Tag Archives: performance

Averages and Parachute Packing

This is Part 2 of:

Average tells us nothing.

Here are some very well rounded marks of a hypothetical student in a course:

The student starts out very average with 60% on the first 3 tests:

On the next test, the student shows much greater comprehension:

Then on the final test, the student shows mastery of the PLO’s, the prescribed learning outcomes:

Now if these were tests on completely different units, unrelated to each other, you could argue that the student deserves a 70% final. However if the student was learning information that was cumulative and knowledge at the end of the course required understanding of previous work, then wouldn’t the student deserve a higher mark?

For example, if the student was learning to code, and the simple(r) concepts learned at the start of the course (that the first 3 tests were on) were required understanding to do well in the second part of the course: Shouldn’t the student’s final mark represent greater understanding of the course than the 70% final mark from the average of all 5 tests?

The Parachute Packing Analogy

I love the simplicity of this example! There are 3 students who are in a parachute packing class:

Students take 3 tests during the course.

Student A starts off strong and gets an A on the first test, gets a B on the second test, is over-confident, flounders and gets a C on their final test.

Student B is a solid B student and gets B’s on all 3 tests.

Student C struggles on the first test and gets a C, starts understanding the concepts and gets a B on the second test, then totally understands all the concepts and finishes with an A on the final test.

All 3 students have a ‘B’ average in the course.

Which student do you want to pack your parachute?

Average tells us nothing.

Part 1

It might be an exaggeration to say that it tells us nothing, but averages don’t usually give us enough information to be useful.

Individual student level: In Math class, kid gets an ‘A’ on his test on positive and negative integers. Then he gets a ‘C’ on fractions. Score averages to a ‘B’… but when the kid moves on to algebra, and most of the algebra includes solving problems with fractions, it’s unlikely the kid will do better than a ‘C’. The important information is the ‘C’ in fractions, not the ‘B’ average.

On a team level: When some team members have done amazing things and other tram members have done nothing new, measuring the average means absolutely nothing. You can’t look at averages when some team members will move and some won’t. The reality is that everybody has to be moving in the right direction, and when some are standing still, it doesn’t matter where the average is, it doesn’t matter if the average is moving slightly up.

The fact is that we are failing or we have failed if we don’t figure out where we are weakest and improve where we need it most. Athletes get this. They know that the weakest part of their performance is the area where there is the most room for improvement… this is a mindset we need on our teams to move forward.

Part 2: The Parachute Packing analogy and school grades.

Live performances

Last night we went to see a play called ‘Noises Off’ at the Stanley Theatre in Vancouver. It was a clever, funny play, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. Still, I was amazed by some of the performances. It was a play filled with physical comedy and I could see the commitment to character by the actors.

I do not enjoy singing or acting, but I’m in awe of those that love it and are good at it. I love to see performers thrive in front of an audience, to watch them feed off of the energy a good audience. When I watch my daughter act or sing I see her in her element. I see a performer.

The applause wouldn’t be enough for me to do the same performance night after night. I don’t understand the appeal. I don’t even like watching my favourite movies over again without a long gap measured in years. Live performances are things I will attend, but not anything I’d ever want to do.

I tip my hat to talented artists that feed off of a live audience. I think that our desire to entertain and be entertained is part of what makes us a unique and self aware animal. The fact that I don’t want to be an entertainer does not take away from my admiration of those that do.

In the zone

I am not a natural athlete. A great coach once said to me after a practice, “Dave, there are two kinds of people in the world, the talented and the hard workers… you are a hard worker.” He was right, and I appreciated his honesty.

I played water polo. My first year, Grade 11, I was last off the bench and easily the weakest player. I was always the slowest swimmer on the team and my stroke efficiency was awful. But I worked my butt off!

I’m pretty sure not playing any organized sports before Grade 11 hindered my abilities. I had a lot of catching up to do to transfer pickup soccer and street hockey skills, and make them worthy of competitive team play. I worked hard and got better, but I played with teammates who understood the game, and some who had laser accuracy with their shots, and many who could swim much faster and more efficiently than me.

But sometimes I could get in the zone. Sometimes the game slowed down for me and I could see more action around me. Sometimes I could see the play forming and feel the rhythm of the game. I didn’t have a switch I could turn on, I didn’t know what I could do to put myself in the zone. I didn’t have control of it.

