Its time to bring this blog to an end and to do this I will give my thoughts and observations on this last semester as a liar. I honestly loved this approach to teaching for a number of reasons. Here is what I loved about being a liar:
1. Students were more engaged. I found the class seemed very alert compared to previous classes and did a very nice job in helping with the flow of the class. I found this to be true when having discussions about the material especially in the form of participation. (probably because they weren’t asleep)
2. They asked better questions. When I would get a question concerning the material the questions were much better and relevant to the material. This gave me the opportunity to spin the question back to them and tell them to find the answer. I did this at least 3 or more times week, which only happened a handful of times during a semester previous to this experience.
3. The book became the source of relevant information. This is where my lies came from and the Internet didn’t provide the answers they needed for the lies I was telling in a number of instances.
4. I was no longer the expert. I couldn’t be trusted which meant I am no longer the source of all information and answers. The students had to come up with the answers themselves or ask people in their group to help them with the answers, or turn to their books. This gave me the opportunity to work more with students who had real problems with material and not answer a simple question for a student because they wanted a quick answer. (forced them to be more independent in their learning)
5. Its challenging. I found in my attempt to find the lies that it was really difficult to identify lies and it forced me to look closer into the material as a result I found I learned more about spices as a result.
6. All is not what it seems. This is a life lesson, especially in this age of political mud slinging and misinformation in the media and online(Wikipedia). Students had the chance to see first hand what believing everything you hear can do. (remember a quiz they got which was completely lies they all failed) Challenge what you hear and what people say and “Seek the Truth” (class motto).
7. Research. The class did a great deal of research, whether they knew it or not. In researching the material I found that students learned more than if I would have told it to them. It has been shown students retain more of what they learn themselves through an active means than if it is told to them. As teachers we know there is a great deal of research behind that statement.
When I first read about lying in January, I had no idea what I was in for to say the least. I read the article and thought “this is a fun way to engage students in listening to what may otherwise be a boring lecture “ and kind of chuckled at the prospect of lying. I had no idea the ways I could use it and the benefits to me and the students it could have in an educational setting. My students responded very nicely as well and in a survey I did at the end of the year 9 of 27 students made comments about how they liked me lying and no one said they hated my lying when asked what they liked least about the course. Here are some of the comments I got (unedited of course):
“Some things i like about WAHG 1 are how Mr. Heiser trys hard to make the class fun and interesting and i like his teaching plan, and i think the idea of "identifying the lie" is good because it makes you think and puts your brain work harder because you have to think into the topic more.”
“The things i likied most about this class is the fact that you lied everyday. It keeped us on our toes”
“Well you should keep lieing, and you totaly rig that game of kickball.”(end of year game)
The other six comments were simply variations of “I liked the lies…”
In conclusion, I would recommend this approach to anyone. The benefits of teaching this way were prevalent everyday and only time will tell if there are any long term benefits this approach had on my students (if any). Before I go I would like to thank Steve Dembo who encouraged me, after seeing my presentation on “Lying for learning”, to blog about and share this experience with you, it has been a real great piece for me to reflect on my teaching and make me a better teacher! Thank you Steve I found this blogging experience to be a rewarding experience in itself! To the readers I would like to thank you for reading because without you I wouldn’t have continued to write about it. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Turning the tables (how I did)
Let me apologize for how long it has been since my last entry. End of the year stuff has kept me from blogging about how I did when the tables got turned on me. It will be officially two weeks since my students, finished their presentations where they had their chance to lie to me and the class in their presentations. I had 9 presentations to view and identify the lies. As mentioned in my previous post I told them how many of these presentations I've seen over the last 10 years and told them they would really have to bring the "heat" if they wanted to sneak a lie past me (my challenge). Needless to say I failed miserably! Now this is an omission I may with pride because they did a fantastic job from top to bottom and I'm very proud to have made this challenge and "lost". I will admit, it was difficult, to say the least, identifying the lies of my students, it was obvious they took my challenge very seriously! They did a fantastic job masking their deceptions and one of the students used the no lie trick I got them with multiple times throughout the semester. As mentioned, I did a lousy job in finding the lies, in fact, I was able to identify 1 (sort of) lie in the 9 presentations. Not very good for the self proclaimed “expert”. After this little experience, I can clearly say that I can see the difficulty in what I was doing everyday with my class but I also see the value.
