I like to think of myself as a classroom prognosticator. I feel as though I am generally quite good at predicting the future in my classroom. I know that if two particular students sit together, they will chat and distract each other all day long. I also know that my students will be excited in Humanities class on Monday because they love Reader’s Workshop. My crystal spherical object usually points me in the right direction. Because I spend so much time planning and preparing for lessons, activities, and field trips, I almost always know how things will go in the classroom. I need extra time for some lessons and less time for others. I know these things to be true because I’ve experienced them before. New things, lessons, or activities, on the other hand, are a different beast entirely. While I am still pretty good at predicting how new things will go in the classroom, every once in awhile my prediction turns out to be wrong. Now, why is this, you must be asking yourself. If I am so good at reading the future on a daily basis, why do I struggle with predicting the outcome of new events? It’s those unknown factors. What if the technology doesn’t work properly? What if students don’t understand my directions? What if there is a fire drill during the lesson? Those unknown variables are the ones that mess me up. They are my kryptonite. Although I try to prepare for every unknown situation, it’s just not possible. I occasionally miss one or two variables every time I plan a new lesson. Generally, those variables are so minute or not relevant that the lesson usually will still usually go as planned; however, there are exceptions to every rule.
Today saw one of those exceptions play out in my STEM class. My goal was to help the students learn how to use the flashcard making application Quizlet to create flashcards for the vocabulary terms we’ve covered in our math unit. I had the list of words already prepared and posted to our learning management system. I checked it twice yesterday to make sure that it still worked. I played around with Quizlet to be sure I knew how to navigate the website as well. I even made a test set of flashcards to try out the games and test. I felt ready and prepared. I had thought of everything, except the biggest, most crucial part: What if the students can’t locate the vocabulary terms in their math book? I failed to think about how they would locate the terms in their book. What if the definition wasn’t in their book? What if they needed to infer the meaning of the word from the book? What if they couldn’t remember a certain concept? Then what are they supposed to do?
After explaining the activity to the students, modeling how to use Quizlet, and answering all of their questions, I let them get to work. Soon after they started working, the questions started pouring in. “I can’t find the definition. What if I don’t know what the word means? I don’t understand this word?” many of the students said as they worked on the task of making math vocabulary flashcards. I had forgotten to tell them how to use their book to find the words and what to do when a word wasn’t directly defined in the text. While most students were able to draw conclusions on their own to solve the task, a few students struggled to complete this task because of the directions I had omitted. Had I better explained this portion of the activity, they might have felt more successful and needed less of my support. What I thought was going to take 15 minutes, ended up taking more than 30 minutes to complete.
The moral of this story is, I can’t predict the future no matter how hard I try. Unknown variables are called that because no one knows what they are. They are unknown for a reason. I can’t possibly plan for every single issue, dilemma, or happening. Luckily, I rolled with today’s lesson and most every student was able to finish the task by the end of class. I felt a bit off though because I hadn’t properly prepared my students to complete the activity successfully. Next time, I need to be sure I model how to complete the task and not just how to use the technology tool. At the end of the period, I shared my thoughts and noticings with the students. I explained how I thought this activity was going to be short and simple but ended up being a bit convoluted and took much longer than anticipated. I shared with the boys how I need to better prepare for an activity like this in the future. I need to be sure I show them how to complete an activity like this. Although today’s STEM lesson didn’t go entirely as planned, it taught me an important life lesson and allowed me to show vulnerability to my students. Even teachers make mistakes. With a growth mindset, failure can quickly be transformed into an opportunity to learn.
Holteacher Perspective 