The Grades Game

There are times when we all understand something a little better when we can see it from a different perspective.  Grades are a concept that we all have experienced and have some idea of their meaning.  But like a lot of things experienced in life, they are one of those things that many of us may not truly understand.  What we do know is that they are an important part of what takes place at school, and since they are important, better understanding is imperative.

The reason why our school has focused on grading is because what was being done had strayed far off course from the original intent.  A grade is a symbol for what a student has learned, and in the purest form, is connected to more information that defines what it actually is that the student has learned.  Our move toward standards-based grading is underway, and the steps we have taken are being more refined in our classrooms.  However, it is never too late to go back to the fundamentals, just like a good coach takes a step back in the middle of the season, in order to help people understand the need for, and some of the changes we have made.

As mentioned above, analogies often help with understanding.  We could use any sport, but we will use one I am more familiar with as are many of you: football.  Coaches and athletes spend the majority of their time together out on the practice field just as teachers and student spend hours together in the classroom.  On a given day, the offensive line coach will drill the players on their footwork, making sure that they teach their body the appropriate first step and keeping weight distributed where it needs to be.  In the classroom, the English teacher spends time teaching and reviewing writing mechanics so that the student can write a coherent and correct sentence each and every time she puts something down on paper.  While the coach and athlete participate in an exchange of instruction and practice, the same is done in the classroom.  The linebacker learns to read his keys preparing for the next game and the math student solves problems and draws conclusions.  All of this is part of what we call practice.  The coach evaluates whether his linebackers are taking the right drop on pass coverage and whether they are making progress on reading their keys.  The math teacher checks progress on the homework assignments and worksheets his algebra students have completed.  Progress.  Learning.  Is the athlete/student moving forward?  And, just as the football coach does not give a grade or award a helmet sticker for the player’s efforts during practice, nor should the classroom teacher.   What is learned during football practice has an impact on the game Friday night, but grades are not handed out.  It is preparation for the “final exam” on Friday night.

To find out how well their players have learned and whether they can apply it in a game-like situation, the football coaches have their players scrimmage.  The scrimmage isn’t the real thing, but is simulates what the players are going to see on Friday night.  It is a safe environment where success and failure gives the coach a chance to make corrections they otherwise may have not noticed.  In the classroom these are called quizzes.  A quiz should not define a student’s success or failure, but should provide information about progress to the student and teacher.  Scrimmages are most effective when discussion takes place between coach and player to insure understanding of responsibilities and technique.  The science teacher and student should use the results of the quiz over particles to re-teach concepts that were not understood, or continue reading for more information.  Again, helmet stickers are not passed out after a scrimmage, nor does it make sense to grade the quiz.

Game night is Friday, the final test!  Has all of the work on the field, watching film, reviewing the playbook paid off?  Reviewing the homework, looking over the quizzes, and re-reading the chapters all provide preparation for game time, or in the case of American history, the unit test over the Gilded Age.  Anxiety tends to be a little more pronounced than it was on Wednesday during the scrimmage/class when the linemen/history students were reviewing their assignments.  Games matter.  Tests matter.  Both of these are the opportunities for the student/athlete to show exactly what they can and can’t do, what they know and don’t know.  When done correctly, teaching, practice, and scrimmaging have prepared students/athletes for the test/game.  Practice and scrimmages are essential in preparation for success, but on the football field Friday night, no one really cares about the athletes practice habits or performance in the scrimmage.  The proof is on the field.  The only thing that matters is how they play the game.  While this will sound crass as it is applied to the classroom, whether or not a student does homework, completes a few questions at the end of the chapter, or performed well on a 10-point quiz really doesn’t matter.  Yes, they are important and should be used to help the student prepare for the test.  But, they should not affect the student’s grade.  On Friday night, when that corner back reacts as he was taught to a move the receiver makes and positions himself to intercept the pass, that is what matters.  Not the fact the he missed practice on Tuesday when they practiced the skill and did not do it correctly in the scrimmage on Wednesday.  He did it Friday!  The same can be said about the quarterback who has an outstanding week of practices and looks like Tom Brady in the scrimmage Wednesday.  If he does not handle the pressure and his anxiety on Friday, and throws three interceptions and fumbles the ball twice, he did not “pass the test.”  The history student needs to step up and perform as well.  Chances are, if she has prepared well, learned from the quizzes, and approaches the test with confidence, she will do just fine.

