In Zander’s book The Art of Possibility, a couple of things caught my attention. Notes on practicing, Roz tells a story about her first white water rafting trip and the guide educating everyone about what to do if you fall out of the boat. The guide kept repeating toes to nose and look for the boat. It reminded me of my boss, Mr. Williams, telling our department staff to sell your program. He said it over and over in our department meetings. About the time the economy went south, the Georgia Department of Education changed the name of my introduction to construction class to Occupational Safety and Fundamentals. My first thought was what high school student would sign up for a class with that name. I thought about it for a few minutes knowing that to keep a CTAE Program alive you had to have numbers. My numbers were always high because my class was easy to recognize by the name until now. Then I could hear Mr. Williams say you have to sell your program. I began to sell my program by talking about what the new class would offer. I had to re-call the catch phrase that Mr. Williams had provided to me in advance.
Giving an A and taking away the fear of making mistakes would benefit my students. I remember back to my first construction job. I ran a crew for a small company remolding offices. My boss had a saying if you get into a situation and was unsure about what to do, he would say do the best you can with what you got. He also gave me an A from the start. He said to always make a decision and go with it and if it’s wrong we will fix it later. He said it was better to make a decision right or wrong than to just sit around and not do anything. I think as teachers we need to do the same for our students. I think if we provide for students with a learning environment free from the fear of making mistakes student learning will increase. I think sometimes teachers hold back students from learning because of the fear of failure.
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Del,
ReplyDeleteI understand how you were put inside the box about your course. You had to think outside of the box to find a way to sell your course so students would sign up for it. You were presented with the problem and you had to find the solution to it. But by thinking of it, you created possibilities to find the solution. On giving an A, I could not agree with you more. I always tell my students to do their best and not to worry about they are going to make as a grade. When people tell you to move on and not to just stand there with arms crossed not knowing what to do. One has think and learn from life to be able to move on and not get stuck on the path of life. Life goes on and so will you. I really enjoyed reading you conclusion to the readings.
Del,
ReplyDeleteI love your approach to your class, and can tell that you've gained great insight from the readings. I often think about what education would look like if we did away with grades as we currently know them, removing the fear of failure from the equation completely. I work hard at creating an environment like that for my own students; I call it the "Inhibition Free Zone". Your anecdotes and stories gives life to your evaluation of the readings while communicating your own thoughts and ideas at the same time. Your comment about making a decision being better than inactivity or indifference reminded me of advice I've heard many times in my own life and practice, and it's such great advice. After all, there's a "possibility" that one's "failure" is the key to one's ultimate success!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. We've had a few meetings at Full Sail where we've been challenged with the question: who do you work for? As educators our natural response was that we were working for our students. The person running the meeting said, no, you work for yourself and the client is Full Sail and your students. The difference was meant to encourage us to give everything because we're doing it for ourselves and at the same time not get so caught up when Full Sail (or others) try to change what you're doing. In sports they say that the team needs to leave it all on the court, to passionately give everything, and in not holding back be immune to what others might do to try to change your work. It's a great ideal to work toward.
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