1.5 days with Rick Wormeli left me exhausted and rejuvinated!

Robin Williams and Steve Martin made a baby. 

Meet Rick Wormeli. 

 

(http://www.middleweb.com/6850/crazy-good-teaching-stuff/)

He dances, sings, conducts, celebrates, all in the name of elevating education. 

But what I think he does best is makes some of the most brilliant, accomplished, veteran educators SQUIRM. They shift in their chairs. They look about and roll their eyes. They search their inner-self to find something that proves he's wrong. But he's not wrong. He's been relaying the same message for 30 years and we are finally listening.

He's not saying anything out of the realm of common sense, here are a few examples, though not always direct quotes:

• The consequences for NOT doing the work is doing the work. Do not accept "zeros" from students. Make them accountable for the learning. Every profession in the world holds their employees accountable for doing their job. It becomes really uncomfortable when your boss has to ask you over and over to do something and eventually you will have a different boss that probably pays less. Natural consequences. But giving a student a zero, a pass, a get-out-of-jail free card if they don't do the work teaches them the work wasn't worth doing. Stop penalizing students' multiple attempts at mastery.
• Let them know what's going to be on the test so they can actually learn it before the test! The driver's test isn't a pop quiz. Doctors don't show up to take their boards without a clue what success looks like. The "real world" gives us the answers before we take tests. And then we learn the material and turn it into knowledge. But many teachers hope their students can memorize the material on Monday long enough to regurgitate it on Friday. They label them "A students." But there was no actual learning going on. 
• Just because colleges/universities model terrible teaching practices doesn't mean K-12 should do the same. Teaching students how to learn while we have them is the most valuable gift we can give them, and better prepares them for the factory model they'll experience in higher ed. 
• Grades don't teach or motivate students, but observation-based feedback helps them improve. Once something is grades, the learning stops. Educators must become experts in age-appropriate motivation. 
• "Nobody knows ahead of time how long it takes anyone to learn anything." (Dr. Tae). One size does not fit all. 9 months may not be long enough for some. Teachers have the obligation to let students demonstrate knowledge for as long as it takes, because, after all, isn't that why we call them teachers, to teach?! Why can't we let a student come by, anytime, and demonstrate they finally got it?
• Using an average to grade does not reflect what the student learned. Just because it's mathematically easy to calculate doesn't mean it's pedagogically correct.  
• Grades should ONLY be an indication of what students learned, not their attitudes, effort, ability to follow a dress code, amount of homework returned, or if they stayed awake in the classroom. 
• We can learn without grades, but we can't learn without feedback. 
• If we make learning the goal AND the reward, there's no reason for students to cheat. 
• The list goes on....

I listened to him for 3 hours on one afternoon and 6 hours the next day and felt like I drank from a fire-hydrant. But as I sat and listened to others in the room mull over what he'd presented, listened to some justify why their way was still correct, murmur about the potential impact this would have on their work, I realized he is doing exactly what needs to be done. That is, he's telling people hard truths about their education malpractice, from an national and international pulpit, backed by data, research, and a mountain of other experts. 

The message that most resonated with me was this: 

Kids learn from recovering from the mistake, not being labeled by it.