Moritz's Blog

Fishbowl/Liveblog/Pink/AWNM/Thoughts

2009-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

We finally have something to celebrate. SUCCESS! Yippee!

After three weeks of discussing, analyzing, questioning, arguing, and bringing random ideas into our fishbowl/liveblog discussions on the senses mentioned in Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind, I feel like we have finally gotten beyond the surface level and broken through to a much deeper level of thinking.

Prior to today, I was frustrated and sometimes angry. Why couldn't they get it? Some students had diligently prepared to lead discussion, only to be met with dribble when it came to responses. Some of the discussion leaders had come ill prepared, which had lead to a (let's face it) bad discussion. We had made some very scary comparisons when it came to Story, and our discussion with the author on Design went technically well, but lacked depth.

But finally, today, both hours were impressive and delightful to be a part of. I have faith that my students are finally looking beyond the text and really starting to think of the implications of the ideas presented in the book. Hopefully we will continue down this road and dig deeper into what this all means.

Here's to Finals

2008-12-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

Every so often, I come across a gem in my writing class. The assignment for their final exam was to write a tribute to anyone or anything. I found this one worth sharing.

Here’s to finals. Finals are the one time of the year when everyone is happy to be a high school student. The student body is sleep deprived, stressed out, and overwhelmed. There is nothing quite like the look on the students’ faces when they realize that they are immensely underprepared for their final. Here’s to finals, the late nights, the hours of endless studying, the hour long waits at Starbucks, and the pressure. Students tense up in anxiety for the moment. Teachers laughing, repeatedly saying, “It’s not that hard”. And then the final is handed out.

I personally love finals. Nothing excites me more than one single high stakes test at the end of a semester worth twenty percent of my grade. Finals’ week is my single favorite week of the entire semester. Sure, some people may complain about how hard or unfair a final is, but nope, I think they are the greatest and fairest thing around. My personal thoughts about a teacher and his/her assignments is that the teacher should put in as much effort grading a test as it takes to take it. Therefore, when a teacher gives one hundred twenty students a one hundred thirty five question Scantron test over the course of 80 minutes per test, it seems only fair that the teacher can put it through a grading machine that takes all of ten seconds per test. That’s pretty close in amount of work output, so it is only fair to assume that these finals are fair.

Another characteristic that I adore about finals and finals’ week is how much they are over-stressed. Teachers constantly overstress the importance of a final. All a student hears is, “It makes sure you learned the key information”, “I want this information reinforced in your brain”, and “This final is only twenty percent of your grade”. Sure, I understand the concept behind a final, which is to reinforce key concepts and drill on the essential learning. What I really like about the idea behind a final is that a student can prove that he/she is able to teach themselves an entire semester’s worth of information in one night. These finals are nothing to be stressed over. Twenty percent of one’s grade is not that much. Do the math, if I get an eighty five percent on my final, then my grade will go down to a, uh… oh that’s not good. Ok, so maybe twenty percent is a small part of one’s grade, or actually a significant chunk of one’s grade, but high school students are able to handle it, right?

Here’s to finals and the no stress period these tests offer students. Students never lose any sleep over finals. They are not constantly stressing over what a disastrous final could do their grades, which allows them to sleep easier. In fact, students get even more sleep during finals week than they do in the summer, and they sleep better. Take a look at Starbucks. All the students there are celebrating with coffee. No, they aren’t using the caffeine in the coffee to wake up as they will crash in three hours, so they all ordered decaffeinated coffee. These students weren’t so stressed out that they couldn’t fall asleep because they hadn’t finished studying, and now they aren’t drinking caffeinated coffee because they don’t need it. And when a teacher tries to make it up to them by offering them donuts, all they can manage is a yawn. No, we didn’t yawn because we were tired, we were just bored.

Here’s to finals: the stress, the sleep deprivation, the endless studying, Starbucks, and of course, the realization that I really don’t care how I do on my Thursday final. I salute you, final, for all the work you do for us. You’re like an iceberg in the ocean, massive, looming, and waiting to sink our ships, especially when we almost made it to the harbor. So, final, keep up the good work, and please, please be easy.

Matthew F.

