Innovations at Dalat #15 - Teacher comments

Here are some of the problems with the process of writing "comments" from teachers on a report card. In no particular order.

1. Writing meaningful comments for 100 students is a nearly impossible task for even the most diligent teacher. Doing this twice every year over and over is exhausting.
2. Comments are written at the end of the quarter or semester when the teacher is already the most busy with grading.
3. There is little incentive for parents or students to read comments, further adding insult to the teacher's injury of having to write them.
4. If there is a suggestion for how a student could improve in the class, it is too late since the semester is already over.
5. The space is short, and the energy to write anything meaningful is low, knowing most of the comments will be ignored.
6. The student is not engaged in the process of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. It is all top-down with little metacognition. 
7. Comments are often generic and meaningless. Teachers are actually reticent to say what needs to be said because...
8. Any negative comment can be seen as "out of the blue," leaving a student hurt. So positive "fluff" comments are the norm.
9. Anything written has the potential to be misconstrued since it is lacks context and nonverbal cues that typically give insight.
10. Traditional comments are written for two very different audiences.  The first is the next school the student will attend (as part of the permanent record), and the other is for the student/parents. It is nearly impossible to write to both audiences well. 

You can probably add to this list. For now, I think I have made the point that the current system is broken. 

Once we decided it was more important to write comments to the student to improve their learning and achievement (rather than writing an official record for applying to the next school), it freed us to do things differently to overcome most of these issues. We are now in the 4th year of our new system, and feedback from parents and teachers has been consistently positive. Here is a summary of what we are doing and why it works.

At the midpoint of our semester grading cycle (rather than at the very end), students are given time in each class to answer self-reflection questions about their learning. Typically, we ask three standard questions, and teachers have the opportunity to add their own question that is specific to their own class. Here is a look at the form students use. 

There is a lot to look out here so let me summarize. The first two tabs allow students to reflect on our school-wide goals (our Flagships). We have four, so to keep them from being overwhelmed, they do two each semester. Scrolling down there is a place for students to self-reflect in each class.  The final tab shows exemplars so the students have a model to follow.

Our tech guys have worked some magic in the background. The student reflections are compiled for teachers in an easy-to-access format (one document has a whole class of students). The teachers see what the student's reflections are and can affirm, correct, and add to the student's comments. This has helped make the comments far more meaningful and easier for teachers to have something valuable to say since they have a starting point. Often, the students are far more critical of themself than a teacher would be, so it gives a chance to encourage without being fake and to let parents and students know if there are real issues that need to be addressed.

Once all of the information is entered by teachers, the results from all the teachers are pulled back together in a single document for each student that is shared with the family. Parents are asked to read the student and teacher reflections and discuss them as a family. The final step is to have the parents fill out a form telling us they have read through the comments with their students. The parents can even write an encouraging note to their kid that is added to the document. The form lets the school know that parents have taken the time to reflect on both the students learning as well as the teacher's input. Yes, we incentivize this last step...after a grace period, students may not participate in any school activity until their parents complete the task and submit the form.

Once we decided that the point of our process was to improve learning, it freed us to make some big changes that have alleviated most of the problems listed above. It is never going to be fun writing for 100 students, but knowing the comments are hitting home and challenging students to do better takes much of the sting out. 

Pushing Past Barriers #2

The pain is a FEATURE, not a BUG. 

In my early 30's I did a triathlon that started in a torrential rain storm. Five minutes into the bike portion, the road was covered in puddles, which shortly sent me skittering into a ditch with road rash all over my back and a banged-up wheel. By the time I pulled myself together, I was far back from contention and looking at a year of hard work and training getting washed away by the storm. In a panic, I pushed hard on the bike and, in the run, was redlined the whole way. My heart rate monitor data showed I was near 190 bpm for 75 minutes straight. I staggered across the finish line and collapsed from exhaustion. Laying on my back at the line, I could not find the strength to turn my head, and I seriously thought I would drown in my own vomit. Race officials got me rolled over and to the hospital. For the next 24 hours, I was in the emergency room trying to regulate my stomach, body temp, electrolytes, and dehydration. I found my limit, a place I have never been since, and I never want to go again.  

As a  CrossFit coach, I smile when the new guy tells me he cannot wait to get in shape so that his workouts don't hurt so bad. Perhaps, yes, when you first start out, they do indeed hurt differently; blisters happen fast on soft hands and you are more likely to be sore on the day following. The lack of fitness means that the end comes sooner. But in the last ten years doing functional fitness workouts of every variety, I can say for certain the discomfort does not ever go away. 

