Learning, Friends and Connections

 There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over. We urgently need to develop direct connections to the brain so that computers can add to human intelligence rather than be in opposition. -- Stephen Hawking

The post title seems like something I would write for my family blog, but rather "Learning, Friends and Connections" are the subject of education as well. In fact, friends creating connections through learning was the theme of a presentation my students and I gave Monday night for the Spotsylvania School Board where I was asked to present the "instructional highlight." Before, I introduced the students I told the board members a story.

I grew up in a small town in Tennessee and went to Cornell College in Mount Vernon Iowa where I majored in history and focused on religion. Stories of the past fascinate me.  There, my love of learning and fondness for connections throughout history were nurtured as were the friendships I formed at this liberal arts college. One of the friends I made there was Sarah Miller, who was also a History major.  Sarah was a couple years ahead of me in school and after graduation, I remembered her taking off for adventures around the world, something of which I was also wanted to do.  I spent summers working with youth in Okinawa, Japan, Copenhagen, Denmark and Moscow, Russia.  Sarah and I didn’t keep in touch, though.

After graduation from college, I lived in Russia and spent about 10 months working for the American Embassy in Moscow, and got the privilege of taking a weeklong trip to Egypt.

I stayed along the Red Sea, visited Cairo and the great pyramids at Giza and toured the famed valley of the kings and queens.

 I sailed along the Nile, rode a camel, saw a real mummy and gazed upon hieroglyphics in temples and tombs I teach about today in my 8^th grade classroom.

While I remember many things about that trip, the most poignant one is this. 



photo from http://trav3ls.com/temple-of-karnak

 I was standing in a temple with huge, tall columns where I saw writing at the top.  I asked the tour guide what it was, and he informed me that it was inscriptions from the French when they invaded Egypt in the 1800’s.  And my next question was, “how did they [the French soldiers] get all the way up there?” Let me remind you that I had graduated college with a degree in history. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN this, I’m sure I was taught this.  But he said, “they were just stubs of stone out of the ground….What we are standing in has been excavated by archaeologist since then.” Ladies and gentleman, it was the first time I truly understood archaeology and the process of erosion and how what we know about the ancient world has only been discovered recently. 

It was connections like that which made me answer the call to teach so that I could nurture in others an excitement about history, and continue on my personal journey of experiencing human connections. 

Fast forward to December of 2011, I went with a group of Spotsylvania County history teachers to the National Social Studies conference in Washington DC. Because I had my iphone, I saw on Facebook that Sarah Miller was also in Washington DC--she was there for the conference too as a presenter as she in an archaeologist and  works for the Florida public archaeology outreach center. 

After her travels, she earned her Master’s Degree in Anthropology and focused on archaeology. She has traveled all around the world, but her archaeology work focuses on native peoples of Florida and in addition to field work, she does public relations. And might I add, the study of indigenous people of our continent is just as important as the indigenous as other places.

In one of her trips abroad, she happened upon an excavation of Buddha’s birth place where Japanese archaeologist were working and the global connections of people learning about people of the past sparked her interest.  I only know this because my students asked her how she became interested in archaeology.  Because as Sarah Miller and I reconnected,  I told her I taught World History and there were some Standards of Learning strands about archaeology and we talked about a way she could talk to my students.   So the first week of September, from Florida in her university office, she spent 20 to 40 minutes with each of my five classes.  It was a virtual field trip.  I borrowed a camera from Dr. Negley, got Karen Fontenot to install skype on my computer and we figured out how to make it work.  (slide) We could hear her fine, but she couldn’t hear us. So I called her on my cell phone and delivered questions to her I fielded from the students who listened and interacted in such a respectful and engaging way.  It was a way to show my students how we can use technology to learn about age-old concepts. 

 Sarah Miller reached out through my smart board to bring relevance of the study of history, of anthropology, of archeology to our students.  Through technology, she was able to share passion and expertise for studying peoples of the past, the contributions of her field and the love and excitement she has for learning. 

 Students asked a variety of questions, but all classes asked, ‘what was one of the coolest things you’ve ever found?’

She had a different answer for each day and she showed them artifacts and explained the intricacies of a dig. With each artifact she described, her old fashioned love of the human stories was revealed in this interaction made possible by technology.

After our session, Sarah Miller wrote a blog on her public archaeology outreach site how we connected, sharing what we did, and offered tips for using skype as an outreach One evening after school, as I was still beaming about the experiences created for my students, the connections I saw created in their minds,  and so proud of my friend and her work as well as grateful for her sharing with my classes.   “I texted her… for us humanitarians, there is nothing as valuable of the love of learning.”  And speaking of  learning.  Students were given a cumulative benchmark test which included all sorts of topics almost four weeks after our skype session. Of 150 students, only four students missed the question about what an archaeologist does. They made the connections.

Students then introduced themselves and spoke a couple sentences on what they learned, how using technology made it more interactive, and what details they thought were interesting.  One young man spoke about different burial positions and its symbols.  

I am grateful for the chance to make and share human connections every day, and for the opportunity to go to the National Social Studies Conference where I connected with an old friend, enabling this experience.  Next year we are going to try to skype from an actual dig in the field.

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After we spoke, I was so rewarded with positive affirmations from the board members about this lesson and my teaching. I was so proud of students and of my friend, Sarah.  But the truth is that the students did well because of their parents in the audience, not because of me.  We teachers are merely assistants in the educating process. And my teaching was only highlighted because I had a connection with a friend.

Yet teaching and learning are enhanced as we make connections, without which, opportunities like these are not possible. In a time when budgets are tight, funding for teacher development is jeopardized. I could quote all sorts of research about the value of professional development and its impact on teacher effectiveness for student achievement, but I think this experience speaks for itself.