Being a good critical friend, to me, means being honest. This is true of my personal and professional friendships as well. There is a very fine art to being honest and giving criticism in a way that is constructive and not taken personally. This type of honesty is a very important teacher quality. We must be able to admire where our students are, but we need to coach their advancement too. This task can be particularly delicate when speaking to parents about the most important thing in their lives; their child. Speaking to parents about how their child needs to improve can be tricky. Some are ready to hear the information and know that it comes from a good place, and some are not. To help me along I have developed what I call the 'bun-burger-bun' model of criticism. Or rather, compliment, helpful criticism, compliment model. It softens the blow, gets positive attention and buy-in, the helpful information or criticism is taken with a sense of trust, and the new or reiterated compliment leaves things on a positive note. This in no way is meant to be ingenuine. I am intentional in my feedback. Also, in this way, I am giving two complements to each criticism which just feels more friendly.
One of my critical friends is someone I talk with frequently. We often look at each other's work, get clarification, give feedback. We have been very supportive of one another. Our comments are usually positive and I think this is what has fortified us throughout the program. This friend and I have a meeting coming up this week. I am hoping in this meeting that it is a bit more formal, that is to say, more critical. It is easy to say what you like about something, but that will rarely improve the product. Another critical friend is someone whose work I have admired throughout this program. I will be meeting with her early next week. I am eager to gain her help. I have been concerned that my work suffers from redundancy or is unclear. I am less concerned about spelling and punctuation as I have already taken her brilliant advice to use Grammarly to help me in this area ( I had no idea that I was supposed to be using so many hyphens). I am also wanting clarity as to what exactly is to go where on the website. Some pages seem repetitive, but I may not be understanding what content is being asked for. The idea of the critical friend is a brilliant assignment at this time, especially from a design perspective. My pages make sense to me, but I am only able to assume that they will make meaning for my audience. I few sets of fresh eyes are just what is needed. I look forward to meeting with my friends, my critical friends. We scheduled our meetings later than earlier because we wanted to ensure that there would be enough content to edit. We also wanted to take the time to read each other's work before the meeting in order to make the most of our time together. I am eager to read their work and to hear how I may improve mine.
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