Tuesday, August 9, 2011

First Days and Failures

Before I begin, I should probably clarify what I think of failure....

It's not the end of the world!

Instead, it's an opportunity to learn what doesn't work.

Failure #1 Butcher Paper 101
Yesterday, I experimented with covering half of a giant white-board wall with butcher paper and some lights. First I tried putting lights under the paper.

It looked lame. Fail.

I then used masking tape to attach three long sheets (14 feet each) to cover the board.

I came in this morning and it had peeled off the wall and piled in a heap on the floor. Fail.

After chatting with the fabulous ladies in the front office about the mysteries of attaching stuff to white-boards, another new teacher stopped by my room and offered to help. After a combination of packing tape, staples, and ticky-tac, I think we may be victorious. Unless of course I find it on the floor again tomorrow. :)

Fail #2 Loading Staplers

Yes, I said loading staplers. In my defense, it was a heavy duty stapler. Like this one:
To my shame, I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to open it only to find out a few moments later that I had not pulled it out far enough before putting the staples in. Luckily (and embarrassingly) the other teacher noticed my mistake, showed me what happened, and got us back on track.

Failure #3 Remembering that kids are kids
One of the social workers came in for a few hours today and brought her baby with her. I was playing with the baby for a while, then picked her up to rest on my shoulder.

About a minute later I was covered in baby spit-up. Fail.

Thankfully, last week I put an extra clean shirt in my file cabinet "just in case" that came in handy.

We all fail at one point or another. It's good for us. Over time, it keeps us humble, helps us get better, and leads us to more effective ways of doing things. In the meantime we learn to laugh.

Tomorrow I begin a week of trainings, meetings, and more meetings. Bring it.

1 comment:

  1. hahah Love can't wait to continuously share stories!

    ReplyDelete