I have a sign over my classroom. Door that reads:
Responsible people aren't afraid to admit when they make mistakes.
I had been drilling that into my students' heads since day one of school. Fast forward to about the second month of school when I overslept and ended up arriving at work about half an hour late. I really wanted to pretend like it didn't happen. But I decided that I couldn't. If I was going to talk about it, I also needed to be about it. So, I sat my students my down on my rug and apologized for being late. I pointed out that I made a mistake that morning and I understand that that mistake impacted them and other teachers. Mind you, this conversation was neither easy nor natural. I was slightly awkward and very uncomfortable. But being comfortable isn't my goal. Authenticity is. My students were initially shocked that their teacher was apologizing to them and then set out to make sure I knew that they had been taken care of and were fine. Essentially, they didn't want me to feel bad. That was a sweet sentiment. Out of this slightly painful conversation, I wanted them to see an authentic conversation where someone made a genuine mistake and owned up to it. They definitely got the blushing cheeks-awkward pause-stuttering version of authenticity that morning.
One Friday, a few months later, I simply ran out of time for a short recess you promised the kids after coming back to school from a field trip. Incomplete about this over the weekend, I addressed it Monday with my kids. "I just have to say, I was out of integrity about Friday. I gave your word and I didn't keep it because we ran out of time." I then listed all of the impacts I saw that my lack of integrity had on them. Last, I made a promise for what I will do next time. Their response was "it's ok." They didn't beg for extra recess another day. We just left it at that- complete about it.
Responsible people aren't afraid to admit when they make mistakes.
I had been drilling that into my students' heads since day one of school. Fast forward to about the second month of school when I overslept and ended up arriving at work about half an hour late. I really wanted to pretend like it didn't happen. But I decided that I couldn't. If I was going to talk about it, I also needed to be about it. So, I sat my students my down on my rug and apologized for being late. I pointed out that I made a mistake that morning and I understand that that mistake impacted them and other teachers. Mind you, this conversation was neither easy nor natural. I was slightly awkward and very uncomfortable. But being comfortable isn't my goal. Authenticity is. My students were initially shocked that their teacher was apologizing to them and then set out to make sure I knew that they had been taken care of and were fine. Essentially, they didn't want me to feel bad. That was a sweet sentiment. Out of this slightly painful conversation, I wanted them to see an authentic conversation where someone made a genuine mistake and owned up to it. They definitely got the blushing cheeks-awkward pause-stuttering version of authenticity that morning.
One Friday, a few months later, I simply ran out of time for a short recess you promised the kids after coming back to school from a field trip. Incomplete about this over the weekend, I addressed it Monday with my kids. "I just have to say, I was out of integrity about Friday. I gave your word and I didn't keep it because we ran out of time." I then listed all of the impacts I saw that my lack of integrity had on them. Last, I made a promise for what I will do next time. Their response was "it's ok." They didn't beg for extra recess another day. We just left it at that- complete about it.
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