I'll be honest... for every one good thing I do as a teacher, I can name at least 10 things that go wrong (with my help of course.) I was talking to my mentor (Rochelle Gutiérrez) about how we only ever share things about our teaching when its sunshine and roses... or things about our classroom that show we're wonderful teachers. But I think this is the trap that we fell into as students and continue to perpetuate. Failing is not REALLY part success and if you ARE failing, you should keep that secret until you've succeeded. But anyone who examines that statement knows how bogus it is. If we really think failure is going to lead to improvement, then we should be sharing them with others. Just know, fellow teachers, you are not alone.
Well here goes, my failure. Today. In one my classes, I noticed that student motivation was down. They were in class for a looong time (block period) and it was just work work work. But I was frustrated. The kinds of things I was asking my students to do was within their capabilities but they just didn't want to do anything. I noticed one particular group make almost no progress, and in that particular group, a student who appeared to me to be doing nothing most of the time. After 15 minutes, I finally went up to the group, to the student, and said, "Ok, I'm going to ask you to move seats. You're clearly not doing anything." S: No. And there it was. the power struggle had to play out. even as it was playing out, I saw how I had already messed up. I couldn't lose face. T: This isn't a request. You're distracting others; I'm asking you to move. S: No, I'm doing work. T: Why are you making this into a power struggle? I'm asking for something simple. You just need to move. S: I don't understand why I have to. It's not going to change anything. I'm getting work done here. T: I asked you to move please move S: No. I don't want to. T: Don't turn this into larger consequences for something so simple. S: (clearly getting more and more frustrated) fine. If I won, why did it feel like I lost? At the first available moment, I sat next to him and explained my perspective. I asked him if he disagreed. He did. I tried to coax a conversation out of him so I could better understand what he was thinking, but the damage had been done. He did do some work and his group focused better without him there, but the cost was not worth it. Especially for the last 15 minutes of class.
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