Reflections

2008-04-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

After reading The Trouble with Rubrics, by Alfie Kohn, at first I was a little defensive. I understand that there is "trouble with rubrics," and I know the flaws and the limitations it puts on students and teachers, but I also need to reflect on years of the past, as well as the present.

Years ago, when I would grade a paper, it was solely based on what I thought about it as a person trained to teach reading and writing (B.A. + teacher certification in English). I relied on students looking at the feedback given on their papers. Truly, then and now, students didn't care about the feedback. They would look for the grade and then, either smile with content or ball up their paper and throw it in the garbage.
Things really haven't changed.

Now, when I use rubrics, they still go immediately to the final grade. So what is a teacher to do?

We are expected to give grades. Not only from our administration, but from the students, parents and state. We have to assess learning in a formal, conventional way. It is our responsibility.

I do agree with the idea that giving the students the rubric ahead of time stifles their desire to learn. Kohn quotes another educator who says students seemed "unable to function unless every required its spelled out for them in a grid and assigned a point value. Worse than that...they do not have confidence in their thinking or writing skills and seem unwilling to really take risks" (email to Kohn). This infuriates me because it is so true.

With a project we did earlier this semester, I did not give the students any rubric. They insisted on one. Eventually, because of their lack of work-because they had no specific outcome laid out for them-I made a rubric.

How do we, as high school teachers, get students to de-program their brains to stop focusing on the outcome and just embrace the learning? I'd really love to know.

Oh, the games we Play

2008-02-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

I have to say that Friday's Liveblog/Fishbowl was the best we've encountered so far in this little project. We were joined by Dan Maas, Sue Chandler, Jeff Whipple, Tim Stahmer, Kelly Dignan, Mike Porter, and Tim Stahmer to discuss the Play chapter from A Whole New Mind.

I'm not really sure what made the conversation better than the discussions in the past, but here are some of my reflections.

From the start I have struggled with some of the teaching practices that I was trying to incorporate into my classroom. They are very progressive and very student centered, which I value and think is good for kids. But I had been feeling a big disconnect from my students and after talking with them I got the feeling they were feeling the same. So, last week we spent one day talking. Imagine that. Talking with my students about what they're reading, what they think about the reading, what they agree and disagree with. We talked for an entire hour without interruption, and I think that we could have talked longer. The best part about it was that it was still progressive and still student centered, I just allowed them a different format in which to process the information they have been working with.

What a difference it made in Friday's discussion. Students felt safe to challenge other classmates. To really stood up for what they believed about the book and did not back down from the masses. I think that because we had a previous discussion before the fishbowl it allowed students to take more risks and have their true voices be heard. It was great.

I also think that for the first time, students really connected with the chapter. Because the chapter discussed gaming a majority of the time, students were able to hone in on what they already knew and had experienced. Kids were getting fired up defending what they thought about video games. And, I have to say, it was pretty split. Many students (mostly males) believe that video games are good. They believe that they help them develop skills that no other medium can. Many other students (mostly females) thought video games were pointless and sometimes detrimental. Now, of course, some male and female students took the other side, but not many. What does this say? Girls are overreacting. Boys don't care. I don't think either is true. But is sure made for great conversation.

There's a Story, of a lovely lady...no,no...anyway

2008-01-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

Once again, fishbowl was successful, but I can’t help but feel the discussion was a little flat. Maybe it is because Story is the chapter that I identify with so closely and the discussion didn’t goes as I had hoped. Luckily we had Miguel Guhlin:, Lucie Stanish:, Ben Wilkoff, Dan Maas:, and Lori Soifer: in on the liveblog discussion and that seemed to go well.

I am also starting to have trouble with the lack of control I am feeling in the classes. This unit is completely student driven. As teachers, Anne and I are facilitating and hoping that students are doing what we are asking them to do. Hoping that they are thinking and learning about how we can apply the ideas in AWNM to their lives.

Many of the students are going beyond my expectation, but most seem to be waiting for something…and I don’t know what that something is. Do they need more direction? Are they struggling and are afraid to ask for help? Is everything under control and I am just feeling paranoid?

