Response to Student Blog: Mistakes

Teachers are supposed to be superheros, who live in the school they teach in and know everything! Right? But oops, you said Calculus instead of Copernicus. And you hear those little giggles. The fear of failure and mistakes is a constant in education because of this ingrained concept of teachers being "know-it-alls." The landscape for education is changing and now, especially, it is critical to make mistakes and let your students, staff, etc. know that mistakes are good! Mistakes mean you are learning and building on past knowledge.


A classmate of mine, Amy, touched on this key concept of making mistakes. Her post (https://bibliodidaskalosity.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/learning-from-mistakes/) resonated with me completely because as the curriculum standards have changed and the learning outcomes require students to be more proactive in their learning, us as professionals have had to navigate this new landscape. What really caught my attention was her statement about the actual product versus how it is communicated through the actual lesson. [note: her post image is of a cake with a flopped message and her analogy is a reference] "The cake may look bad, but that doesn’t mean it tastes bad." Change is always difficult and as students are sponges, if they see you as the professional working through something you are uncomfortable with or do not have all the answers for, it provides students the opportunity to fail or make a mistake and know they are not in trouble. Instead, it is grounds to create an environment where students understand it helps to develop essential skills. I personally love that she admitted that she made a mistake, but worked through it and it benefited her students in the end. If we are able to act as role models, we need to teach our students that mistakes are okay to make and its not a negative thing. Realistically, most inventions are developed by accident. Without failure, there is no success.

Amy's post further represents how students growth in academics is changed when they realize mistakes are okay. "Intelligence testing for the kids praised for their effort increased by 30% while the kids praised for their intelligence dropped by 20%," (Price-Mitchell). Getting outside of the comfort zone is critical, and even though it is scary at times and very much so uncomfortable - as Amy describes - the results are amazing! I still marvel at the fact that all the curriculum focuses on testing as a measure of intelligence and a marker for where they are going to end up rather than their ability to be innovative and complete learn by doing modules, so a show of praise for effort is much more warranted for success than those able to merely memorize facts. That "Ah-ha" moment has always been something I have strive to help my students out with and gives me the most joy out of being a teacher and soon to be teacher librarian. I am glad it is not just me who has difficulty with making mistakes as an educator. Let's drop the stigma of mistakes as a negative and build on the concept of innovation at its finest. 



Ashworth, A. Learning from Mistakes [web blog]. Accessed July 14 2017. https://bibliodidaskalosity.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/learning-from-mistakes/

Laufenberg, D. (November 2010). How to Learn? From mistakes. [Video File with transcript]. TEDxMidAtlantic.  Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach

Newland, A. (2012). Good teachers learn from their mistakes. [web blog]. Teacher Network: Teacher blog. https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/feb/04/teachers-mistakes-classroom-control
 
Price-Mitchell, M. (2011). Mistakes Improve Children's Learning: Helping Kids See the Good Side of Getting Things Wrong. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-moment-youth/201109/mistakes-improve-childrens-learning