"Why bother creating our own goals," a
student asked me once, "when we're already told what it means to
succeed in school? Aren't we just supposed to get A's?"
Being
able to set and achieve goals is important in every endeavor: sports,
organizations, self-improvement. Even though they know their roles and
agree on the idea of winning, for example, Duke basketball coach Mike
Krzyzewski requires his players to set goals for themselves and the team
each season. In Coach K's words,
“Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure—especially
when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also
sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation.”
When
you share your goals you're sharing ideas that inform and inspire your
colleagues. These goals will form the basis for your Learning Plan over
the spring semester, so please read
this post and get the job done.
Keep
something else in mind. Unlike players on a basketball team, you are
being allowed, encouraged, and required to change the game itself. Why
not analyze a Russian novel by comparing it with its modern film
adaptation? Go see
Anna Karenina and then think about how to
demonstrate what you know in such a way that it will help the AP
community. Want to create a robot that writes Russian novels? You can
do that too.
If you are still thinking of this as a
high school course to be gamed, find your closest friend and ask her to
roll up a newspaper and smack you on the nose with it. (*If it doesn't
work the first time, ask a friend who reads the newspaper on a
computer.) (**In this day and age, I should probably point out that
this is not an actual instruction.
Hands are not for hitting.
Baseball bats are, but that isn't really relevant or appropriate here
and now I find myself wondering how Montaigne ever righted the ship once
he got off on one of these tangents.) If you're one of those people
who cut corners last semester and thought we didn't notice, she will be
doing you a favor. It's better that you get your act together in
private before we get started, before everyone sees what you do all the
time, before 70% of your course grade is determined by your learning
network.
Last semester was rehearsal. This is showtime.
More on how to achieve your goals and develop your community of critique tomorrow.