The Parenting Arms Race

As I have had opportunity to meet with school administrators from across the nation over the past fifteen years I have become much more in tune with issues related to education where there is a significant difference between various regions of our country.  I have had a chance to get into a lot of different schools and see students from many of our fifty states.  One of my takeaways is that for the most part, kids are kids.  There really isn’t much difference between those kids who attend a school from a wealthy suburb near San Diego to those from an inner-city school in Philadelphia.  They may have a little different fashion sense from one place to another, but other than that, you could pick a young lady up from Celebration High School near Orlando and put her into Centennial High School in Nebraska and you would have a hard time picking her out.  This may be a little bit of a simplification because there are in fact some regional differences, but not as much as some people may think.  This said, I am still very happy being in the Midwest where it seems that our perspective has a little more balance.  Yes, there are folks out there on the extreme in every community, but overall, I believe that the Midwest is the best place to raise a family.  That is why I have included this article from the Washington Post.  I have bumped into a few of these kinds of folks even here in Iowa, yet I am glad I do not work in a school where the perspective mirrors this.  However, while the “status seeking on steroids” you will read about is at times mind-blowing, there is a degree of it in our own community, certainly not on this level, but it is here.  The bottom line is that we want to do what is best for our kids, and we need to have a perspective that is reasonable and in their best interest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/in-mclean-a-crusade-to-get-people-to-back-off-in-the-parenting-arms-race/2014/03/23/9259c6a2-a552-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

What Students Need To Hear

I have never been afraid of stealing a good idea, or borrowing something that someone else does very well, and do it myself.  It is said that very little of what we do in education is an original idea.  As a classroom teacher and principal I have taken a lot of things that other people do and put them in place.  If there is something good that works we would be foolish not to do it ourselves!  This holds true for things that I have read, as is evident by sharing some of the blog articles from Tim Elmore.  I am going to do that again by sharing some thoughts that from Chase Mielke.  Mielke is a teacher that writes a blog entitled AffectiveLiving at affectiveliving.wordpress.com, and I am going to reference a few thoughts from his story What Students Really Need to Hear.

The first thing that teachers must let students know that they care about them, and in some instances may care more about a student than he/she cares about him/herself.  Teachers need to communicate with their students that it isn’t the grades or the scores, rather they care about you as a person.  There’s an old saying about the relationship between students and teachers: They (students) don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Teachers need to be free to be honest with students and let them know that they worry about them when they go home at night, and lose sleep because they know that something is going on in your life that is giving you a great deal of concern.

More important, because they care, teachers must be able to tell their students the truth about school.  It isn’t about math or English or other academic classes.  It isn’t about getting good grades or being involved in activities.  All of these things are very important, but they are just part of the big picture and part of the purpose of school.  The primary purpose of school is to learn how to deal with the harshness of life when times get tough.  It is to prepare young people to confront the challenges that lie ahead.  Learning how to become resilient and deal with setbacks.  Working with people that can be obnoxious or mean.  Learning to deal with problems like a locker combination that doesn’t work, gossip, conflict between two activities, or the same deadline for more than one assignment.  That’s the purpose of school.

What teachers want to tell their students is that many of them are failing this most important part of school.  They may be passing classes, but they are not learning how to deal with the difficult challenges that Mielke calls the main event: adversity.  Teachers tell students that high school will not be the most difficult time of their life.  It gets a lot tougher!  Yet many students do not heed the advice, and in fact many are setting themselves up to fail.  Many students are quitting, and yet they do not even know they are doing it.  Some quit by wasting a complete day.  They do not complete a problem in their math class or write a sentence for their social studies homework.  For some reason they don’t believe it matters and they do not step up and accept the challenge of completing their work.

