Slip-up

    On Monday, I taught a lesson on Author’s Purpose & Tone to my afternoon reading class. I used the poem Richard Cory and gave the students a handout that contained the poem, the lyrics from the Paul Simon song, and various questions. As I went through the handout with the students, I realized there were several mistakes. The mistakes were strictly cosmetic, but if not corrected, they could have been a great distraction to my students. As I found each mistake, I made the corrections and directed my students to do the same, showing them where those errors were via the document camera and data projector.

    Ideally, that handout should’ve been perfect, but it wasn’t. I was guilty of the rule I stress to my students to follow before submitting or printing an assignment: Proofread!

    This lesson would’ve been a disaster if it would’ve been used for my upcoming teacher-observation and evaluation. That is already an anxiety-filled 50 minutes, and even a minute mistake like a few errors on a handout could’ve ruined my whole day (or at least the class period).

    I tell my students that if they can’t learn from their own mistakes, they can learn from the ones I make. The best kinds of mistakes are those I make and that I can learn from because I am improving the way I think, read, write, speak, and act. The second-best kinds of mistakes are those other people make because I can learn from those, as well. Mistakes are a part of life. No one is immune to making mistakes.