Today, they are MINE!

Today, I get to spend two hours with my sustain students. I have so much to say, so much to talk about, and so much to simply observe. I believe I bring creativity into the classroom (delusional, perhaps, but that's my mental model of my teaching.) My biggest criticism from students, poor execution of that creativity, especially by students who have a lack luster attitude about learning. Maybe, this will be a little different. Now, I just need to figure out what to say . . . oh, the choices available to me!

Day 4 - the view from here

There have been several moments in the past few days when I have been so moved that I've nearly cried (oh, and several moments when I actually have cried).

Today was the end of the first SUSTAIN week.  After a week of "living" orientation in our 2-hour meetings, students presented their research to the community agencies and chose teams. It was remarkable.

Inauguration Day

Everything (stress, planning, some background conversations) temporarily melted away during the first meeting of the SUSTAIN-ers. Everyone (faculty, students) seemed at a higher level of sensation/sensititivity -- everyone wanted to have this thing work. I rarely come into the first meeting of a class where students are really ready to move in a new direction. I hope to replicate this in my classes in the future.

Well done, SUSTAIN. It is only a first step but, for me, it will make all the future planning and stress worth it -- because we have true learning partners.

T - 5 days!

I am a bit panicked about the looming launch. I am trying to remember this is my natural state at this point in the year; it might not have anything to do with SUSTAIN. This might actually be less stressful because we are all in this together. I really like working with my colleagues. Linda is an incredibly hard worker. Nina is so full of hope and a positive can-do attitude. Pete is relaxed in a way that sometimes makes me nervous, but I can see the wisdom in it too. Tom is comfortable with experimenting with new course design. Roger can make any moment a teaching moment. And Ginger is so loving and encouraging, not to mention funny. An there is always Neal and Dan who have our back. I don't think there is a better bunch of people to embark on this adventure with.

I do think my challenge is to appreciate the moment and not let my own personal issues decrease to adventure. I hope I can do this.

We are meeting on the 2nd to finalize the first week, but then there is the second week and beyond.....I think I will make a list of things that I am worried about as a kind of data dump:

1) integrating projects into the class mix

2) creating a robust feedback system for SUSTAIN

3) Coordinating the upperclassman who will be helping us out

4) Researching the students (administering surveys, video taping class time, etc.)

5) Researching the faculty and upper classman (surveys and video taping, experimenting and documenting)

6) thinking about next year's classes and recruiting (2013!)

7) planning for Spring quarter with the new faculty who haven't been active

8) analyzing data and writing papers

9) .....

Not to mention the other classes we are all teaching and the committee work and such. Oh, I think that is enough for now

Whoa, I can't believe we're going to start this

I spent the day with Liz, going through all SUSTAINers (this is my new name for students in the program). We ensured via checking their Cal Poly records that all were in fact signed up for the classes and had also taken the required courses outside their major. This was an impossible task, were it not for Liz's amazing powers to manage detailed complexity and her secret knowlege to every "big-brotherish" on-line website.

We then sent individual emails to each of the 42 students.  It was absolutely thrilling to see that only 2 of what we thought were the original 44 had actually disappeared on us!  (I'm thinking this is a small number).

I awoke in the night this week, FREAKING OUT over the level of details that we need to manage in order to prevent an absolute train wreck for the spring courses.

This is how I know that the universe is helping us: There is miraculously no scheduling conflict between the SUSTAIN block of courses and three additional courses that are needed for students to progress.

I would really be crazy if I were not scared about this whole experiment, but it seems that we are now in the right place at the right time...  onward.

Refection Nazi

Since we have shifted a bit from studying the students participating in SUSTAIN to understanding what it takes to be a teacher in this collaborative environment, I have been requesting reflections at the end of each of our design meetings. This last time, someone (it could have been me) referred to me as the "reflection nazi." I laughed, then thought how absurd!!!!

