TechIntersect

I am at Wakonse writing this looking out upon the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan. It is day four of “Professor Camp” at Camp Miniwanca located in the State of Michigan.

“Wakonse” is a word that comes from Native American language meaning “to teach” or “to inspire.” The name is fitting, because while we are all college professors, we all share a strong common interest in classroom teaching.

I am physically exhausted but mentally and spiritually elated. I have had a chance to connect with peers from all across the United States. Perhaps even more meaningful to me, since this is my second Wakonse experience, I have re-connected with dear friends from my first time here two years ago.

For much of the summer, this place will be brimming with excitement as kids come here from around the country for their summer camp experience. But each “Memorial Day” weekend, professors from far and wide converge on this place for their own summer camp experience.

The structure of the conference is quite simple. We meet in a rustic summer camp setting to share thoughts and ideas. We are spit into a number of small dialog groups of no more than seven or eight. We share, we discuss, we debate, we entertain, and we have lots of fun! When we are not meeting with our groups, we can attend concurrent sessions on different teaching styles and methodologies or we can participate in different physical activities typical of the American summer camp experience, including hiking, fishing, canoeing, horesback riding and taking the “Polar Bear Plunge” into frigid Lake Michigan.

Last evening, I was fortunate to share some of the ideas that I have been writing down here. For those of you reading this post who attended that session, I thank you both for attending and for reading what I write. This morning I will be singing with the choir at the non-denominational church service and this evening there will be a talent contest including a variety of skits, songs and other demonstrations of skill. I also plan to sing in that event.

The time here goes by quickly. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of Wakonse, and Tuesday we will be heading for home with tired bodies and renewed spirits.

I believe this event is important because it causes us to refocus our attention on the single-most important thing we do- teach students. The importance of teaching may seem obvious to some, however concept sometimes loses priority in the busy life on an academic involved in research and service activities.

We come together with our own styles and ideas, sharing with one another, striving for improvement, with the aim of becoming more effective in the classroom. I can think of no nobler way to spend a holiday weekend than allocating time for reflection upon improving your skills in your vocation.

We are tired and missing the comforts of home, but we await the next semester of teaching with enthusiasm and excitement. That in essence is what Wakonse is all about.

Tags: college, preparation, professional development, teaching

Have you ever come across a bit of information that works like magic in the classroom? Mine is the one-sentence intervention, explained in the Teaching With Love & Logic book by Jim Fay and David Funk. I highly recommend adding this book to your summer reading list if you’ve never read it before.

The authors suggest experimenting with your most uncooperative student. They suggest going to that student at least six times during the next three school weeks using a “one sentence intervention.” The intervention is simply you noticing something personal about that student. “I noticed that you are wearing blue sneakers.” “I noticed that you got a hair cut.” “I noticed that you like pro wrestling.” “I noticed that you really like to draw pictures.”

There should be no value judgments attached to these statements; no praise or evaluation of what you observed. Just a simple matter-of-fact statement about the student. If they say “Yeah, so what?” you say, “Well, I just noticed that about you.” According to the authors, if you offer praise or comment that you like what you noticed, students can feel manipulated, so simple observation is best.

What this does is work on the old adage that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

After doing this for several weeks, you can test whether the student is becoming more cooperative by asking “Will you try that just for me?” or “Will you stop doing that just for me?” If your relationship building efforts are taking root, you may be surprised by the outcome of these simple requests.

The thing I like about Love and Logic is although the target audience is parents and teachers of K-12 age kids, it still works with older students as well. I have successfully used this technique on building relationships with college aged students. My problem is that I get so involved, I sometimes forget my techniques. I’m posting this in my blog not only to share with you, but to remind myself about this in the future.

My memory was jogged about this simple intervention by Paul Bogush’s post on his blog. Thank you Paul.

Tags: , difficult kids, teaching

We had to review some parenting techniques this week. My wife heard my 4 year old son saying a new 4-letter word while he was watching TV (see the adorable Kai-lan video from NickJr). It’s becoming his new favorite word. So I popped over to the Love and Logic articles page to review their stance on childhood swearing.I had the attitude down, but could not remember all of the techniques. The basic attitude is to don’t freak out!. Putting on a show of emotion over a poor choice of words is the last thing we want to do. It provides entertainment for our kids, and encourages them to do it again. An emotionless response takes away the perceived power of the words, making them less fun to use.

Love and Logic recommends having an “energy drain” in which the offending word has caused us to lose energy that needs replaced by our kid doing chores. It’s funny that I forgot this part, because we use “energy drain” pretty often in our house.The other thing to do is simply to require that all swearing be done alone in their bedroom. You don’t have to listen to it and it isn’t nearly so fun to swear if no one is listening and reacting to the word. While it is pretty hard for a teacher to send a kid to their room, a teacher could certainly have an energy drain when this happens in class. I suppose you could send a kid to the office, but what fun is that? You diminish your authority, and lose respect and control in the classroom when you let someone else handle classroom management issues for you.

On a related note, do you think the Kai-lan writers intentionally wrote this story to have fun with unwitting pre-schoolers and their parents? I do.

Tags: cursing, energy drain, Love and Logic, swearing, teaching