What I found valuable about being lied to is this:
1. I paid very close attention to the presenters and my mind was not able to stray, for if it did I would surly miss the lie.(as we know now that didn't matter)
2. When I went and researched the information to find the lies I found I learned more about the topic then previously known because the requirement to dive into the information to find the lie. (I researched some of them and found the answers but technology wasn't part of the deal for identifying their lies)
Now the lie I was able to find (sort of) was a contradiction in the presentation I picked up and had the student not contradicted himself I would have not identified the lie. Though my explanation of what the lie was wasn’t the best I felt it was adequate and as I see them from now until they graduate roaming the halls that I didn’t get skunked by their lying (sort of)…
Lesson: I don't know if this is a lesson but I did notice that the presentations were much better this year. It could be because they wanted to get the lie past me and did a great deal of research on their topic or something else but for whatever the reason is way they were the winners!
Next Entry: Final entry (recap and analysis)
*Note about Final entry: I had the students do anonymous surveys about the class, my techniques, interest, and will be looking over and summarizing this information for the next few weeks. The last entry for this blog will be June 23rd.
What I found valuable about being lied to is this:
1. I paid very close attention to the presenters and my mind was not able to stray, for if it did I would surly miss the lie.(as we know now that didn't matter)
2. When I went and researched the information to find the lies I found I learned more about the topic then previously known because the requirement to dive into the information to find the lie. (I researched some of them and found the answers but technology wasn't part of the deal for identifying their lies)
Now the lie I was able to find (sort of) was a contradiction in the presentation I picked up and had the student not contradicted himself I would have not identified the lie. Though my explanation of what the lie was wasn’t the best I felt it was adequate and as I see them from now until they graduate roaming the halls that I didn’t get skunked by their lying (sort of)…
Lesson: I don't know if this is a lesson but I did notice that the presentations were much better this year. It could be because they wanted to get the lie past me and did a great deal of research on their topic or something else but for whatever the reason is way they were the winners!
Next Entry: Final entry (recap and analysis)
*Note about Final entry: I had the students do anonymous surveys about the class, my techniques, interest, and will be looking over and summarizing this information for the next few weeks. The last entry for this blog will be June 23rd.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Poem
The following is a poem written about me, as if it was me saying it (hope that makes sense). Anyway, I thought it was cool and wanted to share it.
"My name is Heiser and I teach history.
I lie everyday about what, that's a mystery.
All you have to do is listen very well
'Cuz guess what I'm never gonna tell.
It could be about the lesson or even my hair
for all you know it could be about the fair.
At the end of the class if you don't find the lie
you got til tomorrow, cuz you only get 1 try.
Some kids like it, some kids don't care
Some kids think its just not fair.
I see you tomorrow try and find my lie
So get your book and computer and give it one more try!"
What can I say?
Next post: How did I do? (turning the tables presentations)
"My name is Heiser and I teach history.
I lie everyday about what, that's a mystery.
All you have to do is listen very well
'Cuz guess what I'm never gonna tell.
It could be about the lesson or even my hair
for all you know it could be about the fair.
At the end of the class if you don't find the lie
you got til tomorrow, cuz you only get 1 try.
Some kids like it, some kids don't care
Some kids think its just not fair.
I see you tomorrow try and find my lie
So get your book and computer and give it one more try!"
What can I say?
Next post: How did I do? (turning the tables presentations)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Turning the Tables
This entry is a little different from previous entries because I haven't done anything yet. This entry is to set up what is going to happen over the course of the next week or two. Since I've been lying all semester I thought I would turn the tables on myself and give the students a chance to lie to me.Everyday my students come into the classroom under the impression they must have all the answers, or many of them (if that were the case I wouldn't have a job). Today, I will be introducing the research project for this unit. The topic is spices and the project is to do a comprehensive look at the spice of choice. The class will be doing the same project like in previous classes with a twist, they must put in one lie. My rational for this is pretty simply, its hard to find and develop lies, in fact, it takes a great deal of research to find material which isn't obvious to the learner (in this case will be me).
With the experience I have in this realm I figure, I'm setting myself and the class up for the best set of presentations I've had from them all semester. Since, I've been doing this project for years(or at least a variation of the project) and have heard almost everything there is to hear on the subject they will be presenting. Obviously, I plan on introducing the project to the students today by telling them about my extensive knowledge in this area and the difficulty they could have in stumping me. I think if I introduce it this way they will see my words as a challenge and encourage them to one up me. Now this is the plan but only time will tell how well they learned the material for making a great lie.
