Yesterday I stood in the gym of a local elementary school to watch my 10 year old daughter play volleyball. Both teams were made up 5th and 6th grade girls who are in their infancy when it comes to playing volleyball. As a result, anyone one that could serve the ball over the net was 95% guaranteed they would win the point. There were the occasional returns and even one rally that consisted of the ball going over the net 3 times before hitting the floor.
As a sports enthusiast it was painful. As a parent, it was exciting.
The gym was pretty much full of parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters crowded around the perimeter of the gymnasium. What struck me was the unbridled joy and encouragement for both teams and the cheers with every effort put forth. It kind of gives that warm fuzzy feeling inside, not often associated with sports. Parents and children well behaved and excited to be learning a new sport.
So I’m back to thinking about stages. I can’t say for sure but I’m doubtful any kids were left off the team because a parent didn’t want them performing in front of others. Even the girls who couldn’t serve the ball more than 10 feet were cheered for their efforts. It was clear to everyone in the building that this was a place of learning, a place for social interaction and fun. We will watch with amazement to see improvements with the next game and cheer even more loudly.
Why is it so hard for people to allow this to take place with learning? The mystery that occurs because work is suddenly displayed on a screen, accessible to the world makes people nuts sometimes. Even if the local TV station wanted to show this game, I can’t see any parent opting out. They might even want to have names sewn on the back of the jerseys (okay they are only t-shirts but still).
The sad part is that as a parent of 4 children, 2 of whom have graduated from high school, I knew way more about the sports and extra-curricular part of their school life than the academics. There was almost no way for me to interact or watch them learn other than the occasional homework assignment or parent teacher interview. The emphasis on most schools places extra-curricular at a way higher profile than the academics. Grant it, those are choices students can make. But shouldn’t we be working to a place where the day to day work and learning is showcased, celebrated and elevated to a higher place?
I recognize that with classroom work, the students don’t have much choice but by starting young and creating a culture where we share our work and seek encouragement and feedback I have to believe that is going to make for more engagment students producing better quality work.
I’m probably not done thinking about stages, I’ll just warn you right now.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski
Interesting. I’ve thought in the past about how cool it would be to stream student oral reports or presentations so parents (or grandparents) at work or home could watch their child at work. I think it would be so powerful to the students to return home from school and have their family talk about how great of a job they did on their project.
I wonder if teachers/administration hesitate to put the students “out there” because the environment isn’t controlled. They can control, to some extent, who shows up in the school gym for a game or at a concert or play, but can’t control who is watching online. While I don’t necessarily agree with this line of thinking, I can understand it a little. Their job is to protect the students, but…..
.-= Chad Lehman´s last blog ..Becoming & Staying Connected =-.
@Chad,
Good point, however there is a fair bit of control over who interacts with things. Also when you mention streaming, there is password protection in many cases, the same for blogs.
Our understanding of “strangers” still has to be re thought.
As far as protection, I’m still waiting for some evidence to state that posting information about learning online is dangerous.
I just returned from coaching my seventh and eighth grade girls to a resounding defeat. Okay, I admit I wanted them to achieve a modest win. Temperamentally I prefer a close race where the outcome leaves everyone feeling like they are a success. Perhaps I am a good sport, but more likely it comes from having an older brother who was an incredibly bad sport. I was conditioned to try my best, and breath a sigh of relief when he won. He outgrew that and apparently I never did. Despite my inclination to see the team win I am sympathetic to the attitude that this is all about personal growth, I have twelve girls on the roster and they all share court time. In some bogus attempt at statistics I pair the first and fourth place players together and second and third. We lost four in a row and then managed to win the fifth. My girls left happy perhaps. They are focussed on their personal performance and I appreciate that. We encouraged success and practiced restoration and problem solving in defeat. All this makes me a very bad coach I imagine (there are other reasons to consider me a bad coach). If we were not all clear on why we were doing this, I might cut three girls and play the top line as a coherent team who actually learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. As Dean remarked, that is not why we are here.
This is a very good analogy, or perhaps a valid contrast. Schools publicly celebrate athletic competition. We are less concerned about media coverage of these events and schools are not shy about posting team pictures and accompanying names in the hallways of our schools. That is apparently not a real problem because pedophiles do not exist in our school communities, they reside in more obscure places and swarm in from “outside”. I am implicated in Dean’s efforts to promote digital portfolios in this school division. “Life is the tension between anticipation and the inevitability of disappointment” (Arthur Miller), I anticipate a disappointing result from my first effort at bringing exemplars of learning to a wider audience through on-line portfolios; never-the-less I think we should find ways to broaden the audience (particularly the audience comprised of children’s significant circle). Dean showed a YouTube video of a young person demonstrating starting a fire with a bow. I wish the young boy could be charged with the goodwill his moment of sharing generated across the world. Dean’s daughter, her team mates and opponents felt it in that room. “Yes, you don’t have it exactly right yet, you’re a miracle of growth(we all are), and we are uplifted by your effort and every step you take forward.” Everyone needs that, especially the young.
.-= Alan Stange´s last blog ..Private wikispaces to insure confidentiality =-.
Alan,
I didn’t address the predator issue here but I have many times. This one reveals some pretty clear research on the subject.
https://ideasandthoughts.org/2008/02/24/im-telling-you-for-the-last-time/
Educating parents,teachers and students about the real dangers is something we have to work on. I believe the real dangers are very much the dangers we see offline: bullying, disrespect and reckless behaviour.
Your post reminded me of the a wonderful caveat posted on Jan Smith’s class blog, Huzzah!
“Please notice our successes, not our mistakes.
Our blog is a invitation to see what we are up to. Some of our work will be polished, and some will be in draft form. Please honour our attempts.”
“Please honour our attempts”, I just love that line. I think it describes what you observed at your daughter’s volleyball game. It would be wonderful if more of us learned to honour our learners’ attempts, where ever that learning is taking place.
.-= Claire Thompson´s last blog ..Disrupting Class =-.
You raise an excellent point. I think schools need to make an effort to communicate the status of academics, especially at the higher grades so that a dialogue does occur in the family about what is happening in the class room not just the sports field.
It’s odd, I think, that often there is a perception that stages only apply to the students we are teaching. Yet, any self-reflective adult would point out that we are constantly changing and growing, or should be. I wonder what would happen if we were more honest about this with our students?
I agree that some people “go nuts” over publicly displaying work. I’ve encountered this already. I know it’s because they want to keep our kids safe, but I can’t help thinking the only way to do this is teaching students what they need to know to interact wisely in a virtual and connected world. That being said, wow, is the learning curve steep!
Shelley,
Great point about modeling, if that’s indeed what you were getting at regarding adults.
The other thing I guess is that the “stage analogy” implies performance when as I’ve suggested in this post, much of our work/reflection isn’t a performance at all but simply transparency and honesty. Usually honesty and transparency is not something we’re comfortable with being on display.
That’s the struggle we’re currently in. I use this space to learn, think out loud, share, get feedback and yes, sometimes perform. That’s quite a range of purpose. However, someone just popping by may not see that or understand that. That’s why I love the disclaimer idea and lots of discussion internally about what and why we’re sharing our learning.
Thanks for the comment and pushing my thinking.
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