SYNTHESIS
HOLY CRAP! I MADE IT
By: Lial Miller
21 March 2011
Somewhere in the future, an old man and a little boy are sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade and watching cars go down a dirt road. The grass is getting tall and desperately needs a good mowing, but the two just sit there, relaxing.
Little Boy: Grandpa, tell me a story.
Old Man: What kind of story do you want to hear?
Little Boy: Tell me how you became famous.
Old Man: Oh, that one? You don’t want to hear that one again, do you?
Little Boy: Yeah Grandpa, I do. I like to hear how you made lots of money. That can’t be very easy, being a teacher and all.
Old Man: No, it wasn’t easy. As a matter of fact, I never thought I would see the end of the tunnel. It was hard to sacrifice all I knew and had, but I made it. Let me think now…. How did that go? Oh yeah…. (cue flashback music…)
When I was your age, I hated school. It was the most boring time of my life. I had to go to school though, because your Great-Grandparents would not let me NOT go. I terrorized all of my teachers. I could not sit still in class. I could not walk in the halls. Nobody really knew why I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. It was frustrating to everybody. The school wanted to have me tested for something called Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder (that’s a big name for having ants in your pants), but your Great-Grandparents would not let that happen; they did not want their son growing up with a “label” (making quote marks with his fingers).
By the time I got into high school, I had perfected the art of terrorizing people; kind of like how you do your dad now. I made my dad so mad at me all the time; he started calling me “Zero” just to be mean to me. It was his way of saying I was dumb.
Little Boy: Aw! Come on Grandpa. You ain’t dumb.
Old Man: You just could not tell my dad that. He always said I would never amount to anything. I guess I showed him, eh?
They both laugh and giggle.
Old Man: Anyways…I had a gym teacher that did not like me and he took over my art class, right smack-dab in the middle of a semester. He told me right to my face, “You will not pass this class! You may as well quit and leave.” I was suspended from school for a few days after I sass-talked him for talking to me like that. BUT! I proved to that teacher I could draw and I ended up passing with an “A.” The End. How was that?
Little Boy: Come on Grandpa! You know that is not the story I want to hear. I want more.
Old Man: Well… I can tell you about your Grandma and how sexy she was way back in 1987.
Little Boy: Ewwwwww! Grandpa!!
They both laugh
Old Man: OK, OK, OK… let me get back (cue flashback music again…)
I worked real hard to provide for your parents, aunts and uncle. I made robots for 16 years. That was a lot of fun for me. It challenged my brain and I got to see how those robots were used to make things like cars, or other robots. But, the United States went through that second economic depression (they say it was a recession, but I lived through it…it was a depression) and all of the shops were closing their doors. I had to find something else to do with myself. I had to go back to college. I chose to go back and become an art teacher.
I went to The University of Michigan-Flint and I put in over 90 credit hours in two years.
Little Boy: Is that a lot?
Old Man: Yes that is a lot! That is like taking three years worth of school in only two years time, but I did it. I also became a fireman at the same time. The hardest part was not going to school all the time; the hardest part was leaving my family behind so I could spend time at school. They could not see it at the time, but I was doing it for them. I had to keep a job somehow and getting that teaching degree was the first step.
Little Boy: Why did you want to be an art teacher? You said you hated school.
Old Man: I still do! I always thought that most teachers were just “information parrots” (making quote marks with his fingers). They said the same things every year, only to a new crop of students. I could never see how they could be happy with themselves, so I decided to become one of them. You kids deserve to have at least one bright spot in your school, right?
Little Boy: Right!
Old Man: As a teacher, I had to prove to the government that I new what I was doing every few years. They made us take college classes, showing that we knew the subject area we were teaching. I can understand that, but a lot of schools were not in great support of art classes and I was always in danger of losing my job. I did jot want that to happen again. I had enough of that when I was building robots. So… since I had to go to college for my teaching license anyway, I figured I might as well get another degree. I would be paying for the credits anyway and the degree meant more money from my school.
Little Boy: Money is good! I like money, especially when you spend it on me.
Old Man: Now you sound like your uncle. Hush up before I have you mowing the yard.
Little Boy: OK Grandpa, but you will buy me something, right?
Old Man: We’ll see. Ya want the rest of the story, or not?
