As I explained in my first blog post on this site, I’m not a normal teacher; I’m a cool teacher. And I felt extra cool on day one of my second year. This is a flashback to a year ago; I’m obviously wiser now.
While everyone else was playing the same name-game or filling out index cards, I would dare to be different: I would create an impactful lesson that the kids would love, remember forever, and that we could point back to as a metaphor for learning and teaching styles the whole year. Plus every student was gonna go home with a souvenir to commemorate their first day of high school! I, again – and I can’t stress this enough, am a cooooool teacher!
You can imagine my despair when I failed in an epic manner during my first hour; I tried again my second class just to fail once more. Like Icarus, I was trying to fly too high and too near the Sun. My wax melted, and I came crashing down.
I had such delusions of grandeur that I was not realistic with time, or my ability to teach 35 unique learners the same exact process. I also neglected that freshmen would indeed get lost. Due to our schools freshman orientation program, actual class time was limited to 15 minutes.
My “lesson” was teaching them how to fold paper cranes. Just like Icarus, these cranes would too crash. My first class, I was on step 5 of 17 when the dismissal bell rang. Heartbroken and flustered, I tried to go quicker during second period, and left kids behind who had questions. So, at the end of two classes, my first thought I didn’t understand clocks, and my second thought I didn’t care about their success. Two epic failures down, I greeted my last three classes of a stand up routine about how terrible I am at teaching paper folding. They were not amused, but I wasn’t gonna try the bad lesson, and I had nothing else planned.
In a word: embarrassing.
Credibility was lost. And I lost it with all 5 classes. I spent weeks earning that credibility back.
This year went much better for a number of reasons. First, I learned my lesson and let go of the delusion that I could possibly deliver THE COOLEST lesson ever in a restricted class period. (Also: can you imagine thinking that folding paper is THE COOLEST idea?) Next, I worked with my PLC to craft a useful intro activity that was admittedly less flashy, but was something students could engage in and complete.
In the end, I learned a few valuable lessons on that day. Chief among them, I am not too cool to work with my team and get practical ideas that can actually work.
This year, my colleagues and I let our students brainstorm where they excel, where they want to improve, and they wrote goals. Students wrote a goal for the year, a goal for high school, and a bigger goal to achieve after they graduate.
We hope to come back to the goals throughout the year for interesting reflections, journals, and conversations. Everything went smoothly and we had 100% engagement. What more could we ask for?
Oh – and to conclude my year two saga, you should know all my freshmen last year made paper cranes on the last day of freshman year with success. We had enough time to complete it plus I knew my class well enough to help the stragglers and utilize peers to support one another. I kept one bird from each class, gave it a name and hung it up in my room. It makes me smile every time I glance toward my paper aviary.
This year, we will soar… But maybe not so high this time.
Addendum: After posting this and reflecting I want to be clear that I think bold decisions and thinking out of the box are good things! We should all push boundaries and try new things; however, for me, this lesson taught me how to better assess situations and made me better prepared for a new school year.
Do you have any cringe-worthy classroom blunders you care to share? What did you learn from your catastrophe?
James King
James King is a high school teacher in Glendale Union High School District. He is the newspaper advisor, speech and debate coach and teaches AP English Language and Composition as well as Journalism. James is a graduate of the University of Central Florida. In his time in Florida, he worked as a substitute teacher for 5 years while simultaneously working in corporate training. In his free time, James enjoys reading, musical theatre, sand volleyball, comic books, and often-vapid reality TV programs.
Comments 6
James this is awesome! You are so right, we MUST dare greatly, our students deserve that! And in doing so we WILL experience failure. The beauty here is in the reflection and refinement! Keep being the “cool teacher.”
I really enjoyed reading this blog. I absolutely believe it is through our failures that help us find the greatest success . If you had not tried to implement this lesson you may not have had to spend time gaining back the trust of your students, but now you have a ton of tools to use when a student comes in your room and doesn’t trust easily. And while it didn’t come up I’m sure you had students who saw the triumphant attempt, failure & get back on your feet scenario and they too learned valuable lessons about how to come back from a lesson that went wrong.
I am totally sharing this. I love the possibilities for spontaneous ideas in the classroom, but I, too, am guilty of diving in before I consider all of the variables thoroughly. It’s great to have a group of like-minded professionals you can share these “ooooops” moments with who will support you in improving your practice… without judgement!
Every year I rethink my 1st day plan and try new things; this year, I stuck with what I did last year and loved it again. No syllabus; get kids talking; start setting them expectation that participation is a must in my room. There are some 1st days that I’ve hated, but this is one is a lesson I think I’ll keep coming back to. I’m sure you’ll find something that is just as innovative, but also realistic for the constraints being thrown at you.
Hi James,
Thanks for sharing this piece. As an administrator I love that took a bold idea and went with it. You pushed boundaries and most importantly – you learned from your experience. There will always to lessons and activities that play out amazingly in our heads and crash in front of live scholars. I applaud you for reflecting and adjusting. Here’s to the best year yet!
I love this story! It is such a powerful example of REFLECTION and how to look at your practice and improve on it!