I was approached by my colleague, the same one my previous post mentioned, with a question regarding my thoughts about publishing my writings.  I was a little taken aback; it is flattering to think that someone could think so highly of my writings, especially since I’ve just been sitting down here typing with little to no pre-writing except for thinking in the car or whatever.  I also made me feel a little guilty that I haven’t kept up with my pledge of a weekly rumination – perhaps that’s why I’m on again tonight.

Then I start thinking, heck, it would be pretty sweet to be a published author – but what would the title be?  I mentioned in an early post that I spend a lot of time thinking while I drive home from the cabin; in fact, I pondered the idea of calling this category “front seat reflections” or something like that.  As I was thinking a moment ago, perhaps a good title would be “Reflections in the Windshield.”  There might be some deep symbolism there.  My ruminations are focused on my reflections – looking back at the things I’ve done, my beliefs about various topics, and more.  The term reflections symbolizes the need to look back, however, I don’t look back with regret or despair or nostalgia.  I look back for the purpose of moving forward – the direction through the windshield…hmmmmm….

Okay,  a quick google search didn’t turn up anything on “Reflections in the Windshield” (at least on the first page) so I’m claiming it!

Nevertheless, I then started thinking about what genre this work would fit.  I mean it could cover a lot of stuff on learning and education but I think the lessons I’ve learned through teaching are more pervasive than that.  Would it be a self-help book – sort of a personal fixer upper.  I sort of like that, I like fixing things but fixing people is an entirely different story.  I’ve been trying to fix my wife for almost 10 years and haven’t gotten anywhere!  JUST KIDDING – I love you dear, you don’t need fixing, you are a saint compared to me.  I am the one that needs fixing.  Maybe fixing isn’t the right word but I’m focused on my growth here and nobody else’s.  I just hope that somebody can make a connection with a story or two and it causes them to think twice about something.  Maybe that is the ticket though, focus on fixing yourself – after all you are the only person you really have control over anyway.

Alright, thanks for allowing me to amuse myself for a moment and again, I’m TOTALLY kidding about my wife.  I’m super lucky to have her and should thank her right now for allowing me to exist in her presence.

(A side note – I met my wife in 9th grade, same age as my students are now! weird)

2011-2012 Learning Targets

If you’ve been following this website over the course of recent weeks, you are aware that I will be mentoring a student teacher in the coming weeks.  I met Mr. Kaylor for the first time today and as we discussed our mutual expectations for his experience, I implored him to constantly ask questions of not only what I am doing but why.  In doing so, Mr. Kaylor will challenge me to reflect upon what is happening in my classroom and allow me to re-think the reason things are done the way they are.  We all need a challenge in life to stay fresh and I am viewing this upcoming mentorship as an opportunity to challenge myself to become better.  Not all of us are great at finding our own challenges in life.  On the other hand, many of us are challenged in many aspects of life; but I am not just talking about difficult times.  I’m talking about the experiences or people in our lives that cause us to step back and re-evaluate the status quo.  We all need someone to be a challenger in our lives.

I was made aware of this today as I discussed my practice with another teacher in my department.  She has begun to inquire my thoughts on a host of issues related to the experiences we are having as teachers in our district.  Perhaps she sees me as one who can challenge her.  The best news is, in the process of helping her cognition, it allows me to continue the process of self-reflection I began several years ago.  It is a win-win situation for us.  I am looking forward to challenging her, the student teacher, students, and others I may come in contact with throughout my service as a teacher, a father, a husband.

A challenger can be any number of people we come in contact with on a regular basis; heck, it could even be a chance encounter with a stranger.  Every opportunity we have to be questioned should be looked upon as an opportunity for growth.  Some of us might recognize these behaviors in a boss, spouse, friend, or teacher.  I can only hope that each of us has at least one person in our lives that drives us to dig deeper and make progress.  Challengers allow us to reflect, learn, evolve.  It is those challenges that allow us to move beyond the status quo.  W. Edward Demming said, “Change is not necessary, survival is not mandatory.”  I want to do more than survive, I want to grow – in all areas of my life.