This is so similar to the dilemma I am working through as a teachers. It goes something like this: I want students to be engaged and knowing about research on engagement (Pink), there are three things that will motivate well: Mastery, Meaning and Autonomy. To satisfy Autonomy, I often let students make choices about how assignments are weighted in the final grade, or even which method (constant homework or term project) they would like to do. [as a side note, it feels a bit like when I use to ask my kids, if they wanted a long timeout or a short timeout?]. But what if they choose not to do anything? I think I remember a study of students (maybe at the Waldorf school, I don't know) who were allowed to go to recess for as long as they liked. For several days, the students spent all their time outside playing, until they saw the fun science projects the teachers were preparing. I wonder if education could be like this. So engaging that students choose to learn. Then I go back to us (me - the Refeltion Nazi), could we as faculty be so interested in our own learning that we want to live reflectively? Could we model this for the students? Instead of forcing, we create an environment where learning is the choice? I'm just asking this - to quote Linda.

Are we a quilombo?

I have been listening to a book by Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, and this morning I heard this page and it made me think of SUSTAIN and the process we have been going through -- both good and bad and the possible trajectories that could result. Rather than explain it, I will just post the page (forgive the length). See if it speaks to you or you can simply wonder what the hell I was thinking and just forget it.

(from Ch. 9: Forest Fugitives, pp. 329-330)

Christian de Jesus Santana could see the secret city from his window. Known as Calabar, it was at the edge of Salvador da Bahia, in northeast Brazil, on the inland side of a ridge, invisible from Calabar, was the great Bay of All Saints, the second-biggest slave harbor in the world, the first glimpse of the Americas for more than 1.5million captive Africans. The slaves were supposed to spend the rest of their days in Brazil’s sugar plantations and mills. Most did, but countless thousands escaped their bondage, and many of these established fugitive communities – quilombos, as Brazilians called them – in the nation’s forests. Almost always they were joined by Indians, who were also targeted by European slavers. Protected by steep terrain, thickly packed trees, treacherous rivers, and lethal booby traps, these illicit hybrid settlements endured for decades, even centuries. The great majority were small, but some grew to amazing size.

…

In Liberdade I met a local historian who told me the city actually originated … when slaves had escaped from Salvador down a native path in the forest. The Bay of All Saints is bordered by high, forested bluffs; escapees climbed the bluffs and took over land on the other side, creating a ring of encampments between the colonial port and the indigenous interior. Sometimes their homes were just a few hundred yards away from European farms as the crow flies, but the forest and hills were impenetrable enough to conceal their location. The Portuguese constantly hunted the runaways, but they also traded with them—Calabar’s residents, four miles from the center of Salvador, exchanged dried fish, manioc (cassava), rice, and palm oil for knives, guns, and cloth. In 1888 Brazil finally abolished slavery, yet life in its quilombos showed little improvement. They were still regarded as illegal squatters’ settlements. But the government was too weak to do much about them.

In the 1950s and 1960s Salvador grew enormously. Urban pseudopods reached over the ridges, engulfing Calabar, Liberdade, and half a dozen other quilombos. But these fugitive settlements never fully became part of the city—nobody had legal title to the land. Few roads entered Calabar. Sewer lines were routed around its borders. People had to steal electric power with jury-rigged hookups. By 1985, when Christian was born, the former hideaway was completely surrounded by high-rise apartments.

E-portfolio papers

I wanted to share the articles that were forwarded to me regarding e-portfolios. Thought you might be interested in checking them out. This selection of articles came out of a conversation that Helen and I had prior to the start of fall concerning my use of e-portfolios with my students. Our conversation focused more of software options. If I recall correctly, Moodle does not have a wiki function or if it does, it is rather poor.

I also have a copy of Ruth Rominger's 25 minute presentation on e-portfolios. Ruth's presentation focuses on the function that e-portfolios serve in a learning environment. I attempted to post that as well, however, the file is too large. I will burn a copy and put it in the SUSTAIN office. (Probably won't be there before finals week.) If interested, you may view it. Ruth is known nationally (if not worldwide) for her work in open source education and e-portfolios.


https://eportfolio.pace.edu/ - using Mahara

http://www.aaeebl.org/eport-webinar
http://www.aaeebl.org/digication-forum

SUNY Stony Brook -- see example given by Jeff Yan to Molecular Biophotonics Lab
http://www.aaeebl.org/digication-forum?mode=MessageList&eid=699992

More about SUNY Stony Brook's ePortfolio initiative:
https://stonybrook.digication.com/sbu_eportfolio_news/Home//

Virginia Tech ePortfolios: http://eportfolio.vt.edu/

Salt Lake Community College's ePortfolio program
http://www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio/index.asp
tools: http://www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio/Faculty.asp

