no grades
handed back essay with no grades...asked students to write about their reactions. will be interesting. there's got to be a better adjective for the turmoil, the possibility....Let me back up a bit. It's now close to 12pm and my 11 o'clock class has just left. I've gotta jet in a second to go help celebrate the induction of new Sigma Tau Delta members (the English Honor Society) which is around the corner in the 1st-floor conference room of the library. But right now, I'm still in room 118 with the SmartBoard, using the thing as my personal computer. I find I usually post more insightful stuff if I post right after class. The stuff at the top of this posting I wrote during my 10 o'clock class when I was setting up this blog. I don't like the title of my blog, but I haven't been able to come up with anything different yet.
I believe that grades hinder learning... that is, students get back papers and immediately flip to the grade. Once they've seen the grade, any learning that might have taken place gets thrown aside as the student wonders what s/he did to get the teacher upset, pleased, indifferent...the focus is on the teacher and what the teacher wants. The focus remains outside the student, not where it needs to be...squarely placed on the student's own perceptions of what & how s/he has learned and will continue to learn.
I'm frustrated with my writing right now. Feels so dry. And I'm talking about exciting stuff. Not much more exciting than learning something. I didn't say learning was always a skip along the beach. Learning also happens through fiercely painful experiences. But learning itself defines us. How do we approach learning? Fearfully, arrogantly, contritely, with a sense of discovery and wonder and gratitude?
My job as a teacher is to help students learn. What does that mean? It means I get creative, get my hands messy, figure out how to get out of the way so students can get in the way...of their own ideas, collaborations, passions. Not an easy thing to do. Especially not when the institutional weight of education tends towards traditional models that judge students according to numbers, that allow abusive teachers who discourage and belittle students, that assumes knowledge is something to be consumed and regurgitated. "To study is not to consume ideas but to create and re-create them" - Paulo Freire. That's what a teacher does: creates an environment where we all create and re-create ideas. Better get off my soapbox and go visit the party. I'll be back.
posted by Sandra @ 9:50 AM
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