Failure in Goals

In recent years there has been a good bit of conversation in education about allowing students the room to fail and then learn from their failures.  The idea of Genius Hour or 20% time support this and encourage students to stretch themselves to learn new skills and sometimes limits.

We are even encourage as educators to try new things and to not worry about the lesson always being perfect.  The school I work in is encouraging teachers to try project based learning and personalized learning.  During the PD I present I often say "just try it" and "the kids can help figure out the technology."

Recently I was struck by this failure and how it might relate to goal setting for teachers.  The state that I work in requires that 40% of a teachers evaluation be based on a measurable assessment of student growth over the course of the year.

A teacher recently asked me to review one of their goals.  It was something like this "On this year's PBL project 90% of the students will achieve an 85% or above based on the rubric."  It made me start to think about whether we can really encourage the students to stretch and possibly fail if this is your goal.  Maybe the goal could be rewritten to allow for the experimenting.  Maybe the rubric already allows for the measurement of the process and not just an end result.  I would be interested to hear your thoughts as well.

#LCPSedChat October 2017 Archive

Innovator's Midset Part 1

I am reading the book Innovator's Mindset by George Couros.  It has been very interesting and a quick read up to this point.  So far I have finished part 1 of the book and want to reflect some.  At the end of each chapter Mr. Couros give a list of discussion topics.  I hope to offer my thoughts on one of these questions.

At the end of Chapter 1 Mr. Courus asks "What has changed in our world today that not only makes innovation easier to do, but necessary for our students?"

I am going to start with the necessary part.  For our students today so many things are different from when I went to school.  The internet and access to information being the first that comes to mind.  The pace of change has also increased which means the world we are preparing the students for could look very different from what we see now.  We need to be preparing our students to be able to adapt and change along with the world.

Innovation has been made easier by innovation.  The technologies that are available and at a decreasing cost has made it easier to innovate in the classroom.  In our case having access to Chromebooks and digital content has already encouraged our teachers to change what they do.  The devices provide access to the content and additional resources that allow teachers to be innovative.

#LCPSedChat archive May 2017