Little Boy: Yeah, yeah, yeah… keep going!
Old Man: I chose to go to Michigan State University because they offered the classes I needed online. I could do most of my work from home and at least be there for the kids and not in some school far away. I could also go to any fire calls that came up, but that’s another story.
I started to take classes in a degree called the Masters in Teaching and Curriculum program. They taught me how to think more like a teacher. That was real hard for me, because I still saw them as those darn parrots. When it came to the part of my degree where my advisor said to take my choice of classes, I chose to take some computer classes, because I barely knew how to turn one on. I figured that college could teach me since I was going to get credits for learning anyway. Plus, I needed to know more about the computer, because every teacher needs to know that stuff.
Little Boy: but Grandpa, you know a lot about the computer.
Old Man: You would not have known it when I started these classes. My first three computer classes were held in Birmingham, Michigan with an old guy named Carlton Matteo. He had such a hard time teaching me. I don’t think he could believe an old guy like me did not know how to use a computer. He taught me how to use WORD, Excel and PowerPoint. He also had some lessons on how to make web pages and all of the stuff you play with every day. You have to remember; I grew up long before personal computers were even heard of. For Pete’s sake, you kids have one at your desk these days.
I had three classes total with Carlton Matteo in 12 weeks, over the summer of aught-nine. They were called CEP 810, CEP 811 and CEP 812. That poor teacher; he had no clue what he was getting into when I walked through the door. As he put it, I was a “technological immigrant;” somebody that was just emerging into the world of computers. I told him I was more like a “technological dinosaur;” too old to know anything about computers and did not care. I barely even knew how to check my e-mail on the computer.
Little Boy: But Grandpa, that is easy. Let me see your phone and I will show you.
The kid grabs the phone and starts hitting all the buttons
Old Man: Listen here whipper-snapper…. In my days, the phone was stuck to the wall and had a cord; you could only get this far from it (holding up his hands as far as his arms would reach). You kids have it easy. Good grief, you already know more about these thingamajigs than I do.
Little Boy: See Grandpa! I have my e-mail open already.
Old Man: Why, I aught to… Gimme that back. You want the rest of this story, or not?
Little Boy: I dunno Grandpa. I don’t want to be as old as you are when you get done.
They both laugh.
Old Man: Anyways… Ol’ Matteo taught me how to make web pages and think like a techno person. He had us write personal web policies and how we planned on using all our knowledge in school. He even had me make two lessons for the Internet. One was called a StAIR and the other was something called a WebQuest. Gimme that phone back and I will show you.
**Note To Director** These lessons were designed to teach even a technological immigrant the basic uses of simple computer programs. As that student, I learned how to actually use WORD, PowerPoint and Excel. I barely had any experience with them before I took these classes with Mr. Matteo. When I began the MAET program, there were no concepts in this brain, just ideas. I hated computers. I thought they represented those people that thought too much and could not handle “getting their hands dirty” by just getting stuff done physically. Please do not try to over-read into this. It is very simple. I am very much a kinesthetic learner and have been found guilty of tearing things apart just to see how they work. For me to say I learned everything just by doing these projects is exactly that: I learned everything by DOING the projects set before me by my professors. I currently do not have opportunities to utilize this information on the job (nor at the time of taking the specified classes).
The old man punches a few buttons (https://www.msu.edu/~mill1953/cep811.html) and a link to the StAIR appeared. He punched a few more buttons (https://www.msu.edu/~mill1953/artheist/) and the WebQuest appeared.
Little Boy: Wow Grandpa! This is pretty cool.
Old Man: Well, thank you, but this was only the beginning.
They told me I would already be halfway finished with a second Master’s Degree as I completed the first one. I told you how my Dad always said I was so dumb, so I figured that this would be a great way to prove him wrong. Plus, if I got that second degree, I would be able to teach computers in school.
The next summer, I signed up for three more classes, but these classes were bunched together so you would be taking them all at the same time, in the same room. These classes were called CEP 800, CEP 815 and CEP 822. I walked in the door and this little bald guy walked in shortly afterward. His name is Punya Mishra. You think Grandpa’s brain goes real fast? This guy’s mind never quit. He is like the Energizer Bunny; he just keeps going and going and going.