Of course, if we are to grow as people with the aid of a challenger, we must first be accepting of the challenge in the first place.  I understand that my students probably have not yet had a profound experience with being challenged and the subsequent growth experience.  I believe they will over time.  However, for this to happen, we must accept that we are not perfect; we must understand that how we perceive ourselves is not the whole reality.  I struggle with this all the time.  We get in a routine of doing things the same way because, at some point, we decided that was right or comfortable or easy, repeated over time our habits become right in our minds.  It takes a challenger to smack us with a dose of reality once in a while.

As my students are reading this (???), I hope the begin to look at challenging times as something more than a temporary experience that needs to be tolerated.  Each experience with a challenge or challenger can and should be valued for what it is, an opportunity to reflect, develop new skills, or reaffirm our beliefs.  Here’s to the challenges and challengers among us.

2011-2012 Learning Targets

I experienced a rude realization yesterday that, as teachers, we don’t appreciate or consider far too often enough.  I learned that learning can be frustrating, very frustrating.  I was telling the students the other day about my endeavor to fix my parents snowblower.  I used this as an example of “doing science.”  Science is a process of critical thinking and logical progression that is used to solve problems.  My problem was that I the snowblower didn’t work.

I have told students in the past that if you stop learning, you will become irrelevant.  I truly believe this and I decided to use this project as an opportunity to challenge myself and grow as a DIY motor head.  I really enjoy these types of projects.  Plus, the other benefit was that I would help my parents with their snowblower.  I had a pretty good idea of what was wrong with the machine and commenced taking the whole thing apart.  I cataloged all the parts, cleaned everything, ordered replacements, and was really getting the hang of it.  This past weekend, I began the process of putting it all back together.  It looked awesome.  I was feeling so good about myself, I had learned something.  I was able to take the machine apart, learn how it all fits and works together and put it back where everything belongs.  My parents would have a “brand new” snowblower to use this upcoming winter.

Saturday morning came along and the snowblower was begging me to fire it up.  I did. It started, ran for about a 30 seconds and locked up with a bang.  Same problem I started with.  The connecting rod was broken in the first place – based on the symptoms, I was pretty certain that it happened again.  I had to take apart the whole thing again and realized that not only did the connecting rod break a second time; this time it blasted a whole in the engine block.  For those of you unfamiliar with engines – this is REALLY bad – unfixable.  I made it worse.  When I started, the “only” thing wrong was the broken connecting rod, now, the connecting rod is broken and a gaping hole exists in the side of the engine.  I was devastated.  My morning was ruined.  I was feeling so good about the snowblower and myself for proving that I could do it, and it turns out, I didn’t.  Bummer x5.

The good news is…I still learned something.  I earned a better understanding of engines, learned some new skills to apply in the future, discovered some amazing resources on the subject.  In the end, I learned a lot – the learning process is valuable (even if the end result doesn’t turn out as we had planned).

I couldn’t help but think about my students and how frequently they experience similar emotions related to learning.  How many of us endeavor to learn and apply our learning thinking that things are running smoothly, until the test.  We are prepared to show what we’ve learned, have great expectations and bomb the test.  It stinks; it makes us doubt ourselves, our abilities, our wits.  The benefit of this is that we have still learned, despite what we feel at the time of our failure, we still have learned.  We can look forward to another opportunity to apply these skills.

Anyone have an old snowblower with 8 HP Tecumseh engine?  I want another shot!

2011-2012 Learning Targets

I was beginning to worry that I haven’t kept up with these Ruminations posts enough but the daily grind of teaching, parenting, husbanding, homemaking, and self-preservation are making it difficult.  Nevertheless, I was reflecting about a possible topic for my latest post and came up with this…

We ask a lot of our youth and place demands on them (probably not intentionally) to skip adolescence and look beyond into adulthood.  Our society is so forward thinking that we begin asking students “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” much earlier than in the past.  Granted, it is cute to see toddler espouse to be firefighters, cops, astronauts, etc… but I think it starts becoming a problem as our students get into their adolescent years.  By the way, I wanted to work at a Seven-Eleven when I was little.  My son reported the other day that he wants to be a paleontologist.  He apparently has loftier goals than I ascribed to at his age.

