Teaching Brave

In Raising overcomers: How to teach your kids to do hard things, Katie Westenberg shares,

“You love those kids like crazy and if you’re anything like me, you tend to let them off the hook too easy at times. But that is not parenting brave. Parenting brave requires the very same thing of us that we are trying to train in our kids, making decisions not based solely on what is right in front of us, but with the end result in mind. In this case that would be responsible and capable adults.”

I realized that this applies to teachers too. Teaching brave requires us to do many things in order to teach our students to do hard things. Sometimes doing the right thing can cause anxiety but in the long run it will be worth it if my students learn to face up to and accomplish hard things.

I need to encourage and cheer on effort but I need to let my students fail. I don’t need to sugar coat their failure and automatically give them an A because they tried. From our mistakes, we learn the most. I need to help my students learn why they failed. Maybe they really didn’t study hard enough. Maybe they studied but had trouble remembering the key concepts. If this is the case, I need to help them find strategies that will help them remember these things. Maybe they need to try to do something a different way because it might be the process that is causing the bad result.

As a teacher, I need to have higher expectations from my students and not give them excuses. Allowing them to have excuses just makes them weaker and not stronger. If there is an obstacle in their way, I need to find a way to help them overcome the obstacle. Then they need to work on overcoming it. If I do it for them, then I am the one who has overcome the obstacle and not them.

I need to expect them to take responsibility for their actions. When they don’t do the things that are expected, they should face the consequences. Of course, I will make sure that they understand what their responsibility is and the consequences if they fail to do their duty. Only with consistency, will they learn that taking responsibility for things is something they can control. I do not need to keep reminding them or begging them to do things. I should expect things to get done just as my boss expects me to do my job.

How do you teach students to do the hard things? Please share.

Being Brave

In If You Never Try to Be Brave, It Certainly Won’t Happen from Bud the Teacher, Bud Hunt shares,

“It pains me that the climate in schools is so risk-averse and so anti-teacher that teachers who are really good at what they do are also hesitant to lean in to something different – for so many reasons.

And

If you don’t ever face the scary things, you can’t ever work on being brave.  And being brave, even just a little bit and even just a little of the time, is so important."

Let’s face it, veteran teachers have been burned enough that it can be scary trying something new.

Sometimes our school decided to try a new strategy school wide. This means incorporating it in my lesson plans and showing that I’m using it and how I’m using it. By doing this, I’m spending a lot of time changing how I teach and what I do. I take time to get vested in this and willing to give it my all. What frustrates me at the end of the year is that many other teachers haven’t bothered trying this and then the school just drops this new strategy and it disappears. When this happens over and over again, I feel like why should I even bother!

Sometimes I have a great idea and I really want to try something new. Yet, I know that there will be many who shake their head at my ideas and try to discourage me. There may be some that laugh at me and some how will tell me that I’m wasting my time.

But I’m not willing to give up and throw in the towel. I want to try and keep on trying. I want to be brave enough to try something new. What is the worst thing that can happen? That it won’t work. I don’t think that by trying new strategies or techniques, that I will harm my students.

Many students have told me that they have respected me more because I was willing to keep trying to find ways to help them instead of giving up. When they see that I’m not willing to give up, it helps them to keep on trying. I tell them that I can relate to their frustration because I’m trying right along side them and that we will support each other. They see me as a role model and are willing to work at things even though they are difficult.

I think when our students see the teacher afraid to try or are willing to give up, I am sending the wrong message that everything is hopeless. To me, this is more damaging then failing. I explain to my students that we have to keep trying different things until we find the key that will open up their understanding but if we never try, and then we know we will never find the key. At least by trying, there is hope. With hope, you have everything.

How do you show your bravery in your class? What impact does it have on your students? Please share.