Stand Up Eight

Oh, technology, I loathe you. I have yet to be convinced that hundreds of 12 year olds really need laptops in school. The computers are practical in some circumstances, but I have regrettably found that they have caused more harm than good. Classroom management is thrown for a loop with the laptops, and the amount of immediate information students have access to creates a learned helplessness. I worry that we’ve lost the days of organic pencil and paper and original creativity. Technology is incredibly useful for the mechanics of education, not necessarily for the creation of it.

Yesterday, my day started in a way that I figured would only trigger a release of more problems. My historic Dell shut down on me when I attached it to the computer/projector adaptor. In order to avoid blank stares from the students for a few minutes (which can feel like hours), I slammed my laptop closed and used my words instead of my cursor to explain. The plan was to have the kids describe a picture on the screen using the new verbs and adjectives we just learned. Of course the malfunction then had a huge effect on that plan - a blessing in disguise. Instead, I gave them a verbal image to describe. A family at a picnic, a fight at a hockey game, and a car stuck in the snow. Their imaginations ran wild, as the students thoroughly enjoyed listening to each other’s work and creating their own.

I love “logging out” from the world every now and then, but the reality is that it helps us share information, quickens communication and adds versatility. In the mean time, I am just trying to find a fair medium between my love and hate for electronic brains.

My good-fortuned day yesterday must have triggered something in the Gods that don’t like me to have too much fun, as I seem to have ‘kick me’ on my back today. The snow put a beautiful glaze over campus last night, but it also swallowed my car (karma from yesterday’s activity I think). Through the shoveling and brushing, my phone in my pocket got a nice shower and has gone to the same world my laptop went yesterday. I also left my lunch at home and overslept my morning run. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Stand Up Eight – the title of the post, which is tied to significant memories and experiences in my life, and perhaps I’m in the middle of another. The quote comes from the saying “fall down seven, stand up eight.” Meaning what you want it to mean, but essentially telling myself and others to get back on the horse, tell the sea how big your ship is, it’s about the fight in the dog, and never, never, never quit.

Happy Trails.