With the experience I have in this realm I figure, I'm setting myself and the class up for the best set of presentations I've had from them all semester. Since, I've been doing this project for years(or at least a variation of the project) and have heard almost everything there is to hear on the subject they will be presenting. Obviously, I plan on introducing the project to the students today by telling them about my extensive knowledge in this area and the difficulty they could have in stumping me. I think if I introduce it this way they will see my words as a challenge and encourage them to one up me. Now this is the plan but only time will tell how well they learned the material for making a great lie.
One last twist to this is if they get the lie past me I will award them bonus points for stumping the self proclaimed “expert.” Now anyone who has been following this blog knows I make no pretenses of beingan expert but to them I do. I figure it will make the challenge of finding and/or creating good lies more rewarding. However, knowing the nature of kids, I fear they will talk to their friends about their projects and what they are doing inadvertently leaving the cat out of the bag. So, one last perk will be I'll give to give additional points if they can get the lie past their classmates. If the class figures out the lie they get the points otherwise the bonus goes to the group who presented. If anything this should be an interesting set of presentations in the coming week. This entry won't be complete for a few weeks so I will revisit it after the presentations.
Lesson: When this is all done I hope the students, through their own research learn a lot about the topics being presented.
Next entry: ?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Technology (revisited)
In my last entry I was struggling with my lies and the students’ ability to fact check me online. Last time I decided I was going let my students use technology to fact check me. To give a quick summary, I formulated great lies in which my student debunked using Google in .15 seconds a million times over, leaving me in a position to rethink my approach. (Fast forward to the present) Over the last week and a half since my last entry I’ve been working on how to challenge this generation while they fact me online. I turned to a resource that has been reliable to me and most of you, I imagine, throughout our academic careers…BOOKS! Yes, the media responsible for replacing the scroll many years ago. I turned to some book resources and started to read more about the topics I would be teaching in the coming days and found a great deal of great information I had not known myself before taking this adventure. Whether or not it would hold up to Google and its amazing search capabilities, remained to be seen.
My class is doing the Middle Ages and my challenge as a teacher was to find something not only relevant to the time period but it needed to be interesting. Monday, we started class by talking about the Power of the Monarch and traditions of Parliament in England. Now while doing me own research on Parliament I read an interesting story about a Parliamentary tradition in which members of Parliament turn and face walls during prayer, that is true I just had to add my twist. We first discussed Parliament and its similarities and differences between it and Congress. With Parliament fresh on their minds, it was time to set up the lie, so I stated, “Okay, story time”. When I announce “story time” the class will tend to lock on to what I tell them because they realize it isn’t in their textbook (or is it). I proceed with the story about traditions and practices in Parliament and the lie was now out to be scruntized. All the while the students are typing away on their laptops, anticipating a student finding my lie before I could start my next sentence I paused and asked any questions? Nothing! I proceed with the rest of the lesson and as the end of the period neared, students ask “Mr. H did you lie to us today?” to which I answered, “Yes!” From there the guessing started because they realized their homework list just got longer and this time it was graded. Stumped someone asked, “Did you lie to us about Parliament?”, to which I answered “Yes, good luck finding it!”
The next day came and one of my students came up to me and said, “Mr H I couldn’t find your lie, I searched on line for 3 hours last night and I couldn’t find anything that didn’t check out.” (class is going to be interesting) My class came in 4th block and as expected no one was able to find the answer, anticipating this would be the case. We talked about Parliament traditions and I told them the lie at which point one student remarked, “I looked on line and couldn’t find anything about that on line.” To myself I thought, “Awesome!” I continued this practice the rest of the week and this week, in fact, I even started to record my discussions and post them on line so the students could hear what I said giving them a better chance in finding my lie…
Lesson:
Books are still king. The information about Parliament I found in my book (teachers edition) and it did appear online but wasn’t easy to find even for me. I saw this as the opportunity to tell my class that though the Internet is a good resource for quick information books are still the best resources they have for doing research. Internet should supplement not replace books as the major resource for research.
