My New Years resolution to flip flop

The New Year brings, of course, New Year’s resolutions. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to become more of a flip-flopper. When I have told this to people so far, they look at me like I am crazy. There is such a negative connotation to changing your mind—but after all, isn’t that what learning is all about?

Ten years ago, when someone told me that they were allowing their students to retake quizzes, I thought they were crazy. “Why should we allow them to retake the quiz?” was my quickly retorted. “If they do badly on the quiz, then they should study harder the next time.”

As I started to open my mind to the idea, I realized that it does not matter when the student learns the material as long as they learn it. Sometimes, factors beyond their students’ control impact their performance, so giving them another chance seems reasonable. This is one example of how flip-flopping benefits student achievement.

Recently a friend of mine asked, what is more important, the situation (class environment) or the student? If we think a student is lazy, is that student just lazy in my class? Is that student not good at math, or are they just not good at math in my class? Can a change in the situation totally change the student's performance?

These questions are what I am going to try to think through this year. I am going to ask former and current students about the characteristics of a classroom that allow them to reach peak performance. I hope that some of these ideas will get me to flip my previous beliefs and allow my students to become more successful.

The challenge for all of us is to open our minds to change and realize that new information can lead to new decisions. I am hoping that at the end of the year, when I tell people that I am a flip-flopper they will congratulate me.

There are many students and teachers who read this; I would be very interested in your thoughts.