SBG and Me

So, I've been researching standards-based grading for a few months now. It all started when Ryan Collins sent me a link to Shawn Cornally, my newly-discovered-inspirational hero (no need for an order of protection, I promise). As soon as I started to read his blogs about what's wrong with traditional grading and what's right with this thing called Standards-Based Grading (SBG for short), I swear I heard the angels singing! Preach it, brother Cornally. Here was this guy telling me the things I had been thinking about changing in my 7th grade math classes for next year!

I have to admit I feel a bit silly that I thought I was being revolutionary thinking about grading standards not assignments, continuing to let students correct their HW (yes, I graded HW-give me a break; I didn't know any better) for full credit and even letting my students correct test (sometimes). Who knew about SBG? Certainly not anyone in little ol' Kenton, Ohio. Certainly not anyone who taught me in college.

TGFI (No, I'm not confused and glad it's Friday) Thank God For the Internet. Since stumbling on Think Thank Thunk, I've also learned about Matt Townsley and Jason Buell who have all given me so much to chew on this summer.

Then along came my summer course Teacher as Researcher.

A bit of background here: after raising two children to teen-hood and 15 years of teaching 7th grade, I decided to get my Master's in middle school mathematics. Graduation is in 319 days- but who's counting?

As the name of the course implies, I would be conducting research. Exciting, huh? THIS time, it was! I had an authentic topic. Not the one that would be easiest to find information for. Not the one that had all the buzz words to impress my teacher. (Oh, come on. Don't look at me like that. You know you did that, too!) I would be writing a proposal for an action research plan investigating the effect (grrr or is it affect?) SBG has on student learning and motivation.

Through this class I was required to read about SBG. A lot. I wrote abstracts for more than ten articles. All on SBG. I have more information now than I know what to do with.

I plan to spend July sorting through my information and making a SBG plan of my own.

I might even work up the nerve to ask an expert for some help along the way.

Here Goes

For some strange reason, I feel compelled to blog. I don't for one minute think I have valuable wisdom to share.

So why blog then?

Maybe I have a lot of thoughts that are better organized in prose? Maybe I have the need to "keep up with the Joneses"? Maybe I have aspirations of being "discovered" and asked to abandon my mundane life and travel the world as a motivational educational expert....nah.

Whatever the reason, this is my first (and hopefully not last) attempt.

"A man found the cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.

It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. And we could never fly. So have a nice day and struggle a little"- author unknown

I sat this morning in my "curricularium" sorting through a myriad of materials for my new teaching assignment when I stumbled across this story given to me by a teacher who taught me a lot about teaching math. Of course she meant it to be a metaphor for being, as Dan Meyer says, "less helpful" and letting our students struggle a little.

An odd thing happened as I was sorting through all of the stuff that other teachers thought I would need to teach 5th grade. I began to think that I am that butterfly. Perhaps I need to "struggle a little" in this emotional transition from 16 years as a 7th grade teacher to brand new 5th grade teacher and be ready to accept the freedom that will result from this struggle.

God always knows what he's doing, and I have to remember that.

"So have a nice day and struggle a little."