Next entry: Turning the tables
My class is doing the Middle Ages and my challenge as a teacher was to find something not only relevant to the time period but it needed to be interesting. Monday, we started class by talking about the Power of the Monarch and traditions of Parliament in England. Now while doing me own research on Parliament I read an interesting story about a Parliamentary tradition in which members of Parliament turn and face walls during prayer, that is true I just had to add my twist. We first discussed Parliament and its similarities and differences between it and Congress. With Parliament fresh on their minds, it was time to set up the lie, so I stated, “Okay, story time”. When I announce “story time” the class will tend to lock on to what I tell them because they realize it isn’t in their textbook (or is it). I proceed with the story about traditions and practices in Parliament and the lie was now out to be scruntized. All the while the students are typing away on their laptops, anticipating a student finding my lie before I could start my next sentence I paused and asked any questions? Nothing! I proceed with the rest of the lesson and as the end of the period neared, students ask “Mr. H did you lie to us today?” to which I answered, “Yes!” From there the guessing started because they realized their homework list just got longer and this time it was graded. Stumped someone asked, “Did you lie to us about Parliament?”, to which I answered “Yes, good luck finding it!”
The next day came and one of my students came up to me and said, “Mr H I couldn’t find your lie, I searched on line for 3 hours last night and I couldn’t find anything that didn’t check out.” (class is going to be interesting) My class came in 4th block and as expected no one was able to find the answer, anticipating this would be the case. We talked about Parliament traditions and I told them the lie at which point one student remarked, “I looked on line and couldn’t find anything about that on line.” To myself I thought, “Awesome!” I continued this practice the rest of the week and this week, in fact, I even started to record my discussions and post them on line so the students could hear what I said giving them a better chance in finding my lie…
Lesson:
Books are still king. The information about Parliament I found in my book (teachers edition) and it did appear online but wasn’t easy to find even for me. I saw this as the opportunity to tell my class that though the Internet is a good resource for quick information books are still the best resources they have for doing research. Internet should supplement not replace books as the major resource for research.
Next entry: Turning the tables
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stewing
In recent months I’ve seen a great deal of heated debate, on tv, on a number of hot issues in government and in every instance the same scene seems to play itself out! You know the one, where a person with an opinion contrary to the larger group is being shouted down by the masses, basically quelling any further argument or debate. Recently, I had a similar situation play out in my class only I was the “shouter” and a student of mine would be the one who would lose his voice.
Recently, I assigned a map exercise to my students and towards the end of the period I decided to bring up a copy of the map on the whiteboard to go over it. I started with the first location called on a student to give the answer and had the student write the answer on the board. I did this a couple of more times when I called on one of my more outgoing students, who we will call “Mr. Wrong”. I asked “Mr. Wrong”, “where is Macedonia, he came up to the board and wrote the answer right where it needed to be. After he wrote the location, I quickly turned and asked the class, “Is this correct?” I had one person from the peanut gallery say "no", and I said, “Right this is supposed to be up here” and moved his answer up further than would be reasonable for the location of Macedonia. He quickly jumped in and said “no its suppose to be lower” and at that point other members of the class said, “No, Mr. H is right it should be higher” Immediately other voices chimed in and quickly all argument ceased.. Had I pulled it off?( I thought to myself). The remainder of the exercise, he sat there quietly just watching and listening. At one point he started to look through his book, but still not a word. I got through the entire map and the end of the period was upon us, so I asked, “Any questions on the map?” Well of course “Mr. Wrong” had something to say, “Mr. H, you are wrong. Here look at this map. Here is Macedonia and it’s in a pretty straight line with this sea which is where I had it. Not up there where you have it..” I looked at his map gave him a smirk and told him to write it up on the board. I then announced to the class on your maps you will need to change Macedonia from here and write it here (pointing to the map as I gave this instruction). I announced, “That was my lie!”
This unlike other lies was group a effort though they didn’t know it. I got this idea from a psychology experiment where people in a group will give blatantly wrong answers to convince the subject to go along even if they knew the answer was wrong. I varied this of course, rather than the group give the wrong answer I hoped they would side with the “expert” and in doing so pressure “Mr. Wrong” into giving up his argument. If it didn’t work he still caught my lie.
