I Failed

Hello Everyone!  I hope you have all recovered after that devastating Brew Crew loss!
That was tough, but we are already looking forward to next year!

As many of you know, there has been a lot of talk and discussion lately around our current
grading scale at Stone Bank School.  I want to share a story with you that helped put me in
the shoes of a learner, and offer some insight into what it felt like to fail.  Here is the story:

At the school board meeting last week, a school board member asked me a question
regarding my thoughts on the grading scale. I tried to answer, and proceeded to go down a
very lengthy and confusing path of an answer, not at all answering the exact question the
school board member asked.  All in attendance were very confused by my answer, and
when I was done, I could tell by everyone's reactions, that my answer was way off base.
Next, it was brought to my attention that we could only discuss what was on the agenda
for the evening (just the grading scale) according to school board laws. I felt embarrassed
right away. The issue at hand was not best practices in assessment and the reporting out
of learning, like I had answered, but rather on the grading scale itself. I left the meeting
that night feeling like I had failed. Gotten an F. On this one assignment, this one school
board meeting, I had failed.  

Yes, I failed, but did my 'F' define my whole first quarter as the Curriculum Coach at
Stone Bank?  I went to grad school, studied hard, obtained my principal and curriculum
licenses, and I came to this new position straight from the trenches of teaching, where
I was getting all A's.  My learning curve was/is steep. Did this 'F' within the course of the
first quarter, provide any feedback for me to grow? The 'F' itself didn't, but what happened
after was where the real learning took place...where it should really always take place,
shortly after failure, whether that failure is in the beginning, middle or end of
work.  One of my favorite educational philosophers, John Dewey, once said,
"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks, learns quite as much from his
failures as from his successes."

It was not the failure that mattered to me, but how I responded to that failure.  
I called my professional coach (think a teacher, a parent, a peer) and told her of my
failure.  As my coach, she listened without judgement, stopped me from shaming myself,
and then helped me onto a path of growth.  She helped me formulate a plan to move
forward, to help me take what happened, and really hone in and tease out the pieces
that would help me grow the most.  She engaged me in a bit of research on not just
school board laws (believe me, there are a lot of them), but also in the history of school
boards and their purpose.  Sure, I got some of this is grad school, but not when I needed
it most, like when I got the job where I would have to actually apply that learning.
So I studied this weekend.  I read, I watched videos, I phoned a friend on a
local school board...and I learned a lot, not only about the laws (like you can't discuss
anything not on the agenda :), but also what the true purpose of a school board is.
Did you know that the first school board dates back to 1647, in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony?  It was interesting reading!

What's my point in this whole narrative?  That as we begin to discuss grading, assessment,
and the reporting out of learning, I ask that we all keep in mind the big picture of learning.  
One grade, one test, one failure, one success, does not define the wholeness of a learner.
Often times, it is what the learner does after he/she fails that yields the most significant
learning, because this part of the process, the picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and
getting back on the proverbial horse, is the grit that helps us get going after we fail
and believe, we will all continue to fail from time to time.  I am so very thankful to have a
coach that helped me see the bigger picture, cushion the shame and failure I felt,
and help me get back up and try again. I think of Michael Jordan when he said,
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times,
I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over
and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed."

The next blog post, on understanding your child's NWEA MAPS assessments, is a
great place to start looking at the big picture of where your children, our learners,
fall in the scope of learning in the areas of reading and math. If you have not already
received your child's MAPS scores, you can access them on Skyward.
The next blog post will help you decipher the scores, and will also help you begin
discussions with your learners, and with teachers.   

On November 15th, we will hold a morning session of Coffee and Conversations,
where we will begin some learning on grading, assessment, and the reporting
out of learning.  In the meantime, I have posted an article from a principal friend,
who shared it with her families. Please know that I do not share this article to
point fingers at anyone, but rather I share it so that we can broaden our perspectives
on how to go about reporting out learning in healthy ways that encourage and engage
learners in academically meaningful and emotionally healthy ways.  

I look forward to learning with you all in the realm of grading, assessing, and the
reporting out of learning.  If you find any articles or videos that you would like to share,
please do so with me at b.wartzenluft@stonebank.k12.wi.us and we can add
them to our list of "shareables" for our learning together.

Finally, thank-you for taking the time to read this blog.  It is certainly hard to put
oneself out there and admit embarrassment and failure, but I am thankfully
surrounded by staff, community, administration, and school board members
who support me and hold me up, and in that way, I am the most thankful learner!

Enjoy conferences this week, a short week, and a few extra days with your children.  
Let them play, and get a little messy. Let their brains and bodies create
and explore and most of all, spend time together and have fun.

Be Well,

Beth