It’s October, and that means one thing in my household–MLB playoff season! In all the noise surrounding the teams, players, and predictions for the next few weeks, one comment caught my attention. Pitching is an important component of any team who desires to make it all the way to the World Series. If a pitcher is not doing as well as expected, fans become nervous…frustrated even. As a Dodger fan, I know this all too well. But, a recent comment made by the Dodger’s bullpen coach, Josh Bard, cut through all the noise surrounding some of the pitching staff’s recent falterings during critical games.

There’s no such thing as failure, only feedback.

Some might have seen his comment as a way to deflect the question without really answering it. But, there is something important in what he had to say. If you talk to any athlete about what it takes to win a game (much less a championship), they will inevitably get at the mental game. Yes, skill is required, but it is the confidence in that skill that means everything.

What do you think of when you hear the word failure? How do you feel when the work that you do is described as a failure? It’s pretty debilitating. If Coach Bard only worked with his athletes by reminding them of their failures, what do you think would have happened? More failure. Instead, he knows what his players are capable of and works to bring out the very best in them.

The same is true for our students.

It is critical for teachers to examine what they do when a student does not meet the desired expectations. When we mark their work and efforts as a failure (an F on a paper, the low grade in the grade book) and simply move on, we have missed an incredible opportunity. Over time, this kind of practice can cause us to fall into the trap of deficit thinking. We  begin to see our students in terms of what they are unable to do, and worse yet, excuse ourselves from any responsibility to help them overcome those struggles.

In that kind of environment, our students take on the label they have been given–failures. This becomes a devastating cycle as failure creates more failure. Without a teacher who is willing to break that cycle–to help a student see themselves for what they have the potential to accomplish–there is not much hope for these students.

It is my desire that during this school year, teachers everywhere realize that the teaching and learning experiences in their classrooms are opportunities for feedback and reflection. Consider what must be part of the classroom culture for this to occur:

  1. Teachers see the potential within their students and honestly believe in their ability to be successful.
  2. Teachers help students to reflect on the how, not the what.
  3. Teachers never give up, and they don’t allow their students to give up either.

Teachers see the potential within their students and honestly believe in their ability to be successful.

At the heart of any classroom is a teacher who cares tremendously about his or her students. They choose to build meaningful and authentic relationships with each child so that they know who they are and what they need in order to be successful. This can sometimes be easier said than done, but it is a necessary choice that every teacher must make. When we know our students and when they trust us to genuinely care for them, there is an incredible opportunity to move students forward–to challenge them in their learning and ultimately celebrate the successes they have. Positive relationships change perspectives, and sometimes that is all a student needs.

Teachers help students to reflect on the how, not the what.

Inevitably, a student will not meet the expectations of the work they are asked to do. For too long, teachers have relied on the grade to communicate something to that child about the expectation and what they should have done in order to be more successful. But, grades are just a ranking system and have serious flaws for use as meaningful feedback.

But, if we take Coach Bard’s advice, we can help students see how assessments of any kind can help us see how we can do better–how we can move closer to our potential. In the classroom, this requires conversations with our students built on relationships of trust. These on-going, supportive moments of feedback can be a powerful tool to help students understand how they can do better. Even more importantly, they provide windows into the struggles students are having so that teachers can adapt and change their instruction to meet the needs of their students. In contrast with the debilitating finality of a grade, this teacher-student partnership keeps moving students towards the success they are capable of achieving.

Teachers never give up, and they don’t allow their students to give up either.

No matter what, every teacher will have that one student who will keep them up at night. Maybe it’s the student who resists to engage in the learning process, or maybe it’s the student who desires to do well and takes our feedback but then does nothing with it. It is in these moments that I have to remind myself that I cannot give up and that my students can’t either. I’d love to say that this attitude always brings about a happy ending, but often it doesn’t. But, then, there are those students who come back years later and thank me. They talk about the impact of my class, how it helped them, and how (yes, even years later) they are better for it. Wow! Those experiences are why I can keep teaching each day.

We must remember that we are just brief moments in the lives of our students. We often must satisfy ourselves with the reality that we are planting seeds and may never see our efforts come to any fruition. It is because of that reality that we continue working hard to develop meaningful relationships with our students through the conversations we have about the work they are doing in our classrooms, pointing them towards the potential we see in them through the support we give them to reach that potential.

We, as teachers, are doing a great work! Our students are, too! Teach on, my friends!