Then class begins on Thursday. I have two students who tell me "they didn't know there was a quiz". One admits he never studied. We took the quiz. After the grading the quizzes, I was not surprised to see a few low scores, especially from those who didn't study. What I was surprised to see were the answers to some of the questions.
Ex. What is the rhyme scheme for the following poem? Answer: rhyme scheme
Ex. What kind of poem is the following? Answer: rhyme scheme
Ex. Similar to a haiku, what is the name for the other form of Japanese poetry we wrote? Answer: haiku
And more similar answers. There were questions that were completely skipped, including multiple choice questions. So I pulled the student up to my desk to ask them what was going on. You know what he told me? It'll make any teacher's hair stand up on end, "I'm just not good at poetry." Son.... let's use this as a life lesson. You're about to get life lesson speech, Andring style, #52908573892. And for good measure, I'm going to include your entire GRADE on this one.
Addressing my class:
There is no such thing as "I'm just not good at it." There is such a thing as not trying. I'm not asking you to write a book of poems that will be published on the national best seller's list. I'm not asking you to get 100% on your poetry quiz. All I ask is that you try. And when you try, sometimes you fail. But you are guaranteed to fail if you never try. (At this point one of my blessed little angels pointed to our bulletin board and said "It's like you're always saying about having a growth mindset." YES! Growth mindset, where you realize it may be tough, but you give it a try and keep trying! You don't give up before you start.) Let me give you an analogy. Saying "I'm just not good at it", would be like if I signed up for the 100 yard dash. I lined up at the starting line and when the starter's gun went off, I sat down. I would fail right? But I didn't fail because I didn't win the race. I didn't win because I didn't try. I quit before I even got started.
I could tell I was losing a few of them, but a couple of them were nodding along (maybe just to keep me happy - but I can dream that they were hearing and understanding.) So I pulled out the old embarrass the teacher story.
Addressing my class:
So, you're thinking, well sometimes I try and I still fail. You're right! Sometimes you try and try and you still fail. And sometimes those failures are embarrassing and sometimes they are disappointing and sometimes they are just downright hilarious. Let me give you an example. You guys know that we show horses, right? We've been showing horses for about 13 years now. I've attended thousands of horse shows (maybe a little exaggeration). I've been in the ring helping judges, I've been the announcer, I've watched my kids, I've organized the show, I've also been the one showing in the class, so I have a lot of experience. I shouldn't fail at horse showing, right? But there was a show a couple of years ago where I did fail. Miserably. I was showing in the class and we had gone one way around the ring. Halfway through the class the announcer told us to stop and then said, "reverse your horses." I've been to enough shows and shown enough myself to know that when they say reverse, you turn your horse and go the other direction. But for some reason at this show I didn't do that. You know what I did? I backed up. I guess my brain heard reverse and thought I was driving a car or something. I heard the next announcer say, "reverse your horses" again. I thought that was really weird because we never back up twice, but hey - guess what I did again? Yep, backed up some more. The announcer came on the loudspeaker a third time to say "Melissa. Turn your horse around." (insert class laughing hysterically) Yes, kids, that's right. I was laughing, the judge was laughing, those watching were laughing. Pretty much everyone except Libby, who I think wanted to die of embarrassment, was laughing. I failed. In pretty epic style I might add. But I didn't stop showing and guess what, I've had some success since then and I definitely will never ever make that mistake again.
Let me give you another personal story with a little bit different ending. Sophie plays softball right? Sometimes she would get up to bat and not want to swing, would stand there and hope for the walk. Any of you ever felt like that? (heads nodding) Well, her coach had great advice for her last summer. "You're guaranteed not to get a hit if you don't swing." He was right. You might get lucky and get a walk, but you're guaranteed never to have the joy of hitting the ball, maybe even getting that homerun, if you stand there and don't swing. It's better to take a chance and miss, then never take a chance at all. But that's not the whole story. So last summer I was riding a young horse. He was kind of dumb, and my last story proved I can be kind of dumb too. There was this tough pattern and I was going to drop out of the class. I didn't want to go in because I was sure I would fail and embarrass myself again. But Sophie reminded me that I was guaranteed not to get a hit if I didn't swing. So, in order to be a good example for my daughter, I went in and tried that pattern. This isn't a Hallmark movie so I'm not going to say I won the championship. But I did get second. And I can't tell you the amount of pride I had in myself and my horse. I never would have felt that if I didn't take a chance and give it a try.
What I'm trying to tell you all today is that you can't say, "I'm not good at fractions. I'm not good at poetry. I'm not good at the Laws of Motion." You're not good at them because you aren't trying. You may fail at first even. But keep trying. You're not good at it because you haven't practiced, you haven't learned from your mistakes. Think of a time when you tried something and failed the first time. How about that video game you're all always talking about? I bet you didn't beat the game and everyone the first time you played it. Did you play it once and then quit? No, you kept playing and you got better. And it probably took a lot of tries.
What I'm trying to tell you is this, keep trying. Work hard. Don't give up before you start, or even after you fail. And always remember, "You're guaranteed not to get a hit if you don't swing."
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