Transformation
Many students have been taught that they need to be perfect in school, home, sports, and their all around everyday lives. Many children haven’t been taught how to fail and overcome an obstacle. I see more and more everyday that students will stop trying when they get to an obstacle in their assignment, activity, or game. They don’t know what to do when something gets hard, or when they lose. This is when many of my students with emotional impairments don’t know what to do with their feelings and lash out in the only ways that they do know how-verbal outbursts or physical outbursts. If we, as educators, can take the time to teach students that failing is a part of everyday life, then many students will feel much better about themselves. Just because a student fails, doesn’t mean that they should quit, or worse, that they are a failure. It simply means that they need to adjust their tactics and try again. These are the essential skills that I would like to make sure every student that comes through my classroom understands before they move onto middle school.
In my classroom, I hope that my students become okay with the idea that failing is something that must happen. I believe that if my students see and believe this, then I, as their teacher and case coordinator, will see much fewer physical and verbal outbursts. I often see my students having outbursts because they didn’t win a game or because they think they’re doing a worksheet wrong in math (or another subject). If the student can see that “trying” is what we are teaching them, and when they try again and again then they will be able to succeed, then they will have far fewer outbursts.