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ShravMay 12, 2012 8:31 AM
Tricia there are three things I absolutely loved about what you covered in your blog post here. First, it's very interesting how you referred back to your teacher colleagues on the two quotes to document the all-too-common contrasting viewpoints of the inhabitants of the "Measurement World". Of course they would advocate standards, they were brought up on it themselves. It's what they know to be true. However, I admire your bravery in invading their world with your newfound knowledge and truths from the "Universe of Possibility". Second, you raise a very great point about the need to market out shoes to a region that has never even wore shoes before. The logical thing would definitely be to donate or share the shoes with them first and get their culture accustomed to its worth. Just like with in Education, giving students an A beforehand brings out their worth, motivation, and desire to reach their absolute potential before they get swept back away into a world of worthless competition. Third, I loved this statement: "These words are beautiful and contain a wonderful sentiment but then you walk into the classroom and all those beautiful statues are covered in pigeon poo and you realize you are tired, burned out and there are to many demands made on you to chisel down to those beautiful statues." You an amazing sense of humor and very insightful. In every world, not just with in Education, every leader or pioneer of change is brought forth a bunch of unsculpted statues covered in pigeon poo. It's so hard to get a one to one ration when you have a desire to chisel down beautiful statues, especially when several others are in the same predicament of wanted to get sculpted. Though, you are exactly the kind of instructor and pioneer change I expect chiseling down masterpieces in your students throughout your career, Tricia. You are indeed a rare breed and I am very proud to know you.
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Wk 1 reading - From Zombie to Rekindled
What an amazing read! I want to share this book with the world! The following quote captured my attention, "that inside every block of stone of marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within." Up until this quote I was in the zombie zone where I was reading the words but they were just not making an impression, then I read this quote. I easily could see how this quote could apply to students. As educators we really do need to look at our students as individuals each one a beautiful statue. These words are beautiful and contain a wonderful sentiment but then you walk into the classroom and all those beautiful statues are covered in pigeon poo and you realize you are tired, burned out and there are to many demands made on you to chisel down to those beautiful statues. I brought this quote up to a room full of teachers and the comments I received were; give me one to one student ratio and I can definitely appreciate their inner beauty, Yeah right who has time to differentiate that much, If there were more hours in the day etc. you get the drift.
So next I brought up my other favorite quote of the reading, “The practice ofgiving the A allows the teacher to line up with her students in their efforts to produce the outcome, rather than lining up with the standards against these students.” The response I received from my teacher friends regarding this quote was, standards we have to meet standards! We can’t just give students an A! Therein lies the problem with this book and what it is saying. I am all about the Art of Possibility, I see myself as the person that would go to Africa and see all the barefoot citizens and think, wow what a great market (actually I would probably go back to the U.S. raise money and donate shoes) but I could see how it could be a great market. Unfortunately in our education system we have too many people who would say, forget it, they are not wearing shoes at all there is not a market here. That is why it would take a HUGE paradigm shift for teachers to give all students an A when they walk into the classroom. They can’t they have to line up with the standards against the students and the market is leaning more and more toward standards so how can there be an Art of Possibility?
