“How many opportunities should students have to retake a summative  assessment?”

This was my question to my college kids last night. This was the first response.

“In an ideal world, we could give them many opportunities, but…”

I stopped him there.

“Why can’t it be an ideal world? It’s your world. It will be as ideal as you make it.”

As ideal as we make it.

I let my college kids in on a little secret last night. Grading is fiction, with different stories playing out in tens of thousands of classrooms across the nation. Some stories are fantastic. Some stories are horrific. And most fall somewhere in between. But each story is penned by the teacher. With some margin of exception, it is the teacher alone who narrates and thus dictates the grading story. He establishes the setting, sets the mood, creates the conflict, develops the characters, advances the plot, reveals the climax, and determines the final outcome. And no story is the same, each an original work. We are the masters of this domain. We pen each kid’s story, each kid’s life.

True. We do.

With a stroke of my pen, I can vanquish a kid’s dream with a late-work-policy, or I can fuel her hopes with a retake opportunity. I can make her feel like she’s on top of the world, or I can make her feel like she’s trapped in a dungeon. I can give her the courage to face the dragon, or I can send her into the lair with no sword or shield. I can. I do.

I do.

We do.

We write thousands of stories every day. Every day. We hold the pen. But we also hold the kid. Real, live kids with stories and destinies beyond our pages, but our pens are mighty and far-reaching, and one page, one sentence, one word can carry grave consequences for our young ones. But.

But on a different page, in a different sentence, from a different word they can carry wondrous consequences. We write. We choose.

And whether we succumb to and project the realities of the world without, or we champion the ideals and dreams of a world within, we tell the tale.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…continue or Story Map work.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Tuesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.