Slowly Sinking: Circles of Self-Reflection

Imagine you are in a life raft with 5 other people and the raft is slowly sinking.  You have to throw one person out at a time.  Who do you throw out first? 

OK, don't really do this activity.  I hate it.  It makes us assign value to other people as if to say someone else is less of a person than another.  Not at all a valuable experience.

Let's change it a bit.  Instead of being on a sinking raft with other people, take out a piece of paper and number it 1 to 5.  Then, instead of listing out names of other people, think about the names that other people have for you.  Think about 5 different identities that you have for yourself or that other people give to you and list them out in no particular order.  

Got it?

OK, good.

Now, if you had to get rid of 2 identities, which two would you cross off first?  For me, the first two were easy.  I threw away "Daughter" and "Teacher".  Don't get me wrong, I love my parents and my job, but "Mother", "Wife", and "Christian" were much more important identities to me.  

Now throw away another.  And then another until you are down to one.  This is the hardest part.  It's like throwing away a piece of you.  Asking - "which relationship do I value over another?"  

Which one did you have left?  My last one was "Mother".  If you have children, then you get it.  If not, just ask any parent about their relationship with their kids.  We would drop anything for them.  They are the single most important relationship in our lives.  It is our defining role.

Now let's think about our students.  I have Muslim students, Hmong students, Russian students, African students, Hispanic students, students who care for younger siblings, students who work to provide food for their families, students who are in sports or activities, students who are gay, and students who have a million other identities than "Student".  

So this makes me think...what would their last identity on the list be?  I'm guessing it would not be "student".  I bet that would be the first to go.  I know when I was in high school, that was the least of my concerns.  Granted, I did take school somewhat seriously.  I probably would have had "Mathlete" as one of my identities...

Yes, I LOVE Downton Abbey!

So how do we, as teachers, apply this to our practice?  

For me, it is all about flexibility and understanding.  A wise teacher in my undergrad years (you know, when we all thought we knew exactly what we were getting into...) used to focus on the difference between equity and equality.  Equality means we are all the same.  That's just not true.  Equity is a much more important concept that says that each person deserves a fair chance.  Maybe for that student whose last identity is "Provider for my Family", it means cutting some slack on that due date.  For the "Artist", it could mean differentiating your assignments so that his artistic side can shine through.  Maybe it actually means cracking down on the "Track Star" who is failing your class because practice is more important than writing that paper.  Each student is different and needs something different.  While we can never truely know every detail about every student, we can take the time to be sensitive to the fact that they all have different strengths, desires, and needs.

Holy Holonomy, Batman!

So, in my research to try and find out about Standards Based Grading (SBG), I've discovered that my best resource for learning how to do SBG myself seems to be other people's blogs.  I've read a lot of them.  Some are funny.  Some are not.  While I make no guarantees to be funny, I now see the freedom to take a more casual approach to writing my schtuff.  (See what I just did?)

Holonomy.  Efficacy.  Flexibility.  Consciousness.  Interdependence.  Craftsmanship.  A lot of words to describe a person who inspires, works well with others, and gets things done well.  So let's sum it up and, for the sake of consistency, relate it back to SBG.

Efficacy.
I see this as fending for oneself.  How on earth can you implement something as new and as big as SBG without having the drive to seek out help or to stand up and say "Hey, this won't work" (or the opposite for that matter).  I think that wanting to and actually taking the steps to make a change in your classroom defines you as an efficacious person.  Why else would you put yourself through the pain of change if you didn't believe it would be worth it?  At this point in my career, I'm not afraid of being cut with the budget, so I am certainly not as motivated by top-down directives (Not to say I don't follow the rules.  I am a math teacher, afterall.  We are rule-followers).  I am choosing to implement this in my classroom because I think it is worthwhile and it will help students.

Flexibility
Inflexible people generally don't last long in education.  I don't know if a lesson I have ever planned has ever gone exactly how I wanted it to or without being steered in some tangential direction.  With SBG being so incredibly new at my school, we are going to need to be flexible.  We will need to listen to each other's struggles and the struggles of our students in order to tweak and find solutions to the problems that will inevitably arise.  Being flexible and willing to leave our comfort zone will help us to creatively improve SBG for our school.

Consciousness
Often teachers joke about having eyes in the back of their heads.  Consciousness is like having infinite eyes all over the place.  Eww, creepy.  Makes me feel like Sting...Every move you make...I'll be watching you.  But seriously, consciousness is being aware of what is going on.  With something as new as SBG, we will need to be aware of how students (an parents) perceive SBG.  We will also need to be conscious of how the members on our team perceive changes and are reacting to suggestions as we hash out the details.  Personally, I will need to make sure I am intentional about how I introduce the new grading process and how I frame the importance of homework.


Craftsmanship
If you don't take pride in your work as a teacher, please do us all a favor and find another profession.  Your students can tell if you don't care and that bleeds over into their state of mind.  I have always believed that anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Notice there is no mention of the word "perfect" in there.  As we begin the transition into SBG, there will be adjustments to make.  Things will go wrong.  Some times you can fix things as you go, other times you make a mental note to fix it for next year.  It's the way it goes.  That being said, perfection should be our goal - as unattainable as it may be.  In the New Testament of the Bible, Paul writes to the Philippians about this very principle in the context of their faith.  He encourages them to keep running the race and to strive for their goal, even though they may never actually reach it.  He says so eloquently "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize..."(Philippians 3:13-14).  So must we press on and strive for the goal.  

Interdependence
Holy cow.  If I had to implement SBG alone, I think I would probably want to quit. Fortunately, I have an awesome group of teachers in my department who believe that working together collaboratively is WAY better than being on an island.  My first years of teaching, I had to basically write everything.  It sucked.  A lot.  With SBG, we will need to revamp tests, retitle worksheets, create relearning worksheets and retests (because we choose to offer this), and a host of other things we haven't even thought about.  Sure, we could still do SBG without doing all this, but we believe in craftsmanship so we want to go the extra mile.  (See how I brought it back around?)  Instead of me doing everything, the three of us that teach Statistics have divided up the work to begin over the summer (yes, we will be working during our contractually unpaid time) so it can be implemented in the fall.  We depend on each other to get things done, to share ideas, and what's more, we trust each other to do it well.

HOLONOMY
All of these characteristics together make an individual holonomous.  I think that each of these characteristics is just as important as the others in the grand scheme of things, but each one may, at times, be more important at a certain moment.  In the year that I have spend working on my master's degree so far, our focus has been on developing the teacher as a whole person.  Obviously, holonomy plays a big part in that.  If one is not holonomous, that person can not hope to change him/herself or their school for the better.  Efficacy, flexibility, consciousness, interdependence, and craftsmanship are all characteristics that lead to a teacher wanting to find out what methods work best in their own classroom.  Without holonomy, growth as a teacher will be severely stunted.