Teaching in the Age of Information

It started innocuously enough. I started collecting student emails when they first became popular – but I never used them. And parents were the main people who emailed me about their student’s status. I only started getting student cell phone numbers when we were working on outside projects; You know – I call students because they are missing play rehearsal. Or Constitutional Law meetings. I ended up getting the phone numbers of the tech crew kids on the play so we could talk about props or sets or lights. Using my cell phone to get a hold of students seemed like a good way to use time efficiently. Of course then the students had my number as well.

You know I created an account on myspace solely to find a rap DJ that I know in town. I wanted him to come and give a lecture to my African-American History class about the history of hip-hop. And the only way to reach him was through myspace. So I created a profile – just really briefly. But then students started asking to be my “friend” on myspace (to avoid creepiness I never asked a student to be my friend). And sending me messages and comments.

So now I have a bunch of students who have my email, my myspace account, and my cell phone number. This means that any point of the day or night they can get in touch with me. And sometimes they do.

I have had messages about assignments – from a student who feels like he can’t finish the paper assigned, or from someone who thinks the questions on the book were stupid. I get text messages telling me that they will be late, cell phone calls asking me when the assignment is due.

But then I start to get questions that were not directly related to school. How should I ask this girl to prom? What should I wear to this event? These are questions that I would be happy to give advice on in school, but now they are asking me off duty.

So do they ever cross the line? Well I was really glad I had my phone turned off when I got a text message at 3am from a student who finally finished a paper for me. And sometimes I have been contacted late at night and I don’t know if they are contacting me because they need help or because they just want to talk.

Let’s just say that no one in teacher school told me how to handle this. If I want to help students become better human beings, I don’t believe that education stops at the school house door, and I want to help students with their quandaries, then I embrace the way that we can communicate. On the other hand, I have to figure out how to balance their needs with mine.

To a teenager, almost all crises are life-threatening. They don’t have a date to the prom, or their parent hits them, sometimes they reach out in the same way for help. I have to try to filter between the angst to help them with what they need but not lose myself and my time in the process.

Have a Magical Day!!

A colleague of mine here at school, teaches an entire unit about the danger of the Disney Empire. Now she is umm, passionately liberal, and so I thought perhaps that she was a bit paranoid. I had been to Disneyland twice as a kid, I have seen my fair share of Disney movies (including OMG High School Musical), and even the Broadway verson of Lion King. But an evil empire?

That was before I stayed at Walt Disney World for a week. Ironically enough the conference I was at was addressing how schools can help bridge the gap for poor students. And I was in a place designed to squeeze the most money out of families.

WDW seems to be a corporate city within a city. One of my colleagues at the conference said it was like a corporate Vatican. Once you crossed into their land, everything was different. The street signs all have Mickey ears on them. There are no visible signs of infrastructure (apparently it's all underground) and it's sparkling clean.

The first problem that I had was the maps. Maps given out at the hotel only had a few streets shown inside WDW, so I went straight to the Disney store located inside my hotel. But those maps are more artistic renditions of buildings - most unlabeledwith a few roads. There are 4 theme parks, 3 water parks, one very big marketplace with restaurants and stores and clubs, apparently 5 golf courses, and what seems to be 15-20 resorts each with their own restaurants, bars and shops. (This does not count the 6 hotels that are on WDW land, including my hotel, the Hilton) Everything is far enough away from everything else that it is not walkable.

What if you wanted to find something specific like a sports bar, or a hair salon? Could you easily look on a Disney map and find where to go? Absolutely not. Although the entire place is run and owned by the same corporation, and they obviously have a complicated system in place to clean and staff the entire place, getting around and finding things is not part of what they help you with.

As an example, on our second evening after our conference, we decided to try and visit one of the theme parks, eat dinner and watch Monday Night Football. Disney owns ABC, which owns ESPN so clearly there would be a ESPN Zone or someplace like that. The problem was that no one seemed to know if there were one anywhere. Not at the Disney store at our hotel, not at Downtown Disney(the huge marketplace), not at WDW MGM Studios (the theme park). So we went to these places and tried to have fun, but it was getting later and later and we hadn't eaten and couldn't find a sports bar. Several Disney "cast members" (any employee, from janitor to CEO apparently) said something like "oh yeah - I think there is one in this one place." But either they couldn't tell us how to get there, or there was no sports bar when we did.

Finally we left MGM Studios theme park at 10pm and headed toward the buses (more about that later) and one of the guys directing people to the buses told us to get on a boat and get off at the Boardwalk (whatever that was), and walk to the end and there was one. And we did - and it was there. A HUGE ESPN bar with big signs out front advertising MNF. It was a miracle.

It turns out "The Boardwalk" is one of those many Disney resorts on the property. And as I said, each one has a different theme, different shops and restaurants. And none of them seem to know what is located at the other ones.

So the maps are confusing and unhelpful. But wait there's more. Maybe because it was built over wetlands, or maybe just to be special, the roads are windy and illogical. Those street signs with Mickey ears were very confusing. It's hard to explain just why they were so confusing - I just could never figure out where we were - and I am a good navigator. It didn't match the maps at all (roads, scale, buildings) and the signs were not consistent. I can imagine if a family were in a car, then there would be a lot of chasing your own tail.

