TOMMIE SAYLOR: Successful teaching often is located outside the box

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.”

-- Colin Powell

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

Failure is part of the process.  Often we fear trying something new, stepping out of our comfort zone and giving a new idea it’s proper due. We withdraw because of our anxiety for failure, when we should advance forward. 

Because we hate to be wrong, we often fail to even try. We have grown too comfortable. Even if our “normal” is ineffective and counter to our goals, we would rather stick with that which we know, than do that which is hard or unfamiliar.  Because we fear failure, we fail to try, and thus fail to grow.

Imagine if Edison would have given up after the first few filaments failed in his incandescent light bulb. Failure doesn’t mean disaster. In fact we can learn more from our failures than from our successes; failure is a lesson, a learning opportunity.

Good teachers know that their lessons can’t be static. One can’t create a lesson plan and teach the same lesson year after year after year.  The good teacher constantly tweaks, adjusts and refines lessons. A good teacher is not afraid to try new approaches, new methods and new techniques. 

If the changes are successful, that’s great. Keep and incorporate the changes into your teaching. If unsuccessful, try, try, try again. 

Finally, the good teacher is not afraid to ask their students how they can improve a lesson, or if a change worked for them.  Students, who have witnessed many lessons and many presentations by the time they get to high school, can be brutally honest – and often rather insightful. 

Though you can’t always give the students what they want, they are often fairly good at letting you know what works, what does not work, and how they learn.

How and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.