Tag: education

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Lost in Translation

Part 1 of Many

Over the course of the past few months I have started a new read through of the Bible, but this time in the Jewish Bible English translation. From the first moments of this read through several things have come to light that removed my confusion from early in life with some Bible stories. So over the next few posts I plan to share some of those insights i have discovered and how they changed the way I view some of the scripture.

First I would like to point out that I have spent lots of time in college courses. While writing for such classes and academic research I have learned that specific words are used in purposeful ways. In the English language sometimes the lesser used words that are more complicated to the general Populus have a more appropriate meaning when expressing something. I often refer to these as $40 words.

In the Bible I believe the same is true. The original was written with very specific meaning and over the various translations small things have been changed which can change the meaning. The first example of this I want to share points out series of misconceptions I had as child in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. One area I am going to focus on is the story of the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden. For those that are not familiar with the story, I am using my own words to catch up to the point where I want to make a reference.

So, in this record, God has already created Adam. Adam has been placed in the Garden. God is speaking to Adam in a personal conversation to give him direction. No one else is around. God tells Adam he can eat any of the fruit in the Garden except the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Here is the King James translation of this reference.

Genesis 2:17

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Taken from Bible Gateway.

So growing up the pastor of the church explained that God didn’t mean Adam would die that day, or that it was a spiritual reference and Adams relationship with God died that day. From this translation I had to rely on the word of the pastor teaching me, because it was not super clear in the scripture.

Now if you compare this to the Complete Jewish Bible below.

Genesis 2:17

17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”

Taken from Bible Gateway

Now when reading these two you can see that the Jewish Bible states this message more clearly. It does not say you will die that day like the King James does. It says “it will become certain that you will die.” This actually clears up the story because it is believed that Adam was immortal before hand. His action in eating from that tree made him mortal. There were other effects, but we will discuss that later.

Now I want to point out that Eve was not around for this conversation. She was not created until after these instructions took place. Eve was not created until verse 21. Once she was created it became Adam’s responsibility to share God’s instructions with her. This is an important point to note that I have not heard in a Sunday teaching from any pastor that I recall. Eve did not get her instructions direct from God, but instead from Adam. This was a Yreka moment for me.

Adam told her what God said, so this leaves room for the title “Lost in Translation” We don’t know how Adam shared those instructions but he was a guy and I can totally see him saying something like “don’t eat from that tree, don’t even touch it or you’ll die.” We men are simple creatures, but that left it open for the “Serpent” to question the words that were used. Which brings up the next part.

Chapter three starts the conversation of the Serpent and its deception of Eve.

King James Genesis 3:1-5 (Bible Gateway)

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Then here is the Jewish Bible:

Complete Jewish Bible Genesis 3:1-5 (Bible Gateway)

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, God, had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “It is not true that you will surely die; 5 because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now compare these two. The first thing I notice is the word change from subtle in King James to Crafty in the CJB. I believed the word crafty is more appropriate. In the discussion the Serpent states that God did not say what Eve tells him. Knowing the story we discover that is true. Eve was given instructions from Adam that were not the same wording God had used.

Eve’s version of the instructions are not correct. This left the argument open for the Serpent to tell the truth to her and create doubts about God’s instructions, because what Adam told her was not totally accurate. Adam may have paraphrased or exaggerated. This lead to Eve being open for the Serpent to deceive her.

The Serpent meant something different or inferred something different than what Eve heard, but He used the technical truth to trip her up. What she told him was not what God had said.

I examine both translations further I found something that was not properly called out in either translation, in my lowly opinion. The tree they reference is called “the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” as a child I though, what’s wrong with knowing good and evil? Thinking to myself that would help me choose good right?

Not the case here. Adam and Eve already knew Good and lived it. The only thing the action of eating from the tree taught them was Evil! They didn’t know evil before then. When that Evil entered their lives, they became mortal and disconnected from God Spiritually. Fear and eventual death entered their lives.

If all that wasn’t enough to open your eyes a bit, here is something that might totally blow your mind from this story. Lets focus for one moment on the Serpent. The Hebrew word for this is nachash which is translated as either serpent, snake or dragon. Yes that’s right, dragon!

