Give Yourself Permission to Fail
Like I said above, nobody likes to fail. Of course we don’t! But, part of trial and error is giving yourself permission to fail. A perfect example of this is lesson planning. The best lesson plans on paper don’t always go right in person. You’re excited when planning, thinking about those students enjoying music, and then it just doesn’t go that way in real life.
But, experimenting and giving yourself permission to fail will help you to learn from your mistakes. You’ll succeed and grow from each experience and it will help to make you a better version of the teacher you were even yesterday.
Be Okay with Not Getting it Right
Failing is scary. Sometimes you don’t want to try new things that have been learned at a workshop, summit, levels course, or even from another teacher on social media, because you don’t think you’ll do it right, or can’t do it as good as they did, or don’t know how your students will receive this new thing.
But, what if it does go great? What if it works? What if it goes amazingly well? If you never try, you’ll never know. So while asking for all the advice in Facebook groups and all over social media, sometimes you need to trust that you have what it takes, you have amazing ideas, you have unique talents and aspirations and a way of working with your students in a way that only you can do it.
Open Up Opportunities for Growth
The times things have gone epically wrong in life or in my classroom are the times I’ve seen the most growth in myself. If things always went perfectly well and there were never opportunities for growth, you would just never grow!
So, this year, allow yourself room to mess up, to make mistakes, to not know all the answers, to not know what you’re doing some days, and laugh at yourself, learn from those moments, and keep going and growing
Are you comfortable trying things without knowing whether they will work or fail? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post. I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.
P.S. Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher? Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!
Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career. You can get your copy here.
