Heather Danforth
Guest Blogger: Heather Danforth
Heather, an elementary school teacher in rural Wyoming, is working with The Art of Learning and sharing her classroom experiences…
Lesson Two: Value Process Before Results
lives. I told my students the story of my first ballroom dance class, admitting to them that I felt frightened and embarrassed when, on the first day, I realized that I was easily the worst student in the class. Everyone seemed to master the steps more quickly than I did! When I returned home, I was tempted to drop the class. It would have been easy not to return. I could have gone back to the things that I felt comfortable with, such as reading and writing, and left this art to those that (I supposed) were born with the natural talent to be successful. However, I really wanted to learn this skill, so I didn’t give up. Instead, I found the best dancer in the class and asked him if he would be willing to partner with me – under his tutelage, I often felt clumsy and slow, but I learned. Even if something took me 50 tries to master, while it only took someone else 5 tries, I put in the necessary time and effort. Four years later, after many more classes, I was no longer the worst dancer in the room. In order to grow, I had to make myself vulnerable. There were no shortcuts. Growth only came when I was willing to step outside of my comfort zone and take on someone that was outside my current level of ability.
guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was” or “I’m just bad at this, there’s no hope for me.” We brainstormed a list of things we could tell ourselves to change this negative self talk. Class favorites included “I guess I’m changing shells, and that’s a good thing!” or “If I were lifting weights, I’d have to “max out” to make any growth. I guess I’m “maxing out” my brain!” Now, I oftenremind students that we need to take opportunities to change our shells – stepping out of our comfort zones and going beyond our current abilities in order to grow. Even more powerful, I have noticed students reminding one another of the same thing. Recently, I watched one of my young students start to cry because he was struggling with a difficult math problem. Another student put her arm around him and said, “It’s okay – you’re just a hermit crab changing shells.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Beginner's Mind, The Learning Journal, Uncategorized, Value Process Before Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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April 28th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
It’s amazing to hear how your students have taken in the idea of navigating through change and difficulty. Making oneself vulnerable is a difficult task and one that will challenge them for the rest of their lives.
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Elenore Reply:
April 29th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I agree, and it is particularly difficult in an educational system which reinforces students self-protective attitude towards their performance. When students are being constantly judged via rigid standardized tests and performance evaluations, it is a challenge to make a compelling case for stepping outside their comfort zone. But so important! I really enjoyed what Josh had to say about this in his audio piece in the resources section: http://theartoflearningproject.org/educate/resources/value-process-before-results/
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