How DESIGN Transpired and Inspired

2008-01-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

What an amazing journey this project has been for my students and I. Friday's fishbowl discussion and liveblog went very, very well, and I cannot help but to feel quite humbled by everyone who is involved. First and foremost, I have been lucky enough to work with Anne Smith for the past ten years and she has truly become my right hand. We have team-taught since the beginning and it is so great that we can work so closely together and accomplish great things for our students. Of course, our fearless leader is Karl Fisch. With his vision and passion, he has helped turn this project into an incredible opportunity not only for our students, but for many people across the world. Finally, my students are awesome. They have been ready and willing to try whatever I seem to throw at them, and they do it with a great curiosity and sense of humor. They have seen me at my best and worst over the last few weeks and they continue to give me the benefit of the doubt, which I am truly grateful for.

Amazing things have been happening in our classroom. On Friday we had Darren Draper, Sharon Peters, Jeff Whipple, and James Folkestad join our fishbowl/liveblog discussion. We also had several teachers from AHS come and observe our discussion, and a few of them jumped into the live fishbowl, as well as the blogging. Students thought it was "cool" to see our guests up on a big screen, compliments of MeBeam. Discussion was quite good too.

I have to keep in mind that I have two very different sets of students in my 3rd and 4th hour classes. One class is generally very chatty, while the other is quite reserved. I hope to encourage both classes to over-prepare next time so that we are not constantly re-hashing what has already been said. But otherwise, I have been thrilled with the progress so far.

Looking at the world through rose (Pink) colored glasses

2008-01-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

Our students are off and running with Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind and I have to say that so far, things are looking really good.

We did our first fishbowl/liveblog discussion on Friday and I feel like the students did a great job. After debriefing on what they thought of it, there was an sense of accomplishment and lots of suggestions for tweaking the process. I was amazed at the insight that I saw, not only in the live discussion, but looking at the blog discussion afterwards. I have some smart cookies in my classes.

As this unit continues, I am ever-optimistic that the students will learn more from this process of reading, reflecting and writing than the more traditional ways of the past. Granted, I am a little scared. I'm afraid that I won't give them the instruction that they need to be successful. The assignments that we are doing are somewhat obscure, probably because we have never done them before, and none of us really know what they will look like in the end. But hopefully, they will turn out just as I imagine in my Whole New Mind.

Another Day

2007-11-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

You ever have one of those mornings where everything just seems to come to a head? When your world seems to come crashing down and despair sets in. Well, today was one of those days. I thought everything was o.k…that I had everything under control. But I didn’t.
I was my typical “loud” self and I made an idiot of myself in my principal’s office. I had a complete meltdown with one of my best friends, while I was trying to wish her a happy birthday. I was crying (the kind of crying that makes your face red and ugly), and every time a person would ask me if I was o.k.? it just got worse. And then, I had to go teach my first hour.
Isn’t it amazing how your students can change your mood completely? The moment I started to greet them at the door, ugly face and all, I started to feel better. I know that most of them were uncomfortable seeing their teacher in distress, but they put on a happy face, which in turn helped me do the same. As the class continued, we did our normal routine, but I felt so much better being in their company. Today, I was amazed at how dependent I was on them.

When I meet new people and they ask me what I do, they are always in admiration because I work with teenagers. They say “you must have a lot of patience”, but sadly, they don’t see the flip side. They don’t see all of the benefits I reap from working with young people.
They don’t see how much I admire my students’ everyday. Whether it is watching my reading kids fly through books or my honors kids making in-depth connections with text. My writing kids taking risks and writing very personal essays that I have the privilege to read or my leadership kids giving so graciously to others.

I have the best job. I get to come everyday, work with people I love, and see teenagers grow and learn unlike any other members of the population. Of course this sounds idealistic (yes, I am leaving out all of the thorns in my side), but after the morning that I have had, I am truly lucky to be a High School Teacher.

Their thinking is changing.

