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Confessions of a Multimodal "Teacher"(or Confessional of a Multimodal Facilitator of Learning)
Early on in my career as a "teacher", I developed a pretty much sure fire way to evaluate theeffectiveness of an educator, look at their students' desks. Rooms where kids were disengagedinevitably had vulgar words, gang symbols or other expressions of adolescent angst permanentlymarked into the aged wood. Occasionally a room with clean desks would occupy a less than effectiveteacher, those would be categorized easily by the straight rows, booming voice of authority that wouldspill into the halls and frightened gazes of student glances that one would catch passing by. On theother hand, some rooms would have desks that appeared to be recently purchased and would almostnever carry the burden of student misbehavior or minute classroom management issues. If I was a betting man, I would throw down the farm, that it was these "teachers" whose kids would not only passthe state exams but would instill something more in their students. How can it be that children who cancarve their initials into a desk at 1:30 can be engaged, active and have all of their attention invested inanother class forty-five minutes later?While there is no magic bullet answer for good "teaching", there does exist a word which for me beingsthe conversation--multimodality. Gunther Kress offers a simple yet illuminating operation definition of mode, "..a regularised organised set of resources for meaning-making, including, image, gaze, gesture,movement, music, speech and sound effect." By examining my own experiences as they relate to mystudent successes, this definition will allow for the asking and, with all hope, answering of importantquestions relating to good "teaching".For the past nine years, I, Keith J. Hughes have engaged in the art of "teaching". I use quotations tosignify my uneasiness to pretend to know what "teaching" means. I will continue to use "teacher"within this context until I discover a new word to replace it. For the moment there only exists somecluttered phrases which are not snazzy sounding enough to use permanently, they include; facilitator of learning, executive producer, orchestrator of meaningful learning experiences and classroom pilot. Asyou can see, they don't roll of the tongue nicely. "Teacher" however does not convey what I believe to be a central truth regarding education. In some regard "teacher" has become synonymous with telling.
Is telling teaching? If I tell you everything I know about the Cold War can you really know it?"Teacher" therefore presents problems for myself. One truth that I can hold to the fire is that everythingthat my students experience happens within the constrains of their own brains. Learning was nothappening in the space between my voice and their ears, nor was it occurring on the paper the studentused to write their four-paragraph thematic essay. The learning (if any at all was happening) was a process which played itself out in the child’s mind. I was really not "teaching" my students anything, Iwas only facilitating an experience they were having in order for them to make their own inner realizations. If the experience was powerful and my students became authentically engaged in it, therewas a good chance the experience allowed for learning, if the experience was poorly set up, or mismanaged then learning was most likely not taking place. It was this paradigmal shift that has causedme to ask important questions relating to what it means to "teach"..1
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How can a "teacher" use multimodality in order to increase the amount of studentlearning that occurs?.2
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What does a classroom look like that allows for this type of "teaching"?.3
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Will students who are exposed to this reorganization of classroom principles beacademically successful?My travels have given me a broad and diverse sampling of age ranges and populations that I will bedrawing upon in my reflections, including:
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9 years "teaching" Juniors and Seniors, United States History and Government and AdvancedPlacement American Government at McKinley High School , Buffalo, N.Y.
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6 years as a lead instructor for City Voices, City Visions, a digital video integration programthrough the University at Buffalo.
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4 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Buffalo, "teaching" LAI 536: DigitalLiteracy and LAI 576: Literacy and Technology.
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3 years as a mentor and technology "teacher" for the Math Science Upward Bound Program,held at Buffalo State College
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1 year as a third grade "teacher" at the International Institute, School #45, Buffalo, N.Y.
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10 years as a parent to two daughters.
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35 years of experiencing the multiple modes of life.
Foundation of Self
Posted on my McKinley High School website, www.hiphughes.blogspot.com, a scrolling banner reads,"Where attention goes, energy flows". Underneath that lies a humorous cartoon drawing of myself, myown slice of multimodal authenticity. (Diagram 1)
diagram 1
My light hearted animated character compiled with my message of attention is a good representation of who I am as a "teacher". One of the earliest lessons I learned about working with kids was somethingmy father explained to me as a teenager when he was a scoutmaster for the local Boy Scouts troop."Keith", he told me, "...kids can detect adult b.s. four miles away. Always be yourself and be honestand they will respect you". This innocent lesson in human relationships has allowed me the flexibilityand sense of humor that is necessary for teaching in a large school in an urban setting. Absent therespect that students have "given" me, I am not sure if it would be possible to "teach", or facilitate their learning environment. Attention can only be useful and powerful if it is given by the student with awillingness to invest in what I am offering.Without a student giving their attention to the task at hand, there is no chance for success. Aswimmer who is not interested in swimming who is tossed into the water may be able to paddle to theladder and get out, but the odds of them breaking into an Olympic stride and exuberantly gliding acrossthe water are slim to none. Everyday in America, hordes of children are doggy paddling and treadingwater, they have been tossed into the pools of public education as they daydream of the clock strikingthree o'clock so they can get back to their lives. Incredibly as it sounds we have made schoolsomething not of this world to many of our students. Students must first see your classroom as place of "realdom", meaning they need to know that you are going create an experience which is worth their time for a legitimate reason. Many teachers feel this phenomenon in early June with Seniors who needto pass your test to graduate. Their ability to focus and devote their attention to the task at hand become remarkable improved in comparison to their earlier classroom history. Your approach didn'tchange, the students intent and will did. Unfortunately many teenagers on planet Earth lack the abilityto see long range goals and therefore automatically give their attention in order to pass the test. Inorder to convince my students to "go swimming" and jump in all by themselves, I must use all of theavailable control mechanisms that I have. I can only control three things: my physical classroom, myattitude and presentation of self, and how I "teach".
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