Other students quit by skipping classes, or finding ways to leave class.  These students are throwing away a fundamental gift they have been given in this country: a free education!  They choose to pursue their own pleasures rather than take advantage of an opportunity that will pay dividends in their future.  Quitting takes many forms, like taking the easy road rather than the one with challenges.  The same can be said for those students who choose not to work harder when they are down in a class.  They quit because they are not willing to get their act together and sacrifice when things look difficult, or perhaps impossible.  In some instances it comes down to making hard choices, and finding hope, courage and fortitude to get the job done.

Students need to be told that being rude and disrespectful to adults is another form of quitting, whether it be a teacher in the hallway asking you to hustle to class, or an associate in study hall telling you to take your seat or quiet down.  Students who do this take a hard line and view respectful behavior as bowing to authority.  What they are lacking is the ability to problem solve in a mature manner and to use good judgment rather than be ruled by emotion.  The teenage brain is not fully developed, especially that part that uses reason and logic.  That is why students need to work to develop this skill.

While some teachers talk to students about effort and putting in the time, most the time they avoid being blunt.  To be blunt, what they really need to say to a teenager is that every time you take the easy way out, you are building a habit of quitting.  Like any habit, it is tough to stop quitting once you start, and like others, it will destroy your future.  You see, we live in a society that values winners and does not care one bit for quitters.  Quitters are going to end up alone and depressed if they don’t figure out how to man or woman up to deal with adversity and hardship.  Compared to other eras in our nation’s history, as well as to life in other parts of the world, American teens live an easy life, even those who have it tough by our standards. 

What I would really like to hear teachers say when they meet with a student that isn’t turning in work or challenging their authority is the same as Miekle: “As long as you are in my life I am not going to let quitting be easy for you.  I am going to challenge you, confront you, push you, and coach you.  You can whine.  You can throw a tantrum.  You can shout and swear and stop and cry.  And the next day, guess what?  I will be there waiting – smiling and patient – to give you a fresh start.  Why?  Because you are worth it!  Do yourself a favor!  Step up.  No more excuses.  No more justifications.  No blaming.  No quitting.  Just pick your head up.  Rip the cords out of your ears.  Grab the frickin’ pencil and let’s do this!”

Have Fun!

“Much more than the gift of happiness, caring adults owe each new generation some perspective. I believe we must be willing to sacrifice their temporary happiness for long-term happiness — including preparing them to be disciplined adults themselves. Instead of pleasure, let’s prepare them for fulfillment.”  Tim Elmore

When I was a teenager, and even before that, whenever I went some place with friends or over to a buddy’s house, my mother’s parting words to me were “be good.”  And I would generally respond with a resigned, “Yes, moommm.”  It wasn’t until I attended the SAI conference in August 2014 that I remembered this as I heard one of the keynote speakers share that while my generation, and previous generation were left with that warning to be good by their parents, that message has changed today.  Rather than sending them off with that message, parents today – me included! – offer them this parting statement: “Have fun!”

So what’s the big deal?  In my opinion, it is simple: as parents we have a moral obligation to help our children become responsible, contributing adults in our community or society.  “Be good” sends the message that when you are out and about it is your obligation to make good choices.  It means that when you are at another person’s home you respect the rules of the household, and you say “please” and “thank you.”  If you take a date to a movie, you don’t take along booze for the trip, hold the door for her if you are a him, and treat everyone you encounter in a respectful manner.  It means that if you come home and I find out that you have done something wrong, you will have consequences because you are not going to behave that way and you are not going to embarrass this family.

Why do we send our kids off with “have fun?”  Are their daily lives so filled with work, toil, and discomfort that we view this time as respite; a time to let go and release pent up energy?  I don’t think so as there is no way anyone can convince me that young people today work as hard as previous generations.  No, I believe it is quite the opposite.  In my opinion we parents are of Nike’s “Just Do It” generation, with many of us pursuing good times and pleasure and modeling that for our children.  Fun is easy to come by if you have a few bucks, and when we look at the discretionary spending by many people, paying for fun far exceeds savings and investment.  “Live for the day” is the motto of younger people, and many middle aged folks, without care for what may happen tomorrow.  But it cannot be all fun and games.  Author of The Trust Edge and national speaker David Horsager takes the position we have people chasing fun and getting less of it.  In a sense, it is kind of a like a drug.  After the first hit, the next one is less satisfying so you keep pursuing that initial high that you get because it is never quite as pleasurable as the first time.  Once the person recognizes it, they move on to something more potent.  That is the same as the fun seekers.

