This week’s prompt:
What do you think is the biggest mistake(s) teachers make?
I think the best way to go about answering this would be to reflect on many of the mistakes that I’ve made in my own practice.
1. Feeling the need to be in control.
I know in my first year of teaching, I made such a concentrated effort to make sure everyone was following the rules all the time and that they would definitely know if they fell out of line. If things got too loud, I felt I was losing control. If students starting goofing around, I felt I was losing control. If students didn’t turn in their work, I felt I was losing control. I loved the feeling of being in control and feeling I had a handle on everything. I figured if I was in control, it would be better for everyone. I thought good teaching meant you did have control.
Since then, I embrace a little bit more chaos. I still am big on routines, procedures, consequences, and accountability, but I realized that the more freedom I give to students to direct themselves, the more they take that responsibility seriously.
2. Taking themselves a bit too seriously
I find that laughing off many mild distractions is the quickest redirection. I have a pretty witty 1st period this year and laugh more in that class than I really ever have. I do like working with middle schoolers in that regard; I’ve found that they get my humor and I appreciate theirs more so than when I was working with 5th graders. Laughing with students can also be really bonding.
3. Worrying too much about being liked
4. Focusing too much on the right answer and less on the process (in math)
Students would get frustrated and say ‘oh man I thought I got it wrong because you were asking me about it‘ to which I responded ‘and it forced you to really defend your thinking and convince me (and yourself) that you were on the right track mathematically.’
5. Not taking time to reflect
These past two years have been really beneficial in my practice to have a written document (and sometimes video) of what has worked and what hasn’t. I’ve had a few ‘oh yeah! I forgot that assignment was kind of a mess’ moments this year from reading my reflections last year. I’m wondering how useful this year’s reflections will be since most of these are more thematic and not as many actual reflections on lessons. Hm…
6. Trying to be a purist of any pedagogy
Never say anything a kid can say (see more about this HERE)
and
Once you tell a student they have the right answer, most of their thinking on the problem will stop
Taking these ideas to the extremes has led to some frustrating moments in class. I’ve had students so close to an answer and continually making one small mistake. I felt ‘unable’ to tell them what they’re doing wrong because I’m ‘robbing them of the ability to figure it out on their own.’ Many times that’s valuable. Sometimes it’s annoying and unproductively frustrating for both parties. Also, responding to students who ask ‘is this right‘ with ‘hm, what do you think’ can eventually lead to a lot of wasted time in class over concepts that students do understand. It was kind of funny a few times when students in their frustration said ‘whatever, it’s right, I’m moving on.’
I’ve seen this with flipped classrooms as well, where teachers treat it as all-or-nothing. I have about two lessons a year that are ‘flipped’ since it makes more sense for those lessons.
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