Lions, and Tigers, and Gold Stars, Oh My
In this day and age when so many parents and teachers have stopped grading their kids I have started to grade myself. With everything I do I started to give myself a rating either out of 5 or 10 to let other people know how I did.
The beauty about grades is they are cut and dry. They tell you and everybody else how you did. If people ask you how it went at work today, I can say that it was a 7/10, and then they think, hmmm, I wonder why my day would only be a 6/10, and then the world is your oyster. By grading myself, you in turn will grade yourself, and then you will try harder the next day to make your day a little bit better. You see how that works.
Rating or grading gives a measure of your performance against all others in the same set of circumstances. The best part about grading is that the journey does not really matter, as all people will think and do things differently, but the result in the end is all that really matters. For example, if you are doing math and you want to add 2 and 2 together, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as your result is 4. I don't care if you picture apples in a basket, count your fingers, or toes, or just know the answer, you get a point for getting it right. On the other hand, if you try the same methods as the person who got it right but come to me with an answer of 5, then sorry my young friend, you get no points, no partial marks, try again. Then at the end of the week when little Ian has 5/5 I know he is ready to go to the next week. Then when I look at little Rex and he has 1/5 I know he is going to need a little more help. For starters I will recommend that he stops eating his glue.
So what are the tools YOU need to start grading yourself with, and improving your life. Well, I am going to tell you for the low, low price of $29.95. What? All right, during this special blogger promotion I will give you the whole set of Rating Rules and the Super Shammy for a one time offer of $19.95. Happy? No? OK, I will give you the Rating Rules, the Super Shammy, a Travel Rating Rules, and, for this one time only offer, as a free gift to you for ordering the set, a Ronco Flavour Injector for the low, low, one time price of $15.95. (Cheers erupt from the audience)
Ok, first things first, you need step one.
Step One: You need to establish a set of criteria. You have to decide what you are going to measure and then decide what factors with in that affect the grade. Are you measuring how well you played softball or how much fun a party was? Think about that because the criteria will change.
Step Two: You need to establish a standard that you are comparing your grade to. You may want to watch other people do the task really well and set them as the standard, or possibly just the average and then grade yourself against that. The grade means nothing if you can not compare it to anything else. It is great that you give yourself a 10/10 but how do you know that is actually good when you have nothing to compare it against? That leads into step 3.
Step Three: Be honest with yourself. Sometimes you are going to have to crack down on yourself and give yourself a tough grade but that is the only way you are going to get better. You could give yourself 10's all the time but it would be as useful as corn at a jello party. Think about it, be honest, and it will be your path to self improvement.
Step Four: Make it public. If someone asks you how things went. Tell them your score so they know you did really well, or there is room for much improvement. Also, as I noted in the beginning, if you grade yourself, other people will start to grade themselves and then the whole world starts to make it self accountable.
Now look at that, four easy steps to self improvement. Not eight or twelve. Just a simple four. Now parents and teachers take note because grading works. Not Pass/Fail either. I want cold hard percentages, numbers, something tangible. As for this post, I would give myself a 4/5. Strong in areas, but lacking some of the classic zip. At least I recognize that I can improve.
Oh yeah - Here is your Flavour Injector.
The beauty about grades is they are cut and dry. They tell you and everybody else how you did. If people ask you how it went at work today, I can say that it was a 7/10, and then they think, hmmm, I wonder why my day would only be a 6/10, and then the world is your oyster. By grading myself, you in turn will grade yourself, and then you will try harder the next day to make your day a little bit better. You see how that works.
Rating or grading gives a measure of your performance against all others in the same set of circumstances. The best part about grading is that the journey does not really matter, as all people will think and do things differently, but the result in the end is all that really matters. For example, if you are doing math and you want to add 2 and 2 together, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as your result is 4. I don't care if you picture apples in a basket, count your fingers, or toes, or just know the answer, you get a point for getting it right. On the other hand, if you try the same methods as the person who got it right but come to me with an answer of 5, then sorry my young friend, you get no points, no partial marks, try again. Then at the end of the week when little Ian has 5/5 I know he is ready to go to the next week. Then when I look at little Rex and he has 1/5 I know he is going to need a little more help. For starters I will recommend that he stops eating his glue.
So what are the tools YOU need to start grading yourself with, and improving your life. Well, I am going to tell you for the low, low price of $29.95. What? All right, during this special blogger promotion I will give you the whole set of Rating Rules and the Super Shammy for a one time offer of $19.95. Happy? No? OK, I will give you the Rating Rules, the Super Shammy, a Travel Rating Rules, and, for this one time only offer, as a free gift to you for ordering the set, a Ronco Flavour Injector for the low, low, one time price of $15.95. (Cheers erupt from the audience)
Ok, first things first, you need step one.
Step One: You need to establish a set of criteria. You have to decide what you are going to measure and then decide what factors with in that affect the grade. Are you measuring how well you played softball or how much fun a party was? Think about that because the criteria will change.
Step Two: You need to establish a standard that you are comparing your grade to. You may want to watch other people do the task really well and set them as the standard, or possibly just the average and then grade yourself against that. The grade means nothing if you can not compare it to anything else. It is great that you give yourself a 10/10 but how do you know that is actually good when you have nothing to compare it against? That leads into step 3.
Step Three: Be honest with yourself. Sometimes you are going to have to crack down on yourself and give yourself a tough grade but that is the only way you are going to get better. You could give yourself 10's all the time but it would be as useful as corn at a jello party. Think about it, be honest, and it will be your path to self improvement.
Step Four: Make it public. If someone asks you how things went. Tell them your score so they know you did really well, or there is room for much improvement. Also, as I noted in the beginning, if you grade yourself, other people will start to grade themselves and then the whole world starts to make it self accountable.
Now look at that, four easy steps to self improvement. Not eight or twelve. Just a simple four. Now parents and teachers take note because grading works. Not Pass/Fail either. I want cold hard percentages, numbers, something tangible. As for this post, I would give myself a 4/5. Strong in areas, but lacking some of the classic zip. At least I recognize that I can improve.
Oh yeah - Here is your Flavour Injector.
posted by Duncan McAllister at 4:01 p.m.
3 Comments:
Duncan: This is Rex. Why oh why did you have to divulge to the universe that I only got 1 out of 5? How do you think that makes me feel? Duncan you can shove that injector of yours where the sun don't shine! Rex
I think the point is to make the ratings public--that way you can receive feedback Rex ;) So here it is: Do better!
This post WAS a 4/5, but the pic of the flavour injector bumps it to a 4.5!
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