2007-11-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

I am constantly amazed by the insight that my students give me on a daily basis. I guess that I have been so programed by the daily grind to expect somewhat complacent students, that their enthusiasm has surpassed all of my expectations.
Anne and I have been giving an in class assignment for the end of Fahrenheit 451 for the last couple of years. This year I am really pushing my students to go beyond what Bradbury is literally writing.
I had a lesson planned last week that didn't fit into the way our discussion was going. Instead, I asked students to turn to a random page in the novel and I asked them to read it to themselves and then stop when they got to a passage that they believed was extremely poignant and thoughtful. About 95 percent of my students all came to sentences that they believed were about more than what was literally written. We talked about why Bradbury was writing the novel and what his purpose was beyond the basic plotline. My students really seemed to understand that there is so much more in the literature than what meets the eye.
I am excited to set in motion the desire to look for more in text. My students are starting to "dig deeper" for comprehension beyond the general language and I am thrilled.

Mission Accomplished

2007-09-30T12:16:00.001-07:00

The 21C Collaborative Learning Community exists to model continuous learning and to encourage innovative use of technology by using constructivist teaching techniques.
Sounds pretty good.
It is amazing what can be accomplished when you take a large group of teachers, a whole lot of sticky notes, a laptop and a computer program, and combine them all together.
Facilitating the discussion on mission was so much easier than I anticipated. Truly, it was scary. Getting up in front of colleagues is always more difficult than teaching for me, but everyone seemed appreciative of the work that I did and the time that I spent. I think it was a matter of being organized and planning for opposition, which I didn't really experience (the opposition, I mean). Hopefully we can move full steam ahead and focus on vision, learnings and goals.

2007-09-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

As I anticipate the discussion in which I have volunteered to lead next week, regarding mission and vision, I am apprehensive and hopeful at the same time. It is a challenge that I look forward to.

Bringing together 48 teachers to decide what we stand for is important to truly define what our 21C group is all about. But after looking at the four pages of notes that have accumulated between the three mini-groups that make up our large group, I can’t help but feel like there is a large mountain that we need to climb in order to tame this monster.

By default, we as teachers, are passionate about our work. We want to be sure that we get our points made and that everyone embraces them as passionately as we do. But when we write a mission statement, a statement that should be two sentences at the most, how am I…how are we…going to be able to agree on what is the most important. How am I…we…going to ensure that every voice is heard and supported? How am I going to take the “I” out of the equation for the greater good?

I can write our mission statement. I can write our vision statement. But what I write will not be what Terry would write, or what Andrea would write, or what James would write.

I guess I am saying is we will really need to work together and be willing to compromise in order to form a mission statement that is broad enough that everyone feels validated. Everyone feels comfortable with our decision. Everyone supports and believes in our mission. Otherwise it is just another sentence.

2007-09-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Well, to be quite honest, I feel like the beginning of the year has gotten away from me. Missing the first 21C meeting has made me feel, well, lost. I haven't blogged (obviously), and it seems as though I am wrapped up in so many other things. I am glad Link Crew activities have started to settle down and it will be nice to get back to the swing of things.

Having a laptop classroom for my electives has been incredible. Yesterday was the first day that we got to use the laptops and when the students all opened them up and started working, I had a moment of awe. How transforming it is to have those technologies available in the classroom. I was very excited, to say the least. Many of my students had experienced a laptop classroom, so they weren't nearly as enamored as I was; however, those students who had never been in a laptop classroom seemed just as excited as I was.

I'll admit, I have had moments of paranoia. I have questioned (just ask Karl) just about everything. I have worried about things I have no control over. I have started fires (just little sparks). But so far, every thing is going well. Students, as well as myself, are getting quite comfortable with those little laptops and the amazing thing...they are actually writing more...so far. We'll see.

2007-04-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

So, Anne and I have been talking about how we are planning to teach 1984. We are going to do the entire unit in fishbowl format. I have done fishbowl for years, but I have never followed the same protocol as we are delivering in this unit. I am a little anxious, but have already felt some successes following our class discussion yesterday.
Yesterday, I had students "invite" their parents to join us in our discussion of 1984. I asked them to go home, tell their parents about blogging, and help them set up blogger accounts so that they can participate in our class discussions. Parents are asked to participate in our classroom discussion through the blog. I was a little hesitant in asking, but check out our class site to see what happened: http://www.moritzhonors0607.blogspot.com/
I'm thrilled.

