COVA: the Journey

When exactly do you think students lose it? You know what I’m talking about - that love of learning, natural curiosity, and zest for knowledge that they have in early childhood?  Is it Kindergarten when they are introduced to being assessed on how much of the alphabet and how many colors they know? Or maybe 3rd grade with the introduction of standardized testing?  My earliest memory of having anxiety about school was in 2nd grade, when It became very important to me to have more SRA kits (yes I’m a child of the 70’s) done than anyone else in my class.  Why? Because for the first time I equated academic success with personal worth.  In today’s classrooms, it’s not SRA, but the competition is still there, whether it's AR points or numbers on a report card.  
The COVA framework has impacted my learning tremendously! As an adult in technology I’ve attended workshops and conferences where I’ve been expected to participate in a similar fashion, but that was only for a few hours, maybe a day.  The concept was not completely foreign, but having to commit to this learning style for the duration of the program was pretty overwhelming.  That being said, I love the freedom of choosing the path of my innovation plan, the ownership of developing the plan from start to finish, and the voice I have in the design of my e-portfolio and the way in which I present my ideas.  I hope to be able to truly adopt this method in my own interactions with students.  By implementing COVA through my PBL innovation plan,  maybe I can keep another student from agonizing over the SRA leaderboard.