On the first day of class, Punya started talking about all of the things we would be learning and Ol’ Grandpa here yelps out in his best Yoda voice, “Screwed we are.” I did not think I could handle this guy. He had so much for us to do and we only had like nine weeks to do it all in.
Old Man: Punya put me in a small group of four people, like your teacher does in your school. He said that these would be my teammates for the class. We called ourselves C2LK, after the initials of our first names. Punya made that class a lot of fun though. He gave us assignments that included walking around campus, taking pictures of letters without taking pictures of actual letters.
Little Boy: Huh?
Old Man: See that trail of ants right there? Can you see all the turns they are making as the walk in a straight line?
Little Boy: Um-hmmm
Old Man: What letter do you see?
Little Boy: I see a bunch of S’s tied together.
Old Man: Exactly! Now take my phone and take a picture of just one of those S’s.
The boy does as he is told, then he takes a picture of Grandpa and another of Grandpa and himself.
Punya had so many things for us to do. He kept starting one assignment and, before we could even get half of it done, he would start up another assignment. Next thing you knew, we had like one thousand assignments going on, all at the same time. He even taught us how to walk in the snow barefoot.
Little Boy: I thought you said this was during the summer?
Old Man: Just checking to see if you were listening ya whipper-snapper.
Punya’s assignments had us using all sorts of programs; some were online, others we had to have on our computers. We made movies, adding sound and music. We dropped balls and made a science experiment out of it. We did everything Punya asked and before we knew it, we were actually starting to understand the programs he was teaching us. He even introduced us to a web site called “Cool Tools For School.” We got to make funny pictures and play with the different programs. Punya may have been scatter-brained in his approach to teaching, and it was real hard to learn everything, but he made the class fun and we all did real well. I even took another class with Punya the next semester, but this time I knew what to expect from him. That did not make it any easier. It just meant I knew that there was an actual method to his madness. That class was called CEP 818 and he taught us how to use special programs to manipulate pictures, or movies and how to think about them in a more abstract way.
Little Boy: Abstract? Like Picasso?
Old Man: Kind of like Picasso.
Little Boy: Why was your teacher mean? Wasn’t this college?
Old Man: He wasn’t being mean. He was just challenging us in his own way. Just because a teacher expects you to do a lot of work is not because he wants to make you fail, he is trying to see if you can live up to the expectations he already has in you. In fact, Punya made jokes about my old Yoda comment at the end of our classes together. He teased me…like I do you all the time. It is like your baseball coach…
Little Boy: Now, he’s mean!
Old Man: No, again, he just knows you can play baseball and he makes it harder so you become better.
Punya made our assignments real hard on purpose; and there were a lot of them. Those lessons made me smarter, just like that other teacher, Carlton Matteo. Without those two teachers, I would not know how to use a computer properly, or how to think like a techno person. I used their information to make me a better teacher. I made all sorts of art lessons that used WORD, for my principals to see what I was doing in class. I used PowerPoint programs to present new things during Professional Development sessions at school.
Little Boy: We get Professional Development days off.
Old Man: Gee whipper, thanks for reminding me. I could have used those days off too, but ohhhh noooooo… my bosses made us work.
I made all sorts of new lessons that were computer based, so my art students could feel like they were not just stuck in a pencil and paper art room. They sure did like to draw, but they loved doing things like taking pictures and learning how to change them with the different programs Punya introduced to me. Do you see how that works?
Little Boy: Not really Grandpa
Old Man: Ya see here whipper, if I know somebody and you don’t, how will you ever get to know that person?
Little Boy: You have to introduce me.
Old Man: Exactly! And that is what Punya did with all those programs. He introduced them to me, so I could go back and introduce them to my students… and having 600 students every year, that added up to a lot of kids getting to know the programs Punya told me about.
Little Boy: 600 every year? That’s like a kajillion with you being old and all.
Old Man: Listen here lil’ whipper-snapper…I aughta….
They play wrestle for a few moments.
Old Man: Now see here whipper, I’m gonna tell ya something that is real important: no matter what you do with your life, you have to try hard, or you will not succeed. I did a lot of things with my life and it took guys like Carlton and Punya to push me to be better, just like your baseball coach. If you listen and try, it is their job to help you get better. In the end, when you know a lot of things, you need to pass along the information to somebody else. What good is all of that knowledge if you are not going to share it?
