Who am I?  I would like to think that I am a constantly changing entity, and in some ways that may be true, but the essential character traits that dominate my personality have been there since childhood.  I realized this recently, though not for the first time, when my older sister sent me a book from my past, a personal dictionary of all things,and I had inscribed the title page with, “Patricia’s Special Words.”  Even as a child, I valued the WORDS we have at our disposal to communicate.

Teaching has shaped me.  From my childhood, my go-to game was “school.”  Ah, my poor siblings and cousins who became reluctant participants in my obsession.  Interestingly what fascinated me then in “playing school” was creating Report Cards for my charges.  Now, however, the process of grading, particularly final grading, has become my least favorite aspect of teaching.  I don’t do it particularly well either.  At the college level, I would like the students to grade themselves for the most part.  From the start of a new semester, the responsibility for the growth that each student would like to see should be at the forefront of his or her goal-setting.

One of my colleagues explained that he let the students grade themselves after discussing standards and assignments clearly.  This appeals to me.  I am tired of being the one with the red pen.  I may well be the “expert” in the room, but that I aspire to read and write as well as I possibly can does not equal being a “grader of all things read or written.”  I want students to grow and work hard to do so.  Now how to make that happen?  Perhaps I will find the key at some point, but until that happens, I will use any combination to unlock the best in each of us—teachers and learners all.