Why Some Teachers Hate SharePoint

Ok, maybe this piece is long overdue. Like the elephant in the room that no one will talk about.

Why do some teachers say they hate sharepoint? Because a lot of teachers have told me they hate it.

I have done some fairly extensive research on the topic. By research, what I mean is I show up to work, and I am accosted by a teacher in the hall who can't wait tell me that they hate SharePoint today. After some critical thinking, and and little Q and A, this is what I have been able to distill. When someone says, "I Hate SharePoint", I hear them saying:

1.) I don't hate SharePoint - I hate that I have had to write a new website every year for the past three years. Plus, if I learn how to create a SharePoint site now, won't everything be different next year, making what I have learned obsolete?

2.) I don't hate sharepoint - I don't have an extensive technical vocabulary, so I don't know how to describe what I want to do. I can picture it in my head, but not describe it.

3.) I don't hate sharepoint - I thought I knew how to do something simple (like change my contact information on my main teacher page), but when I attempted it I got an unexpected result, and I can't figure out why it didn't work. This frustrates me.

4.) I don't hate SharePoint - I am worried that if I attempt to do something myself, either it won't work, or I will do something so terrible, it cannot be undone. It is better to put it off rather than tempt fate.

5.) I don't hate sharepoint - I need help finding an option that is in a menu, but I am not familiar with the menus.

6.) I don't hate SharePoint - I hate that my students don't go to my site, or very few of them go to my site, so why did I bother building it?!?

7.) I don't hate SharePoint - I hate learning about SharePoint as it is an area outside my comfort zone, and it causes me a lot of anxiety because I am worried about how much I will have to learn just to get started.

8.) I don't hate SharePoint - I just love my Mac. And there are a lot more Mac's out there than people realize. I am a Mac user at home too.

9.) I hate SharePoint - well, there is always one in a crowd, isn't there?

Currently the district invests a great deal of money in SharePoint. It also invests money in training key individuals at the top in how to do anything and everything you could possibly want to do with SharePoint. They spend money sponsoring Learning Teams and Learning Groups, where mentor teachers get some paid time and teachers get some classroom coverage to learn new skills, such as the use of SharePoint or other kinds of technology in their classrooms. I think this is money well spent.

Is SharePoint perfect? No. Does it take a lot of time to learn? It depends. SharePoint can be like one of those bloated swiss army knives that is so thick with tools it is unusable.

I think the key to making SharePoint more widely accepted is as follows:

1.) Implement SharePoint 2010 over summer break and let everyone know that they don't have to do anything - the district will do it for them. (I know the district plans to roll out SP 2010 with no teacher effort required)

2.) Implement SharePoint 2010 over summer break, as it is easier to edit, and is Mac friendly.

3.) Don't change anything for a couple of years. No moves, no version changes. Change nothing. Let everyone get used to the same website for a couple years. Let some people choose to set up their sites and do nothing with them for a couple years if that is their wish. But I think people will begin to feel comfortable with their sites in this era of stability, and be more motivated learn more about their sites, and try new new ideas and web parts on their own time.

4. ) If kids are not coming to your website, it probably isn't a lack of bling. Or games. Or buzzers. It may be because kids don't need to go there, or kids don't have a role in the website. Figure out what kids need and what parents need. Then put that on the site, and not much else. Forget about being fancy.

One teacher is going to change the animation on her site every couple of days, and offer incentives to kids who can tell her what the new one is. While this might get kids looking at the animation on her site, will they be exploring the other content there? I don't think they will.

I am going to do some thinking and asking around and find out what kids and parents need from their site, and then post on it. Think you know what parents and kids need on a classroom website? Please comment - I will post it.

Teaching Old Mechanic New Tricks

My father was a teacher in our district for 32 years. He taught mostly Maths, Science and different shop classes - including Auto Mechanics for high school students. My dad can fix anything. As a child I remember him fixing everything himself. Heck, he built our house.

Whenever I am installing a new appliance that requires a little "custom fitting" or doing some sort of repair or upkeep on my car, I usually end up consulting Dad.

Me: How tight do I torque the spark plugs?

Dad: Well - you want them in there really tight, but don't over tighten them. You could strip the threads really easily and that will cost you a lot of money!

Invariably, I have him check the plugs afterwards and invariably he needs to tighten at least one.

Dad thought he would help me today by changing one of my car's headlights. My back is out so bending over to fix it myself is quite painful. But, I could see he was having a hard time getting the bulb out. He asked me if I had a manual, and I said, "of course."

I whipped out my phone and googled ""how do I change the headlight bulb on..." and google began auto-completing my search. The first hit explained how to do it in 5 steps. I told my dad that the problem was he needed to squeeze in the retaining tabs a little further and it will come out easily.

He said. "What? No... I am squeezing it plenty...wait! Oh, ok, I got it now."

I showed him the instructions on my phone. Maybe I shouldn't have as his head was under the hood, and I was sounding like a genius when I was reading off the step-by-step instructions on bulb extraction!

My Dad used to think that he just wanted a cell phones for making calls and that is it. People think that because that is all they needed a phone for in the past, they shouldn't need a phone that does anything else. I wonder if having access to countless repair manuals in the palm of his hand may make him reconsider his choice of phones- it could save a lot of time and guesswork?