Lesson:
The “expert”. The whole idea of me being an expert is absurd. Many students don’t challenge me for various reasons, the most common one I hear is, “Well you are the teacher”. In a democracy we need to speak up and have our voices heard no matter how unpopular our ideas may be to others. Example, Health Care Reform… (Next time I do this, it will be with one of my more introverted students)
Next Entry: Technology
Recently, I assigned a map exercise to my students and towards the end of the period I decided to bring up a copy of the map on the whiteboard to go over it. I started with the first location called on a student to give the answer and had the student write the answer on the board. I did this a couple of more times when I called on one of my more outgoing students, who we will call “Mr. Wrong”. I asked “Mr. Wrong”, “where is Macedonia, he came up to the board and wrote the answer right where it needed to be. After he wrote the location, I quickly turned and asked the class, “Is this correct?” I had one person from the peanut gallery say "no", and I said, “Right this is supposed to be up here” and moved his answer up further than would be reasonable for the location of Macedonia. He quickly jumped in and said “no its suppose to be lower” and at that point other members of the class said, “No, Mr. H is right it should be higher” Immediately other voices chimed in and quickly all argument ceased.. Had I pulled it off?( I thought to myself). The remainder of the exercise, he sat there quietly just watching and listening. At one point he started to look through his book, but still not a word. I got through the entire map and the end of the period was upon us, so I asked, “Any questions on the map?” Well of course “Mr. Wrong” had something to say, “Mr. H, you are wrong. Here look at this map. Here is Macedonia and it’s in a pretty straight line with this sea which is where I had it. Not up there where you have it..” I looked at his map gave him a smirk and told him to write it up on the board. I then announced to the class on your maps you will need to change Macedonia from here and write it here (pointing to the map as I gave this instruction). I announced, “That was my lie!”
This unlike other lies was group a effort though they didn’t know it. I got this idea from a psychology experiment where people in a group will give blatantly wrong answers to convince the subject to go along even if they knew the answer was wrong. I varied this of course, rather than the group give the wrong answer I hoped they would side with the “expert” and in doing so pressure “Mr. Wrong” into giving up his argument. If it didn’t work he still caught my lie.
Lesson:
The “expert”. The whole idea of me being an expert is absurd. Many students don’t challenge me for various reasons, the most common one I hear is, “Well you are the teacher”. In a democracy we need to speak up and have our voices heard no matter how unpopular our ideas may be to others. Example, Health Care Reform… (Next time I do this, it will be with one of my more introverted students)
Next Entry: Technology
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Really?
How many teachers have ever heard one of the following questions after you’ve given an in class or homework assignment:
1. Is this right?
2. Is this what you want?
3. Will you read over this to make sure I’m doing it right?
4. Am I doing this right?
5. I couldn’t find this one, can you “help” me?
And the list goes on and on…. Personally, I hate these questions! I hate the fact my students are more concerned with being right then trying and being wrong. Early in my career I loved it when students asked me these questions because I felt I had something to prove. When I got a question like this I was quick to give them the answer and showcase just how much I knew about my content (that’s right I’m the man!) Early on I felt like I would be doing a disservice to them by not answering these questions because I’m the teacher, right? This is what I do, right? In recent times, I’ve come to despise this practice but I still find myself telling them right or wrong, yes or no because I still fear I would be a great disservice by not assisting them in this way. Could lying be my savior from this practice? This brings me to my story.
I gave the class an assignment from their textbook. It was a reading assignment and they had questions to answer concerning the reading. I went over the directions and questions for the class assignment. After finishing the reading assignment, students broke up into pairs and some opted to do it by themselves. I started walking around the room and I noticed the class breezed through the first couple questions, they were simple recall questions. Now comes some of the higher order thinking questions and true to form I get my first hand. I moved across the room to see what she wanted, “Mr. H. is this right?” pointing to her paper. Obviously, the old feeling of wanting to showcase myself started to rear its ugly head and so did my feelings of dismay at the thought of answering this kind of question, again! At that point it hit me, I’m a liar now… So, I reached down picked up the paper, looked over the answer and said, “You want to know if this is the right answer? (I paused for dramatic effect) You are asking me, a compulsive liar if you have the right answer?” At this point she looked up at me and said, “Really?” I said, “Really! I can give you an answer but can you really trust what I’m telling you is right?” With that statement, she sighed, took her paper, and opened her book. I noticed her discussing this question with others later in the period. I did this for every kid who asked me a question that period. When all was said and done we discussed the questions in class and the class did a really nice job with the material and they seemed to have learned something about the content (without my help). For her, she had to discover the answer which reinforced the idea of reading and research. For me, I had exercised the demon!
Lesson:
Content Experts. This lesson is for me as well as the students. I learned I don’t have to be the expert and my hope as I do this more often with the students is they start to realize they not only can be but they are the experts, even if they aren’t the teacher!
Next entry: Stewing..
