The Case of the Blue Chinese Teapot

Accidents happen . . . we all know that.  Some accidents are more dire than others, some have little or no consequences, and some make you take pause and think.  This morning, my son accidentally broke our old Chinese teapot.  It wasn't particularly special, expensive, or irreplaceable.  We can get a new one from Chinatown back home in the summer without a problem.  However, it was used everyday by my family for about 30 years . . . now that I think about it, it's something that I have had my entire adult life since university days when I was first on my own.  Same old teapot, new handles, many new lids, new tea cosy . . . but the same old teapot filled with stories and memories.  One in particular that I am fond of involves having my Tech Director and officemate over for dinner when we were living in Istanbul.  When Colin went to pour himself a cup of tea, he stopped and remarked that such a great old teapot must hold a lot of stories.  Which it does . . . or rather, did.

The exact Chinese blue teapot that I had before it went for a tumble,
with a simple blue and white pattern and translucent rice grains
embedded in the porcelain.  Apparently available online for $30.
<http://www.laurelleaffarm.com/pages/kitchen&table/vintage-
rice-china-teapot-large-blue-white-Chinese-porcelain-tea-pot-
Laurel-Leaf-Farm-item-no-u71532.htm#.U0PeOBa-aJU>

Which got me thinking about this whole accident this morning and relating it to ed tech and coaching . . . bear with me for a minute.  In a round about way, this accident relates to working with the reluctant tech teacher with my work as a tech coach.  I don't blame my son at all for what happened.  Instead, I am upset with my wife who put the teapot in a precarious place on the little kitchen island rather than on the side counter.  She has been doing this since we moved into this house in Poland, just out of convenience and ease.  You see, the kitchen island is right there, directly in front of the door into the kitchen.  It's been 5 years of me moving the teapot to the side counter, me saying please don't put the teapot there, and me saving the teapot from being swept off of the island a few times.  It's not that the side counter is any farther away from the kitchen door.  What it really comes down to is convenience, comfort levels, and old habits.  Which is where I made the connections with ed tech and coaching.

Still with me?  In a previous posting (Some thoughts on working with the "reluctant tech teacher") I commented on some strategies for working with that teacher who just does not want to engage with technology in their teaching practice.  In that posting, I identified "fear of change" as being a major factor in a teacher's resistance to change.  After this morning's accident, I also think that comfort and convenience is another factor that needs to be considered.

Now, I'm not talking about someone being lazy or complacent.  What I see is someone who has become comfortable with their teaching practice, where their "go to", "tried and true" classroom practices are right there in their mind . . . comfortable, convenient, and ready to go.  So why change, despite being shown a different technique or tool?  Why do something different, despite being warned of possible negative outcomes or consequences?  Why change when it is much easier not to?  Do you see the connection?  My wife has continued to place the teapot on the kitchen island, despite my interventions, despite my warnings, despite my constant/repeated demonstrations of where the teapot should go.  In the end, it was a simple and easy solution (placing the teapot on the side counter), but it was never adopted.

In my other posting, I said that "a person will only undergo a process of change if it is easier for them to make the change, rather than to keep with the status quo".  I think this still applies in this case, but the motivation to keep with the status quo is comfort and convenience, rather than fear of change.  Now that the teapot is gone to the rubbish heap, change of habit has become forced and must happen.  With respect to ed tech and coaching the reluctant teacher who is stuck in their comfort zone, how do you "break their teapot"?  In my other posting, all of the strategies that I outlined there have not worked on this kind of teacher, save for the last one.  To break this reluctant teacher out of their comfort zone, perhaps a stronger course of action needs to take place like connecting technology integration to teacher evaluation.  This is what my school is currently in the process of formulating.  The school is already bringing in a new evaluation system for implementation over the next two school years, and the group of tech coaches is working on embedding the ISTE Standards for Teachers (formerly called the NETS-T Standards) into the new system.  For some, this will be no big deal at all - they are already meeting these standards everyday.  For others, it will simply be a case of tweaking their classroom practice in places, to meet all of the standards.  But for some, the reluctant teachers with technology, they will be forced to change their practice to meet the standards for tech integration . . . which they never have been forced to do before.  This one change will effectively "break their teapot".