Little Boy: Nothing.
**Note To Director** The question of what I specifically learned from these lessons has been proposed. The answer is spelled out in the narrative. I have not been able to utilize any of my education in a school setting throughout my pursuit of this degree. So far, what I have learned has been to perform tasks. My school buildings have a computer lab, but (except for rare occasion) I am not granted access for art class. The classroom teachers have set schedules where they visit the lab and, unless I can talk them into a joint-lesson, my ideas remain just that, ideas. I know it sounds far fetched, but it is my reality. I am performing tasks and creating tons of pages as I gain knowledge, but unless I find an advocate within my district, my “low-man on the totem pole” voice will never be heard. I apologize, but I cannot talk about what benefits my students have gained via my education from Michigan State… there aren’t any yet.
Old Man: Exactly! I took all of those web pages, blogs, wiki pages and my teachers’ knowledge and I turned them all into real cool art lessons that my students could learn from. It took me a while to be able to use computers on a regular basis, but when I did, I was ready because of those classes I took at Michigan State University.
There was one more assignment that Punya made us do, but I want to tell you about Mike DeShryver first. He taught CEP 820 the same semester as I took CEP 818 with Punya. Ol’ Mike, he made me work too. He made me develop a real, live, working web page for my students to perform a lesson on. We had to make it so the kids could talk to me without being in the same room. They had to be able to find things for themselves on the Internet and be able to type out that information, showing me that they had found it. Lemme show you.
The old man takes his phone again, punches a few buttons (https://sites.google.com/site/millersarthistory/) and an Art History web page pops up. It has tons of pictures and names related to all sorts of art throughout history on it. The little boy starts to mess around with the pages and sees that it has puzzles and games hidden along with all sorts of links to certain art history web pages.
Old Man: That assignment was hard, but a lot of fun. I learned a lot as I was making the web pages. But, that is not the one that made me rich. That would be Punya’s “Dream It” lesson. We were supposed to design a web page to use for teaching purposes, so I did, but I made mine talk about a video game for fire fighters that did not exist. I called it “HUVRIFFTT.” It means “Heads Up, Virtual Reality, Interactive, Fire Fighter, Thermal Trainer.” Lemme show you the web page.
The old man punches a few buttons on the phone (https://sites.google.com/site/lialsdreamit/) and a web page pops up that explains how the HUVRIFFTT is needed and how it would work.
Old Man: I got me a genuine U.S. patent for that idea right there. That means nobody else ever had that idea before me. It took me a few years to put all the pieces together, but I finally did and that is what made me rich and famous. This video game was played in a computer and read in a fire fighter’s helmet. That helmet played the game on a visor that was made into a television screen. There were gloves and tools made like toys, which can talk to the computer; kind of like your wireless remotes to your PS5. There was even a heating blanket that wrapped across the fire fighter’s shoulders. The further the fire fighter went into a scene in the game, the warmer the blanket got. He could change tools and everything. All the departments I talked to wanted one, before I even made the first one up. It was a great way for us to train, without getting ourselves hurt, or putting us in danger.
I never set out to make The HUVRIFFTT, but that is how it came to be. I started going to Michigan State University just to get a Master’s Degree in teaching. I added to that degree and went for a Master’s Degree that would let me teach computers at school. I ended up making a new video game that changed the way fire fighters were trained to fight fires. How cool is that?
Little Boy: Pretty cool Grandpa.
Old Man: Now, you need to help me up; I need to go inside and take me a nap. We can stop off at the kitchen and give Grandma a kiss; she needs to hear how sexy she still is.
Little Boy: Aw, Grandpa…. That’s gross!!
They both laugh
Fade to black.
**Note To Director** Conceptually, I have learned how to use a computer properly from Carlton Matteo and how to use a computer in developing “21st Century” lessons. Without the MAET program and professors like Punya Mishra, I would not know how to even perform the basic functions while using a computer. Now, I am capable of developing full-blown, in-depth lessons that implement multi-faceted, technologically based information and approaches to teaching. I do not know how to explain it better than this. If you start out with zero information and add all the necessary details, you get what I have learned here in MAET; that is everything. It’s not that I don’t want to explain how much I learned here in MAET…but how do I tell somebody what I learned without telling them how I learned it?
