Wk 1_Response to Aimee Holcombe

I am currently reading The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by: Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, and in only the first few chapters, I have found myself to be personally & professionally convicted, enlightened, and inspired.

The book discusses how our society universally grades/ measures/ compares people and progress, and that constant striving for an A that most anyone can relate to. The text puts it that, “virtually everybody whether living in the lap of luxury or diminished circumstances wakes up in the morning with the unseen assumption that life is about the struggle to survive and get ahead in a world of limited resources.” (Zander, p. 19) From the first test in Kindergarden or Preschool to the assessment of an account in the workplace and beyond, we all know what it is like to have to work for the approval of others and the advancement of ourselves. As discussed in the text, our world has unlimited opportunity, yet we set and follow rigorous standards labeling accomplishment. What if we saw things differently from our own eyes, regardless of the environment we are confined to? I believe that the text is challenging the reader to believe in themselves and the A+ possibilities of their mind first and foremost, then approach the standards in life as validation to what is already embraced. If we chose to live in this belief- would we be less stressed, more optimistic, and possibly even more motivated and productive workers and members of society? I believe so.

I mentioned that this text, in its short 3 chapters, has already convicted me. As I read the stories of students whose teachers/ evaluators failed to accept and applaud the creative, and sometimes irrational and nontraditional, methods of the student- I thought of all of those kids in my classroom who didn’t do things my way and also may not have gotten the grade their way may have earned. I remembered the look on the face of the boy who never did classwork yet passed all of his exams with flying colors; the single tear rolling down the face of the girl who was devastated to learn that she’d only missed an A by one point for her final average; and the eighth grader who rarely attended class and didn’t have the grades to pass, but wrote an A+ award-winning narrative memoir on the things he’d learned while living on the streets. It is these moments that a teacher must never forget!

As a teacher, I am convicted that I need to look at my students from day one as A+ students who are fully capable and have the mind to move mountains! I need to let them know from the beginning that I believe in them and will be their cheerleader as they take my course. I need to allow them the flexibility to make choices on their graded products. I have decided that I am starting the year next year with posting a 100% in for every student so that their grade that they see online reads that instead of a 0%... Therefore, the grade will only change, ebb, and flow into what the student masters. Instead of being like a tower being built with nothing from the dirt up; their grades (and also their self esteem) will have a foundation on which growth and lifelong learning can occur.

In reviewing myself as a student, I realize that I too am only an exhausting treadmill striving for 4.0 graduation status. I did not realize how much of a perfectionist I can truly be! I find myself doing all I can to perfectly match each rubric, and yet I am thinking to myself what I can do with the skill I am learning in the future after graduation. Why do I, like so many others, believe that I must always conform to the expectations in a given way when my creative juices tell me otherwise? I see that it may just be this course that will change my view. I might actually allow myself... to actually be myself...

Now, on to break the barriers I have set to find out what the application of all of that truly means...

Wk1 Reading: Reflections on The Art of Possibility, Ch 1-3
Sunday, June 6, 2010
1 Comment
Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 08:50 PM
Lynne Koles
Wow! You have had some intense experiences in the grading of your students. As an Art teacher, I am much less rigid about what they get. In fact, I have had a habit of giving every student whose work gets into our annual All-City Art Exhibition an A for the 3rd marking period, when judging is done, regardless of whether that work was from the period or an earlier one. This year, one student challenged me on that practice by doing nothing in the third marking period, after I told him his work was going into the show. I suppose I could have kept it out for that bad choice on his part, but instead, I did not give him the A, but explained that he had made me realize that when someone chooses to take advantage of my policy, they can ruin the policy for themselves and others. I really struggled with changing the rules after so many years of the tradition, but it was never something written, just my habit, so I had no regulatory problems with it.Instead I was just sad at the loss of the tradition that I thought motivated and encouraged pride of accomplishment and the desire to do more, and to learn more.
I admit readily that sometimes I wonder if I am living in the wrong generation. The complexities of the lives of our students are so heartbreaking, yet those with severe struggles seem to be as optimistic or pessimistic as any other kids. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But it is time we teachers were the catalysts for positive, rather than the harbingers of negative as the grade oriented culture has made us.
Especially in the creative subjects, we can make a difference by just what you have said. If we start each child with 100%, they can choose to maintain it, or not. The possibilities are not that insurmountable to climb from 0 to 100%. I like that way of thinking and hope it makes the difference you'd like to see.
As one who was constantly told, "You can do anything you put your mind to..." I am living proof that when children are given a world of possibilities, they will make many choices to achieve beyond what is expected of them. As an ADHD, dyslexic, no one expected me to be a Valedictorian, or in National Honor Society, like my sister and brother were, and my father before them. But I am now hold the most degrees of any member of my family, simply because I learned to love learning.