When I was a student, I asked one of my English teachers how I got a C+ on an essay, while my friend had gotten an A, even though we had made the same argument and backed it up with quotes from the book, like she had asked us to do. Both of us had followed the assignment exactly. My English teacher shook her head. "But Emily," she told me, "You can't write like Sonali. She's a much better writer than you are. Hence the difference in grades."
Yes, that is a direct quote. No, I never will forget it. Yes, that was the ONLY feedback she would give me on that essay.
That was tenth grade. Many other English teachers, influenced by my tenth grade one (she was the department chair...and a toxic voice in the department), gave me similar feedback. And thus, I have never had any confidence in my own writing. I wasn't too confident before that, but believe me, that quote tore down any last remaining shreds of it!
As such, my love of writing fiction went unused, and anything I did write was a secret between me and my hard drive.
Recently, though, I had an idea for a fiction project, which I bounced off a friend of mine. This time, the feedback I received was: "What a great idea!" We planned it together, and then I took off writing.
And I started thinking: Why would a teacher tear down a student like my English teacher had done? Isn't there a better way to give feedback? And I realized that, the more *constructive* feedback I give my own students, the more confidence they have, even if I'm giving them feedback on something they got wrong.
That's where the idea of constructive feedback comes in. Posing the right questions for the students to answer, guiding them, perhaps giving them an idea of where to look for an answer, rather than giving them the answer.
This seems obvious to me, I guess, and probably to you as well, but giving students the kind of minimal feedback, like my English teacher gave me, breeds lack of confidence, and lack of confidence breeds dependence. I thought about this more as I read Justin's post yesterday. The dependence leads to a complacency--one where students learn that they will *never* be able to do something, so why even try?
I am willing to bet that we have all had an experience with learned helplessness. We've probably learned it at some point as well! How do we break that cycle? What are we going to do with our students, and perhaps ourselves, who have learned this helplessness so well?
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Making It Work
On Thursday, I decided to take a trip to the local Trader Joe's. After shopping and loading my groceries into the car, I realized that I could not get out because there were two women fighting over the parking space behind me, blocking my ability to back up. One was in her car, the other, standing in the parking space, telling the other driver that she would have to run over her to get the parking space. After letting them scream (to the point that it was audible to me, in my car, with closed doors and windows), I got out. I informed the ladies that I would be pulling out, if they would move and let me, and that one of them could have the space across from me, and one of them could have the space I was vacating. They stared blankly at me, and then started arguing with each other about which one would be moving. I was dumbfounded. Hadn't I just come up with a solution?! Eventually, I informed them that they were welcome to keep arguing, but could they PLEASE MOVE so I could go home? They finally, grudgingly, obliged me.
Finding solutions isn't always easy. It isn't always a "win-win" situation, and even if it is, it isn't always a "win" to the point that one might want it to be. On Friday, I discussed this situation with one of my classes, who found it to be ridiculous. "A parking space isn't worth your life!" said one of my students.
Fast forward to after class, when my Assistant principal dropped by my room. "What else can you do?" she asked. "I want to see if we can find a way to keep you and at least finish out the Latin program....Can you teach History? What about French?"
I can, indeed, do both of these things. Man, was I glad to see that my school leadership is working on a solution. It's Hard, but they are going to great lengths to save the Latin program. I was amazed to see this happening, rather than them just saying "Oh well...." as many other Admins would have.
In class, I endeavor to teach my students that finding solutions isn't always simple. It requires work, thinking, and moving pieces around to make the correct things happen.
How do we teach both the students and ourselves to FIND the solutions?
Friday, April 26, 2013
Control
A few days ago, one of my friends posted the following quote: "True freedom starts with self-reliance."
And, Justin's post yesterday, especially Debbie's comment, addressed the issue of Control and Community.
Debbie wrote:
"When I first started reading your post I envisioned a work environment with adults...they chat, they joke, they take breaks, they refocus, and in the end they get the job done. Isn't this how most of us work? There are some who want to jump in, do the task and then socialize. There are some who want to socialize and then get to task. We are all different and somehow we make it work. That "somehow" is just another skill that we can teach our students.
And then I read about the giving up and then community falls into place. Perhaps it is the "trying"to control it that prevents it from happening. Perhaps it is when we provide the "somehow" skills and then empower the community members to explore it and prefect it in their own way that things finally fall into place. It is another example of the Fire of Truth, except in this case it isn't about sharing different perspectives but about BEING different perspectives."
Getting "control" over a disparate group of people with different learning styles and different levels of self-reliance is impossible. Even if you think you have it, you are deluding yourself.