Now in the whole greater story we find the serpent did not become a snake on his belly until after this incident for punishment. Before hand when Eve was speaking to him, the word was more properly translated as Dragon, because He was not yet a serpent.

Think about that for a moment. I believe the Bible is a direct account of things that happened and is not a “Story” unless it directly says so. If you take this as a real event, then Eve had a real conversation with a dragon and she was not afraid of it. It was not an unusual thing for her to speak to the dragon. That alone gave me a moment of “wait, what did that say?”

This is where I believe the myths of dragons came from. They became snakes afterward and the fear that God put between them and Eve most likely also prevented them from communicating again. Before that it was not unusual for a Dragon to be around and to have a conversation with it. I assume one would have to be careful in conversation with such a beast because of his “crafty” nature.

In all of this, we find that translation of the Bible can often cause a misunderstanding of Gods word. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to “see” these things.

When comparing what I believe to be a more accurate translation I have been picking up very small things that completely change my understanding. Then if that does not grab you, the reality of a talking dragon might.

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Polar Opposites

Equity and Equality


All around the United States, companies, schools and other organizations are focused on the new buzz word of social change. Equity is perhaps the most misused word of modern times. Organizations have dedicated themselves so much to what they believe is “equity”, they have built committees and hired personnel just to focus on the topic. In the world of education, which is where I live, parents hear a lot about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or DEI in regular communication or curriculum. Without taking the time to understand the topic many families confuse the meaning of equity and equality. In the following paragraphs, I will take a few moments to describe what each word means and provide a few simple examples of each.

Equality


First, we address equality. Equality is a word that has been with us in the United States since our days of revolution and struggle for independence as a nation. Americans value the idea that we are all equal. We should all have equal opportunities to succeed or fail, as we live our once free lives.


Let’s create a fictional set of children for example. Jack and Jill are two fictional characters. They both come from similar families and live in similar cities in the United States. Jill is a driven child who wants to be president someday. She is driven by this goal and works hard through her school life. She takes honors classes, receives excellent grades, and excels in school. She receives an academic scholarship to college and studies political science. She graduates from College with High Honors and works toward her goal of becoming president. While doing so, she gains a great job and makes $100,000 a year.


Jack is a far less driven child. Jack isn’t focused on the future and is completely content to do just enough in life to keep the teachers in school off his back. Jack barely makes it through high school and ends up perfectly happy working as a courtesy clerk in the local grocery store making minimum wage. Without college or an apprentice program, Jack lives his life below the poverty line continuing to place little to no effort to rise above it.


In this story, Jack and Jill both had equal opportunity to make something of themselves. Jill took every chance, worked hard, and achieved her goals. Jack, with little vision, did just enough to survive and continued to live his life that way. Equality says that both fictional characters had equal opportunities and their end results are what they chose to make of those opportunities.

Equity

Let’s take that example, with Jack and Jill, and move them from equality to equity. In a world of equity, Jill would still have worked hard and ended up with a job paying $100,000. The difference is that in an equitable world it would require a 50% tax on Jills income, that would be paid to Jack to equalize their lives. Jack would still put in little effort, but in equity he would benefit from Jill’s hard work.


Summary


If while reading this you still did not quite get the drama of the difference, here is an even simpler example in a community of 100 people. In a society that believes in equality, those 100 people would all work their roles and experience life. In that community, one person commits murder. Equality demands that one person be judged for committing murder and be sent to prison.


Now, change that 100-person community to an equitable one. That same one person commits murder, but instead the entire community is judged because they are all equitable and the entire community is sentenced to prison for the crime.


The major difference is that Equality rewards achievement while Equity punishes achievement. Equality requires that all members of a society are given equal opportunities to succeed, but the outcome is what they make of it as individuals. Equity would demand that all members of a society have the same outcome regardless of effort. Therefore, equity would take from those who have succeeded and give to those who have not even cared to try. Equity is focused on the outcome regardless of effort.


I would like to think that most organizations simply misuse the word equity and mean to use equality, but that this not always the case. I urge you as employees, parents, and persons to know the difference. Equality results in a free Democratic Republic like the United States was founded upon, while Equity is a concept often used by the likes of Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler to enslave their people.


One of these things is not like the other. Know the difference.

