Contemplating "Easy"

Planning a strategy: "Let's do that: it's easy."
Planning a college schedule: "Sign up for easy teachers."
Enrolling in distance learning: "The on-line procedure is easy."
Commenting on character: "His date was easy."
Commenting on a therapist: "Talking with her is easy."
Commenting on an assessment: "The test was easy; I knew all the answers."

"Easy" is a four-letter word with significant meanings, inferences, and interprtations. "Easy" was listed as one of the most influential, persuasive words in the American English language in a Yale University study. "Easy" is often confused with "simple," yet what is simple is not necessarily easy. My teaching has been called "easy" and my courses have been called "easy."

I have read the comments my college students wrote about my teaching on a professor-rating website . The scores of the day are 4.8/5.0 for quality and 4.5/5.0 for easiness. Not bad. I am not complaining. Actually, I am humbled with such affirming evaluation. The quality score represents the standards I expect while the easiness score represents my philosophy of teaching and learning.

Here's the deal: good teaching offers multiple experiences for students to learn readily. Good teaching requires hard preparation and comfortable delivery. Good learning is easy when it finally happens, yet to get to the easy part, the learning adventure may take the student through multiple experiences--some of which are frustrating and hard. Each experience is an opportunity to learn if the student is ready and able. Individualization, personalization, and collaboration blended with lots of encouragement and empathy create the environment for learning. Our lives intersect and coincide, and life sometimes "gets in the way" of the syllabus. Fortunately, lots of laughter comes our way, too.

I do my best to remove obstacles and power plays from my courses. I use target dates rather than deadlines to keep us on track and on schedule without penalties. I incorporate a "catch-up" day each semester and "transition summaries" between training dates. Reflection moments and stretch breaks allow numb brains to receive, retain, and retrieve information and transform it into learning. (Researchers tell us sleeping well overnight after a potential learning experience will anchor the learning in our memory.) I encourage students to obtain peer reviews of their work, to repeat a given assignment to their own satisfaction, and then to submit the work for my feedback and consultation. (Peer teaching has been shown to be a significant learning technique for all the students involved.) Once the student achieves the "C average" or "satisfactory" level of performance in a skill or completion of a task, as determined by the college or corporation,the student may elect to pursue mastery voluntarily in another experience with the same assignment. Being part of that pursuit is exciting. My experience has shown that most adults want to achieve excellence once they watch their skill level rise above their former self-assessment. Their self-esteem also rises, and their possiblities broaden and deepen.

I am proud to be a "good" teacher--a "good and easy" teacher. I am pleased to assist students in their learning adventures in my college classrooms and corporate training rooms. My students inspire this life-long teacher to be a life-long learner as well. Make life and learning easy for yourself today: give yourself another chance to achieve the goal you have not attained yet. Clarify the standards for performance, get guidance and encouragement, remove the obstacles, and pursue your own excellence! It is easier than you think.

The Word-Mimic

My granddaughter is a word-mimic. Most children are, of course, as they absorb and internalize language skills.
One day she attended a board meeting for a non-profit association with me. As the finance director, I had a report to give and I planned to do it quickly and excuse myself. Grandma was on duty today while the parents worked because child-care arrangements changed at the last minute. It happens. We arrived with crayons, paper, and books to pacify my three-year-old for 10 to 15 minutes. The board spent the first three minutes attending to Addie--cute, adorable, smart, precious Addie. Then, down to business: the new president changed the agenda items' sequence for reports.
After almost an hour of entertaining herself on the cold, tile floor of the conference room Addie said she had to go to the bathroom. I excused us and we went across the hall. A few minutes later, we returned to wait my turn and endure more discussion items. After 12 more minutes, Addie said she needed to go again. I took hold of her hand again and off we went across the hall. We entered the restroom, she turned to look at me and said, "I done now, Gramma." Having been a parent, I know this can happen with a child recently potty-trained. Back to the conference room. Four minutes later: "Gramma, I poopy."
I took a deep breath as my colleagues muffled their giggles, took her hand again, and escorted her to the restroom. Just inside the open door, she announced, "I done now." This was not fun or funny now. I marched her back to the conference room, asked to give my report out of order, and ushered her out to the car. As I buckled her in the carseat, I gave her a piece of my mind and some choice words: "Dammit, Addie, don't tell me you have to use the bathroom when you don't. I know the meeting was too long. I wanted it over, too, but I was not in charge. I am not happy. When we get home we will talk about this some more." She held her reserve and paced her words carefully, "Gramma, I dammit, too!"
Hearing those words startled me into realizing how our words in anger and frustration infiltrate our relationships. Tranferring that realization to the workplace suggests that when the powers that be dictate without regard to the employees' needs rather than collaborate and encourage in non-emergency situations, we may find the subordinates exercising their personal power in disengagement, absenteeism, or sabotage. Addie is smart! She will be a formidable negotiator.