Today I started my Student Teaching at Madison Elementary School in Rahway. It was quite an experience. In my classroom, I encountered children of different ethnic backgrounds, different heights and body types, different learning levels. Today was the children's fifth day back in school and it was my first being in the school. I couldn't help but compare my feelings about school to how the children might have felt on their first day.
The children, having started a new school year, have an energy about them of nervous anticipation. As I walked into the classroom I had an intense feeling of nervousness, but I was also excited to be able to have the experience of teaching these children. I imagined that this is how their first day experience might have felt...A new classroom, a new teacher, and most of all, new experiences.
As the day progressed I became more comfortable with the students and the teacher. The students, I noticed, were also getting used to the daily routine as I was. During a spelling lesson, the teacher made a mistake in defining a word which a student corrected. The teacher responded by saying "I told you the first day that it was okay to make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes". During the day, as the teacher asked questions, students bravely raised their hands and answered even if their answers were incorrect. Such a small statement made a difference in how the students approached taking a risk, even if it was as insignificant as giving a wrong answer. They didn't give up, they would try over and over again.
As I prepare to teach my first lesson next week, I feel the same nervous anticipation...but I hear the words echo within my head "it's okay to make mistakes", reassuring me to take that risk even if there is a possibility of messing up. This first experience reminded me again that when we make mistakes, we sometimes learn more through that "failure", motivating us to try harder to get it right.
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