We might think that we know ourselves more than anyone else, which is partially true, but there is much more to this idea.
This week in class we have spent hours focused on crowd-source grading for the interim reports, but we all had very different opinions on this. The entire class began making a huge fuss about giving each other feedback, or telling one another what we could improve on, but we couldn't figure out what this big fuss was actually about. After long hours of discussing together, we could finally see what the problem was. Ever since the day we entered school for the first time, our academic life became based on NUMBERS. We let these NUMBERS define us, we had been taught to be our teachers to be identified by these NUMBERS. The time had to come where we had to break this stereotype; these numbers have absolutely no meaning other than guiding us and motivating us to improve as people. Even though this discussion took place last week, this way of thinking has stayed with me, because taking away the importance of these NUMBERS wasn't going to be done in a week. |
This discussion changed my entire
mindset , and we found a way to do crowd-source grading in a way that we all felt comfortable. The main reason why most people didn't want to grade each other was because of a trust issue. At least we thought so. We thought that we couldn't trust each other enough to give our peers feedback on their performance in class, when what was really happening was that we didn't know each other enough to judge one another on our work. I realized that I didn't feel comfortable grading a classmate on reading skills, when I actually the faintest idea on how adaptable they were as readers. This is why we ended up dividing in small groups with people we know well, and would give each other the grades we thought they deserved. I have to admit that this process we came up with for grading worked exceptionally. I was satisfied because we managed to be direct and honest; no group member wanted to give themselves a grade they didn't truly deserve. Even though we succeeded in this grading technique and talked about our growth in depth, there was something that was still bothering me. The fact that we had to pick groups to grade one another because there were some we knew better than others, bugged me. Our goal was to grow as a community of trust together, but no matter how much we might trust each other now, we still didn't feel comfortable giving out grades to one another, which is something I didn't like. I think the KEY to a culture of excellence, a community of trust, and success, is a united community; one that knows each and every member of it very well. We are building up to this united community through these months, because we already possess trust, but getting to know each other is something I believe we CAN, and WILL achieve by the end of the semester, if every one does their part. |