Blog Post #6
The Super Mario Effect **Talked about pages 127-130 What is one thing you can do to begin to root the fear of failure out of your school?
Blog Post #1
Imagine you just won Teacher of the Year for not just the 1st time but the 3rd time in a row, like John Taylor Gatto. What would you talk about with a national platform in regards to education?
That is a tough question because I think that for so many years it has been ingrained into kids' brains that it's not ok to fail. In my room, I learned to be comfortable making mistakes in front of my students, that way they can see that it's ok to fail. I also encourage students to make mistakes by saying things like, "I'd rather you try and be wrong than not try at all" or "it's ok to make mistakes, that's why pencils have erasers." In Science class we talk all the time that famous scientist didn't get things right on the first try or even the 5th try. I believe that by having these conversations it will help ease students' minds and let them know that they are human. I only wish parents would do the same!
ReplyDeleteOne way to help get rid of the fear of failure is to foster growth mindset within my classroom. Students should feel like it is good to make mistakes, as long as you take that information and learn from it! If students know everything before they come to your classroom, then what is the point? I want students to walk in the door and not be afraid to try new things and be ok being uncomfortable! I give a lot of practice situations in my class and I do not take grades on daily work very often. I like to allow kids to self correct and see where they need to improve. I also tell kids they always have the opportunity to retake quizzes if they come and show me they understand what went wrong the first time.
ReplyDeleteOne way to help get rid of the fear of failure is to normalize making mistakes and learning from. As a teacher, we can point out when we mistakes and we can show students how we are learning from them. I think it’s also important to notice when students are making mistakes and sharing with the class how the student overcame that mistake and how they learned from it.
ReplyDeleteOne way we can change the appearance of failure from fearing failure to it’s normal to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes is changing our standard way of quizzes and testing.
ReplyDeleteIn the younger grades, I like to change the thought behind quizzes. I like to give the students a certain amount of time to word on “quizzes and tests” without their notes or books then give them a certain amount of time to use them. Lastly they will get to ask a friend and the teacher about 1 question on the “test.” We need to change the thought process of tests to establishing the mindsets that it is a game. On daily assignments, students can get something wrong and I will give them a chance to try again at the assignment slowing them to see I got it wrong, but I am now given another chance at like in the game Mario and trying to beat Bowser.
I want to teach the students how hero’s Ike Thomas Edison failed many times before he capture the amazing accomplishment in his life.
How do we get the fear of failure out of our school? Hmmm. I, honestly, haven't given this a lot of thought before. Honestly, I have been so driven intrinsically to do well in school and academics that I haven't ever thought of those that aren't. I think most teachers are and that's why academics have been so satisfying to us, thus why we are teachers. But, I was very enlightened with this TedTalk (my favorite so far). Not penalizing made the difference in success. I never would have thought that. How do I nurture the growth mindset in my own classroom and make students less afraid to fail? I try to really remind them of the bigger picture of education and that we are partners in it. It isn't me against you, but rather let's investigate together and experiment with ways to get there. I wish I could just take away grades, but we are required to have at least two grades per week. So, reframing evaluations to be based on growth rather than first tries. Allowing students retakes, but having them reflect on how to be more successful (speed up and jump later to get over that pit) -- this seems to be where the real learning happens and can be applied to all pursuits. I really loved this video and how fun he was in creating all his contraptions -- it really reminded me to never forget to have fun. Great lesson for me here... thank you.
ReplyDeleteHow can we root the fear of failure out of our school? In my opinion we first need to make mistakes valued. We don't learn if we don't make mistakes and this is something our kids need to know. I don't know how to teach it... we have to model it and make our classrooms safe mistake zones. I really found the "Learning from, not focusing on the failures" Focus on the goal and not the pits that you fall in to meet that goal. We need to have growth mindsets so that we learn how to surpass the pits on the next try. The pits are the learning moments.
ReplyDeleteThis one is a little tricky. But again, I use storytelling to show my students that failing actually brought me to great things. I also am able to do this when it comes to PE/ athletics. Just recently I attended the boys middle school basketball game. I told specific students that they did a great job shooting ( even if they missed), because this is the only way they will get better. I really applaud their fearlessness. On the other hand I talked to other students about shooting and not caring too much about the outcome. "don't be afraid to shoot, do you know how many baskets I missed when I used to play?". I tell them that they can't be afraid , and it's better to miss the basket than not try.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I can do to help root the fear of failure out of my school is to focus more on the end goal rather than the exact path students take to get there. I want to encourage students to try different approaches and think outside the box when solving problems. Sometimes their solutions may not be what I expected, but if they still reach the goal and learn along the way, that is what matters most. By creating a classroom environment where experimentation and mistakes are seen as part of learning, students can feel more confident taking risks and trying new ideas without being afraid of failing.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I can do to begin to root the fear of failure out of my elementary classroom is to actively change how I respond when students make mistakes. Instead of focusing on being “right” or “wrong,” I can normalize mistakes as part of learning by using language like, “That didn’t work yet, let’s try another way,” or “Mistakes help our brains grow.”
ReplyDeleteI can also model this myself by thinking out loud when I make errors and showing students how I problem-solve through them. For example, during math or reading, I can purposely make a mistake and demonstrate how I fix it without frustration. This helps students see that failure is not something to fear, but something useful.
In addition, I can create a classroom culture where effort and trying new strategies are praised more than getting the correct answer the first time. Over time, this would help students feel safe taking risks, which is essential for real learning.
I think I make this principle a practice most of the time in my classroom. Rooting it out at the school-wide level is a bigger issue as I am a classroom teacher, not a curriculum director or administrator. And while I encourage the learning process and suggest that the "failures" are an incredibly important part of that process, I have yet to find a way to make my classroom entirely "grade" free (i.e. failure free). I always go back to the fear that if there is no grade, students will take advantage of that and simply choose to do nothing. That being said, I am a French teacher, so the skill I am teaching should be ultimate reward. In the day to day we embrace errors and look at them as proof that learning is taking place, but the infamous test at the end of the unit is ultimately graded. I have started to experiment with more project-based end of unit tasks, and perhaps I should try to develop this further as the students tend to work harder when it is something they have come up with on their own. Giving the students a chance to redo a project or a portion of their project if they are unhappy with the end result is also a way to reduce the fear of failure. Indeed, we get a lot of "do-overs" in real life.
ReplyDeleteThe Super Mario Effect **Talked about pages 127-130 What is one thing you can do to begin to root the fear of failure out of your school? The super mario effect is a complete mind shift - shifting away from "grades" and more into a goal oriented mindset with smaller goals to get your there. Taking penalty out of assessments would be one way to garner that goal but I struggle to believe kids would be motivated by even the goal. I fear we've begun to raise a lazy generation in which they don't want to have to work for anything they want what is easy and they go to whatever steps they need to get it. Taking penalties away from grades might be the first step, allowing students to continue to retake a test or in a game redo the level until the have mastered it could work but I keep coming back to the "will" -some may just never want the end goal - which begs the question - then what?
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