I once had an administrator ask me how I dealt with such a "noisy" classroom. I explained that my students were collaborating. Like actually working together. This, I explained, requires talking. All the groups work in their own style, but each group has the work done by the time it is due!
Imposing what you believe is "control" over a group of students, or any other group, is destructive to community. I am not talking about something that is a matter of public safety, like what happened in Boston last week. I'm talking about a learning community. If you try to "control" them, you lose and they lose.
At the beginning of this year, I spent a lot of time teaching my classes routines and self-reliance. Need a pencil? Well, they're in the bin labeled "pencils." Help yourself. What does that word mean, anyway? Try a dictionary, or one of the awesome e-resources I posted for you on Edmodo. Or, you could even look it up on that fantastic App I asked you to download. Yes, you can use your phone for education!
And what happened? Freedom. Once the students learned that they had all the tools to learn the material, and that I wasn't the only person who held them, they worked with a vengeance. Community bloomed, since the students learned that they could help each other. They began finding new resources--things I had never seen before and sharing them. It was amazing.
So, how do we teach that self-reliance? How do we build a that Freedom?
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Betrayal
As we were working on the Epic Mythology Project on Tuesday, one of my students opened her email to send a link to a friend. There, she found an email from Guidance, informing her that Latin had been cancelled and asking her to sign up for a different language next year.
"Magistra!" she announced to the entire library, "Is it true that Latin has been cancelled?!"
Panicked, her fellow Latin 3s and 4s, as well as some of my Latin 2s, who were in the library with another class, rushed to take a look at her screen and to check their own email. All of my non-seniors were greeted by similar emails. Freaked out, they looked to me.
Now, I found out right before Spring Break, literally on the last day before, that Central Office had decided to kill the Latin program. I was relieved, at least, to know that my Department Head, my Principal, my Assistant Principal, and I were all on the same page that this showed lack of foresight, and was a terrible idea. All three of the leadership had fought with Central Office on Latin's and my behalf, but to no avail. Because, Central Office said, our district can't support 4 languages. BUT they still want to compete with all of those awesome and epic districts, like Newton, Wellesley, and Wayland, who DO support 4 languages at LEAST. As my Assistant Principal said, "This shows incredible lack of foresight and willingness to invest in the students."
Anyway, my Principal and I had agreed before Spring Break that he would come up and talk with my classes so that I wouldn't have to. After all, it fell on his shoulders. He gave Guidance a Direct Order to not discuss this with the students until he said it was OK. And they completely disobeyed it.
When I informed him of this, he was furious, and promised me he would reprimand Guidance. But he was stuck in a meeting all of today, and thus, I faced my angry, confused students alone.
"I feel so betrayed!" one of my students told me. "We were already asked to select courses!"
Believe me, I feel betrayed too. After all, I worked so hard and the students worked so hard to make up for lost time in learning.
And why did this happen? Because no one was held accountable. No one has ever held Guidance accountable, nor has Central Office ever been held accountable.
And what happens now? It affects students' ability to get into college, and takes away from everyone's credibility, honestly. They promised the students, parents, and me that Latin would be offered next year. And they lied.
So, even with this betrayal, I am trying to keep up the communities I've built, and the students are trying as well.
And we don't even have answers for WHY, which is the main question that students are asking at this point.
So now what? How, in the face of betrayal, do we keep the joy alive in the community?
"Magistra!" she announced to the entire library, "Is it true that Latin has been cancelled?!"
Panicked, her fellow Latin 3s and 4s, as well as some of my Latin 2s, who were in the library with another class, rushed to take a look at her screen and to check their own email. All of my non-seniors were greeted by similar emails. Freaked out, they looked to me.
Now, I found out right before Spring Break, literally on the last day before, that Central Office had decided to kill the Latin program. I was relieved, at least, to know that my Department Head, my Principal, my Assistant Principal, and I were all on the same page that this showed lack of foresight, and was a terrible idea. All three of the leadership had fought with Central Office on Latin's and my behalf, but to no avail. Because, Central Office said, our district can't support 4 languages. BUT they still want to compete with all of those awesome and epic districts, like Newton, Wellesley, and Wayland, who DO support 4 languages at LEAST. As my Assistant Principal said, "This shows incredible lack of foresight and willingness to invest in the students."
Anyway, my Principal and I had agreed before Spring Break that he would come up and talk with my classes so that I wouldn't have to. After all, it fell on his shoulders. He gave Guidance a Direct Order to not discuss this with the students until he said it was OK. And they completely disobeyed it.
