Mistakes… Or Learning Opportunities?

Have you even been in a situation where you did your best, and still failed?  Being a teacher, I’ve often faced situations like that. I vividly recall one lesson that went completely awry. I had everything planned. I knew the concept I was teaching. I thought my presentation and assisgnment to the students was spot-on. Then, I got the work back from the students and recognized that I was way off.

These types of situations come up. The key is, how do we respond to them? Do we decide to dismiss the efforts altogether and not set the goal at all? Or, do we learn from the situation and redirect our aim at being a better teacher?

The truth is that not everything is under our control. We may organize every detail of a field trip to perfection, but when it rains, it can ruin the day. As we go on making mistakes, we learn. We learn to come up with an equally exciting back up plan, or carry umbrellas. We learn that a child is influenced by so many factors besides school, and start keeping all of that in mind while we work with them on their skill development.

The great thing is that, we always have another chance. There’s always another student to reach out to. And the only way we’ll stop growing is if we decide to shut down when we make a mistake and not try again.

My question for you this week:

• How have you used mistakes as an opportunity to learn?