How do I help my students find a healthy balance between effort, stress, and success? I read this article on facebook today and it got me thinking about what I can do to help my students take a step back when they’re being hard on themselves. I started wondering if a constant emphasis on effort stemming from growth mindset and grit might have something to do with the worrisome pride I notice in my students when they talk about late nights, being over-worked, and getting upset over A’s and A-‘s because they weren’t A+’s. (more…)
failure
1st Quarter Reflections
Being a first year teacher feels a bit like being a college freshman. I’m all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, full of energy, enthusiasm, ideas, starry-eyed about the opportunities, and filled with complete joy. My Facebook friends are tired of my “I love my job” posts. When I visit the faculty room for tea, I can’t help but share every new and exciting discovery I’ve made with the poor teacher who really just needs to make some quick photocopies and get out. I can’t help myself – this blog is (quite shamelessly) a way for me to channel that energy.
My first quarter has been full of experiments, errors, and exciting ideas. This has been terrific for me, but I’m worried that my students are feeling a little whiplashed.
Learning from Failure – Practicing What I Preach
At the beginning of the year, I gave my students a very strong talk about the importance of failure and learning from mistakes. I told them that I hoped they all had the opportunity to fail, to make mistakes, so they would gain the much deeper understanding that comes from correcting those mistakes. I even gave us a strong class motto: “cadere est crescere”- to fail is to grow (far more elegant in Latin).
So I cannot wait to tell them on Monday that I have just had that opportunity.
Teaching Latin 