2007-01-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

As we continue to discuss the "big picture" ideas in our classrooms, I wonder how many people are really on board with this idea. Last week, I sat at the lunch table and listened to many people talking about the calendar proposal. I think that it is critical that we rearrange the time that we have in order to give teachers a chance to PLC the right way, and I think it is a safe assumption that the school district is determined to rearrange the time we have as opposed to spending money to give additional time for PLCs. Don't misread me, I don't want to give up inservice time--I think our inservice time is precious; however, I do think that we need to get things rolling and not take another year to think this through. It's common sense.

2006-11-30T09:22:00.001-08:00

Today's meeting was extremely valuable to me. I think it is important to talk more about constructivist teaching and what is going on in the classroom. This morning Brad mentioned constructivist teaching going hand in hand with technology. I think there needs to be more focus on constructivist teaching without daily use of technology, because obviously, we don't all have access to technology every day.

I would like to hear about what other teachers are doing in their classrooms that don't have the laptops, so I am really looking forward to next time.

Thanks to everyone on the planning team for all the hard work you do. I am in awe every day.

2006-11-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

Last night I was thinking about my new approach to teaching and I started to panic. I was worried about the changes that I have made to my approach and wondered if I wasn't producing what I have in the past. So I went to my mentor:)

I needed to ask Kristin if she saw a difference between my past students and Anne's past students in her class. I needed to make sure that Anne and I were teaching the same things to the same expected level. Anne and I plan together and we talk a lot about what we expect, and I think we think we have the same expectations of our students. I just needed to make sure that we were sending students to 10th honors with the skills necessary to succeed.

After a relatively long discussion, we (Kristin and I) came to the conclusion that constructivist teaching shouldn't change the learning outcomes expected in classes. I also came to the conclusion that although Anne and I have similar, yet different styles in our teaching, I can be confident that they are being well taught in both classes.

So I am just going to keep truckin' along with the changes I have made and be confident that students are learning as well, if not better than before.

2006-10-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

I've been hashing over a couple of things in my head over the last few weeks. I think that this is the place to try to clear my thoughts.
I have been observing what I am doing differently in my classes and the direction in which my classes have been going. At the beginning of the semester, I felt as though I had to speed up my style and add a lot of new dimension to make my teaching part of the 21C. I was trying to keep up with the people around me (yes, Anne :)) who seem to have it all together and know exactly what education should look like now that we are in a technologically driven age. But I now know that I do not necessarily agree with this vision. This is not to say that what is happening in the classroom across this campus isn't awesome. In fact, I am quite impressed and sometimes overwhelmed by the brilliance that seems to be happening in this direction. But I have begun to question "Is it too much, too soon?"
I had a discussion with a parent at parent/teacher conferences about the technology push at AHS. She asked a very good question. "Are freshman ready to handle, not only the academic expectations at Arapahoe, but then add a new element of technology?" I really had to think about this.
Initially I thought, "Well, yeah!" They are constantly on their cell phones, text messaging, sneaking their IPods on in class, etc. But are they really ready to give up a plain old discussion of literature in my class? Can a blog take the place of an actual discussion? I'm not sure I buy into that. Yes, I think blogging is an important new tool that people should consider using outside of classtime. Yes, I think that having students use the mediums that they feel most comfortable with is a great way to enhance their learning. But what will happen to the classroom I love to be in? What will happen to the class where I sit and talk and discuss and learn with my students as we engage in live, face to face discussion. I don't want that to go away.
This sounds as though I don't want to evolve. That is ABSOLUTELY not the case. But I don't want to lose the personal connections I make with students every day.

2006-09-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

In response to last week's inservice...

I liked listening to what other people were doing in their classrooms and I felt like I was not alone in my struggle with changing to a more constructivist style of teaching. I think the information we recieved about blogs and unitedstreaming was a little redundant, but for people who have never done it before, I'm sure it was very helpful.

Although I thought the large group discussion was important and beneficial, I can't help but think that some people in the group probably had something to say, but may have been a little intimidated. Obviously, I don't have trouble voicing my opinions in a situations like that, but I'm sure others were quite uncomfortable. Perhaps if we met in a large group initially, and then allowed everyone to break off in smaller groups, some much needed conversation and feedback could occur. At the end of the day when we met with mentors in small groups, I joined another group and felt like the discussion was much more meaningful for me and others.