Chen, H.L., & Black, T.C. (2010). Using e-portfolios to support an undergraduate learning career: An experiment with academic advising . Educause Quarterly Magazine, 33(4). Available for download from: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/UsingEPortfoliostoSupportanUnd/219102

Chen, H.L., Williams, R., & Thomas, B. (2011). Piloting ePortfolios to support assessment FOR learning . Poster presented at the 2011 Assessment and Evaluation Poster Fair, Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Available at: https://stanford.digication.com/readfile.digi?localfile=1%2Fa%2F3%2FM1a346d3aa21d820196b6520ff9962755&filename=2011+VPSA+eportfolios+Chen+Williams+Thomas.pdf

Florida State's Career ePortfolio
http://www.career.fsu.edu/portfolio/

And the ePortfolio community of practice I co-facilitate is called EPAC and is a listserv that is free to join --
http://epac.pbworks.com/
join listserv here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/epaccoplist

Time and our relationship with it

So this morning in a quiet moment, I reflected on an email sent by a former student. The student had attended an alternative, sustainable live-in high school. They grew their own food, caught rain water, used grey water for dish washing, structures were constructed from recycled tires, etc. About two years ago, I told him about sustain-slo and that he should participate in it. He was a freshmen then.

The email that I was thinking about came last month. I had updated him on the status of sustain, asking if he wanted to help. The first line of his email went something like, "I am so stoked that sustain is happening . . ." In that moment, I reflected on us two years ago. Sustain, in its form, at that time, had much work to be done. For me, I simply wanted it to start. In hindsight, sustain had a form lacking lines of clarity around what it might look like. Too many questions were unanswerable. Too much vagueness, except for a simple desire for it to happen for the students and for me (yes, I will label that selfish).

Reflecting on what has happened over that time, I realize how unready I was for sustain to begin last year. I recognize the commitment that faculty have made to add clarity to the project. I am grateful that answers to questions don't simply sound like an answer with a question intonation. I am thoughtful about the vagueness we must talk through so that the first two weeks and the last two weeks have a richness and a fullness and a rigor that I desire from sustain for myself and the students and the other faculty members. In these last few quarters, I have taken small risks in the classroom to test out ideas that might work for sustain. Prior to that, I wasn't willing to "give up" my lecture time for fear of the student not learning the material.

In reflection, I am thankful about the time given to me to try something new with my students. I don't know how I would feel if I tried out new teaching/learning modalities with sustain students without receiving feedback first. My fear would be that I caused a calamity or learning failure. That makes me feel incompetent.

Friday's design time

It was a glorious time together on Friday. We started by remembering why each of us was there (on a holiday) together. I don't remember everyone's reason, but mine was because this, the SUSTAIN community, is my life. I am not sure if I could continue without working with these people (Remember I tend towards the dramatic). I expect that I am giving you all too much credit, and I think if it wasn't SUSTAIN, there would be other engaging work, but this is truly life-giving for me.

I did take notes at the end and I am not sure where to record these, so here they are:

1) The first week or two might look different than week 2 through 9. During the first week we want to

- spend sometime on capacity building for team success

- have structured face-to-face time so faculty can set the culture in their courses

- have students encounter the projects

- discuss sustainability (we thought of this afterwards)

2) in weeks 2 through 9, we want to start each week with a "checkin" at the beginning of the week and a "check-out" at the end of the week. We have this scheduled for 1 hour blocks, but this could be flexible.

3) We want to have some time set aside for faculty to meet as a group or in triads to plan the weeks ahead. This should occur both inside and outside our blocks of time (M-R 4-6, F 1-4)

4) We haven't developed it yet, but we want to have a general framework for class time. We want to make sure we have a feedback system so we can be flexible

5) we recognize the need to engage community members and students in this whole design process, but haven't discussed how to do that

6) We are committed to the "student prep model" that Linda and Pete are using this quarter in physics and we are committed to supporting that. (it looks something like: Students prepare (watch video or do learning modules or read)-----> students work on something independently -----> students come to class for help and coaching -------> assessment)

7) we don't want to dramatically increase faculty time in class. If we each are to be in class 4 hours with one or two office hours, we want to attempt to honor that.

8) We will try to incorporate portfolios into our work

9) we need to schedule at least two more (3 hour) group meetings before Winter quarter begins.