Monday, 29 December 2014

Honest Feedback: A follow-up!

So ASid handed in his assignment and his teacher, Mr Ck, said, "Thank you", and that was it! Did the teacher get a chance to read ASid's reflection? If he does, what should he do? I would like to know in the New Year.

Meanwhile, ASid also wrote a few "Thank You" notes to some of his teachers. He wrote them in English, in French and ‎in the heritage language he is learning. He also wrote one for a neighbour who is generous to the boys. ASid was also very honest in his notes. I happened to read the first line of one note quite by accident and didn't really want to know the rest. He actually wrote something like "I was really disappointed in the teacher I had last year and I am glad I got you this year!" What is with this child of mine?!

Anyways, 2 of his teachers apparently appreciated his cards more than the gifts. Our neighbour also expressed delight at such a well written note! Must be something not so bad about honesty?!
 

Thursday, 11 December 2014

Feedback: Raw vs Censored

Following is what ASid wrote for a “Reflection” assignment:

I believe as a group, we could have done a better job. Some problems were that our leader, C, did not participate at all and was instead fooling around with her friends, and if she came our way, she wasn't on task at all. If anything, C was an annoyance, disrupting our work, and making it difficult to work together as a unit. Another issue was one of our other group members, T, was slightly inactive during practising, and he often went to socialize, or even buy something from the cafeteria! My fellow members, H, and L highly contributed to our dance warm-up, providing valuable feedback, and criticism to our work. It was mainly L, H, and I who carried the burden of bringing the group together, and choreographing the entire dance, which was also cut off! It seems as if we were not allowed to perform our whole dance warm-up, which would've lasted for around 6-8 minutes, but we were cut down to only 2-4 minutes due to the lack of participation in our practising by our other two members, which hindered the possibility to do our entire dance as it would look bizarre for only 3/5 members to actually do the moves. Another reason that our dance was cut short was because for some reason, you (Mr Ck) said we had to stop our dance as you said that you have seen enough. I felt you gave us somewhat of an unfair marking, as like mentioned before, team members C and T did not participate or help, and since you didn't let us perform the whole dance, you did not evaluate us on the whole dance warm-up. I request for new groups, for future dances, as my current group greatly hinders the capabilities of H, L, and I.

There are days I wish I could express myself that way! Unfortunately, such honesty does not work. It could be construed as being bitter and comes across as ASid is a whining team player. So, I worked with ASid to come up with the following:

I believe as a group, we could have done a better job. Our biggest challenge was a lack of leadership.  Also, only 3 out of 5 team members actively contributed their time and effort to the dance warm-up.  I appreciate 2 of my fellow members who provided valuable feedback, and criticism to our work. It was the 3 of us who carried the burden of bringing the group together, and choreographing the entire dance, which was also cut off! It seems as if we were not allowed to perform our whole dance warm-up, which would've lasted for around 6-8 minutes, but we were cut down to only 2-4 minutes due to the lack of participation in our practising by our other two members, which hindered the possibility to do our entire dance as it would look bizarre for only 3 out of 5 members to actually do the moves. Also, we were asked to stop our dance half way and it also resulted in an unfair marking! As mentioned before, 2 team members did not participate or help, and since we were not allowed to perform the whole dance, we were not evaluated on the whole dance warm-up. I request for a new group, for future dances, as my current group greatly hinders the capabilities of some of us.

As much as I wanted ASid to hand in the reflection as is, I felt the need to teach him diplomacy. I wonder if his teacher, Mr Ck, would have accepted the minor accusation of him being unfair?! Why do they give team work and have it evaluated?! Adults struggle in the real world in team situations. Why burden kids with it?!

I wonder what will happen with this “Reflection” assignment. Stay tuned…
 

Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Second Best

The other day Hans said that I was the best mom in the whole wide world. Instead of graciously accepting the compliment, I proceeded to say something like this: “You know Hans…there is a kid somewhere out there who thinks that his or her mom is the best mom too!”

There was a momentary pause before Hans said: “It’s OK Momley…you can be the second best then!”