Other than that, I feel like the time was well spent. I hope that the planning team knows that we appreciate all that you do. It is just a little overwhelming to wrap our arms around everthing.

2006-09-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

How to Spend Money.
I've been pondering a question that was posed to our department about spending district money on technology. There has been discussion about possibly adding a portable computer classroom/station that teachers could check out when needed. We've talked about getting new mice for our C17 lab. But that has been all of the discussion we've had.
Although I think having a portable computer station would be awesome, I am concerned about how we would maintain it. I am not sure that the computers would be taken care of as they should be. I am not being critical of my department members, I just worry that spending so much money on computers that would be moved around might not be the right way to go.
I've thought about possibly adding computers to the classrooms for student use, but the money we have would only go so far.
I've thought about software that could enhance particular classes, but how would that affect the greater good?
I guess ultimately, I want to see this money well spent. We just haven't had a discussion where people have brought their ideas to the table and I think this is really necessary before a decision is made.

2006-09-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

IT WORKED!! :)

I had my students take over for our vocabulary and submit it via email or in my class drop-box and it really worked. So psyched...

The assignment was to take each of the assigned words and place them in a PowerPoint so that the entire class could see the definition and have it explained to them. Each student got 1-2 words and was responsible for teaching the definition to the class. This seemed to really engage the students because they wanted to see which classmate came up with the best slide for their words. It was really awesome and took a lot of work off of my plate. Plus, the students are now more vested in their vocabulary, where before I think they just did the assignment.

Hooray!

2006-09-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

After pondering what Karl mentioned in my last post, I thought about how to use technology with the kids, not for the kids. I have developed a way for students to be responsible for their own vocabulary in the same way that I have presented it, but doing it themselves. So far, so good. I will post again later this week if all goes well.

Other then that, I need to be more aware of classroom discussion. I have caught myself jumping in to lead students instead of letting them find the information themselves. This constructivism is more difficult than I initially anticipated.

2006-08-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I learned this week how much I really depend on having a computer in my class. Earlier this week, my classroom computer got sick. Dr. Fisch took care of it, but I was without it for 2.5 days.
With all of my lesson plans currently on PowerPoint, I felt completely helpless. I had to return to my planbook, which if you see it, it is pretty empty because everything is on the computer.
This morning I woke up in a panic thinking I would not have my computer with my overhead projector for Back to School Night. Luckily, my precious computer was returned to me this morning. :)
What an eyeopening experience this week. I don't know. Maybe I have become too dependent on technology because it is so easy to use.

2006-08-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

This week has been somewhat crazy, but the PowerPoint agenda has been awesome. I have also added vocabulary lessons for my ninth grade into the agenda, so that I can jsut click to it.

I am a little overwhelmed by the beginning of the schoolyear. I feel like I didn't have enough time to get ready for classes and now I am just running to catch up to do all of the things I want to do in class.

I still have to set up my blogger accounts with my students and I am wondering if they have already emailed me for a distribution list and I have their email addresses, can I just add them to blogger???

2006-08-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

Now that Link is off and running, I have had a chance to sit down and decide what I want to do in my classes. I am currently doing an agenda on Powerpoint for all of my classes. I did this last year for Elements of Comp. and I loved having my lesson plans on the computer. I have also had my students email me, along with their parent, so that I can set up distribution lists for email. I have found this invaluable over the years. It is helpful for reminding students of assignments due and contacting the parents if necessary.

I hope to set up my Blog accounts once MAP testing is done.

2006-08-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

The World Is Flat

Well, to be completely honest, I have only gotten through half the book. But, I am fascinated by the idea of how much technology is changing the world. Obviously I know that change is occuring. It's everywhere. However, I am surprised to the extent that it is happening.

When I read about Walmart, and the fact that when a customer takes something off the shelf that starts a process to reshelf, I was blown away. I thought the scanner was just a quicker way to get out of the store. :)

I also feel somewhat clueless about how companies are manipulating customers. The Toshiba laptop story comes to mind. Your laptop breaks and you take it to UPS to fix. You assume that it is being sent to Japan to be fixed, when in actually it is being sent to some local shop to be fixed. On one hand, I think this is brilliant. On the other hand, as a customer, I would feel somewhat compromised.

Lots of different ideas to ponder.