If you didn't have a car, there were Disney buses that went between all of the resorts, theme parks and water parks. There were different buses that went from the 6 special hotels and the theme parks. There were boats that went between some of the theme parks and some of the resorts. Every time we got on any of these, it seemed to take 45 minutes to get anywhere. It really did seem like they wanted you to get lost. (No transportation out of the WDW boundary except by car/taxi)

And then there was cost. For one person over the age of 9 to go to one theme park it was $71. (Age 3-9 it's $60) And to visit more than theme park in one day or to go to the water parks as well you could add that for $45 more. But apparently there are many ways to get around this. We did by going after 4pm (special conference price) and so the cost was only $43. (Only $43? Like that's a huge bargain?) Apparently if you go multiple days it gets cheaper the more days you go, and there are coupons and stuff. But we started trying to calculate what a family of four would pay to go, calculating food, toys, hotel. It boggled the mind.

There was some stuff I liked. Once I got to the theme park, the 3 rides I went on ($14.33 a ride btw) weren't bad. I had been looking forward to going on "Star Tours" since it came out when I was 16. Man I woulda loved that when I was 16. But it has not been updated, either with Star Wars story or new ride technology since 1988 - so a little bit of a letdown.

In the middle of Downtown Disney there is a group of nightclubs - the area is called "Pleasure Island." On my last evening we went and got the $22 wristband so we could visit each one (pretty good bargain actually). Comedy club, 70's and 80's music, BET, and one that was a mix of top 40 music were the ones we went to and they were pretty good. (The other two were a techno club and one called "The Adventurer's Club" which from the outside looked like the set of Indiana Jones) Good music, good dancing, strong drinks. Very different personalities in each one.

Little incongruous to be at BET listen to hard core hip-hop and pass a door that says "Cast Members Only" on the way to the bathroom. And when they shut the clubs down, some of the conversations I heard around me were umm, kinda un-Disney like. But hell - they are the ones who named it Pleasure Island.

One evening I took it upon myself to get a haircut. Instead of wandering around like for the sports bar, I decided to call around. None of the Disney literature had the phone numbers, but I did get out the yellow pages and matching up the names of the resorts on one of the maps with the names of the resorts in the phone book, I called around. I was unsuccessful in finding a place that could cut my hair with my schedule. But I did find out that many of the employees (oops I mean cast members) would end their conversation with "Have a Magical Day!" What the heck do you say to that in response?

I finally found a place that I could walk to that was off WDW land, amazingly enough. A strip mall across the street that was the boundary. It was a relief - straight roads, garbage cans, no cast members. I did find out that people in Orlando seem to be really friendly even if they aren't part of Disney. And the people at the salon explained to me the love/hate relationship the town has with the place. The guy who cut my hair likes it so much he lives in Celebration, Florida, a Disney planned town. But the makeup lady called the whole thing "Stepford" and was creeped out by it.

I did enjoy myself but it felt like I had to put some basic travel beliefs aside. No trying to walk everywhere to get a feel for the place, or look for a local authentic restaurant. No control over transportation or navigation. Just enter this world, be prepared to pay a lot everywhere, and spend a lot of time getting anywhere. Have a magical day!!

No I didn't die

So I know - I am the worst blogger ever. I haven't posted in almost a year and so no one will check my blog ever.

So updates on my life:

Last spring I produced and directed the school play "Little Shop of Horrors." It was a long complicated process, but really fun. The worst part was figuring out what I didn't know (lights, set, sound, etc). And the drama that happened between students. But I was really proud of the overall result. And they paid me (not very much, but something). So that means I am a professional director!!

I learned not to let students drive my car. I don't want to talk about it.

Class of 2007 graduated. You would think that would be the end of them. Not so much. They still email, myspace, and text me for advice. And I have gotten 2 middle of the night drunken phone calls from graduates. Fortunately not creepy, just goofy (I'm inebriated!! You were a role model to me!!)

This summer my husband and I went on a trip to San Franscisco, and then I went for a week to DC. I was taking this great intensive dance class and then got to hang out with my sister. Lots of fun, very tired and sore by the end. We even had a recital!!

In August we started a project I wanted to for a while - put a front porch on our house to make it look less like an ugly ranch - still working on that every Saturday.

My 10th year of teaching ever started out the worst ever because a student that had been in two of my classes and was in the plays died on the first day of school. He was a very sweet talented troubled young man. I ended up being the point person coordinating stuff with the family with stuff at school. Funeral, grief counselors, memorial service - by the second week of school I was worn out emotionally and physically.

The very next day the vice-principal asked if I wanted to fill in to a conference in Orlando, Florida. (The sad thing is, at first I said no because I was so stressed). So I left a week later for Walt Disney World (which is weird enough that it needs a blog by itself). Just got back from that a week ago.

So all in a a very busy fall so far.

I hope that I can be a more consistent writer. As I have said before, I have many ideas regularly, but my teaching schedule gets more of my attention. But this year I have a nifty laptop so perhaps I can do a better job.