I Broke My Students' Brains [S4 E93]

Listen to the full episode below:

It’s me, Marie, and I’m solo-hosting today’s episode! Snuggle up because I’m telling you a story that I think you’ll appreciate as teachers. It’s a story of how I made a little oopsie and broke my students’ brains, and it’s one that comes with lessons that we can all benefit from!

Let’s first remember that we're all human beings. So sometimes things are going to happen in our classrooms that are the opposite of what we hoped for. When you're designing curriculum, things are going to work and things are going to not work and everywhere in between. 

Take it from me. I’m a 15-year veteran high school English teacher and I still plan lessons that don’t go the way I envisioned them in my head. Anytime things don’t go according to plan, it’s all about how we react and how we recover from these moments. It's a reflective teaching practice.

If you're anything like me, hearing how other people go through their process and decide how to handle specific situations is extremely helpful. It also makes me feel a lot less alone. As teachers, we often feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and so it’s easy to blame yourself when you “mess up”. You may feel like you did something wrong, or that you’re a bad teacher. None of those things are true though.

Here’s the good news. I may have broken my students’ brains, but they recovered. I recovered. And in the end, we all learned some important lessons from the experience. I hope this story will help you as well.

Topics Covered:

  • How I broke my students’ brains and what my initial reaction was

  • The 3 important lessons that I learned through this experience

  • A reminder to not feel guilty when you “mess up” as a teacher

  • How to be proactive and move forward after things don’t go as planned

  • Why you often need to be transparent with your students

Resources

Related Episodes:

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Amanda Cardenas