Nothing to Lose

you have nothing to lose, a photo by Señor Codo on Flickr.

I know that in #PSD70 there has been a lot of talk about “Innovation Week”. This year, two of our division schools staged Innovation Week during the last week before Christmas break, Greystone Centennial Middle School and the school that my husband teaches at, Muir Lake School. The idea is a great one: students take the week to learn, research and create based on a topic of their choice. Teachers give feedback and discuss and guide students in their work, but the work itself is not formally assessed. They learn in the way they want to learn about the things that they are interested in and produce a number of innovative and exciting projects.
My husband, Cam, thoroughly enjoyed his experience with his first Innovation Week. Friday night after school, while sitting around the dinner table, we were discussing this with our two boys, aged 10 and 7. Cam told us about many of the different projects and how they worked out. He spoke of the enjoyment of the students and the ownership that they felt. Then we all came up with ideas for what we would like to study or learn/produce if we were given a week to do so.

At first, my boys parroted what their dad had just told us. When we encouraged them to think about something that hadn’t been done yet, something that was rooted in their own interests, the conversation took an interesting turn. After throwing around some neat, original ideas, our 10 year old asked, “How is this going to be marked?” (Not going to lie, I was pretty happy he asked that question). When I replied that it wasn’t being marked, he was shocked and he said something that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. He said,

“You mean I’d have nothing to lose? Oh ya…I would do that for sure then.”

Nothing to lose.

My son who is just in 5th grade sees school, or at least assessment, as a place/time where he has something to lose. How often has he finished an assignment or project being worried about what marks he will lose rather than what knowledge or skills he has gained? I was bothered by that comment, but didn’t address it immediately as I had to think through what my response would be. Isn’t this just what we are trying to move away from in education? My son enjoys school for the most part, but I must say, he is not highly motivated. Could it be that he is not just “a bit lazy” as we have always thought, but demotivated by the impact of grades and “old school” assessment? I think it could be.

In the meantime, I started thinking about my own students and how they view what goes on in the our classroom. Right away I could pick out a handful of kids who were focused on what they would “lose” when preparing a project or presentation of some sort. I’d never thought about it in that context before. I could see them asking themselves,

“How much should I risk here? If I risk, and fail, I will lose marks so I am just going to stick to the basics and do what everyone else is doing.”

I don’t think I have emphasized enough that they should take more risks and that failure is the best way to learn. Starting in January, that is going to be my target for my classroom; to change the frame that my students are looking through so that they never fear what they “have to lose” but strive for what there is to gain. As for my son, we need to help him reframe his education as well. My questioning and guidance in both situations is going to take on a different look. We must also look into coordinating an Innovation Week at our school and providing times for my own children to explore learning and creating for the sake of learning and creating.

Who Should Coach?

Basketball Game – 01/22/11, a photo by Jim Larrison on Flickr.

In my role as the Athletic Rep at Stony Plain Central School, it is partly my job to find and organize coaches for our Jr. High sports teams and programs. Over the last five years, this hasn’t been an easy spot to be in, but I have to say, people have always managed to step up whether it be teachers, administrators or sometimes even parents. Today, I am sad to say, it looks like I may be unable to find that person or people.

It seems that the current teachers at our school have too many other commitments, most of which include work, family and leadership outside of school as well. Last week, I held a meeting of all boys in grades 6 to 8 who were interested in playing basketball. In the end, I had 25 of them say they would like to try out. So I implored them to go home and ask, no BEG, their parents to come and coach the junior boys team. I had a few bites, but in the end, those who had seemed likely to take on the role decided that it was too much of a commitment for them.

I am now in quite a time crunch. You see, I have to declare by Friday whether or not we have teams. I have to admit, I am frustrated by this situation and that brings up a question that I am struggling to answer: In a school system where coaching is a %100 volunteer position, who should be expected to coach school sports teams?

I’m torn in two by this question. My first, automatic response is that teachers should be doing the coaching. We know the school and division policies, are trained to work with kids (seems like a no-brainer, but lots of outside coaches know their sport well, but don’t know how to handle young people) and can use sport to help build relationships with students and to help build a positive culture in the school. I have lived by that belief. It has been a part of my worldview. Coaching volleyball is something I have always enjoyed, felt confident in and saw the benefit of. I want to do it right. I want to attend a lot of tournaments (we do six in senior volleyball). My own children have been dragged along to volleyball games and tournaments since they were only months old. It is something I am passionate about. And I don’t mean passionate about volleyball, although I do love the game, I mean passionate about contributing to our school culture and sense of pride.

My second response is that I completely understand teacher’s reluctance to coach school teams. In order to do it right, it takes A LOT of time. It is not just the coach that is willing to spend that time, but their family who sacrifices time with them. My heart gets torn out every time I hear my kids say, “You have to go to volleyball again? Can’t you just stay here with us?” I explain to them that while I do not enjoy spending time away from them, it is important to me, and I am helping people. When I am in the stands watching them play hockey, someone else’s mom or dad is on the ice coaching them. It’s a trade of sorts. Many people are not willing or able to make that trade. I completely understand that. As my kids get older, it is getting harder and harder for my family to manage all of our commitments during volleyball season. What kind of trade is one that boosts school culture, but hurts – sometimes irreparably – family culture? That is not a fair thing to ask and while I know that some administrators will pressure teachers to coach, I’m not prepared to do that.
So now we are left with our 25 boys who are interested in playing, but no one to take over the team. Who owes it to them? Teachers? Parents? the Community? Don’t we all?