Making Mistakes

I am nervous about starting this blog.  For starters, technology itself scares me a bit.  Then there’s my privacy - I’m not sure I like the idea of having my thoughts out there on the world-wide-web for anyone to read.  I’m not sure I want my early reflections on teaching to be that public, or that permanent. 


It took a group of first graders, though, to show me what it is that I really fear.  They had made predictions about how a story would turn out – our task was to finish reading the story and talk about whether their predictions came true. They did not like this one bit! Already by first grade they have the idea that the goal of school is to get the “right answer,” and those whose predictions did not come true were extremely frustrated.  I think this fear of being wrong is what has been holding me back from starting my blog - I want to have the “right answers.” I value the idea of a classroom where making mistakes is part of the process, but don’t want to make them myself.


I’ve decided to view my blog from a perspective of “I’m curious about …” in order to remind myself that this process is about developing my core beliefs as a teacher and not about getting a right answer. I am hopeful that this might shift my perspective enough to help me think about the fundamental questions more authentically.


The more I think about it, I need this experience of blogging.  Teaching is a very public occupation in which one’s ideas are challenged all the time.  I need to practice making a permanent, public statement about my principles of teaching in order to be ready for that challenge. I need to do this in order to become truly confident in my ideas about teaching and feel comfortable making them public.