... to make the coffee?
We had an early Saint Patrick's Day breakfast at my school this morning. Somehow or another, I got signed up to make the coffee. I explained that I am not much of a coffee drinker and really have no idea how to actually make coffee. Still, my coworkers were confident in my abilities and insisted it would be easy. When I went to the teachers' room, there was a coffee urn when I was expecting an automatic coffee pot with a paper filter.
Long story short, everything was there, directions, all the necessary parts, and the pre- measured coffee. I poured the water and the coffee into the same part of the urn. I tried to fix my mistake by draining the water through the well where I was supposed to but the grinds, but it was to no avail. I felt embarrassed about my lack of coffee making ability.
My coworkers were understanding and even supportive. As the day wore on, I thought about this seemingly silly incident more and more. My students make mistakes all the time. One of our "wewillbes" (rules) in our classroom is that we will be learners. Learners make mistakes and that is okay. As their teacher, it is my job to gently point out their mistakes and help them move on and learn from them. Once again, I find that I can follow and apply to my own life the guidelines that I have set up for life inside the classroom.
A toast to life long learning and coffee drinking
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I wrote a post about that a while ago actually, about expecting perfection from ourselves when we never would approach our students in the same way. I love that you took your lesson about coffee and applied it to life! :)
ReplyDeleteI like this attitude: learn from mistakes. Too bad the coffee pot has no undo button.
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