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Creating a Virtual Classroom

In this day of long-term remote learning teachers across the United States have had to rethink how to best serve their students. While Edison High School was able to conduct classes on the first day, our team had to make major adjustments to our plans in order to keep our students engaged and progressing.

During the first week, our teachers held classes according to our prior Digital Learning Day protocols (established for short-term, typically weather, related incidents). Assignments were given in Google Classroom, students were asked to complete the assignment and turn it in by a specific deadline. For our students, all of whom have a learning difference or disability, this was a dramatic shift from how we conduct in-person classes. Managing multiple assignments and deadlines is a skill many of our students are still developing, usually with the support of an in-person teacher and other supports. In this new digital environment, we noticed even our usually well-performing students had trouble completing the work. 

As it became more clear that our established protocols would not work for a long-term closure, we had to reconsider our methods and evaluate how to engage the students while outside the classroom. Our math department has been recording videos and using a flipped classroom for several years now. Our teachers had videos ready online to aid students in learning new topics but it did not seem to go far enough to give our students a real connection to learning while working from their homes.

After considering the tools we already had and evaluating the results from a survey of our parents, Edison decided to use video conferencing tools like Google Meet and Zoom Cloud Meetings to rebuild the school day in an online environment. We created a modified schedule and our teachers now hold virtual classes, check-in with their students, teach new topics and use the power of Zoom breakout rooms to encourage group collaboration projects. Creating a schedule that was realistic for both students and teachers took heavy involvement from the administrative team but was well worth the effort. 

The change had dramatic effects. Students have begun to reconnect with their peers and teachers in spite of being in disconnected places. Our teachers are reporting stories of students completing their work again and interested in learning new topics. English teacher Kate Fellows-Russell shares, “The schedule really helps and many kids say that having a specific time to get work done and connect with their friends helps structure the day, many kids arrive early to chat and check-in with the teacher and the other students, just like in regular classes… (students) have consistently told me that they prefer our schedule and feel supported by us.”

We have seen increasing success for the last few weeks, but no single technology tool is going to be a complete transformation of the virtual classroom. Some tried and true methods still work well, even at a distance, such as having students keep a journal for English class. 

We, the Edison High School team, hope to share the things we have learned to encourage fellow educators. Over the next few weeks of virtual classrooms, we will be posting video tips and successes from some of our teachers in order to inspire and encourage you. Our teachers, administrators, and technology team are happy to share what we are learning. Together we can make a difference in our student’s lives in such difficult times. 

In the words of Dan Keller, one of Edison’s Math and Senior Seminar teachers, “While digital learning presents many challenges, not the least of which is that we’re all learning new systems as we prepare to conclude the school year, it has been uplifting for us all to continue to connect. Edison is as much a community as it is a school, and we all thrive on the ability to interact digitally.”

Dr. Troy Spetter

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Ready On Day One

When a school faces a crisis many of its support systems are tested. Where I live, during bad weather the public school systems close and have to make up days at the end of the year. A hard winter can extend the school year significantly. When something like the COVID-19 pandemic hits, most schools are not prepared for long term closure. Students miss work and the uncertainty of how they might continue an education creates stress in the staff and students alike. 

I have been the Director of Educational Technology for Edison High School in Portland, Oregon for two years. My school specifically serves students with learning differences. We have small classrooms, a student to teacher ratio of about 9 to 1, and an environment that supports each student’s individual needs.Before my time at Edison, our school saw the need to accommodate the educational process and prepare for weather or disaster related school closure. With that pre-planning, the school developed a protocol for “digital learning days” (DLD). As part of the DLD process, our students experience a DLD while in class about once a year so they have the support of the teachers to learn how it works. 

Before I get too far, it is important to share the nature of technology at Edison. The school is a one-to-one high school. Each student has their own iPad that is managed by the school and loaded with applications that support their individual needs.. We manage the apps and devices via an MDM or mobile device management system known as JAMF Pro. 

Our school uses Google Apps for Education. Each student and staff member have an account and our teachers regularly use Google classroom to assign work, share resources, and provide feedback. In addition, we use a Student Information System provided by Sycamore Education that has Google integration. Accounts are connected, and assignments in Google populate into our SIS for official record and grading. 