When I informed him of this, he was furious, and promised me he would reprimand Guidance. But he was stuck in a meeting all of today, and thus, I faced my angry, confused students alone.
"I feel so betrayed!" one of my students told me. "We were already asked to select courses!"
Believe me, I feel betrayed too. After all, I worked so hard and the students worked so hard to make up for lost time in learning.
And why did this happen? Because no one was held accountable. No one has ever held Guidance accountable, nor has Central Office ever been held accountable.
And what happens now? It affects students' ability to get into college, and takes away from everyone's credibility, honestly. They promised the students, parents, and me that Latin would be offered next year. And they lied.
So, even with this betrayal, I am trying to keep up the communities I've built, and the students are trying as well.
And we don't even have answers for WHY, which is the main question that students are asking at this point.
So now what? How, in the face of betrayal, do we keep the joy alive in the community?
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Crunch Time
With the School Year closing out, it is Crunch Time at school.
With Balticon approaching, where my ACapella group is featured, it is Crunch Time with prep for that.
There is just so much to do. And everyone seems to think it must be done NOW! Emails pile upon emails.
It's Crunch Time for my students too. And they are PANICKED. "I have all of these tests to study for and so many projects to do!" complained one of my students. So we started talking about Priorities.
What is easy and quick to do now? What needs more time and attention? How much is it worth? When is it due? These questions flew around my classroom. So we started writing them down.
Somehow, my students were never taught the concept of a checklist, even less a prioritized one.
Organization is important. But students don't understand WHY. They just know that their teacher will "perform a random binder check" and if their papers aren't in "the correct section," they will get a 0. But WHY do we organize our papers? So many reasons come to mind: So we can find them again; For easy studying; For easy reference; etc.... And not every system works for everyone. I often give my students options, and let them pick one that works for them.
"Magistra, you're the most organized teacher we have!" one of my students told me once. I was surprised. I am an organized person, most of the time, but the MOST organized?! Surely that couldn't be true. As I've been on the Technology committee this year, I've been realizing how much I actually make a POINT of organization and MODEL it for my students. And they begin to get it.
Once again, I come back to two questions: How? and Why? How do we keep our students and ourselves from going insane at Crunch Time? How do we model organization for them? And How do we teach them not only WHAT to do, but WHY we do it?
With Balticon approaching, where my ACapella group is featured, it is Crunch Time with prep for that.
There is just so much to do. And everyone seems to think it must be done NOW! Emails pile upon emails.
It's Crunch Time for my students too. And they are PANICKED. "I have all of these tests to study for and so many projects to do!" complained one of my students. So we started talking about Priorities.
What is easy and quick to do now? What needs more time and attention? How much is it worth? When is it due? These questions flew around my classroom. So we started writing them down.
Somehow, my students were never taught the concept of a checklist, even less a prioritized one.
Organization is important. But students don't understand WHY. They just know that their teacher will "perform a random binder check" and if their papers aren't in "the correct section," they will get a 0. But WHY do we organize our papers? So many reasons come to mind: So we can find them again; For easy studying; For easy reference; etc.... And not every system works for everyone. I often give my students options, and let them pick one that works for them.
"Magistra, you're the most organized teacher we have!" one of my students told me once. I was surprised. I am an organized person, most of the time, but the MOST organized?! Surely that couldn't be true. As I've been on the Technology committee this year, I've been realizing how much I actually make a POINT of organization and MODEL it for my students. And they begin to get it.
Once again, I come back to two questions: How? and Why? How do we keep our students and ourselves from going insane at Crunch Time? How do we model organization for them? And How do we teach them not only WHAT to do, but WHY we do it?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Success!
"Ms. L?" a student asked me on Monday, "Can you believe we have 8 weeks left?"
I couldn't believe it if I tried. This has been an incredible year, and one of the fastest on record for me. For one, I have amazing little communities--not classes. These are the students that, although disparate at the beginning of the year, have come together to make sure that everyone in the class, not just their friends, gets cake for their birthday or that one student, injured and out for weeks, got all the work he needed, complete with excellent explanations of the work we were doing, including complex grammar points.
So how were we going to close out the year?
I had promised my students that we would work on Mythology, after all of that hardcore work on grammar for the first 3 quarters. However, I wanted to make it meaningful to them. I have often seen Mythology taught by having students read stories and answer questions.
So I made them the teachers.
Once the students grasped the incredible scope of the project, they split into their groups and immediately got to work. This project will take them through to the end of May, and perhaps beyond.
I really wasn't sure what kind of feedback I would get, but I heard lots of "This is awesome!" and "This is the most epic project ever!"
