Consider Perseverance

Mowing the lawn this morning, my mind got stuck on the word "perseverance."    This thought was triggered first by the mysterious ivy plant that started to grow on the west side of the house this summer.  "How can this thing grow here?  It wasn't here last year.   I didn't plant it. I even tried to pull it up, but it keeps coming back."   However, like the mouse in Give a Mouse a Cookie, my thoughts wandered around before coming back to my starting place.

This stubborn green growth brought me back to Friday.  A 7th grade colleague started the year with a lesson on grit.  Last year, the sixth grade reading teachers did a project with the theme of perseverance.  The team I work with decided to build on it by sharing another book with our students and doing team building activities around that theme.  Friday, our colleague sent us an email to let us know the kids repeatedly talked about perseverance in some form during their opening discussions. This begs the question: Is perseverance something that is taught?

This lead me to consider my aunt, Connie.  She lost her arm in a farm accident in her late teens.  I do not remember her any other way.  I have never had this discussion with her, but I imagine she had to have gone through a tremendous time of anger, self-doubt, and frustration and most likely still experiences those emotions regularly.  However, what I see when I think of her is not struggle but acceptance- this is who I am- and strength-  I'll take your challenge.  The beautiful quilts she makes are a physical representation of her perseverance.  So, I consider: Is perseverance innate?

A gift from my aunt

And, now I'm thinking about my grandma, Norma.  For twelve years, I was the only girl cousin.   I spent many hours in her kitchen hiding from the boys and listening to her sage advice while she canned our beloved "Sauce".   TJ was diagnosed with diabetes two days before she died.  I had actually planned to leave to see her when TJ was admitted into the hospital.   Someone had told her TJ was sick, but not to what extent.  She was always very worried about the girls and diabetes and I didn't want her to have her last days with this burden.  However, I think she knew.  When I finally did make it to see her, she held my hand tight and told me, "Go home and take care of those kiddos."   Even to the last minute she found humor in life when she expressed frustration, "Dying isn't like the cowboy movies when they just shut their eyes and go."  Ever practical, my grandma.  I try to remember that when my emotions get me flying.  I hear her voice in my head, "Slow down, do what needs to be done."  So maybe, perseverance is an expectation, something modeled, something part of your family culture and norms?  

Take my kids for example, I don't remember ever sitting down with them- any of them, diabetes or not- and having a conversation specifically about perseverance.  We encourage them when they are frustrated, we push them to challenge themselves, we acknowledge bad days, we help them find solutions.   They see us fight and struggle in our own lives.  I have seen tears over painful set changes and lost sites.  I have heard angry words over the unfairness and the frustration of battling an invisible enemy; one who certainly does not play fair. This worries me, especially with two away at college.  It will be hard to manage this old villain in a new castle and I hope they make good decisions.  I have watched TJ find a positive in the fact he has to bring his own cake to someone else's birthday party.  ("At least I know I'll like the frosting.") Could perseverance be just a choice;  part of living a life rather than watching it go by? 

After I finished mowing, I looked up the word in the dictionary.  There were many definitions but the key ideas of "determination", "moving forward despite difficulty",  and "effort" jump to the forefront. I then went back around to look at that ivy plant.  Considering, I never planted it, have no idea where it came from, and have even tried to kill it- I think it embodies perseverance.  I took a picture and I will place it in my classroom next to the picture of my family and my aunt's table runner.  Because maybe there are no clear answers to my questions.  Maybe perseverance is all those things at different times.  Louisa May Alcott said, "I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship." Sometimes we need a person to guide us in the decision we were meant to make or to teach us about the path we are meant to follow.  Sometimes perseverance is less of a choice; it is just what we do to keep moving forward when life throws a punch.

My uninvited green friend. 

Reflections and Connections: Standards Based Grading and A1c's

This week, I had the opportunity to attend the AMLE conference- a conference for middle level educators. The theme of the conference was THRIVE.  Those that know me, know that sometimes my self-diagnosed ADHD kicks in and my mind is like the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  Eventually, like the mouse, I do end up back on track but in the mean time, I sometimes manage to have a few good insights and make some obscure connections.   This is an example of one of those times!

Standards Based Grading (SBG) can be defined as measuring student achievement based on well defined course objectives.  As Rick Wormeli states,  "It is about measuring what the student knows, not the route it took to get there."  With SBG,  teachers and students need to be constantly examining what we know and where we need to go in our course.  We need to make goals to reach our target and then change those goals based on the evidence, not the extra credit.  Our evidence is the students' work.  It is what they produce daily.  As simple as a quick question, "Why did you chose to do this?" to more complex projects involving application of skills,  we are measuring the distance to the goal.  We call this "formative assessment."  We use this information to drive our decision making.   I have heard many times over the course of this last year and the course of this conference that the "targets should be visible."  Never have I heard that the target should be easy to reach.

At this point, you are wondering why on Earth she is writing about school in a diabetes blog.  Just like the mouse asking for a straw for his milk, bear with me as this will connect.  The A1c measures the average blood sugar over a period of time.  It is the target for control.  We always see that target, but it is not always easy to reach.   Like grades in school, we look at the numbers, we look at our practices and we set goals and make changes to achieve mastery.  I watch my children poke their fingers up to 10 times a day to measure their blood sugars; formative assessment.  This information drives our decision making.

In both SBG and diabetes management, we can't just roll the dice and hope for the best.  That would not be fair to anyone involved.  Instead, we take what we know, based on evidence, and we make informed decisions.  In both cases, we should never lower our target or our expectations.   I live with three children and who fight a battle for their lives daily.  If I told one of them that she didn't have to check her blood sugar today because she worked so hard at it yesterday or because her room was clean, I would be doing her a tremendous disservice.  Lowering her  target to this level would be the equivalent of saying, "Today, your life is less important."  We do, however, very often need to change our route, add some steps, or sometimes even turn around and start all over.  Along the way we meet frustration, we meet success, we get bumps and we get bruises.  Shouldn't it be the same with education?  To me, allowing a box of tissue or a parent signature to count as "extra credit"  is the equivalent of saying, "Today, your life, your education, has less value."  In either case, settling for a "C" is not an option.  I want mastery or better!

SBG is best practice, it's what's good for the kids.  From experience, I can tell you that I was more than a little nervous about this school year; new job, new grading system, new team.  Now, one quarter complete, I can't believe how fast it has gone, how much I have learned and how valuable SBG is to the educational system. It makes school "real" and evidence based.  Yes, there are glitches in the technology.  True, not everyday is easy nor is every person happy.  Absolutely, I have to work hard and make some changes to lesson plans I have used in the past.  Is it worth it?  Without a doubt.  Student-led conferences turned into a formative assessment for me this year.  Listening to my students talk about their learning allowed me another opportunity to reflect on my teaching.   I realized that many times in the past, I had settled for something because I was using an arbitrary measuring tool and never asking the tough questions.  I was cheating my students.  The same can be said for diabetes management.  I will admit there are days that I don't want to ask the tough questions of my kids.  There are days that I want to give them a "day off" because I, like them, just don't want to do battle anymore .  But is that fair?  Rick Wormeli says over and over, "Fair isn't always equal."  Fair isn't always easy, either.   Helen Keller states, "We couldn't be brave or patient if there were only joys in the world."  I would assert that without challenges, we could never THRIVE.  Do you see that?   Like the mouse, we have come full circle, right back to that cookie!  Conferences like AMLE and JDRFCC, are opportunities to connect with like minded people: they demonstrate the power of people committed to progress and positive change.  That reminds me of a team...