Learn from your mistakes Part 2

As I reflected on my blog from yesterday, I realized I should have kept going.  This idea of being willing to learn from our mistakes is a concern for adults, too.  I often interact with people who are not comfortable with the idea that they might mess something up.  Even adults learn from mistakes, though!  Just ask my family about the time when I tried to substitute Frosted Flakes for Corn Flakes when making baked chicken.  Big Mistake!  Lesson Learned!

It is heartbreaking for me when I hear teachers say that they are afraid to try something new or innovative because they don't want to mess it up.  These are the same people that we desperately need to send the message to students that mistakes are good, that we need to take risks, and that we can only learn when we try something new and especially when we try something new that doesn't work the first time!  It makes me think of the time when I had a teacher who took a risk and tried something new when I was observing her.  The lesson did not go as she intended.  The students were confused, she had to stop the lesson and pivot.  She admitted to the students that her lesson did not go as she had hoped and that the next day they would need to re-visit the lesson.  She was absolutely shocked when we had our post conference and I had marked her as excellent.  I pointed out to her that she challenged herself to try something new, she recognized that she needed to make a change, she communicated with her students and made herself vulnerable, and she reflected on the lesson in order to make plans for the next day.  Then, I said, "That is excellent teaching and your students are fortunate to have a teacher who is continuing to learn."

As leaders in the schools, it is our job to not only encourage our teachers to take risks and make mistakes, but insist on it.  I was fortunate to have a principal many years ago who let my co-worker and I try something new with our students in their writing.  We were not happy with the form writing that we were teaching in order to prepare students for the state assessment.  Instead, we focused on getting thoughts on paper in any form, emphasizing creativity and descriptive writing with no emphasis on structured five paragraph essays.  By the end of the year, our kids were producing beautiful writing and they loved to write.  Unfortunately our test scores did not reflect the improvement at all, in fact the scores dropped.  We took a risk and we learned that we needed to find a healthy balance in our writing instruction.  Our principal responded with nothing but encouragement and praise for challenging ourselves to do what we felt was best for our kids.  From that moment forward, I was never afraid to make a mistake in my classroom because I knew I had support and I knew that my students would benefit in the end.

Let's work together to encourage risk taking and celebrate the learning that occurs from making mistakes.  Of course, it is okay to emphasize the fact that while mistakes is encouraged,  it is a mistake to keep making the same mistake!