Will this really work?  Well, give it a year or two and I will let you know what happens.  And we should have a new teapot by then . . . I wonder if the new one will last another 30 years or more?

The 1000th view . . .

When I started this ed tech blog about 15 months ago, I said at the time that it was mostly for my reflection on teaching and learning with/through educational technology . . . and I think that this statement still holds true.  This is my 23rd posting, which puts me right on a 1.5 posting per month pace.  Not bad for a first time blogger.  As I write this short post, I have noticed that I have just reached the 1000th view of my blog.

Now, I am not so naive to think that all of these page views actually came from real, live people.  Over the past year I have noticed a few hits along the way that have come from some automated trolling services in far-off lands.  Plus there's the clear evidence that my postings have only had a few comments left on them, or have had a few people Google+1 them.  So there is some evidence that people have read some of what I have written here, but I still maintain that this blog is for my reflection first, and sharing ed tech stuff with the world comes second.

So which posts have generated the most reads/hits?  Far and away, the clear winner here is my second posting about the Unplugged day that I held last year ('84 on 8/4 Unplugged Challenge - Revisited).  Coming in second was my posting about applying to the Google Teachers Academy (Getting All Googley).  After that, there's a bunch that have similar numbers of hits.  

Do you have a blog?  How long have you been writing it, and how one did it take you to reach a 1000 hits?  Do you know anyone who started a blog which they have since let fall away into the void of the internet?  Why did it fail, or why did they stop writing it?

What does Giorgio Armani, your mobile phone and drinking water all have in common?

No, it's not some story about Giorgio dropping his mobile into a glass of water and destroying it, all caught on video.  World Water Day is almost upon us (March 22nd), and the answer to the question lies therein.  I came across this great UNICEF project this year which coincides with World Water Day, and decided to launch it within the high school a few weeks ago.  Here is the short video intro/promo that I made for the launch during our weekly assembly . . .

Basically, Armani has teamed up with UNICEF to provide clean drinking water to millions of needy children around the world through this simple online project.  Armani has pledged to donate up to $75,000 for water through this project, plus at least half a million dollars through other related projects, to UNICEF.  I hooked into this project as it is a simple yet effective service learning opportunity for students, while also feeding into our school-wide mindfulness movement through having students unplug from their mobile phones for long or short periods of time.  By unplugging from the constant noise of the internet and social media, students can better understand their own wants/desires/needs to stay connected at all times.  For some students, this is a real enlightening exercise in self-awareness and reflection.  And they are raising money for clean drinking water at the same time . . . win+win in my books!  Interestingly, after launching the campaign in the high school, I heard from a number of staff and students about how many days of water they raised in one day.  It was nowhere near my forecasted challenge in the video, but it was a good start.  And a number of students have taken it upon themselves to follow through with this project over an extended period of time as a CAS project . . . a nice bonus and an additional measure for reflection.

How does it all work?  Pretty simple - just go to UnicefTapProject.org on your mobile phone's browser and start the project.  The program will start on your phone and will record the amount of time elapsed before you pick it up and use it.  For every 10 minutes that you left your phone alone and running, UNICEF & Armani will donate 1 day of clean drinking water to a child in need.  Note that you must have a mobile phone which has a motion sensor built into it for the program to work, and no, it does not work on an iPad.  While the program is running your phone can still receive notifications and messages, etc. but the program will end if you pick it up or move your phone.  Even though World Water Day is on March 22nd, the program will run through the end of the month, so there is still time to jump on board.  I raised 41 days of water on my first try at school during the day.  My MS daughter promptly broke that overnight by leaving the program running while she slept . . . smart girl!