1. Is this right?
2. Is this what you want?
3. Will you read over this to make sure I’m doing it right?
4. Am I doing this right?
5. I couldn’t find this one, can you “help” me?
And the list goes on and on…. Personally, I hate these questions! I hate the fact my students are more concerned with being right then trying and being wrong. Early in my career I loved it when students asked me these questions because I felt I had something to prove. When I got a question like this I was quick to give them the answer and showcase just how much I knew about my content (that’s right I’m the man!) Early on I felt like I would be doing a disservice to them by not answering these questions because I’m the teacher, right? This is what I do, right? In recent times, I’ve come to despise this practice but I still find myself telling them right or wrong, yes or no because I still fear I would be a great disservice by not assisting them in this way. Could lying be my savior from this practice? This brings me to my story.
I gave the class an assignment from their textbook. It was a reading assignment and they had questions to answer concerning the reading. I went over the directions and questions for the class assignment. After finishing the reading assignment, students broke up into pairs and some opted to do it by themselves. I started walking around the room and I noticed the class breezed through the first couple questions, they were simple recall questions. Now comes some of the higher order thinking questions and true to form I get my first hand. I moved across the room to see what she wanted, “Mr. H. is this right?” pointing to her paper. Obviously, the old feeling of wanting to showcase myself started to rear its ugly head and so did my feelings of dismay at the thought of answering this kind of question, again! At that point it hit me, I’m a liar now… So, I reached down picked up the paper, looked over the answer and said, “You want to know if this is the right answer? (I paused for dramatic effect) You are asking me, a compulsive liar if you have the right answer?” At this point she looked up at me and said, “Really?” I said, “Really! I can give you an answer but can you really trust what I’m telling you is right?” With that statement, she sighed, took her paper, and opened her book. I noticed her discussing this question with others later in the period. I did this for every kid who asked me a question that period. When all was said and done we discussed the questions in class and the class did a really nice job with the material and they seemed to have learned something about the content (without my help). For her, she had to discover the answer which reinforced the idea of reading and research. For me, I had exercised the demon!
Lesson:
Content Experts. This lesson is for me as well as the students. I learned I don’t have to be the expert and my hope as I do this more often with the students is they start to realize they not only can be but they are the experts, even if they aren’t the teacher!
Next entry: Stewing..
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Next Day
The next class, following my deception, I wanted to teach a different lesson to my students. I thought I would focus on reading for a purpose and following the directions as adults we know the importance of doing both. Let me clarify reading for a purpose and what it means to me. By reading for a purpose I mean reading to know what the passage is truly about and not skimming because you think you know it already. I’ve seen it happen many times when people don’t read over material and ignore the fine print, they end up missing the content of the article, complicating a matter, wasting their own, or making their life more difficult. So, when my class came in on day 4, I had a little surprise for them. I had prepared a 2 question short answer quiz about the reading assignment from the previous evening. After handing out the quiz, I told the class they had 10 minutes to complete the quiz. Make sure their name is at the top and begin. The class dove into the quiz with a fury not seen before in any class I’ve ever taught. The previous class, I had given them a “quiz” that wound up being a lesson on research, lies, and fact checking the experts. This class was determined to get off on the right academic foot and anyone observing would had seen an intensity and determination to do well. Well, this was the mood for most of them except a handful of students who decided to take their time and read the directions. In the directions it stated the following:
“Directions: Answer the questions in complete sentences. Each question is worth 5 points. Look at the bottom of the paper and read what to do.”
For the handful of students who read the directions soon discovered the following extended directions at the bottom written in very small letters:
“Turn in the quiz, you are done.”
Now I worte the above message in an 8 font so it wouldn't jump out at students when the gazed over the quiz. At that point my handful of students started to turn in their quizzes. Obviously this was much to the surprise of their classmates who had not finished the first question on the quiz.(How did they get done so quick? was on everyone’s mind). After seeing this group finish so quickly, I observed students going back and reading the directions (what a great idea!). Once students started reading the directions the erasers came out and so did the smiles, because at that moment they knew I got them, again!
Lesson:
Read the directions carefully. You could end up wasting a lot of time and effort; if you don’t believe me try to put an entertainment center together without directions.
Always read the fine print. The fine print is where you will see what something is really about, just look at the fine print next time you sign up for a credit card that offers 0% financing.
Next Post: Lie of the Day
“Directions: Answer the questions in complete sentences. Each question is worth 5 points. Look at the bottom of the paper and read what to do.”
