Click to view =>Teaching with Infographics: Dumbing  down classes or “suping” them up?

Writer’s Block: A psychological condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.

Writer’s Block: A creative space designed for students experiencing challenges in which the development of writing skills, imagination and creativity are key.

We have found that the Communication Arts and Technology Writing Workshop students experience an extended version of a Writer’s Block and our creative solution was the development of a Writer’s Block; a space and time in which to engage them creatively.  Read more by click on the research poster overview.

Writer’s Block: Research Poster

It cannot be done in a day….a week, not even in a year.  The making of standards which drive any programme, any plan, any concept is a time-honoured investment which requires blood, sweat and TEARS (Time, Expertise, Access, Resources and Support).

I teach a group of Communication Arts and Technology students at UTech, Jamaica.  They are young (straight-out-of high-school young), vulnerable, light-headed, anxious.  We have to teach them to become professionals and to display professional behaviours.  We have to create for them, a basic set of standards which guides their behaviours and the behaviours of those to come.  So what did we do?  We made it a 50/50 project – class discussions,, interviews, discussions on what could and should be the norm of professional engagements.  We agreed, disagreed, argued, apologised, threw everything out, started over, pulled a few things back in, piloted, piloted and piloted.

The result?  Click the link below to view.

Professional Engagement – McKoy

So the literature tells us that within any team, there are bound to be challenges.  Fine, I get that.  Challenges which range from miscommunication, mistrust, personal clashes, personal agendas, power issues, conflicts regarding why and how it should be done and by whom.  I get that too, I really do.  But shouldn’t there be an “I” in team?

Should that “I” be the one to engage responsibly with the responsibilities assigned?  Should that “I” evaluate himself/herself and make the necessary vital contributions required of the team?  We seriously ought to reconsider the spelling, meaning and implications of having an “I” in team!

The group’s identity would be stronger and more clearly defined as each individual would have a clear sense of role and responsibility.  Decision making may be easier, conflicts may be more readily resolved, weight pulling may be less problematic and finger pointing less frequent.

Shouldn’t there be an “I” in team and shouldn’t that “I” contribute to the bigger group by being  initiative, intuitive, identifiable, imaginative, interested and interesting?  Shouldn’t that “I” be a part of a greater good by being inspirational  and impressive?

Shouldn’t there be an “I” in team?

A s a Foreign Language teacher for several years, I have come to accept that my students are not dunce; they are dumb.  That’s right….they are dumb.  In a classroom in which we expect them to learn a language which is totally foreign to them, a language which does not extend beyond the walls of the classroom, a language which they are taught laced with the native language (whatever that is, but that is for another day), they are, simply put…speechless.

We expect them to wrap their tongues seamlessly around vowel and consonant combinations which are alien to them and we expect them to do so in 3 hours a week for 13 weeks while they contend with reading and writing and listening while juggling 5 to 6 other courses, work and family commitments.

So our students are silent, speechless, dumb.  In highly academic and scholarly circles, this dumbness is called reticence and it emanates from language anxiety; a phenomena long studied by teachers, researchers, administrators and the like.

So what do we do?  Well, we start by knowing who we teach. From there we can know what makes them anxious and begin to explore how best to reduce the anxiety factor[s].  They really are not dunce….just dumb.

I am driven to explore, to uncover, to discover and to re-present. I live to describe and to de-scribe, to unwrite and to rewrite. Mine is the passion to ignite fire within my students, to evoke laughter, to share knowledge, to learn and to teach.  My zest is indelibly intertwined with ludic actions, reflective reasonings and with practical advice. My name is Michelle Stewart-McKoy and  iLearn…..iTeach…..iEducate!

I can no longer speak in the tongues of mine ancestors. Theirs was the language of deposits, of sages on stages, spotlights and “me”

Nor can I manipulate the garble of the Google, X,Y,Z or Alpha generations

for theirs is copy, cut, paste, pirates and mimicry of mindless parrots.

Now it seems that I am trapped in the between…

caught in the betwix…

suspended in the middle.

Do I regress, progress,

distress myself?

Nay….. I speak as the hybrid….

with a new voice

the voice of the between, betwix and the voice of  beyond….way beyond

I speak in the hybrid markings of middleness, not average, nor superior…

and certainly not inferior…never inferior

I speak….between, betwix and beyond!