Feeling Like Dolly

I've been feeling like Dolly recently - the sheep, not the country singer - because I've been working on cloning myself.

That's right.

I'll admit that when I first heard the term, it kind of freaked me out.  I'd been interested in academic technologies for a while, and nothing I'd heard at conferences or read in articles made me cringe as much as "teacher cloning."  It makes me think of a Ray Bradbury story, or maybe a Twilight Zone episode, in which identical automatons, loaded with the right curriculum through a port in their backs, teach mechanically in grey-walled classrooms, in itchy grey uniforms, with their synthetic hair pulled back in severe buns.

I was apprehensive too because of how it seemed to suggest a lack of recognition of how important teacher-student interactions are. The implication seemed to be that nothing we did was so singular or important that it couldn't happen just as effectively without me actually there, and I that was a little scary or threatening to consider. To mollify myself, I actually started considering instead that maybe some teachers could deliver their content via video without losing something intangible, but not the dynamic, responsive, creative ones - you know, the good ones.

I'm happy to report, though, that I kept an open mind, set aside my fear and ego, and started to weigh what teacher cloning might offer me and my students.  Teacher cloning isn't scary; it's simply pre-recording instruction via video or screencasting for classroom or home viewing.  I've become a big fan.  Huge.  Here's why.

#1 - Sometimes I Just Can't Be There
I used to tell myself, even between bouts of vomiting or in the midst of constant nose-blowing, that I just had to get to school, and my kids couldn't afford a day lost if I didn't show up, the sky would fall.  I was so wrong, and even before I embraced teacher cloning, I realized that I had to take care of myself, but now, it's so much easier.  Cloning allows me to minimize disruptions caused by my own absences, and it really simplifies the sub plans (which is a giant benefit, since writing sub plans is the absolute worst thing ever).

Last month, I missed two consecutive days of school, which is very unusual for me.  My students were in the middle of a short story unit and I was about to introduce them to an activity that would become a regular part of our class.  I was on a tight schedule, having already lost four school days to flood closures, and didn't want to put it off; still, I couldn't imagine how I could clearly communicate the guidelines, expectations and rationale for the activity to the substitute so he could convey all of that to them.  Simultaneously, I was worrying about how to get my plans ready fast enough that I could also get home and pack and make my flight.  One of those two concerns inspired me to simply record myself explaining the activity and leave the YouTube link for him to play for my students.

Boom. I didn't have to worry about spelling everything out in sub plans.  Cutting out the middle man allowed me greater confidence that directions would be totally clear, and I was glad that I'd get to share my enthusiasm for the activity with my classes even though I wasn't there.

#2 - Flipping the Classroom is Flipping Awesome
I will undoubtedly come back and do dozens of variations on this theme, but the bottom line is, making videos - cloning myself - allows me to reallocate how I spend my limited and precious time with students during the day. (For a quick primer on what flipping entails, consider the following infographic.)

One lesson I've recently flipped is my introduction to literary terms.  In the past, I'd spend a day having students take notes off a Powerpoint, and then they'd complete a worksheet asking them to provide examples or explanations of devices from the stories we'd already studied.  Often, students would be way off base with some of the terms, confused even though they'd had an opportunity to ask questions when the information was first presented, and I'd realize I had to re-teach some of the content.

This year, I mixed things up by screencasting that introductory presentation and assigning it for homework.  I provided an advanced organizer for students to complete as they watched, and in class the next day, they interacted much more meaningfully with the new jargon as they collaborated in groups to create richer examples and fuller explanations they shared with classmates.  While they were working, I could monitor the groups' progress and provide feedback to students before they spent too much time developing misperceptions.  While I don't have any real quantitative data measuring their understanding of the terms compared to students' from prior years, I definitely feel like this year's class uses the terms more in discussions, without any prompting from me, which is pretty cool.

#3 - For Differentiation
I teach sixth grade at a public charter school in a large school district.  There are at least a dozen different elementary schools they come from, so they hardly have a uniform background.  A lot (and I mean a whole lot) of the first quarter is spent covering topics that are review for some students but brand new to others.  Cloning myself and presenting those lessons that could be both allowed some students to watch once, be reminded of what they learned previously, and quickly complete the worksheet; others slowed down, paused the video to complete answers so they didn't miss the next definition, and rewatched portions as necessary. A parent of a student with an auditory processing deficit told me at conferences that her son really liked getting notes like that at home instead of in class, and I'll admit that it hadn't occurred to me that this was yet another way that cloning myself could benefit students with different learning styles. In the future, I could record different sets of directions or reminders for students at different levels of writing proficiency before we start working on an essay... I'm suddenly overwhelmed by all the opportunities that flipping the classroom makes possible.

Recently, a NYTimes blogger wrote about how flipping the classroom is also a means to differentiation that leads to more effective mastery learning.  A collection of videos allows students to move at their own pace through units; both excelling and struggling students maintain challenge without becoming bored or frustrated.

#4 - For Consistency
I'll admit that I came across this benefit once by accident.  It was after screencasting an introductory lesson on poetry terms that I planned to assign for homework later in the week.  A meeting I had to attend was scheduled during one of my early periods, and it was an activity that I didn't think would work as well with a sub (and I didn't have much time to create plans for one anyway).  I didn't want to get one section off schedule with the others, so I decided to use the pre-recorded lesson in class, not just with the section I had to miss, but with the other four as well.

This might sound like the height of lazy teaching, but I swear there are some sound reasons to embrace this, at least once in a while.  I teach the same thing five times a day.  I don't fool myself that I always have the same level of energy about a lesson or activity in seventh period that I do in first, and I can't always remember which extra examples I shared when walking through a powerpoint with which sections.  Even when the slides I'm using are the same, my verbal cues and supplements aren't.  Using the screencast in class, I knew that every student in each of my sections got exactly the same introduction. It was also a great opportunity for me to observe their note-taking.  Usually, in presentation mode, I'm a little bit more tethered to the front of the room, and I'm focused on communicating clearly at the same time that I'm trying to gauge students' comprehension and attention. When the notes were shared for them, and I was relieved of the delivery, I got to walk the room and really see what my students were recording and how.  Those observations led to a later lesson on note-taking.  I can't say I could get behind doing this every day, but once in a while, even sharing the pre-recorded lessons in class rather than as homework could be useful.



These certainly aren't all the applications or uses for teacher cloning, but they're the ones I've been thinking about and appreciating lately.