Feedback Works

Feedback Works So, as I mentioned in my previous entry, my GEL classes dont have p-sets and rarely have tests. Sweet, right? No homework sounds great! Aha! But I didnt say there wasnt any homework. Every week, several GEL students are assigned to lead activities during the Engineering Leadership Lab, and those students are assessed by members of the program (staff or GEL 2-Year students). The assessors fill out a blue card with feedback on the students performance as a leader. The assessed students then fill out a yellow card on their own time. Yes! The blue and yellow cards are actually blue and yellow! The two-letter abbreviations stand for various capabilities of engineering leadership. For example, IR means Initiative and Resourcefulness and DC means Diverse Connections./font size=1 So, why go through all these variously colored cards? Its all about feedback. Feedback and self-assessment are effective ways to track ones progress in a leadership program, when you cant really assign p-sets to test students understanding of the material. But arent we getting maybe one card a month? How does that change anything? Yes, this requires the little by little argument, where I say that with each yellow card I fill out about myself, I learn just a little more than I did before about my role as a leader. Not convinced? Well, heres another situation where a little bit of encouragement went a long way. This past weekend, MITs Cross Country Team raced at the New England Division III Regional Championships, the qualifying meet for NCAA Division III National Championships next weekend. The thing is, no matter how many times I told myself this is just another race, Regionals isnt quite any ol race. You hear Sandstorm, Shipping off to Boston, and Dont Stop Believing over the speakers. There are NCAA signs everywhere. But the biggest difference from other races? The people. So many people. These people arent racers. They are the fans, and they probably do just as much running as the athletes they are cheering./font size=1 It seems every team has its own cheering squad, and MIT is no exception. I had the pleasure of being one of the cheerers last year, and I ran around with a red M painted on my stomach like the Hester Prynne of Team Spirit yelling until my voice cracked and ringing my signature cowbell until I had to switch the grip between my frozen hands. This year, our squad did not disappoint. They brought signs. (for the record, the first one spells out ATACK MM as in ATTACK EM! not ATTACK, MM! as I originally thought. Hey, attacking is delicious!) Just a sampling of the MIT-inspired signage. Sarah 13 particularly enjoys the integral of e to the xc (abbreviation for Cross Country) slogan. Hmmm, flow charts seem to be the thing to do this season./font size=1 Our support crew took the three-hour ride in a few crowded vans, waking up earlier than they probably would have liked to on a Saturday, all to support their teammates. A fraction of the MIT cheering squad at Regionals, including their incredible signs and body paint. (L to R: Dawit 13, Andrea 14, big voice Justin 14, Alex 14, Jay 14, Kaitlin 14, Nima 14, Sherry 14, Olivia 14) photo by Olivia 14s camera/font size=1 While I dont remember many details about that day (even though it was just last weekend) its kind of hard to forget the feedback we runners got throughout the morning. Im standing at the starting line of the guys race, which at that moment has to be the most concentrated area of adrenaline in all of western Massachusetts. You hear team cheers (Tufts Universitys T-U-X-C! tends to stand out because they have a massive support group, complete with gigantic flag). You hear coaches giving their last words of encouragement (Now remember, guys). You hear teammates giving their last pep talks, which vary from this is our last race of the season or first time at Regionals to this is my last race for Cross Country ever. Theres a lot on the line. And then, suddenly, all goes quiet. Like All Quiet on the Western Massachusetts Front quiet. As the starter walks out in front of more than 300 athletes, everyone knows to shut up. Teams have cheered, coaches have made their statements and walked away, runners have grown still and now sort themselves along the single chalk line. On race day, time doesnt feel normal. What seems like two seconds later, Im warming up with the womens team. At one point, the guys race goes by and I notice Pauls REALLY close to the front. And then, woah, Roys up there too! And Dan! And theres Stephen! And Gihan and Richard are coming up, too! And there goes Joe! We knew. Something was happening. The guys win a race that at the start they were ranked to be in 9th place. They were going to Nationals. The seniors get one more race after all. Another two seconds go by, and Im a little over a mile into my own race. Photo by Olivia 14/font size=1 No, now Im halfway done. No, now its a mile left. And now time just stops. Ive been in this mile for hours. But here and there, I can hear it: M-I-T! M-I-T! M-I-T! GO MAGGIE! YOU’VE GOT THIS! A blur of bare skin and red body paint. A neon poster-what does it say? Doesnt matter, theyre just yelling for me to GO!-flashes by in a second. What seems like two hours later, Im finishing. The women get 4th, which doesnt seem quite as glamorous when compared to the guys miracle 8-km race, but we still know that we raced our best. Plus, the women’s 4th place finish is good enough to qualify for Nationals in Iowa, so the team gets another chance, along with the guys, to race hard next weekend. Anyway, had it not been for the cardinal and grey whirlwind tearing across fields and wilderness to get to the next best cheering spot, it would have been pretty difficult to convince ourselves to keep pushing the pace. Sure, we could hear the cheers for only a few seconds before we passed the MIT cheering squad, but this is a 6-km race. Add up all those strategically placed words of encouragement, and its really hard to forget why were racing. The point is, feedback is important and meaningful. The results of feedback arent always immediately tangible (like in the weekly GEL ELLs), but can be extremely motivational (like at XC Regionals). To all those who were out there cheering, screaming, waving signs, and bearing body paint proudly: your feedback definitely worked.