To The Rescue

I am in the midst of a significant teaching experiment in one of my courses. We are a month into the course. This is the time in the emerging process that student frustrations begin to appear and my sense of panic increases. It is a natural part of the learning process. What I am tempted to do, however, is to rescue us all and revert back to the comfortable and familiar. What I need to do is remind myself of why I decided upon the experiment. I need to recommit myself to the learning goals I established. I need to be courageous.

I share this because anyone who ventures into the unknown to experiment, learn, and grow will experience times of panic. Know that you are not alone. What you are experiencing is normal. The challenge is to find ways to reinforce your resolve to follow your vision. What helps me is to keep learning. I learn by reflecting upon my current experience to identify what is going well and what may need to be changed. I continue to read, attend training, and dialogue with colleagues to bolster my confidence. What most inspires me to continue with my experiment, though, is to focus on how much I care for my students. I care about what happens to them when they venture forth from college. I want them to be able to deal with the ambiguities of life. I don’t want to spoon feed them answers. It is critical that they learn how to learn. So I will strive to continue to give them my best and to evoke the best from them. That means I will refrain from coming to our rescue. May we all survive to tell the tale at the end.