I have come to fall in love with teaching in Catholic schools. What are YOU in love with?...

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything." - Pedro Arrupe

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Learning (Not Hiding) from Mistakes

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself."
~ Alan Alda

Getting students to take risks - no matter how small (or big) - is hard! It's human nature, I suppose, to resort to doing tasks and activities at which we can succeed with little or no effort. If it's too hard and/or there is a chance of failure, forget about it. 

But little do they realize within those mistakes and challenges there is so much to learn...

How do we, as educators (or parents or adults in general), help to change their mindset? Shouldn't that be one of our number one priorities - getting kids to take risks? Failure (or a mistake, if you will) to an extent is a good thing...provided you take time to learn from that mistake and proceed to approach it at a later time with a new perspective or plan of attack.

Well, that sure is easier said than done for me. I was one of those kids growing up who was definitely afraid of failure - from saying the wrong answer in class to not placing at a track meet to cantoring at Mass - you name it, and if there was one ounce of a chance I might fail, let's just say I thought twice about it...hard. I avoided my fears and insecurities with failure by avoiding those circumstances all together (or at least temporarily). Way to go, Kelly. And, I hate to admit it, but not much good came out of my hesitance.

But some good can come out of it now if I share my experience with my students. I need to model for them in the classroom that taking chances and making mistakes are the only ways we can grow as individuals and as a class over the course of this year. And I need to make sure I am helping to provide an environment in which they feel safe if they fail - that no one is there to judge or make fun of them.

This may sound bizarre, but I'm making mistakes (and learning from them) one of my priorities in the classroom. Are you ready to take some risks and make some mistakes too?

Let's remember not to beat ourselves up too much, though. Life's a learning process, after all...

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