This is not an easy project. It requires them to really work, think, make handouts, tell stories, and engage their peers. And they are loving it. The students even commented that they couldn't wait to see what other groups were doing!
And I look back and realize that these disparate students, who were scared, underconfident, and unsure of how to think or why it needed to be done at the beginning of the year, and I am amazed that we got where we are!
When my principal asked how my students got so far, I explained that they had become a community, not just disparate students who sometimes had other classes together, maybe. Community building is key to student success, or, honestly, anyone's success in school and beyond.
How do we build that community? And how, in the face of the Factory, to we maintain it?
I couldn't believe it if I tried. This has been an incredible year, and one of the fastest on record for me. For one, I have amazing little communities--not classes. These are the students that, although disparate at the beginning of the year, have come together to make sure that everyone in the class, not just their friends, gets cake for their birthday or that one student, injured and out for weeks, got all the work he needed, complete with excellent explanations of the work we were doing, including complex grammar points.
So how were we going to close out the year?
I had promised my students that we would work on Mythology, after all of that hardcore work on grammar for the first 3 quarters. However, I wanted to make it meaningful to them. I have often seen Mythology taught by having students read stories and answer questions.
So I made them the teachers.
Once the students grasped the incredible scope of the project, they split into their groups and immediately got to work. This project will take them through to the end of May, and perhaps beyond.
I really wasn't sure what kind of feedback I would get, but I heard lots of "This is awesome!" and "This is the most epic project ever!"
This is not an easy project. It requires them to really work, think, make handouts, tell stories, and engage their peers. And they are loving it. The students even commented that they couldn't wait to see what other groups were doing!
And I look back and realize that these disparate students, who were scared, underconfident, and unsure of how to think or why it needed to be done at the beginning of the year, and I am amazed that we got where we are!
When my principal asked how my students got so far, I explained that they had become a community, not just disparate students who sometimes had other classes together, maybe. Community building is key to student success, or, honestly, anyone's success in school and beyond.
How do we build that community? And how, in the face of the Factory, to we maintain it?
Monday, April 22, 2013
A Wild and Crazy Week
Hi! I'm back! If you're wondering why you haven't heard from me, well, first it was Spring Break week, and I was away for my friend's wedding Saturday and Sunday...which means I had nothing for Monday.
And the rest of this week? Well, for those of you who don't know, I live right outside of Boston. If you have followed the news at all this week, you know why I didn't update.
With so many horrible, terrifying events happening within 20 miles of me, I nevertheless found myself looking for the good things--the helpers, the friends, the community. People came together all over the place--from opening their homes to stranded runners, to celebrating the capture of the loose suspect and thanking all of our law enforcement and leadership.
We all came together to help each other and comfort each other and work together, even if that just meant staying of the road, to catch these guys.
And yet, in the moments of fear, we still managed to launch Corgito Ergo Sum, a new webcomic by myself and my friends Justin and Lucy.
Even amidst tragedy, life doesn't stop. Early in the week I was talking with a friend of mine, who was TERRIFIED. "How do you stay so calm?!" she asked. I thought about it. Then, I said something to the effect of: "Well, the world doesn't stop. You have to put on your "f**k you" hat, band together, and keep going. It's the biggest way to tell these people that you aren't scared of them and tell them to pi** off." And it's true!
Alright, so, we're back. So good to see you all again! The healing process has started. How do we ensure that the community sticks? That the hole in the factory system, that allowed this community to come out doesn't get patched up?
And the rest of this week? Well, for those of you who don't know, I live right outside of Boston. If you have followed the news at all this week, you know why I didn't update.
With so many horrible, terrifying events happening within 20 miles of me, I nevertheless found myself looking for the good things--the helpers, the friends, the community. People came together all over the place--from opening their homes to stranded runners, to celebrating the capture of the loose suspect and thanking all of our law enforcement and leadership.
We all came together to help each other and comfort each other and work together, even if that just meant staying of the road, to catch these guys.
And yet, in the moments of fear, we still managed to launch Corgito Ergo Sum, a new webcomic by myself and my friends Justin and Lucy.
Even amidst tragedy, life doesn't stop. Early in the week I was talking with a friend of mine, who was TERRIFIED. "How do you stay so calm?!" she asked. I thought about it. Then, I said something to the effect of: "Well, the world doesn't stop. You have to put on your "f**k you" hat, band together, and keep going. It's the biggest way to tell these people that you aren't scared of them and tell them to pi** off." And it's true!
Alright, so, we're back. So good to see you all again! The healing process has started. How do we ensure that the community sticks? That the hole in the factory system, that allowed this community to come out doesn't get patched up?
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