I was thinking about what it means to be successful, as an adult, in life.  There are a variety of ways in which we can determine the success of people but if we look at the purely intrinsic variety (happiness, fulfillment, etc…) we must focus on a very important, if not all too forgotten piece.  People need to know themselves before they can truly head down the path of success.  I’m not referring to knowledge of your experiences, vital stats, bank accounts; I’m referring to the understanding of yourself that has been shaped over time.  What do you really like? How do you operate?  What is important to you? What side of various ethical dilemmas do you side with?  How would you vote, why?  Why do you like some people and not others?  How do you respond to conflict?  How do you learn most effectively?  These are all valuable questions that are not asked enough.  We, especially junior high students, are constantly looking for validation from others.  Rarely do we seek approval of ourselves.  If we constantly seek success on others’ terms, will we ever find it?

There are a variety of tools on the web to help you learn about yourself and millions of dollars made in the bookstore from people soul-searching.  I don’t think it is too much to ask of people to spend some quality time in your own head reflecting – it’s free and requires no resources.  Knowing which multiple intelligences, learning styles, or leadership profiles you possess is great but only if you understand how it fits into the bigger whole that is you.

Spend some time without the TV on, without earbuds, without friends.  And think.  Take the time to reflect about you.  What did you learn?

2011-2012 Learning Targets

I came to a startling realization today as I stood in front of my class to discuss my grading system.  It is a realization that I suppose I have had repeatedly over the course of my last three or four years and have even preached to my students about during that time.  However, I finally put it all together(?) today as a direct result of this Ruminations post category (As a side note, the effort and commitment to journaling/reflecting has a powerful impact on the way one sees the status quo).

It is my belief that our students have been brainwashed conditioned to think that grades are all that matters in school.  This, of course, is my fault as a teacher, our faults as parents and demanding public members.  We have chosen to believe that our students (and schools by connection) are successful if they earn good grades.  I suppose this is obvious to some who have paid attention to NCLB debate and the need for us to devise a system of accountability that measures what is supposed to be measured.  I digress – NCLB misses the mark too.

I like to tell students that it is their “job” to be a student; similarly, it is my job to teach.  I get paid for teaching.  Students get “paid” with their grades.  I am certain that parents don’t sit their children down at home and pound into their heads the importance of earning a lot of money.  Most of us realize that more important things in life exist besides the acquisition of money.  However, we are doing the same things when we discuss grades.  Countless numbers of parents have sat down across from me at conferences and discussed the student’s grades.  “How are their grades?  What can they do to get better grades?” they ask.  These same questions are repeated by their students in class. If your singular focus is on the grade, than no grade is sufficient.  I have had students in the past who are frustrated because their A isn’t good enough.  An A is an A.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 96% or 94.2%.  Similarly, if your singular focus is money; you’ll never have enough.

Students have reported to me that they “need good grades” in my class.  This is simply not true.  Students don’t need good grades.  Students need to learn.  If students learn, they’ll get good grades.  I don’t blame the students for this faulty ideology; it has been ingrained in their heads since Kindergarten.  We constantly tell students that they need good grades to go to college.  They need to get into a good school to get a good job.  I don’t believe it.  Many successful people have skipped college.  Granted, I am still in favor of students going to good schools, getting good jobs but we have been looking at it all wrong.  Students need to learn so they have the opportunities to go to college should they choose it to be the correct path for them.  If students stop learning, they become irrelevant.  Many students have received good grades and gone onto good schools and realized they have been unprepared.

Our grades are only meaningful such that they accurately represent what a student has learned.  I want the grades students earn in my class to be meaningful.  I want the grade to indicate how well they know and can do science.  I can’t control anything else.  If a student puts in the effort to learn and demonstrate that learning, they will earn “good” grades.  All students can achieve in my class based on my system.

I believe it is time to alleviate the fear of grades from students.  You wouldn’t believe the look on some of my students’ faces as I discussed my system with them.  Their fear was expressed due to the singular focus on grades rather than the process of learning.  I need help to move students in the right direction.  I can’t be the only one talking about learning rather than grades.  This year, let’s focus on the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes; the things that actually make someone successful.

2011-2012 Learning Targets