Downloadable Version: /uploads/6/2/9/8/6298896/cep_807_-_holy_crap_5_-_21_march_2011.doc
By: Lial Miller
21 March 2011
Somewhere in the future, an old man and a little boy are sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade and watching cars go down a dirt road. The grass is getting tall and desperately needs a good mowing, but the two just sit there, relaxing.
Little Boy: Grandpa, tell me a story.
Old Man: What kind of story do you want to hear?
Little Boy: Tell me how you became famous.
Old Man: Oh, that one? You don’t want to hear that one again, do you?
Little Boy: Yeah Grandpa, I do. I like to hear how you made lots of money. That can’t be very easy, being a teacher and all.
Old Man: No, it wasn’t easy. As a matter of fact, I never thought I would see the end of the tunnel. It was hard to sacrifice all I knew and had, but I made it. Let me think now…. How did that go? Oh yeah…. (cue flashback music…)
When I was your age, I hated school. It was the most boring time of my life. I had to go to school though, because your Great-Grandparents would not let me NOT go. I terrorized all of my teachers. I could not sit still in class. I could not walk in the halls. Nobody really knew why I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. It was frustrating to everybody. The school wanted to have me tested for something called Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder (that’s a big name for having ants in your pants), but your Great-Grandparents would not let that happen; they did not want their son growing up with a “label” (making quote marks with his fingers).
By the time I got into high school, I had perfected the art of terrorizing people; kind of like how you do your dad now. I made my dad so mad at me all the time; he started calling me “Zero” just to be mean to me. It was his way of saying I was dumb.
Little Boy: Aw! Come on Grandpa. You ain’t dumb.
Old Man: You just could not tell my dad that. He always said I would never amount to anything. I guess I showed him, eh?
They both laugh and giggle.
Old Man: Anyways…I had a gym teacher that did not like me and he took over my art class, right smack-dab in the middle of a semester. He told me right to my face, “You will not pass this class! You may as well quit and leave.” I was suspended from school for a few days after I sass-talked him for talking to me like that. BUT! I proved to that teacher I could draw and I ended up passing with an “A.” The End. How was that?
Little Boy: Come on Grandpa! You know that is not the story I want to hear. I want more.
Old Man: Well… I can tell you about your Grandma and how sexy she was way back in 1987.
Little Boy: Ewwwwww! Grandpa!!
They both laugh
Old Man: OK, OK, OK… let me get back (cue flashback music again…)
I worked real hard to provide for your parents, aunts and uncle. I made robots for 16 years. That was a lot of fun for me. It challenged my brain and I got to see how those robots were used to make things like cars, or other robots. But, the United States went through that second economic depression (they say it was a recession, but I lived through it…it was a depression) and all of the shops were closing their doors. I had to find something else to do with myself. I had to go back to college. I chose to go back and become an art teacher.
I went to The University of Michigan-Flint and I put in over 90 credit hours in two years.
Little Boy: Is that a lot?
Old Man: Yes that is a lot! That is like taking three years worth of school in only two years time, but I did it. I also became a fireman at the same time. The hardest part was not going to school all the time; the hardest part was leaving my family behind so I could spend time at school. They could not see it at the time, but I was doing it for them. I had to keep a job somehow and getting that teaching degree was the first step.
Little Boy: Why did you want to be an art teacher? You said you hated school.
Old Man: I still do! I always thought that most teachers were just “information parrots” (making quote marks with his fingers). They said the same things every year, only to a new crop of students. I could never see how they could be happy with themselves, so I decided to become one of them. You kids deserve to have at least one bright spot in your school, right?
Little Boy: Right!
Old Man: As a teacher, I had to prove to the government that I new what I was doing every few years. They made us take college classes, showing that we knew the subject area we were teaching. I can understand that, but a lot of schools were not in great support of art classes and I was always in danger of losing my job. I did jot want that to happen again. I had enough of that when I was building robots. So… since I had to go to college for my teaching license anyway, I figured I might as well get another degree. I would be paying for the credits anyway and the degree meant more money from my school.
Little Boy: Money is good! I like money, especially when you spend it on me.
Old Man: Now you sound like your uncle. Hush up before I have you mowing the yard.
Little Boy: OK Grandpa, but you will buy me something, right?
Old Man: We’ll see. Ya want the rest of the story, or not?