All I know is, no matter what cell phone I have (and my HTC Desire does rock), I will still need my Dad.

As Exciting as New Boxing Gloves

I run an informal bootcamp for myself and any other teachers who want to work out on Friday's after school is out. We use the wrestling room, and I bring some exercise equipment for everyone to use, including some martial arts and boxing gear. We don't hit each other, but we do hit some focus mits and muay thai pads. My friend Jarod has been coming quite often, and I suggested he buy his own boxing gloves, as he doesn't like wearing the pink boxing gloves I use as loaners. Strange.

Well, after a quick look on craigslist, he found some. Jarod was very excited - he fully intended to use them on Friday. He put them on and began wearing them around his house. I think he probably began lightly punching walls and pieces of furniture. Then he tried some shadow boxing. Then he threw his shoulder out. I guess he wasn't ready for the extra pound of weight on the ends of his hands. Live and learn.

Wouldn't it be great if we could teach so that kids felt as if the knowledge they had learned were like new tools in a tool belt. Or a new set of boxing gloves. And then kids would be waiting, wanting, itching for a chance to use this new skill. Nothing feels as gratifying as using a new skill successfully - it's a feeling of transformation. You couldn't before, and now you can.

But, without putting their shoulders out I hope.

Short Thought on Money

I have entered a different phase in life. I notice now, more than ever before, when my friends have bigger houses, or nicer houses, or more newly renovated houses, or some other physical object that says they have made more, or been smarter with, money. Perhaps they took risks, or perhaps they got lucky. Perhaps they are good at saving. Perhaps some of them are up to their eyeballs in debt. You just never know.

But I do know this. Being rich does not make you more able to be generous, anymore than being powerful makes you more able to be right.

You have always had the ability to be generous. I encourage everyone to be generous today. Be generous with your time, be generous with your love. Especially with your children. And hey, if you can spare a few bucks to a good cause (you decide which), I am sure someone somewhere will appreciate that too.

Preparing for OMG

I was thinking back on my teaching career so far. I thought back to a time when I was in my first classroom teaching a class of grade 3 and 4 students. I was reading the words out for a spelling test, one of the first of the year, and I kept checking my watch. I was wondering when the "real" teacher was going to be back. Then it hit me.

OMG-I am the real teacher now.

Some of what I studied in university was helpful in preparing me for my career. Some was not. What I want students to think about is the feeling they would have when a customer or client looks at them after asking them a question, and then they realize that this person is now depending on them to know what to do.

This is the "Oh My Goodness" moment.

Students need to shift their thinking from learning things that teachers and parents tell them to learn, to thinking about how everything they learn changes them, or how it might equip them for their own OMG moment.

Because you never know when it will happen to you.

Using Audacity to Help LD Kids Write

Thomas is a grade 6 boy and has a learning diability. Actually he has more than one. He might have something called Central Auditory Processing Disorder. He has difficulties at times coming up with the right word when speaking. He has incredible difficulties writing sentences.

A sentence for Thomas saying "I am going to the store to buy a hammer and some nails" might come out like "sotre hammre buy nail".

But, Thomas has ideas just like every other kid. It has been so long since has gotten his ideas out, though, so that he no longer thinks of himself as a writer, or that he has great stories to tell.

Thomas can talk. I put him in front of a computer, and opened up the program Audacity. It is an open-source program that can record your voice, and save it as a sound clip. I plugged in a mic and some headphones for better sound quality. Then I did some brainstorming out loud with Thomas on a topic he enjoys - dirtbikes and quads. I taught him how to record a sentence, rewind, and play it back, pausing after each couple words. He would then write the words out by hand. However, I noticed that he had some difficulties with spelling too. Thomas would spell the word "wheels" as "whelles". He knew there was a double letter in the word, but not which one. I thought that MS Word could help with this, so he began typing out two words at a time while he listened to his own sentences. This is an excerpt - sentences 5 and 6:

Three are deferent cines of quads there are some quads meet for racing and some are off road. Dirt bikes can do different tricks . you can do a superman grab on a dirt bike.

This is more output in 5 minutes than he does in his classroom in 20 minutes. He needs someone to brainstorm and rehearse his ideas with out loud. He needs practice using Audacity, and he needs practice using MS Word to spell check. After seeing his results, his teacher predicts that this is the way he will pass 6th grade. I am excited, and cautiosly optimistic. I work with him again on Friday, so stay tuned!

Talk like you Tweet

I have been trying to save energy in my classroom. I don't mean by turning off lights, or changing the power settings on my computer monitor. I mean I have been trying to save my own energy so I have more energy to be a good dad and husband when I come home for the day. So, now I am trying to talk less during some classes.

The approach has been thus - talk like I tweet. When I post a thought on twitter, I get 140 characters to get my message across. It forces me to be succinct, and choose my words carefully.

When I make a jing, I get five minutes for my video, and that is it. Is this a sign of the times that people are developing shorter attention spans. Perhaps, but I think it is also equally likely that some people who like to talk have always been not quite as interesting to listen to as they think, and that now there are more options for people's attention.

Be brief, and set more realistic goals for communication. Talk for less time than people expect; they will appreciate it. Repeat yourself - students often need that . Eventually the message gets through.