We're all Failures!

Since today's topic included various ways to assess students, we also wanted to bring to light the idea of failure. Nothing creates failure more quickly than expecting little more. If you have taken care of the environment in your classroom and focused on student learning and nothing else, you have no reason to expect less than the world of the,. Failure only exists because we expect students to hit a random mark during a set period of time on a specific day without knowing specifically how to prepare for it, being able to ask for help, talking and taking randomly scheduled 3 minute silent stretch breaks. We should expect nothing but the best out of every kid, colleague and certainly of ourselves. Aiming any lower is just patronizing and wasting away an opportunity to be special. Why not aim for special? I you "fail,' then the worst you have done is attempt to do something you haven't before.

I have a 6 year old when I go home that frequently expects us to Google whatever his heart desires as he wonders about the makeup of this invisible thing called "air" and who first knew the word "follower" as an idea on Twitter. The argument(s) over whether or not that it suits us- the adults- that the information age is changing the way our kids learn and behave is moot to those of us in the teaching profession. Instead of concerning ourselves with the place in which we find our students, we need to move on preparing them for the world that exists which requires us to prepare for it as well. They have some pretty high expectations of us.

Below, you will find two more Twitter finds. What do you think you will be able to do to increase the opportunity for failure in your classroom and how can you help your students with the idea?

Anne Collier posted her commentary on failure on a post on Mindshift called, "Fun Failure: How to Make Learning Irresistible."

Liz Dwyer of Good.is posted similar insight titled, "Want Student to Succeed? Let them Fail."