Several years before I arrived at Edison, our Math department began the process of flipping the classroom experience. Teaching was recorded into small topics and uploaded to YouTube in order to have students watch short teaching sessions of topics to prepare for class in the following days. 

When I joined Edison in 2018 as the Technology Director, I performed an analysis of all the schools technology related systems. I found the weak areas and made plans to strengthen the whole system. As part of that plan, the Development team at our school was able to gain a grant to make huge progress toward modernization of the school systems. All the teachers were provided new laptops, we transformed the server infrastructure, and made huge strides toward updating our classroom technology systems. As part of this, I took a long hard look at our backup systems. During the process of updating, I made Google accounts for our file servers and began synchronizing the files to Google Drive as a last resort backup if the other systems would somehow fail before being updated. This is important, remember this part. 

During the evaluation I discovered a few teachers using VHS and DVD movies in class to enhance the learning experience. In order to prepare for the inevitable failure of those sources, I converted the movies to digital and began storing them on our network for teachers to access when needed.

Now back to today. We had prepared for short-term closures, but the situation became very different when facing a long-term shutdown. When closing a school and moving to a remote learning model there were suddenly many more things to consider. Teachers will need access to all of their resources online. They will need to be able to communicate with and teach their students new topics. As the threat of closure approached our team started discussion and planning how to accomplish this. During the process, we realized we already had most of the tools in place. Our teachers have complete access to Google Apps for Education, our SIS is web based and accessible from home. 

Remember when I mentioned I had set up Google Drive accounts for file servers? All of our teachers network folders had been online for months. All I had to do was share the folder with the staff in Google Drive and viola! Now any IT personal worth their salt will tell you this is not a good idea for normal operation because of the potential delay and file confusion. In this case, the model works to mitigate the closure because no staff are on campus using the local resources. 

During our first week of closure, students were up and running on day one, accessing work and communicating with teachers. Our first week was a learning process for all of us. We discovered that our students work best when kept to a modified school day schedule and have the interaction they are missing while not on campus.

Our team began to refine the process for the following weeks of school as we faced a minimum of a month-long closure due to the pandemic. Our teachers are now keeping a rotational class schedule, using conferencing tools like Google Meets and Zoom. Students that do not show up to the conferences and do not have an excuse are counted as absent just as they would be in physical classes. This has become an important part of remote learning to provide structure and interaction. We learned early on that for our students, all who have learning differences, synchronous learning was far more effective. 

The most important part of the process is to stay positive and creative. While our first week was a bit rocky the team is adapting and learning as we go. We are receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from our families about the wonderful job our teachers are doing during these times. 

Dr. Troy Spetter

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The list of software and apps below is not a complete or comprehensive list, but only those things that have been either added during the closure or are providing significant support to remote learning in our school. We all use more tools and perhaps those of you experiencing success with other tools can comment about those resources as a reply to this article. 

IT Support Tools

Teamviewer or LogmeIn for remote support

https://www.teamviewer.com/

https://www.logmein.com/

PC Matic – The system is marketed as an antivirus and malware solution but provides remote command and file transfer access tools that come in handy during remote support sessions. The company team and support are wonderful to work with.

https://www.pcmatic.com/

Teacher centric Tools:

Google Apps for Education 

Sycamore School – SIS/LMS hybrid system – https://sycamoreeducation.com/

Remind – Communication and Messaging – https://www.remind.com/

Zoom Cloud Conferencing – https://zoom.us/ while you can use Google Meets our staff prefer Zoom due to its feature of creating breakout rooms within the conference for student teams on projects. The teacher can control the rooms and pop between them. Finally removing the rooms and bringing all participants back to the main room. 

Apps:

Nearpod – https://nearpod.com/

EdPuzzle – https://edpuzzle.com/

AWW App – Collaborative Whiteboard – https://awwapp.com/

Nearpodize – Chrome extension that allows import from Nearpod into Google slides.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nearpodize/obaclhgeioenpfkcekijanhfbfhhbkig?hl=en-US

Other:

ALEKS – Our math teachers began using this system to support mathematics during the shutdown time. While it is expensive depending on the size of your school it is worth looking at.

https://www.aleks.com/