It has been years since I was in a similar athletic situation, but in a pickup basketball game on Friday I felt it again. It was wonderful to remember what it was like to be fully present in a game. It’s a pretty special thing when you can feel yourself in the zone.

I saw it again on Saturday night. I went to a WHL (hockey) game, Vancouver vs Spokane, and in the opening minutes a Spokane player got my attention. I pointed him out to my buddy and said, ‘that one has talent’. He scored 4 points in the game. He was in the zone.

I think the truly talented players know how to get there at will. I’m not sure if it can be trained into you through hard work, if it is a learned skill, or if it is talent? Does thousands of hours of practice help create this, or do you have to be pre-loaded with a natural ability? What do the best athletes do to put themselves in the zone?

“All Those Christmas Cliche’s” by Katie Truss

This is a solo my daughter sang last night at her school Christmas Concert:
https://youtu.be/qev9te9pm_U

The gentleman in front of me gave her a standing ovation and came up to her afterwards to tell that he was a professional musician for a decade, and that he loved her presence.

It’s so wonderful to watch your child shine at something she loves to do. Music and drama have made Katie’s high school experience truly special, and last night we got to watch her in her element.

Yes, I’m playing the role of a proud father. Way to go Katie, you sounded great, and more importantly, I could tell you were truly enjoying yourself. I could see the nervousness before you started to sing, and then it all melted away and you were fully present and giving it your best. I loved it! <3

All the world is a stage

I’ve done presentations to over 1,000 kids in a gym, and to more than 200 educators at once. I don’t mind getting in front of people to speak. However, give me just three lines to read in a play and I’m a mess. The idea of acting is scary to me. That I need to worry about what I’m doing to portray a different character as well as speak is all too much for me. I don’t like doing it, and part of that comes from feeling I’m not good at it, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of my performance.

This past week my youngest daughter was in a couple plays at school. I saw one of them twice and the other one three times. The kids did an amazing job! The plays where both comedies and the performers’ timing and delivery were excellent. This always impresses me, when I see young people putting themselves ‘out there’, on the stage, putting on a character that is nothing like who they really are.

Watching them reminded me of the Shakespeare quote from his play, ‘As You Like It’:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

We are in some ways always on stage; always playing a part. I have shared this on my online profiles for well over a decade now:

A husband, a parent… An educator, a student… A thinker, a dreamer… An agent of change.

These are different parts of my life that I play. I do my best to be authentic in all of them, and I value each of these roles a lot. It is interesting that I don’t mind the role of presenter, but I fear the role as actor. I don’t mind one stage, while I loath the other.

I think this is partly why I enjoy going to a theatre, and why I enjoy watching my daughter in her plays. She gets to shine somewhere that I would struggle. She feeds off the audience where I would fear their judgement. She thrives on the laughter and applause where I would be embarrassed by it.

I can see that my daughter and I look upon a stage performance in completely different ways. This makes me think about how different my perspective must be to others perspective on life… on performing on Life’s stage. How does the idea of ‘family’ or ‘learning’ that we each have affect our performance? How does our mindset affect our skill set? My idea of acting is so different than my daughter’s. She thrives and I cower. What happens to parents that see themselves as incompetent or students that sees themselves as a stupid?

We are so different in the way we can view the same world. If I say ‘think of a dog’, one of you might think of a poodle, another might think of a pit bull; one of you might think of a pet another might think of a bite that created a lifelong fear. Our perspective is influenced greatly by our history, and while we share the same physical world, our minds construct significantly different realities.

What can we do to help those with stage fright when all the world is a stage?

Playing it up for Halloween

I live in a house with three people that are passionate about musical theatre. They can all sing, and they are all natural on the stage. They can watch and re-watch live plays over and over again. As for me? I’ll talk in front of school with over 1,000 students, and I’ve presented to hundreds of educators, but give me 3 lines to memorize and act out, and I’m a mess. I’m robotic, monotone, and completely unnatural… and I hate it! I’ll happily go to see a performance, and I truly enjoy watching talented people perform, I just don’t want to perform myself.

Then comes Halloween. Once a year I put on makeup, and I go ‘full on’. I make the most of a fun day, I share my costume online, I take photos with my secretaries, my staff, and my students. I have fun, not because I’m in my element, but because I get to revel in the enjoyment of others, and be part of something I would usually avoid for most of the rest of the year.

It always turns out to be a wonderful day. Then I wash off the makeup, I put my costume away, and I happily wait another year before I do it again.

Happy Halloween!