I've never been the 'Great Fisherman' who fills his boat with the day's catch. But I do have a good number of memories to taking my Mancubs out to the Gulf, Texas rivers and lakes and spent quality time outdoors. We started fishing when my son and daughter were very young. Baiting hooks and holding live fish was a learned experience for both of them. Even today as much older Mancubs, they might look for assistance with the difficult fish, but they do know how to fish.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him that day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
In my job working with students and teachers, I am often offered the computer to show a task to the teacher. My first response is that they are the driver and I'm just the passenger. The physical activity of clicking and dragging around the screen is valuable for the solution-seeker. It is important for me to have the tech-learning seeker to drag their own knuckles through the experience instead of giving an answer without the learning experience.
Teachers have an opportunity to empower themselves and their students by embracing the failure opportunities. I love the "FAIL = First Attempt In Learning" posters I see in some classrooms. Students embrace their failure resilience in video gameplay. Teachers who provide an opportunity to work for mastery and resubmit work are setting the stage for a Growth Mindset constructed around learning from mistakes and improving the outcome in future attempts.
Teachers are becoming more open to allowing acceptable risk when trying new technology tools or letting students use new tools and evaluate their usefulness in the classroom. There is not one body in any classroom that knows all technology and sharing the combined strengths and experiences of all students and the teacher helps make for a more engaging classroom for students and authentic learning environment.
Today, we can provide fishing poles and students will learn to do some amazing things. They will surpass my fishing skills if I can just show them a few knots and get them to the lake.
Do you have an experience where a 'failure' in the classroom provided a memorable learning experience for students? Share your story below! Thanks for visiting!
6 comments:
I love your comment about those with whom you work turning the screen toward you. As I am fairly new to the coaching side of the table, I'm trying very hard to sit beside those with whom I work and "mirror" them. We go together and they can use my screen as a reference point, but they do their own creation. As you so aptly point out, the person doing is the person learning - and they will remember more participating as a kinesthetic learner as well as an auditory and visual one.
While not necessarily a "fail" story, in my new position I get lots of questions and I don't always know the immediate answer. I am attempting (I don't know how successfully) to model that it is ok to look up the answers or just try something to see what happens...and don't be embarrassed when the end result is unexpected or unfavorable. Students who play video games are very much used to the "reset button" and gaming provides them the opportunity for infinite lives (see the film PIXELS which makes an interesting growth mindset argument). Educators need to recognize that they won't die in real life if they click something or try something and it doesn't work- they just undo and choose the "reset" button.
Great thoughts as always. I'm glad you're sharing.
Great article Howard! I'm going post a fail poster up in my room!
Ok I just failed at posting a blog! That was me a Juli Naranjo!
Ok I just failed at posting a blog! That was me a Juli Naranjo!
Great article Howard! I'm going post a fail poster up in my room!
Lindsay, Thanks for the comment! As you shared, coaching is more than just 'helping' someone with tech. Have fun as you get deeper into it this year!
Juli, Thanks for, um, all of your posts. Ha! I look forward to hearing what y'all are up to over there.
Enjoy your weekends!
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