For the handful of students who read the directions soon discovered the following extended directions at the bottom written in very small letters:
“Turn in the quiz, you are done.”
Now I worte the above message in an 8 font so it wouldn't jump out at students when the gazed over the quiz. At that point my handful of students started to turn in their quizzes. Obviously this was much to the surprise of their classmates who had not finished the first question on the quiz.(How did they get done so quick? was on everyone’s mind). After seeing this group finish so quickly, I observed students going back and reading the directions (what a great idea!). Once students started reading the directions the erasers came out and so did the smiles, because at that moment they knew I got them, again!
Lesson:
Read the directions carefully. You could end up wasting a lot of time and effort; if you don’t believe me try to put an entertainment center together without directions.
Always read the fine print. The fine print is where you will see what something is really about, just look at the fine print next time you sign up for a credit card that offers 0% financing.
Next Post: Lie of the Day
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Let the Deception Begin!
As a liar, I decided, lying should be more than just to reinforce the content, it should be a life lesson or reinforce a skill whenever possible. Early on I wanted to give them an important classroom and life lesson, so I decided to focus on the all important skill of research.
My class, on the second day, was as anxious as a group of freshmen could be for a history course. To get the ball rolling I created a PPT with nothing but lies, which I ran in class and even elaborated on some of the points to make the material more believable. After the presentation I said to the class, “ when you go home, check out the information from the PPT making sure everything is kosher, then study because there will be a quiz tomorrow on this information.” Deep down, I had a hunch they would go home and not check any of the information (I was right). Think about it, why would they go home and check the information, they got the information from a teacher, right? He wouldn’t lie to us, right? Ultimately, why do more work considering the teacher said the quiz would be on this information? (their first mistake)
The next day my class came in ready for their first quiz of the new semester, motivated to get off on the right foot academically. The quiz was 10 questions and they had 10 minutes to complete the quiz. At the end, I asked the students to exchange quizzes to grade them for quick feedback. I read the first question and answer, a couple of students immediately said, “But you said…” at which point I abruptly cut them off and asked them, “Please hold all questions until the end.” A look of bewilderment came across their faces and I continued. Question two, just light grumbling. Question three, heads looking back and forth at one another in disbelief. Question 4, the students cracking factious smiles, it is clear the smiles are meant to mask the anger of getting another question wrong. This continued until all 10 answers were read.
Now it’s time to ask the extremely loaded question, “Any questions about the quiz?” With the hands up I called on one young lady who said, “Yesterday, you told us there would be a quiz on the notes and I answered all the questions based on the notes, but all of them are wrong…” I interjected with, “I told you to go home and check the information to make sure it was kosher and then study up because you will have a quiz on this tomorrow. If you checked the information you would have realized everything from the presentation was a lie with the exception of one point which wasn’t on the quiz. I told you on Monday that I am a liar! Yet despite that emission you believed everything in that PPT was true and didn’t check the information, did you? ” I explained to the students, “Just because I’m the teacher doesn’t mean I’m always right nor is what you read in your textbooks, hear on the news, etc. always right. As students and historians we need to be critical of this information. Historians need to be great researchers and at this moment I can safely say as a class you are great note takers but we have some work to do as historians.” After seeing the light of not doing their own research a student politely asked, “Is this quiz going to count?” and I answered, “of course it does!” (gotcha again!)
Lesson:
Research is important to being a historian and a citizen.(Always challenge what you hear or read, fact check constantly..) We will be bombarded with information in many different forms everyday, as historians and citizens it is our job to research and always seek the truth!
Next Post: The Next Day
My class, on the second day, was as anxious as a group of freshmen could be for a history course. To get the ball rolling I created a PPT with nothing but lies, which I ran in class and even elaborated on some of the points to make the material more believable. After the presentation I said to the class, “ when you go home, check out the information from the PPT making sure everything is kosher, then study because there will be a quiz tomorrow on this information.” Deep down, I had a hunch they would go home and not check any of the information (I was right). Think about it, why would they go home and check the information, they got the information from a teacher, right? He wouldn’t lie to us, right? Ultimately, why do more work considering the teacher said the quiz would be on this information? (their first mistake)
The next day my class came in ready for their first quiz of the new semester, motivated to get off on the right foot academically. The quiz was 10 questions and they had 10 minutes to complete the quiz. At the end, I asked the students to exchange quizzes to grade them for quick feedback. I read the first question and answer, a couple of students immediately said, “But you said…” at which point I abruptly cut them off and asked them, “Please hold all questions until the end.” A look of bewilderment came across their faces and I continued. Question two, just light grumbling. Question three, heads looking back and forth at one another in disbelief. Question 4, the students cracking factious smiles, it is clear the smiles are meant to mask the anger of getting another question wrong. This continued until all 10 answers were read.
