we first came across the idea of “giving an A” from Benjamin Zander‘s Teachers’ Day Conference 2002 (i think) held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and i recall we were among 4000-5000 teachers seated in the session.
one day to teachers’ day, or 3 days past teachers’ day, depending on which school of thought you subscribing to. yesterday afternoon, the second/final f2f meeting of 12470 draws a conclusion to the course, and at the same time opens up a new beginning for the 10 CL teachers who have walked the learning journey together for the past 1 month (:
giving an A, is probably hard to achieve in a pseudo-student centric classroom set up cos the assessment system is still largely assessing in an efficiency-driven model based on statistical paradigm. however, giving an A can also be a teacher’s mindset. in retrospect, i may have given all the teacher participants an A right at the beginning, metaphorically. while it’s great that our workshop need not talk about assessment (excluding the SFT of cos), grades as such, i wonder if some teachers may have taken some time to adjust to the state of “i too have a voice, just like everyone else” in a course. there’s no right or wrong, just good, gooder, and how one contributes to the group’s effort to improve these two over time. adopting a constant grade mindset essentially frees up the brain cells worrying about grades (not that grade matters in this course), but allows one to focus his/her energy on contributing to his/herself, and fellow peers’ improvement.
as a teacher educator-cum-co-learner, giving fellow teachers an A (mindset) allows me to join the teachers in becoming better teachers, over time, for all participants and facilitator(s) alike (:
regardless of which day you celebrate teachers’ day (actual or psychological activity), may i wish all of us a Happy Teachers’ Day! 😀