We have all hit that wall in the middle of a slog of a workout. Sometimes it is the heat, your upset stomach, the heavyweight, or simply having no gas in the tank. You question why you are doing the workout and look around, wondering why everyone else seems to have it together.
This weekend I hit that wall in my workout. Everyone else was two rounds ahead of me. The oppressive heat had me pouring ice water over my head; the exhaustion had me hanging on my sorts doubled over, trying to catch my breath. Pukie kept threatening to show up, and my wobbly legs simply did not want to cooperate as I looked at the bar for the next set of deadlifts. I was in a dark place, wondering how that simple program on the board could wreck me so completely.

If it ever did stop hurting, I would miss out on a significant reason for doing the workout. Similar to the ice bath, there is something significant that happens when pushing through barriers.  I often find that I am not as close to the edge as I thought and there is growth that happens by simply pressing on.

So what is different about the discomfort for a guy after hundreds of workouts? A confidence that comes with knowing your ability to handle the discomfort. Understanding that if you can just climb over that next barrier, you are likely going to find the reserves needed to finish the workout. Self-doubt is less likely to show up as you stop naval gazing and instead focus on the finish line. There is trust in your own ability to handle the next hard thing and simply start on the next set. 

To all my athletes looking around wondering if anyone else feels this way,  my answer is, Yes, if they are working with enough intensity to be beneficial, others feel like you do. We are not all reveling in schadenfreude, feeling marvelous while you suffer.  Not every workout needs to push you to the edge to be beneficial, but part of the reason to work out in a community is that you will get more out of yourself if others are around to push you. There are exceptions to this, but they are few.

Will it ever stop feeling so terrible? Perhaps a little, but not because it hurts less. The ability to package that discomfort and set it aside is a skill that is learned. And it takes consistent effort. Like fitness, your ability to manage the discomfort and keep pushing down barriers is a skill that is quickly lost. A fellow coach tells his athletes regularly to "get comfortable being uncomfortable." That sounds like a tagline that will attract the masses to CrossFit.  

  

Pushing Past Barriers #1

How long should you be in an ice bath to get optimum results? I get this question a lot from people interested in this crazy habit that I have of sitting in freezing cold water. It seems a simple question, but there is a lot of different research about what time of day works best, how often, what temperature, etc. You could probably mess it up and sit in it too little/often or for too short/long or not cold enough/too cold, but the reality is simply doing it regularly (you define) for a set time (you define) in uncomfortably cold water will likely get most of the benefits. Could this be fine-tuned for peak performance if you were a professional athlete looking for a tiny edge over your competitors? Sure. But generally speaking, it is not as much about the ice water itself (yes, that does have some benefits); instead, it is largely about the number of barriers that you can push past. 

Some days, I feel comfortable getting in, and without too much discomfort, I have no problem sloshing around for five or six minutes in water just above freezing. On other days...just getting in takes all of my effort. I shiver uncontrollably almost from the start, and getting to three minutes takes a heroic effort. Many factors play into the experience. Probably the most powerful is my overall mood but there is more too it than this.

Regardless, every time an ice bath challenges one to push past barriers that tell you "I don't want to do this." Andrew Huberman is a research scientist looking at human performance who has done a lot of research on athletes, and he talks about a structure of the brain called the Anterior Mid Cingulate Cortex that grows when you do something you "don't want to do." It might be exercise, dieting, or getting and staying in an ice bath just a little bit longer. In an ice bath, the first barrier is your brain telling you not to get in. Then there is a barrier saying to stop at your waist or chest. Thirty seconds in, I might relax for a while, and then a few seconds later, there is another barrier that again tells me to get out. Waves come at different intervals, and some are more difficult than others to push through.

The benefits of ice baths are many, but one of them is simply giving your willpower the opportunity to knock down one barrier after the next. In many ways, this may simply be a concentrated version of something that happens in the middle of a workout and want to quit. Or you are fasting, and here is a wave of hunger to push through. The benefit is more than simply what the ice/exercise/ diet can do for you. The benefit comes from the strength of your willpower as you push beyond a barrier and find that you can go further than you thought. 

Actual physical changes to the brain happen as you practice this over and over. This brain growth helps you push through the next time things get tough and you don't want to do an assignment for school, grade papers, file taxes, or do something else uncomfortable. Your brain will have physically changed from your experience on the ice to grow and allow you to tackle the difficult challenge more effectively.