Thoughts from the classroom

It’s human nature to always want to be right, and we are often embarrassed to be wrong.  If you’re anything like me, I don’t want to open my month until I’m sure I’m correct, because I absolutely hate looking like an idiot in front of anyone. In the past, very few of us were taught to be “constructively wrong”.  Matter of fact, in the 1800s, education was based around always being right, if Laura Ingalls Wilder is to be believed. A big part of her book “These Happy Golden Years” is based around her years as a school teacher.  At one point, she must “punish” the students when they got spelling words wrong. This consisted of, in this case, going up to the board and writing their spelling words many times until they got it right.  This, of course, was not only meant to be practice, but embarrassment as well. Education mostly consisted of studying independently, then public recitation and public correction.

One one hand, you read about Laura Ingalls giving a whole huge history of the United States, including all of the major accomplishments of each president, and a spelling bee where the townsfolk are spelling words such as “mimosaceous”, and Pa Ingalls wins by successfully spelling “xanthophyll”.  Clearly the rigor was up there in writing, grammar and history.  I’m ashamed to say that I don’t even know what those words mean.  This creates the impression that education was better in the “good old days” when we could “get back to the basics”.  On the other hand, their knowledge of the STEM fields was very basic, even if Laura could do double digit division in her head. Education was also largely limited to white children, and was monolingual. (My opinion on education being monolingual is another blog for another day.  Suffice it to say that I love how my current charter school places an emphasis on trilingual education.)

Personally, I’m glad education has evolved from this.  

Don’t get me wrong, I would be delighted if my kids could diagram a sentence, divide in their heads, tell me about the major events in each president’s terms and finish it all off with all the major imports and exports of Brazil. That’s an amazing amount of rigor.  I’m very much not a fan of public humiliation and, more importantly, the focus on always being right.  I firmly believe that we do our best learning when we are allowed to make mistakes in a safe space. 

Safe space…that seems to be a dirty word today.  Let me define a “safe space” first and why it’s important in education.  Everyone seems to assume that a “safe space” means that it’s a space someone can run to and cry because they don’t like how someone looks at them funny. They think it creates weak children that cry at the drop of a hat and don’t learn how to work hard.  It’s a phrase that seems to bring scorn, usually from the “get back to the basics!!!” crowd. Guess what?  There’s nothing wrong with that.  A safe space only makes our kids stronger, because they get encouragement to allow their minds to grow without fear. This is how they gain confidence in themselves.  Our kids absolutely MUST feel safe in order to learn.  I’d be absolutely delighted if my kids felt safe enough to come to my room and get themselves together. What makes a safe space is not only a teacher they trust, but an entire environment that includes peers that encourage each other and build each other up instead of tear down each other.  Each teacher must create this environment in their classroom for maximum learning to take place.  Do not mistake a safe space as a space without consequences for their actions.  Matter of fact, those consequences for their actions are what is part of creating a safe space.  Firm and consistent boundaries mean that the child knows exactly what to expect out of me at all times, and therefore always knows what is going to happen when they step out of line, as all kids will do at one point or another. 

If you do it right, the most important feature of this safe space is that a student will feel safe to make mistakes without fear of teasing or anger from the teacher.  This is the absolute best way for children to learn.  In math and science, we understand that the best learning is when a student is allowed to productively struggle with a problem, try out all of the tools in their toolbox to work through it, and then have the satisfaction of solving it on their own.  As a math teacher, much of my job is to give them the tools they need and allow them to test them out on various problems, introducing more challenges and more tools as we go.  The combination of student-led activities and developing the environment where students are allowed to experiment and make mistakes is the heart of STEM fields, and mimics the scientific method.  

So how do we approach the child that just gave a wrong answer?   

First of all, we acknowledge what the child got right.  For example, if a student got the procedure in a math problem correct but made a simple calculation error, then then talk about what a great job they did on the procedure. Ask them to find their mistakes themselves, so they get the practice of going back over their own work. This might even be a good time to get some peer tutoring going.  If you have set up the safe space correctly, then this could be an invaluable tool.  Sometimes the students will be better able to explain a concept to another, since they have already worked through the same issues.  Be careful to ensure that actual tutoring is occurring, not just one student doing the work for another student.  

If you see that several students are making the same mistakes, take the opportunity to NOT address it individually.  Work through that concept with the whole class, telling them that you see many students with this misconception and that you want to work through it as a group.  Not only does it address the mistakes made, but the students don’t feel called out or uncomfortable.  Instead, they see that everyone makes mistakes and more importantly, others made the same exact mistake that they did.  Once again, this creates a space where students are empowering each other, you are empowering them, and they are free to experiment and learn from their mistakes. Even more importantly, this creates an environment of working together respectfully that they will need one day in the work environment. 

All of this begs the question, how do you create this environment in the first place?  First, never yell at your students.  Not only does it seem like you lost control (and you probably did), but there’s a decent chance that some of the kids will find that amusing.  I’m not saying don’t fuss at your students when it’s warranted, but keep your voice normal, or raise it slightly.  One of two things will happen.  First, as I said, some kids will find it amusing, and they have just learned how to push your buttons. You’re done.  You’re going to have issues all year now, because it’s hard to come back from that.  The worst one, however, is that you’ve just proven to the more timid kids that you are not safe.  They will be scared of you.  You are not trying to make the kids scared of you, you are trying to build respectful relationships.  The difference is significant.  One builds a safe environment, one destroys it. 

Next, make sure your boundaries are firm and consistent.  If asked, your students will claim that they think this is a terrible idea, and they might really feel that.  However, if firm and consistent boundaries are not present, the kids don’t know what to expect and that’s highly unsettling to them. When they know what consequences, good or bad, that their actions have, they will feel far more secure.  The key is to not have too strict of boundaries so that they never feel safe to experiment and learn, but don’t make your boundaries so loose as to have your students feel free to refuse to work at all. 

Finally, develop a relationship with your students such that they are comfortable with you. Always show respect to your students.  One of the biggest ways to accomplish this is to start each day fresh.  Even if you had to write them up, call their parents, or administer some type of consequence for bad behavior, greet them with a smile the next morning.  Once the consequence is administered, the incident is over unless it becomes a repeated behavior that needs further intervention.  Be genuinely happy to see your kids everyday.  Yes, even THOSE kids.  You know, the ones that give you all that gray hair. You may be the only smiles they see in a day, sadly enough.  It’s probably why they are giving you gray hair to start with.  The kids that act out usually have stories to tell…but that’s also another blog for another day. 

Ultimately, the old saying “we learn from our mistakes” is absolutely true.  When we allow the students the freedom to make mistakes without humiliation, we allow them to familiarize themselves with all the tools in their toolbox to see how everything works together.  They figure out what works, see how it applies to the next problem.  If they run into something a bit different, they feel completely safe to pick another tool and see what it does.  Eventually, they learn to see problems for what they are and can experiment with the most effective methods to solve them and develop the problem solving skills they will need in the future.  The only way any of this can happen is by you creating the requisite environment and expectations for your students to follow. 
By the way, ”mimosaceous” means anything relating to or belonging to the plant family Mimosaceae, and “xanthophyll” is any of various yellow pigments occurring in the leaves of plants and giving young shoots and late autumn leaves their characteristic color.  I think I may not have been giving the Ingalls’ generation enough credit for STEM research.  Just think about how education could be if we combined rigor and the freedom to make mistakes!