelling became the bane of my existence.


It may have been in that same grade that I began to know I was different.  Everyday some lady came for me, took me out of class and we went to some small room where she worked with me to learn how to read.  I don't remember what she did with me but I did learn to read but differently from the rest of the class.  I could not "sound out a word" but I could skim it and get the meaning from its relationship in the sentence.  I will always be grateful for whatever that person did with me to get me to read.


But life did not get better even though I began to read a lot.  With the help of my dad I did learn my multiplication tables up to the 9's.  He made a Ferris wheel which he spun and I would have to give the answer of eight times ??? whatever the wheel would select.  But the effort that we put into memorizing the numbers was astronomical as to what other kids did.  I could see that.  Maybe I was born without a complete brain!


On the other hand there were times when I could shine.  Other kids had troubles with maps, I didn't.  I loved maps and made up stories about the places on the maps.  And I could draw better then most kids.  I would illustrate my papers with drawings.


I was already a member of the boys choir at church and could sing in tune.  And I could read music so that in the public school I did well in music--better then my peers.  I figured I just had more practice then the other kids but I did like music and art.


So a quick summary at this point in my school career--I could read reasonably well except when the teacher asked me to sound out a word.  Phonetic reading was beyond me...I couldn't see the letters by themselves.  I was terrible at numbers except for the times tables.  I had troubles adding large sums but if I took my time I could do them.  But a time test was my undoing.  Spelling was also terrible but I learned to use a dictionary fairly well.  But well into my early college days I could not spell.  Papers I had written for my music professors would come back with rather nasty comments.


However, it was World War II and my family moved many times to adjust to war work.  I had eight different schools by the eighth grade.  So I suspect some things got over looked during my grade school days (up to the eighth grade--no middle school)


I ended up in the sixth grade in Richland, Washington, a war town.  I would impress the teachers by my reading abilities and I would escape by being quiet and not causing problems.....just read about far away places.  But I had problems with left and right.  We learned to march but I was always turning the wrong way.  One day we had physical education outdoors by playing softball.  As usual I would be one of the last to be chosen, a horrible fate for a sixth grader.  My side was up to bat and it was my turn.  I remembering almost begging in my mind, "let me hit the ball well..please!"  AND I DID!  I was thrilled and ran to third base, then on to second--when the teacher stopped the game and took me by my hand and in front of the entire class, walked me to the first base, then the second and finally the third and then home...saying something to me about not paying attention or not being serious about playing the game.  I don't remember playing before this time and first and third looked the same to me.  It probably was the reversal feature that dyslexics have that caused me to "go wrong."  To this day, this is probably the most humiliating and embarrassing moment in my life.  In front of the whole class.  I still remember it with great detail even though it was sixty eight years ago.  Sad.


I got through high school by taking mostly music and art courses.  I don't know how I got through two years of Spanish--it was a memory course.  And I stayed away from courses that I realized would take much memory like chemistry.  Algebra was difficult for two reasons, left and right and my eyes were going bad.  At the end of algebra I got glasses which pretty much have not been off me since.  One thing I did in high school was to take courses in which memory was not crucial.  So I took typing I and II and machine equipment.  It was for girls wanting to become secretaries.  Because there was no rule I got registered in those classes.  Strange because those skills have become my most important muscular skills that i have.  Who would have know that keyboarding would be important.


Strangely enough I graduated near the top of my class but it was a large class.  Other kids made me look good.  Sometime during my junior year I remember "talking" to myself.  Taking stock so to speak.  I knew I was good but in what I didn't know.  I knew I could think but then again, why couldn't I do math?  I knew memory was a big fault of mine.  I could remember strange things in my past but I couldn't remember a phone number.  I could write down the first three numbers but then I would have go back and look at the final four before I could write them down.  I could memorize a complete musical phrase on my trumpet but I couldn't memorize the capitals of the states.  I could tell the story of Lewis and Clark, the problems and help they got but I couldn't remember the years they did it.  I was sure my brain was defective in some manner.


But I liked people and thought for a while about becoming an Episcopal priest.  But I was not sure about religion.  I then turned to becoming a music teacher.  I felt that I could have done just as well as the teachers that I had in high school.  My goal then was to become a high school music teacher.   


College had it's ups and downs.  I had a lot more required courses such as geology, biology, psychology, history, and.....math.    But I also had band, jazz band, marching band, choir, music composition, directing....and individual music lessons on different instruments.  My favorite courses were in education.  I was home!   I know now it was not the greatest education but it fitted me well.  Of those earlier courses I learned much on how to study.



In one Education course an assignment during the Thanksgiving break was to visit a school and write a report about it.  I visited a brand new school and took black and white pictures of all the new ideas the district and the architect had designed into the school building to improve learning.  Back at college I pasted the pictures on sheets of paper and then wrote about what each picture was about.  An intro and ending and I was done.  Lot less words then were required for the assignment but I took a chance.  It paid off.  The prof was delighted with my report and spent an entire class presentation talking about the importance of the building to learning.  I "A" that assignment and learned that I could report without words all the time.  I continued with that trend.


This was in 1951 to 1955.  Dyslexia was not know at that time and universities and colleges really didn't care if you were a handicapped person.  You were on your own.  So I learn to cope.  One of the things I did was to type all my papers.  Most everyone else at the time were hand writing their papers.  


Let's jump ahead here to the early 1960s.  I had gone to war  (Korean) and had returned.  The district was going to fire the music teacher who replace me but I negotiated with them to keep me as a fifth grade teacher as we would need two elementary music teachers in the near future.  They were happy with this arrangement and so I began my elementary classroom career.  


During the spring of that first year I elected to go to a workshop for several weeks in the late afternoons after school in the Renton School District.  In those days teachers had to acquire some many "credits" within five years to gain their fifth year certification.  I was trying to pick up a credit by going to a workshop on Dyslexia.  All I knew about this new word was that it had to do with a learning disability that some students had.  In the workshop we would learn to recognize the symptoms and develop some strategies  on helping students overcome their deficiencies.


I don't remember much of the workshop however, I do remember the speaker listing the characteristics of children with dyslexia:  poor readers, terrible spellers, bad in math, poor memory, appear to be lazy workers, talk a lot, do not write well.  Shoot, that speaker was almost talking about me.  Later on she passed out a test to identify dyslexics  which we all took.  Except I scored high on the test.


I went home that night quite upset.  Although what I had learned that day at the workshop confirmed that I did learn differently they made it sound like I had a major problem.  I wondered if they would allow me to continue to teach if I were a dyslexic?  As research reports slowly were published on dyslexia I read everything that came my way.  Most school districts really didn't know much about the learning problem so my job was safe.  And we really didn't do anything for those students who like had dyslexia.  It took several years to establish a policy of just recognizing the learning style and then scare the hell out of parents by telling them their child was dyslexic.


My personal feelings is that the elementary teachers tried different teaching/learning styles to see what they could do with a dyslexic child and passed that on their colleagues.  I'm not sure if the high school contingent of teachers make any changes in their teaching behavior.  If they did I didn't hear of those changes.


Part 2 will deal with my coming to terms with dyslexia, admitting that I had the learning style and being surprised at the result from others around me.