Failure is the only option.

Where did the last year go? Now I'm on to bigger and hopefully better things which is causing me to rant on a different topic than in the past. Anyway, here we go.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”   -  Truman Capote

As parents, we don’t want to see our kids fail, well at least not in public. But as we look back on the events in our lives that taught us the most, the majority of people will say that they learned the most when they failed.

The Love and Logic Institute teaches to set boundaries for your children and allow them the fail. They go further to qualify that the boundaries should be set so that when children actually fail the effects of the failure are manageable.  As we grow older, the effects of failures become more substantial, more complicated and more costly. Causing an avoidance of failure as we get older and leading to the saying “You can’t teach on old dog a new trick”

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History is full of examples of failure. Thomas Edison didn’t succeed in his first attempts. He considered his failures as discoveries. Discoveries on how things don’t work is just as important as discovering how things work. One thing is common in every discovery ever made; they all start with an idea. Ideas that fail, get refined, fail again, and get refined again over and over until they work. Then the good ones will continually get refined.

What can we take from this? We just need to start.

Will we fail? It is guaranteed that we will. But when we succeed, the flavor of the accomplishment will be sweet.

When the statement is made that you can’t judge Student Growth and Achievement by a single test score, I have to question then “How should student growth be measured?” Is student growth a function of how well they learn the basics (math, reading, writing, social studies) as well as a student’s social skill? Are there any additional factors?

In a recent blog post, our superintendent made an argument that you can’t judge the effectiveness of a teacher based on a single graph showing student growth and achievement. I agree. There is more to it that what can be shown on a single graph. He went on to define other areas that he felt needed to be included to determine if a teacher is effective. I bet he didn’t realize that in this he actually set up the equation that can be used to measure teacher effectiveness.

It was stated recently that test scores are only a part of the picture and there is more interest in the development of the whole child. Great, now define what that means, measure it, score it, test it for those factors that make an impact, eliminate the factors that don’t, and repeat. 

We have data from the NWEA, M-STEP, and internal assessments. If those are the factors that are going to be used for student growth and achievement, create an index combining these three legs. Don’t try to correlate the data. When you have two or more measurement systems that are measuring the same thing, you correlate them. When you have multiple factors, you weight them and test them to see if there is and confounding of the factors, refine your equation to come up with more robust equation.

What are we missing? Like in any discovery you have to start somewhere. We just need to start knowing full well there is a great possibility that at first there will be failure. The failure cannot be the end, but the beginning of learning experience, a refinement and a new and better way.

Is that the end all? No, that is only one small part of another larger equation, which is only a small part of another. Students are evaluated, teachers are evaluated, administrators are evaluated, etc. Can the entire district as a whole be scored this way? Yes. 

Coming up is the Superintendents Parent to Parent book club. The first book that they are reading this year is: Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey. Without reading the book I am willing to be that the measage is to go out try things, fail, and learn from your failures. Should any action come from this? Yes, And if there is no action, then why go through the excersize.

Quick Update

Okay for some reason it happened again. I've spent the last month injured and unable to run. I did force myself to go for a ride last Friday and the pain was bad in the beginning but subsided by the end. Yes, I still was in pain, but it was manageable.

For now it is one day at a time and with no events planned I can ease back into it.

My son wants to build a gravity catapult so that is on the project list. He is also very into robotics and we have a number of them around the house with more joining us all the time. My challenge is keeping things infront of him that interest and challenge him. Seeing that he is only 6, it is not as easy as it seems.

Thank god for Lego Mindstorm.

Down Time

Well, its been a week. I took last week of just for a rest and to catchup on a few things. That only means that my exercises was down, but I was able to concentrate on eating better. Low and behold, I dropped a couple pounds. If I can keep that up, and get exercising again this week, the results have to be much better.

This week is going to be busy too, but I should be able to get some walks in. I may even try for later in the evening or go back to early in the morning. The morning workouts didn't last because of the hockey playoffs. Now that the Red Wings are playing in Chicago for the second round there should be no more 10pm start times.

I can't wait, the most recent app that I've down loaded was an interval timer. I've got it set to run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute. I'm thinking that is a good interval to start with. After that the plan is to up the run time by 10 seconds a week until it hits 3 minutes then drop the walk time by 10 seconds until that hits 30 seconds. That should take me out 9 weeks. At that time it will do me good to re-evaluate before I either take the run longer or the walk shorter. Time will tell

Live Beyond The Ordinary
Dream Without Limits

Keep on Trucking

Well, I wanted to include a picture or two of some of the fauna that is found during my lunchtime walks, but my phone died and I didn't bring a cord to charge it. So I guess I'll have to add them next time.

I was able to get a 34 minute walk in at lunch. After informing my wife that i would be running to the store at lunch she told me that she would do it because she had other things to get. So I went for a walk instead of going to the store. The weather was a bit cooler then last week, but the sun was out and so were the small animals.

After the walk I had to run and get gas for the automobile and then back to work. This allows me to workout and still get a lunch in at my desk when I get back. Today was leftover jambalaya with some chicken and shrimp. Not bad for a rice dish. this kept me away from fast food which is a good thing. With the addition of some fruit and pumpkin seeds my cravings have been met or thwarted.

I got a good map of my route today. Using Map My Run I was able to map it, but that also is on my phone which is dead at this time. But my calling up Map My Run on the computer, it looks like I am not far from running out of dirt and ending up on pavement. One of these days I will, but for now it is slow and steady.

There is another app that I was testing on my phone and that is from Gymboss. It is an interval timer that I had set at 2 min on and 1 min off. I wasn't sure how it would work and if I would be able to hear the signal to switch over the music or what ever I was listening to at the time. Well, the signal was definitely audible. I couldn't hear anything else when the timer expired. It actually was annoying when I was talking on the phone, but it did work. I'll have to use it more for my run/walks that I am planning for the future.

This week is going to be a tough one. Not only is it Teacher appreciation week, but we have 2 mid-week soccer games, swim lessons and a meeting with the superintendent of schools all to juggle. That is after I cancel two other meetings. this is going to be a high stress week if there ever was one.Just trying to get the things done that need to be done is one thing, but with all the additional items to accomplish luck is needed.

Well that is enough rambling for now

Live Beyond The Ordinary Without Limits.