Mistakes Allowed

I teach 5th grade and consider myself blessed to work with such a flexible, knowledgeable team who all truly care about children.  Throughout all of the necessary changes to quarter testing, curriculum instruction, professional development and other day-to-day challenges, I know that I have support from the four people who I've taught with for the last two years.

So you may ask, why title this post "Mistakes Allowed"?  Well, a teammate of mine has this phrase posted on the wall of her classroom for her students to see.  I love thinking about this poster when I'm working through an order-of-operations problem that has multiple sets of parenthesis and I can't get the answer to match the answer key or when I'm guiding my students through a selection of text, and jumble every other word up.  I love for my students to see me goof, because I feel that sometimes they do honestly think teachers know it all!  I can speak for myself, this is simply not true...no matter how much I wished it were!  In the large scale of things, this new Common Core Curriculum implementation year is chocked FULL of mistakes.  I have lots of pent-up-about-to-bust-at-the-seams-frustration about how things have been handled at the central office level.  However, just like a prepared teacher in a room full of eager children, ready to learn, mistakes can be made.  I have to keep this in the back of my mind that this is a learning curve year.  Everyone  is learning, and everyone is making mistakes. 

Building a house has surely made me think of this poster as well: Mistakes Allowed.  Cruz and I embarked on this house design journey almost two years ago.  We have been so very fortunate to pick out and create our "dream home" including every detail from taller counter tops, to a snazzy, state-of-the-art gas cook top in the island and my personal favorite, two wrap around porches =)  Because of tremendous family support, hours of sleep lost, money pinched and weekends given up, we've had the opportunity to see this dream unfold in front of our eyes.  Just today we finally passed our rough-in plumbing inspection.  Just this past week we passed out rough-in electrical inspection.  Two years worth of hard work and planning are finally beginning to amount to something tangible, and I can't help but get excited!  Now, don't get me wrong, along the way, mistakes have been made.  Plumbing was a doozy to get done, and something as simple as deciding on a paint color can really make you think and reflect on what you want to look at for the next 10 years!  However, mistakes are allowed.  There is nothing set in stone, and we've made changes as this project has evolved.  I know that more challenges will surface as we get deeper into this crazy house-building mess.  More mistakes will be made, but it's totally okay.

Mistakes Allowed.  Simply stated, but so beautifully defined.