Today I had a bit of a revelation. My class is really good at failing—no, I mean amazingly good at failing. Now, before you freak out and think I'm calling them failures in a harsh way, I'm not! Here are six reasons why they are really good at failing and why that's a good thing.
1. Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them.
Our class motto is, "Life is all about mistakes and learning from them." We have a poster on our wall that we refer to all the time. We think it, we say it, we repeat it until we're almost crazy. I once mentioned that quote to a parent and they said "Oh, that's where that came from. She says that all the time (insert parent eye roll here)." So they sort of live it too. I own my mistakes in front of them without freaking out or getting embarrassed so they don't see it as a bad thing.
2. Wrinkly brains.
We also talk about how mistakes "make a new wrinkle in your brain." I know that's not true, but it provides a really good visual for them. They get really excited when they make new wrinkles.
3. Making it darker.
Another visual I use with them is the idea that when you write with a pencil it's pretty light, but when you trace it over and over, again and again it gets darker and darker and darker. As a result they don't really mind rereading or doing a task over again. They want the words in their brains to get darker.
4. Struggle time.
I let them struggle a lot. I make them really, really try before they ask for help. I never just rescue them. They have to work for it. They are more than willing to sit there for a fairly long time and try before asking for help.
5. Hard is good.
Whenever anyone says that something is hard, I get really excited and tell them that if it's not hard then they're not learning. They know that if it's easy then they've already learned it. They want it to be hard!
6. Classroom culture.
I've worked hard to create a safe environment for risk taking. I never allow them to make fun of or laugh at other's mistakes. They love to point out when someone has shown perseverance and should get a "Dojo point" (Yes, we have a point for perseverance). We also tend to use our proud of you chant a lot... loudly.
"We are proud of you say we are proud of you hey________ we are proud of you say we are proud of you hey_____!"
We use this whenever anyone does something they have really been struggling to do. I almost never initiate this chant, they do, and it makes my heart proud.
In our community there is no fear associated with failure, so they are not afraid to fly!
