I never thought I'd hear myself say the words "I miss snow." Growing up in Plattsburgh, a small town in the Northeast corner of New York State, and being the dutiful 'shoveler' of 3 driveways after every snowstorm left me always thinking of tropical retirement as a teenager. I remember that my hands would get so warm from "working out" that I'd lose my gloves shortly after starting and by the end of the winter my knuckles would be dried and blood-cracked (after all no real man would use moisturizer!).
Times they have certainly changed!
Perhaps it's that I have my own children and, as a teacher, snow days are play (outside) days, or perhaps it's just that I am thinking about things that I may not have some day, but as I sit on the eve of December and temperatures are in the 40s I realize that I MISS SNOW.
I miss how quiet it gets outside during a snow storm. I miss how, no matter how cold, the humidity in the air makes me feel warm when I'm shoveling. This warmth makes me feel connected to the outdoors, like I could actually be a mountain-man with a cabin in the Rockies. I miss how traffic moves slowly and people actually take care to be more observant about their driving habits. And of course, I miss the activities that come right after coming inside on a snowy, wintry day (movies, soup, and of course awesome naps). There is nothing like that drowsiness that overwhelms red cheeks and sore backs.
I teach students about global warming and climate change and while the debate used to be about whether or not it was occurring, we now discuss what New York could be like in the coming decades.
One thing I know for sure is that I will miss snow.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Is what you Value a Virtue?
Is what you value a virtue?
I just watched this (short) video (link is at the end of this piece) of Ian Berry that is a must see for anyone who plans to be in a career for more than a year.
We teachers sometimes lose focus just like everyone else, and Ian crystalizes, without speaking about teaching, what I think that looks like. While he is speaking in business terms and of profit and loss, the metaphor as it can be applied to education is the same. Profit is what comes from being successful at business, it is not what successful businesses value however.
Similarly, high test scores (schools' typical success measure) is what comes from being successful, or 'good at educating'. It is not, or at least should not be what we value. No educator should claim any amount of virtue in test scores. What is interesting is that those who do (claim virtue in test scores) fail to resonate with their organization's best teachers. Berry makes this point about business. Successful businesses value the virtuous aspects of doing business. And, when they do their business successfully, or, in other words, when they place their emphasis in and on their values, the byproducts are happy and satisfied employees, happy and satisfied customers, and of course profit.
In case you're still missing the point, the goal is not profit just as the goal of education is not high test scores. The goal in education and what we value (which is a virtue) is understanding; conceptual, moral, ethical, social, maturational, and developmental.
Effective goal setting goes beyond proxy measures of success to identify the virtues that drive people to feel satisfied with their career. When one's vocation aligns with their avocation (when their career becomes their passion) they are effectively tapping into what is virtuous about their responsibilities. Teachers and schools who teach the "total child" by targeting areas like social skill, collaborative skill, and character alongside academic achievement, or better yet, as part and parcel of academic achievement don't seek for their students to achieve higher test scores. They seek to bring their students to become better people and to become effective citizens of culture. One of the byproducts of this goal just happens to be students who can read, write, and critically think at levels that empower them to succeed on standardized tests.
In places where test scores become THE push, seeking virtues becomes secondary and educators lose their passion. It's ironic that in these places it is those singular, really effective teachers who stress seams to fall off of, who never seem overwhelmed by the challenges their students present, and who always seem to achieve success regardless of the morale of the organization. These individuals model what the "Vision" of their school should be, rather than what it has become. These individuals remain virtuous, maintain appropriate goals and continue to have their vocation be their avocation.
Tom Tellez, legendary track and field coach to many U.S. olympians (including Carl Lewis) is famous for preaching to sprinters that they must relax to go faster. This is counterintuitive. One would assume that maximal effort yields maximal results, but in fact, in sprinting it is not true. In fact, it's approximately 85% effort that yields maximal results. One gets stronger not to increase his "100%," but rather to increase his "85%."
And so it is with education. If test scores represent our 100%, and this is what we strive for, we fail. While our students may achieve the mark we target, we create a feedback loop where student and teacher character, motivation, passion, courage, integrity and scholarship continually erode until we are left in a place where answers seem hard to find.
This is why I continue to draw inspiration from colleagues who demand much more than great test scores from their students. These teachers model their passion every day and they are the last people to ever talk about test scores.
Here is Ian's talk...I hope you'll take a look. :)
http://ow.ly/ziwg
I just watched this (short) video (link is at the end of this piece) of Ian Berry that is a must see for anyone who plans to be in a career for more than a year.
We teachers sometimes lose focus just like everyone else, and Ian crystalizes, without speaking about teaching, what I think that looks like. While he is speaking in business terms and of profit and loss, the metaphor as it can be applied to education is the same. Profit is what comes from being successful at business, it is not what successful businesses value however.
Similarly, high test scores (schools' typical success measure) is what comes from being successful, or 'good at educating'. It is not, or at least should not be what we value. No educator should claim any amount of virtue in test scores. What is interesting is that those who do (claim virtue in test scores) fail to resonate with their organization's best teachers. Berry makes this point about business. Successful businesses value the virtuous aspects of doing business. And, when they do their business successfully, or, in other words, when they place their emphasis in and on their values, the byproducts are happy and satisfied employees, happy and satisfied customers, and of course profit.
In case you're still missing the point, the goal is not profit just as the goal of education is not high test scores. The goal in education and what we value (which is a virtue) is understanding; conceptual, moral, ethical, social, maturational, and developmental.
Effective goal setting goes beyond proxy measures of success to identify the virtues that drive people to feel satisfied with their career. When one's vocation aligns with their avocation (when their career becomes their passion) they are effectively tapping into what is virtuous about their responsibilities. Teachers and schools who teach the "total child" by targeting areas like social skill, collaborative skill, and character alongside academic achievement, or better yet, as part and parcel of academic achievement don't seek for their students to achieve higher test scores. They seek to bring their students to become better people and to become effective citizens of culture. One of the byproducts of this goal just happens to be students who can read, write, and critically think at levels that empower them to succeed on standardized tests.
In places where test scores become THE push, seeking virtues becomes secondary and educators lose their passion. It's ironic that in these places it is those singular, really effective teachers who stress seams to fall off of, who never seem overwhelmed by the challenges their students present, and who always seem to achieve success regardless of the morale of the organization. These individuals model what the "Vision" of their school should be, rather than what it has become. These individuals remain virtuous, maintain appropriate goals and continue to have their vocation be their avocation.
Tom Tellez, legendary track and field coach to many U.S. olympians (including Carl Lewis) is famous for preaching to sprinters that they must relax to go faster. This is counterintuitive. One would assume that maximal effort yields maximal results, but in fact, in sprinting it is not true. In fact, it's approximately 85% effort that yields maximal results. One gets stronger not to increase his "100%," but rather to increase his "85%."
And so it is with education. If test scores represent our 100%, and this is what we strive for, we fail. While our students may achieve the mark we target, we create a feedback loop where student and teacher character, motivation, passion, courage, integrity and scholarship continually erode until we are left in a place where answers seem hard to find.
This is why I continue to draw inspiration from colleagues who demand much more than great test scores from their students. These teachers model their passion every day and they are the last people to ever talk about test scores.
Here is Ian's talk...I hope you'll take a look. :)
http://ow.ly/ziwg
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