Little Boy: Yeah, yeah, yeah… keep going!
Old Man: I chose to go to Michigan State University because they offered the classes I needed online. I could do most of my work from home and at least be there for the kids and not in some school far away. I could also go to any fire calls that came up, but that’s another story.
I started to take classes in a degree called the Masters in Teaching and Curriculum program. They taught me how to think more like a teacher. That was real hard for me, because I still saw them as those darn parrots. When it came to the part of my degree where my advisor said to take my choice of classes, I chose to take some computer classes, because I barely knew how to turn one on. I figured that college could teach me since I was going to get credits for learning anyway. Plus, I needed to know more about the computer, because every teacher needs to know that stuff.
Little Boy: but Grandpa, you know a lot about the computer.
Old Man: You would not have known it when I started these classes. My first three computer classes were held in Birmingham, Michigan with an old guy named Carlton Matteo. He had such a hard time teaching me. I don’t think he could believe an old guy like me did not know how to use a computer. He taught me how to use WORD, Excel and PowerPoint. He also had some lessons on how to make web pages and all of the stuff you play with every day. You have to remember; I grew up long before personal computers were even heard of. For Pete’s sake, you kids have one at your desk these days.
I had three classes total with Carlton Matteo in 12 weeks, over the summer of aught-nine. They were called CEP 810, CEP 811 and CEP 812. That poor teacher; he had no clue what he was getting into when I walked through the door. As he put it, I was a “technological immigrant;” somebody that was just emerging into the world of computers. I told him I was more like a “technological dinosaur;” too old to know anything about computers and did not care. I barely even knew how to check my e-mail on the computer.
Little Boy: But Grandpa, that is easy. Let me see your phone and I will show you.
The kid grabs the phone and starts hitting all the buttons
Old Man: Listen here whipper-snapper…. In my days, the phone was stuck to the wall and had a cord; you could only get this far from it (holding up his hands as far as his arms would reach). You kids have it easy. Good grief, you already know more about these thingamajigs than I do.
Little Boy: See Grandpa! I have my e-mail open already.
Old Man: Why, I aught to… Gimme that back. You want the rest of this story, or not?
Little Boy: I dunno Grandpa. I don’t want to be as old as you are when you get done.
They both laugh.
Old Man: Anyways… Ol’ Matteo taught me how to make web pages and think like a techno person. He had us write personal web policies and how we planned on using all our knowledge in school. He even had me make two lessons for the Internet. One was called a StAIR and the other was something called a WebQuest. Gimme that phone back and I will show you.
**Note To Director** These lessons were designed to teach even a technological immigrant the basic uses of simple computer programs. As that student, I learned how to actually use WORD, PowerPoint and Excel. I barely had any experience with them before I took these classes with Mr. Matteo. When I began the MAET program, there were no concepts in this brain, just ideas. I hated computers. I thought they represented those people that thought too much and could not handle “getting their hands dirty” by just getting stuff done physically. Please do not try to over-read into this. It is very simple. I am very much a kinesthetic learner and have been found guilty of tearing things apart just to see how they work. For me to say I learned everything just by doing these projects is exactly that: I learned everything by DOING the projects set before me by my professors. I currently do not have opportunities to utilize this information on the job (nor at the time of taking the specified classes).
The old man punches a few buttons (https://www.msu.edu/~mill1953/cep811.html) and a link to the StAIR appeared. He punched a few more buttons (https://www.msu.edu/~mill1953/artheist/) and the WebQuest appeared.
Little Boy: Wow Grandpa! This is pretty cool.
Old Man: Well, thank you, but this was only the beginning.
They told me I would already be halfway finished with a second Master’s Degree as I completed the first one. I told you how my Dad always said I was so dumb, so I figured that this would be a great way to prove him wrong. Plus, if I got that second degree, I would be able to teach computers in school.
The next summer, I signed up for three more classes, but these classes were bunched together so you would be taking them all at the same time, in the same room. These classes were called CEP 800, CEP 815 and CEP 822. I walked in the door and this little bald guy walked in shortly afterward. His name is Punya Mishra. You think Grandpa’s brain goes real fast? This guy’s mind never quit. He is like the Energizer Bunny; he just keeps going and going and going.
