Friday, October 15, 2010

Doing "Hard" Things

Do hard things is a book. I know this to be true. I haven't read it yet, but I absolutely cant wait to. --Dear Amazon, please hurry my kindle here-- I know this isnt normally how I start a blog but I feel it will make a point later.

I had a fabulous discussion with a colleague at the end of the day today about what students consider "hard" work in a class. She told me about a students comments regarding what he thought was a difficult class and his views that all classes should be hard like the class he mentioned. Now, I say this not to offend anyone, and i feel safe discussing it as I can say the course was not taught by a teacher at our school, but what the students considered hard was having to make work "perfect" in terms of grammar and spelling, having to "know so many things" and the importance of remembering "details" from readings. As we discussed this we talked about how easy students tend to think our classes are.

According to the student's definition value, I could make class harder and better if I simply made them know more. In other words If i adjust ID paragraphs to require 18-20 pieces of information instead of 16-18 I am now a better teacher. In that case... 24-26! More students would fail, exceptional students would continue to succeed. This may seem hard and would make the extremely successful feel better than in a class where many students achieve highly buy let me be honest... It wouldn't be better. I am a believer that difficulty is not equal to value. Rigor isnt achieved by adding more. Knowing isnt the same as thinking... I can know what a book is about, know events from history, know definitions but it isnt the same as thinking about them. I guess the point I am making is don't necessarily do hard things, do valuable things. Grow.

What I would ask of students is, demand to think. If there is ever a day at which I haven't forced you to consider things, make connections, assess value, create, pick apart, problem solve or answer why then I haven't gotten my job done. Now, I don't think I "know it all" and I most certainly don't look at myself as a good teacher; I think I am a work in progress but I certainly want to get there. I see myself as a learner and a thinker, at least thats what I want to be and its all I ask of students.

Today was one of, what I would consider, the best days of my young career because I saw top to bottom, left to right critical, detailed, creative, connective thinking. Got to see discussion and writing that gave me evidence of the high level of thought, AND got data that students had analyzed a primary source in 2 different class periods yesterday and today. Four periods on one paragraph? GREAT!

So students, do things that matter, make yourself think, assess value on what really matters. Don't be a quantitative being, be qualitative.

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