Have you ever felt that you’re just not up to par with all those teachers on social media? They seem to always be doing everything right and are picture-perfect.
Can you relate?
Today I’m sharing with you 4 big mistakes I’ve made as a teacher, and what I’ve learned from these mistakes. I always strive to be my best and these are some mistakes that I’ve grown from as an educator and have shaped how I teach today.
Episode Highlights
Why working smarter and not harder is the best course of action as a teacher
How to not worry about (or fight) the little things with your students
Not to take things too personally (and what to do instead)
Easy-to-follow lesson plans and activities for social studies - just print and teach! The growing bundle for Communities, Texas History, and U.S. History is now available. Click the link to learn more!
Smart and Simple Social Studies Membership Waitlist
Take Social Studies off the back burner with time-saving, easy-to-prep, and engaging resources at your fingertips!
Be the first to know when the Smart and Simple Social Studies Membership opens this summer!
Have you ever felt that you're just not up to par with all those teachers on social media, who have the perfect call and response and activities and lessons in a picture perfect lighting? Me too. I've been teaching for eight years, and I would still not consider myself a perfect teacher. Sometimes I teach on my desk. Sometimes I check my phone in class, sometimes I'm late picking up my students from lunch. And sometimes I have my students watch a video on Discovery ad, instead of actually teaching the lesson. Can you relate? Today, I'm sharing with you four big mistakes I've made as a teacher, and what I've learned from these mistakes, I always strive to be my best. And these are just some mistakes I've really grown from as an educator, and has shaped how I teach today. All right, so this is going to be a pretty transparent episode, I can't wait to share with you some of the mistakes that I've made. I'm just calling myself out. But I know that there's others out there like me who might resonate with this, or maybe you're feeling like you're in that predicament either with yourself or somebody else that you work with. So I just want to share with you my four mistakes, and what I've learned from them how I've been able to improve myself as a teacher. So here we go.
The first mistake I made in my teaching career was not being a team player. So when I first started out, I kind of wanted to do my own thing a little bit, I wasn't into really planning with others. I originally started, when I started teaching originally, I was just by myself, I was the only kindergarten teacher at the school that I worked at. So I was kind of used to working by myself, I liked it, I liked planning on my own. And so when I had an actual team of multiple teachers in the same grade level as us, as me, I didn't really know how to work with or plan with them. So in addition to that, I was trying to also take the lead in the wrong ways. I didn't really know how to effectively communicate and collaborate as well as I do now. And I also, you know, there were certain coworkers that I would clash with because I was type A, they were also type A, and we would just try to one up each other I was not trying to I was thinking of it as a battle or that I would win or I'd get the higher up instead of actually, you know, coming to a compromise thinking win win. So I've learned a lot from that I'm now much more amenable because mostly I don't have a lot of time to want to, you know, not collaborate, it's so much more effective to be able to collaborate with your teammates, and split up duties and all of that kind of stuff, because it's just one way to work harder and not smarter. So that's just one way I've been able to grow from my mistake of not being a very good team player.
Alright, my second big mistake I have made as a teacher, I was not very good at picking my battles. And this isn't just with other teachers. This is just like managing my class in general. There was a point in time where I would only let students sharpen their pencils at the beginning of class and at the end of class. And eventually I thought about it over the summer one year and I was like, why does it even matter? That they need to sharpen their pencils, as long as I'm not teaching something like specifically, they shouldn't be able to sharpen their pencils, their pencil might break, they can go sharpen their pencil. And even when I was in elementary school, I know my teacher did not tell me Oh, you have to wait till the end of the day to sharpen your pencil. I was able to go up and go and rotate my little pencil and the pencil sharpener. So that's something I kind of let go of. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. And even sometimes while I'm teaching, and I'm taking notes, if somebody asks me their pencil broke, they need to sharpen their pencil, I let them do it. So for the most part, I've definitely given up a lot of things where I was initially very strict on. So that's just one another way that you know, just making sure not to let the little things get to you think about, you know, in the long run in the grand scheme of things, what do you really want to accomplish in your classroom? Is it worth fighting over the pencil sharpener? So think about that pencil sharpener story.
The third mistake I've made, would be that I took things to personally thinking, they don't like me, I'm not doing what they like. So therefore, they don't like me, it's not about that they don't like me, I learned that it's could be something that I did. And it has nothing to do with internally, do they like me as a person. So I sometimes would drop the ball, I'm bringing something or doing something that I was supposed to do. I think I had missed the deadline about like, the field trip that we were supposed to sign up in advance, and I didn't realize it until it was too late. And I thought they were all mad at me, and they didn't like me anymore. You know, of course, me being an overreactor. That's what I was thinking. Of course, that is not what they were thinking at all. But I just took things too, to heart way too often, I would think about it at home, I you know, I just stuck on that feeling. Even though those feelings weren't necessarily valid, that also went with, you know, you know how a parent responds in their email, I would think the parent doesn't like me, they're mad at me, when I let go of those feelings of not caring, not ruminating over, you know, a little Glip that happened or a little accident, or maybe I did drop the ball, that definitely changed my perspective of, you know, I'm not trying to be everybody's friends, I'm just trying to help your child or I'm just trying to work well with you and collaborate well with you. So definitely keep that in mind next time you feel like you're feeling down over a situation that happened, maybe it was really awkward, and you don't like awkwardness and you're thinking about it a lot, just not take it too personally.
The fourth mistake I've made as a teacher would be not putting my needs before my profession. There are still some days where I will go to work, even when I'm too tired or not feeling well. And my husband would suggest, oh, you should take the day off. But as we all know, as teachers, we cannot just take the day off, it would require having to have sub plans and finding a sub in advance. So my class doesn't get split, letting my admin now. And so it's just really hard to be able to just not show up to work. And I'm not one of those people who would ever do that kind of thing. So some days when I really do want to call in. I know it's more trouble than it's worth. And it's very sad that we have to think like this in our careers. I try as much as I can to leave work at work and focus on myself and my passions when I'm not teaching students. And if I really, really need to take that day, I will just take that day because I do believe mental days are so important. And I make sure to schedule more of those as much as I can. So that's just one of the mistakes I made at the beginning of my profession. I wish I had taken more of those paid time off days. Instead of thinking, Oh, I have to do all of this. Just take the day take the day. That's my best advice for you.
All right, here is your creative action tip for this episode. I want you to let go of the notion that you must have everything perfect. Embrace the fact that mistakes will be made in your teaching career. You can either wallow in those mistakes and let it get to you or you can learn and grow from them. It's all part of the process of being your best teacher self. And that's the ultimate goal. Don't compare to what you see on social media friend, it is not worth the energy. So that's my best tip for you. I want you to take that to heart as you go through this week. And I will see you again in the next episode.
