The Kids Are the Power

If you use social media to find out what educators are talking about, undoubtedly you’ve seen a post by Tyler Rablin.  In Episode 22, Tyler and I talk about the importance of building students’ confidence for learning while being their whole selves.  Currently he teaches high school ELA and is an education consultant in Central Washington.  During our conversation, Tyler shared a number of great perspectives that can help teachers to remember what the true focus of schooling is: to help students learn and grow.  As a teaser to his forthcoming book, Hacking Student Motivation Through Assessment, Tyler shared how he's grown as an educator.   Through the process of digging deeply into Standards-Based Grading, he began to better understand his teaching and assessment processes.  It's not just about data collection and being able to have a number to signify the completion of a task.  Instead, it's about really helping students to access the learning from wherever they are and understand their own growth and development over time.  Today, his students often choose different ways to demonstrate their learning, which they document with a Choice Memo.  Responding to my question about time limitations and the need to cover the curriculum, Tyler stated, “What I’ve found over the course of my career [is that]  most often the limitations I put on what I can do are my own limitations.”  We talked at length about the need to humanize ourselves and our students as we engage in the teaching and learning process, which is not nearly as neat and linear as research would suggest.  In the end, Tyler said, “When a building gets behind [the notion] that agency is centered around what kids need…that’s where powerful and important things can get done for kids.”  I couldn't have said it better myself!