Rooftop Musings On Tech, Teaching, and Himalayas

Phal's rooftop at dawn

Annapurna peaks out from monsoon clouds

2012 August 14 Tuesday Phal’s rooftop in Lamachaur, Pokhara

I just had a ten minute most awkward conversation with Aunt Phal (who calls me Dhai, meaning older brother), me speaking mostly English but some broken phrases in Nepali and her translating my mumblings into short phrases in Nepali.




She is one of the most generous people on the planet. She has cooked for me twice a day for several weeks, pays for admission to caves, museums, and just now asked when I plan to come back. She asks nothing in return, and indeed it will be hard to give her a gift or a little something for all the supplies. We chatted as best we could, and I ignored the feeling of awkwardness because her nephew, speaking perfect, British English, isn’t enough for me to personally convey how grateful I am. She was willing to snap my picture in front of the Himalayas, which are peaking out of the monsoon cloud layer, but wouldn’t allow me to snap hers. I think she has always been a little shy, but extremely gracious. 

View from the rooftop

In email conversations with colleagues, I am increasingly contemplating the need for self-reflection for both teachers and students, but with the technology tsunami coming directly at us, how can we create a habit of mind in ourselves and our students for reflective writing, thinking, reading, and discussing? Are these two behemoths diametrically opposed? Not if we can use tech to foster the self-reflective impulse and nurture it. But that’s swimming upstream. Twitter is good at 142 characters, and many email exchanges are short bursts of incomplete thoughts read hastily and incompletely, with only one of several points often responded to, if at all. iPads are not a solution to anything, let’s admit, except a shiny, powerful tool in students’ hands. If we use that tool just like the paperback book, what have we gained? If we use it as a constant distraction, what have we lost? But if somehow we can get kids reading more on the device, if we can get them annotating closely, if we can have them reading widely in different kinds of texts, then maybe, just maybe, we have used tech beneficially. If we can get students annotating and then gathering their annotations (automatically, after the table of contents) and starting to sort through the things they noticed in the text and starting to organize those ideas coherently and then connecting together the pieces with their own sentences and transitions and analysis, then maybe we have used the device to enhance reading, thinking, analysis, and written communication. If this is all we accomplish, imperfectly the first year, then that would justify the learning curve and the effort and the risks we took. And if in a 50 minute period we can assign a small group project due at the end of the hour  with the iPad presentation software, examining one part of the text or one poem, then that is also worth it.

Rode six crowded buses in one day

But know thyself? Reflection? Self-knowledge through self-reflection? What chance do we have with this goal amidst all the tech? Turn you iPads face down on your desks and stop to reflect. If that is built into our routine every day, then will it become a habit of mind? And then we need some accountability, some speech act, some writing, so that it won’t just be a screensaver. I have to design all those lessons.

But one more thing. If I can read Socratic Circles and Make Just One Change before Sept. 6 (doubtful) and if I can foster a classroom culture of students generating thoughtful questions, then maybe the frame questions for those reflective moments and those reflective discussions and reflective writings will be student generated and thus more meaningful. I will need to assess all this, even the questions, and I will need to be clear with students about what constitutes a thought-provoking or stimulating question. And, as AJ always says, I will have to TEACH students how to generate questions, not just tell them to do it. All this in an environment where I have to “cover” reading, writing, discussing, and college readiness in the last year of high school. This could be a rather challenging year for me. But at least I feel renewed from my adventures in Nepal, not  exhausted, the way I feared. So if the next two weeks hold true to form, I could be starting the new academic year with a lot on my plate, but also a lot to look forward to.