On the first day of class, Punya started talking about all of the things we would be learning and Ol’ Grandpa here yelps out in his best Yoda voice, “Screwed we are.” I did not think I could handle this guy. He had so much for us to do and we only had like nine weeks to do it all in.
Old Man: Punya put me in a small group of four people, like your teacher does in your school. He said that these would be my teammates for the class. We called ourselves C2LK, after the initials of our first names. Punya made that class a lot of fun though. He gave us assignments that included walking around campus, taking pictures of letters without taking pictures of actual letters.
Little Boy: Huh?
Old Man: See that trail of ants right there? Can you see all the turns they are making as the walk in a straight line?
Little Boy: Um-hmmm
Old Man: What letter do you see?
Little Boy: I see a bunch of S’s tied together.
Old Man: Exactly! Now take my phone and take a picture of just one of those S’s.
The boy does as he is told, then he takes a picture of Grandpa and another of Grandpa and himself.
Punya had so many things for us to do. He kept starting one assignment and, before we could even get half of it done, he would start up another assignment. Next thing you knew, we had like one thousand assignments going on, all at the same time. He even taught us how to walk in the snow barefoot.
Little Boy: I thought you said this was during the summer?
Old Man: Just checking to see if you were listening ya whipper-snapper.
Punya’s assignments had us using all sorts of programs; some were online, others we had to have on our computers. We made movies, adding sound and music. We dropped balls and made a science experiment out of it. We did everything Punya asked and before we knew it, we were actually starting to understand the programs he was teaching us. He even introduced us to a web site called “Cool Tools For School.” We got to make funny pictures and play with the different programs. Punya may have been scatter-brained in his approach to teaching, and it was real hard to learn everything, but he made the class fun and we all did real well. I even took another class with Punya the next semester, but this time I knew what to expect from him. That did not make it any easier. It just meant I knew that there was an actual method to his madness. That class was called CEP 818 and he taught us how to use special programs to manipulate pictures, or movies and how to think about them in a more abstract way.
Little Boy: Abstract? Like Picasso?
Old Man: Kind of like Picasso.
Little Boy: Why was your teacher mean? Wasn’t this college?
Old Man: He wasn’t being mean. He was just challenging us in his own way. Just because a teacher expects you to do a lot of work is not because he wants to make you fail, he is trying to see if you can live up to the expectations he already has in you. In fact, Punya made jokes about my old Yoda comment at the end of our classes together. He teased me…like I do you all the time. It is like your baseball coach…
Little Boy: Now, he’s mean!
Old Man: No, again, he just knows you can play baseball and he makes it harder so you become better.
Punya made our assignments real hard on purpose; and there were a lot of them. Those lessons made me smarter, just like that other teacher, Carlton Matteo. Without those two teachers, I would not know how to use a computer properly, or how to think like a techno person. I used their information to make me a better teacher. I made all sorts of art lessons that used WORD, for my principals to see what I was doing in class. I used PowerPoint programs to present new things during Professional Development sessions at school.
Little Boy: We get Professional Development days off.
Old Man: Gee whipper, thanks for reminding me. I could have used those days off too, but ohhhh noooooo… my bosses made us work.
I made all sorts of new lessons that were computer based, so my art students could feel like they were not just stuck in a pencil and paper art room. They sure did like to draw, but they loved doing things like taking pictures and learning how to change them with the different programs Punya introduced to me. Do you see how that works?
Little Boy: Not really Grandpa
Old Man: Ya see here whipper, if I know somebody and you don’t, how will you ever get to know that person?
Little Boy: You have to introduce me.
Old Man: Exactly! And that is what Punya did with all those programs. He introduced them to me, so I could go back and introduce them to my students… and having 600 students every year, that added up to a lot of kids getting to know the programs Punya told me about.
Little Boy: 600 every year? That’s like a kajillion with you being old and all.
Old Man: Listen here lil’ whipper-snapper…I aughta….
They play wrestle for a few moments.
Old Man: Now see here whipper, I’m gonna tell ya something that is real important: no matter what you do with your life, you have to try hard, or you will not succeed. I did a lot of things with my life and it took guys like Carlton and Punya to push me to be better, just like your baseball coach. If you listen and try, it is their job to help you get better. In the end, when you know a lot of things, you need to pass along the information to somebody else. What good is all of that knowledge if you are not going to share it?