So what is the big deal?  Well, you have to take a step back and refocus on life.  Not everything in life is fun.  Calculating density and researching support for a thesis are not fun.  Studying for a test on metabolism or photosynthesis is not fun.  Rehearsing a solo or practicing on the saxophone is not fun.  Listening to a teacher provide instruction or direction is not fun.  The reality is that it is impossible to have fun 24/7 and no one is ever going to be able to achieve that.  Yet some will try and eventually fail, and others will become quite frustrated because they can’t.  Yet many of us as parents are more concerned about our kids having fun than learning that things must be done.  Every day we must start and complete a task.  We face obstacles that will take persistence and hard work.  We will fail and we have to figure out how to pick ourselves up and figure out a new direction.  The teenage brain is not fully developed and the messages we send, and the experiences they have now will mold who they are in the future.  If we continue to reinforce “fun-seeking” over being a good, responsible person, then where are they going to be?  I am not a fun hater, but there is a guiding principal that has been proven true time and time again: moderation in all things is a pretty good balance in life.  When we work hard, persevere, solve problems, and act responsible, then there are opportunities for us to have some fun. 

Why Are We So In Love With Ourselves?

The rampant taking and posting of “selfies” and the extensive sharing of personal information on Facebook are two of the best examples of what has become a national obsession with ourselves.  We have become a nation of people in love with ourselves, one in which narcissism is on the rise among our young people, with one study by Twenge, Campbell, and Gentile finding that there has been a 30% slant toward narcissistic attitudes among students in the United States and 1 in 4 respondents on a national survey identifying themselves as narcissistic.  What is narcissism?  The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “excessive self-love or vanity; self-admiration, self-centeredness.”

Some folks say this this is the result of the self-esteem culture that has been so pervasive in the past few decades, and that self-confidence, believing in yourself, and loving oneself leads to success and improved lives.  But the reality, according to numerous research studies is that the effect it has is actually quite small.  All of the self-help books and focus on bettering yourself may in fact have had more negative consequences than positive ones.

Another factor is that for a couple of generations, children have been raised to believe that they are someone special, which in the end often distorts the reality that they end up living and a false sense of who they are.  According to professionals, self-love is incomplete and immature as a solo attribute, and self-love without empathy is lopsided and leads to both arrogance and misery.  The “Hey!  Look at me!” mentality of selfies and Facebook posts are cries for attention that are surface level pleas for attention.  Once they figure out that people do not really care about that, people may go to greater extremes to get that attention, or go in another direction and struggle with a lack of personal fulfillment.

In many ways this focus on ourselves has manifested itself in the actions of people where one has to question whether or not we truly care about other people in our country.  One can look at different groups who have had political influence and see their motives as examples of self-interest at the expense of the greater good.  Policies favoring big business and individuals over social welfare seem more common.   Look at Nebraska where two recently elected Senators voted for the Keystone pipeline despite overwhelming opposition by the citizens of the state.  Both Senators accepted huge donations from the Koch brothers to advance their business concerns.  For generations many people have given of themselves for the greater good of a community, yet today in many places there is not sense of community.  People live in a town but do not engage in any meaningful way, choosing to do their own thing.

This obviously does not apply to all, and we do see quite a few kids that are not “caught up in themselves” or as I like to say, “staring in their own soap opera!”  The reality is that while we celebrate successful people, more often than not, that success is dependent on other people.  Perhaps rather than focusing on the selfie, we need to be collecting those pictures of others who help us be the people we need to be.  Maybe we shouldn’t be so caught up on wanting people to know what we do every day, and rather get to know others better so we can work together to better the lives of all.