In the hit TV series Breaking Bad the high school chemistry teacher turned meth cooker protagonist, Walter White, receives a crucial piece of business advice from Gustavo, a fast food restaurant mogul turned drug kingpin. Gustavo explains to Walter that he made a lot of mistakes when he started his illicit business, but he never made the same mistake twice - of course, the most obvious irony is that most of us would agree that getting involved in the cooking and trafficking of methamphetamine is a mistake of titanic proportions. The questionable nature the Gustavo's and Walter's business ventures aside, his advice resonates for anyone who goes into the field of teaching.You will make mistakes. Even the most gift teachers have "off days". Like any veteran teacher, I have made more than my fair share of mistakes; no amount of creative lesson planning, organization, or student-teacher rapport, will fortify you against your own miscalculations and/or flawed judgement. Not a unit goes by that I do not have a lesson which could be scientifically classified as a flop. From time to time I will lose my patience with a student, or a fellow faculty member. Like many young teachers, I used to allow every misstep to slowly eat away at me, even to the point where my stomach would feel queasy. It did not take long for me to understand that not only was this detrimental to my physical and mental health, but it also had negative impact on my teaching. Spending so much time and energy chastising myself, I was not able to devote the necessary time and energy to learn from my mistakes and adapt to avoid the same mistake in the future.
For some reason, most individuals find it easier to accept and move on from mistakes in their personal lives, yet they continue to mull over mistakes in their career. The two pieces of advice that are central to this post are, like most great pieces of advice, obvious. I do not believe I am telling you anything that not already inherently understood by the vast majority of educators, it is just putting these into practice that tends to be the major stumbling block.
First, learn from your errors. For example, in my Honors English IV classes we have a brief unit on the use of figures of speech and symbolism in religious texts. The first time I presented the unit to my classes I used the archetypal format for teaching literature - I provided a brief mini-lecture on the background for each religion, we read the excerpts together in class, and then as a class or in small groups we identified and discussed the use of of symbols and figures of speech. This more traditional response fell flat - belly flop off of a high dive flat.
I had to re-evaluate the purpose of the unit and find a way to engage the students. I took the mistakes from the first time and redeveloped the unit so that instead of teacher guided lessons, it involved having the students to work in groups to research, analyze, and present information for one particular text. This allowed me to skip the background mini-lecture and focus my lectures on ideas that would evoke deeper analysis and evaluation. For example, I drew connections between the use of figures of speech/symbols and the psychological concept of schema theory, which explains how we use existing knowledge in order to develop new concepts. The result is that the current version of the unit requires more student involvement and use a higher level cognitive abilities. This did not require a sudden bolt of inspiration from the heavens, just a desire to not repeat an earlier misstep.
Whether it is in the planning and delivery of your lessons, or dealing with student discipline, or interacting with your peers/administrators/parents; recognize your mistakes and determine what you can do better next time, which leads to the second piece of advice...
Do not dwell on mistakes. As a cross country and track coach I often deal with runners who have had a race where they did not meet the expectations they have set for themselves, and I make the same inquires every time, "Why do you think you did not run as well this time? What can you do differently to avoid this in the future?" Once they respond to the questions, which require self-evaluation and goal setting, I end with, "Okay. Now put this race behind you and focus on the next race."
Once you learn from your mistake do not let them slowly consume you. One way to begin to jettison the excess baggage of past mistakes is to apologize. If you loose you cause difficulty for or lose your temper with a student/class/co-worker, admit your error, explain why it happen, and sincerely apologize - this make you human and "clears the air". If the offense is only against yourself, apologize the yourself. This may sound overly simplistic, especially in the world of reality television and Hollywood dramas (both real and fictional), but most people just want you to admit when you have wronged them and work to make sure it doesn't happen again.
This advice works well for small mistakes, but there are major, career changing/ending mistake that are not so easy to "brush off". In the fourth and final post of this series, "Self-evaluation: Asking Difficult Questions", I will tackle these far more detrimental, yet easily avoidable, mistakes.
Next up, Keeping Your Sanity - Part 3: "Take the Sacred Cows Off of Their Pedestals"
I had to re-evaluate the purpose of the unit and find a way to engage the students. I took the mistakes from the first time and redeveloped the unit so that instead of teacher guided lessons, it involved having the students to work in groups to research, analyze, and present information for one particular text. This allowed me to skip the background mini-lecture and focus my lectures on ideas that would evoke deeper analysis and evaluation. For example, I drew connections between the use of figures of speech/symbols and the psychological concept of schema theory, which explains how we use existing knowledge in order to develop new concepts. The result is that the current version of the unit requires more student involvement and use a higher level cognitive abilities. This did not require a sudden bolt of inspiration from the heavens, just a desire to not repeat an earlier misstep.
Whether it is in the planning and delivery of your lessons, or dealing with student discipline, or interacting with your peers/administrators/parents; recognize your mistakes and determine what you can do better next time, which leads to the second piece of advice...
Do not dwell on mistakes. As a cross country and track coach I often deal with runners who have had a race where they did not meet the expectations they have set for themselves, and I make the same inquires every time, "Why do you think you did not run as well this time? What can you do differently to avoid this in the future?" Once they respond to the questions, which require self-evaluation and goal setting, I end with, "Okay. Now put this race behind you and focus on the next race."
Once you learn from your mistake do not let them slowly consume you. One way to begin to jettison the excess baggage of past mistakes is to apologize. If you loose you cause difficulty for or lose your temper with a student/class/co-worker, admit your error, explain why it happen, and sincerely apologize - this make you human and "clears the air". If the offense is only against yourself, apologize the yourself. This may sound overly simplistic, especially in the world of reality television and Hollywood dramas (both real and fictional), but most people just want you to admit when you have wronged them and work to make sure it doesn't happen again.
This advice works well for small mistakes, but there are major, career changing/ending mistake that are not so easy to "brush off". In the fourth and final post of this series, "Self-evaluation: Asking Difficult Questions", I will tackle these far more detrimental, yet easily avoidable, mistakes.
Next up, Keeping Your Sanity - Part 3: "Take the Sacred Cows Off of Their Pedestals"
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