Now it’s time to ask the extremely loaded question, “Any questions about the quiz?” With the hands up I called on one young lady who said, “Yesterday, you told us there would be a quiz on the notes and I answered all the questions based on the notes, but all of them are wrong…” I interjected with, “I told you to go home and check the information to make sure it was kosher and then study up because you will have a quiz on this tomorrow. If you checked the information you would have realized everything from the presentation was a lie with the exception of one point which wasn’t on the quiz. I told you on Monday that I am a liar! Yet despite that emission you believed everything in that PPT was true and didn’t check the information, did you? ” I explained to the students, “Just because I’m the teacher doesn’t mean I’m always right nor is what you read in your textbooks, hear on the news, etc. always right. As students and historians we need to be critical of this information. Historians need to be great researchers and at this moment I can safely say as a class you are great note takers but we have some work to do as historians.” After seeing the light of not doing their own research a student politely asked, “Is this quiz going to count?” and I answered, “of course it does!” (gotcha again!)
Lesson:
Research is important to being a historian and a citizen.(Always challenge what you hear or read, fact check constantly..) We will be bombarded with information in many different forms everyday, as historians and citizens it is our job to research and always seek the truth!
Next Post: The Next Day
Friday, March 12, 2010
Inspiration for Lying
At the end of January, I was reading an article at ZenMoments.org called “My Favorite Liar”. To quickly summarize the article, a college professor spent 10 weeks lying to his students. He would lie to them once a day about something related to the content the class was learning. After reading this article I was inspired to turn over a new leaf and give up my job as content expert, in History, to become a compulsive liar. Before starting my new professional life as an educational deceiver I felt I had to make some decisions about how to approach lying.
1. What types of things would I lie about? Would the lies be about content, assessments, etc.? Frequency of lying?
2. Is there anything considered so scared to students were lying wouldn’t be appropriate?
3. When do I start?
First, I decided I would follow the one approach of the professor in the article and have the “lie of the day”. Unlike the professor in the article I don’t want the lie to be just a verbal lie but a trail of lies and even deceptions to keep my students thinking and wondering, “Is this true? He is lying? Is all what it appears to be?” Next would anything be sacred, and to this question I answered “yes!” I decided tests and offering clarification/guidance on projects would be areas where I would not lie to my students. Since, projects and tests cause a great deal of stress/anxiety in some students and I didn’t want to deepen or create test anxiety in my students. Secondly, to purposely steer a student in a wrong direction on a project is unethical, plain and simple. Lastly, I started on day one of the new semester. In my introduction to the class, I told them what I typically tell a class, how long I’ve been teaching, college, kids, favorite music, etc… but this year I decided to add the statement “… and I AM A LIAR!” With this statement, I got some chuckles and laughs of course; I began to live a “life of lies” (educationally speaking)!
Next Post: "Let the Deception Begin"
1. What types of things would I lie about? Would the lies be about content, assessments, etc.? Frequency of lying?
2. Is there anything considered so scared to students were lying wouldn’t be appropriate?
3. When do I start?
First, I decided I would follow the one approach of the professor in the article and have the “lie of the day”. Unlike the professor in the article I don’t want the lie to be just a verbal lie but a trail of lies and even deceptions to keep my students thinking and wondering, “Is this true? He is lying? Is all what it appears to be?” Next would anything be sacred, and to this question I answered “yes!” I decided tests and offering clarification/guidance on projects would be areas where I would not lie to my students. Since, projects and tests cause a great deal of stress/anxiety in some students and I didn’t want to deepen or create test anxiety in my students. Secondly, to purposely steer a student in a wrong direction on a project is unethical, plain and simple. Lastly, I started on day one of the new semester. In my introduction to the class, I told them what I typically tell a class, how long I’ve been teaching, college, kids, favorite music, etc… but this year I decided to add the statement “… and I AM A LIAR!” With this statement, I got some chuckles and laughs of course; I began to live a “life of lies” (educationally speaking)!
Next Post: "Let the Deception Begin"
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