Little Boy: Nothing.
**Note To Director** The question of what I specifically learned from these lessons has been proposed. The answer is spelled out in the narrative. I have not been able to utilize any of my education in a school setting throughout my pursuit of this degree. So far, what I have learned has been to perform tasks. My school buildings have a computer lab, but (except for rare occasion) I am not granted access for art class. The classroom teachers have set schedules where they visit the lab and, unless I can talk them into a joint-lesson, my ideas remain just that, ideas. I know it sounds far fetched, but it is my reality. I am performing tasks and creating tons of pages as I gain knowledge, but unless I find an advocate within my district, my “low-man on the totem pole” voice will never be heard. I apologize, but I cannot talk about what benefits my students have gained via my education from Michigan State… there aren’t any yet.
Old Man: Exactly! I took all of those web pages, blogs, wiki pages and my teachers’ knowledge and I turned them all into real cool art lessons that my students could learn from. It took me a while to be able to use computers on a regular basis, but when I did, I was ready because of those classes I took at Michigan State University.
There was one more assignment that Punya made us do, but I want to tell you about Mike DeShryver first. He taught CEP 820 the same semester as I took CEP 818 with Punya. Ol’ Mike, he made me work too. He made me develop a real, live, working web page for my students to perform a lesson on. We had to make it so the kids could talk to me without being in the same room. They had to be able to find things for themselves on the Internet and be able to type out that information, showing me that they had found it. Lemme show you.
The old man takes his phone again, punches a few buttons (https://sites.google.com/site/millersarthistory/) and an Art History web page pops up. It has tons of pictures and names related to all sorts of art throughout history on it. The little boy starts to mess around with the pages and sees that it has puzzles and games hidden along with all sorts of links to certain art history web pages.
Old Man: That assignment was hard, but a lot of fun. I learned a lot as I was making the web pages. But, that is not the one that made me rich. That would be Punya’s “Dream It” lesson. We were supposed to design a web page to use for teaching purposes, so I did, but I made mine talk about a video game for fire fighters that did not exist. I called it “HUVRIFFTT.” It means “Heads Up, Virtual Reality, Interactive, Fire Fighter, Thermal Trainer.” Lemme show you the web page.
The old man punches a few buttons on the phone (https://sites.google.com/site/lialsdreamit/) and a web page pops up that explains how the HUVRIFFTT is needed and how it would work.
Old Man: I got me a genuine U.S. patent for that idea right there. That means nobody else ever had that idea before me. It took me a few years to put all the pieces together, but I finally did and that is what made me rich and famous. This video game was played in a computer and read in a fire fighter’s helmet. That helmet played the game on a visor that was made into a television screen. There were gloves and tools made like toys, which can talk to the computer; kind of like your wireless remotes to your PS5. There was even a heating blanket that wrapped across the fire fighter’s shoulders. The further the fire fighter went into a scene in the game, the warmer the blanket got. He could change tools and everything. All the departments I talked to wanted one, before I even made the first one up. It was a great way for us to train, without getting ourselves hurt, or putting us in danger.
I never set out to make The HUVRIFFTT, but that is how it came to be. I started going to Michigan State University just to get a Master’s Degree in teaching. I added to that degree and went for a Master’s Degree that would let me teach computers at school. I ended up making a new video game that changed the way fire fighters were trained to fight fires. How cool is that?
Little Boy: Pretty cool Grandpa.
Old Man: Now, you need to help me up; I need to go inside and take me a nap. We can stop off at the kitchen and give Grandma a kiss; she needs to hear how sexy she still is.
Little Boy: Aw, Grandpa…. That’s gross!!
They both laugh
Fade to black.
**Note To Director** Conceptually, I have learned how to use a computer properly from Carlton Matteo and how to use a computer in developing “21st Century” lessons. Without the MAET program and professors like Punya Mishra, I would not know how to even perform the basic functions while using a computer. Now, I am capable of developing full-blown, in-depth lessons that implement multi-faceted, technologically based information and approaches to teaching. I do not know how to explain it better than this. If you start out with zero information and add all the necessary details, you get what I have learned here in MAET; that is everything. It’s not that I don’t want to explain how much I learned here in MAET…but how do I tell somebody what I learned without telling them how I learned it?
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