Had a Lesson That Didn’t Go To Plan?

No matter how much experience we have under our belts, there are always those lessons we walk away from thinking they could have gone better. It might be that a well-prepared resource didn’t go down as well as expected, or behaviour got in the way of high engagement and progress. It might be that the IT went down and you had to improvise, or maybe you thought students had grasped something but they didn’t, and recapping it took time out of your lesson. It might be that your energy just wasn’t in it and as a result, the lesson felt flat. Whatever the reason, it can feel disappointing, stressful and can fuel that little voice that sometimes sits on our shoulder telling us we are rubbish teachers and we should never have got into the profession in the first place! 

First thing’s first: FLICK THAT GUY OFF YOUR SHOULDER, he will only tell you lies and it’s SO easy to spiral when he starts chatting in your ear. You can go from rationally thinking to questioning your worth as a teacher real fast if you give him any air time. 

Okay, not that’s sorted – let’s reflect. What WAS in your control that could have gone differently and that you will try differently next time? What was NOT in your control that contributed? LET. THAT. GO. 

As effective practitioners, it’s important that we reflect on our practice and trial new strategies and approaches to develop our teaching skills, but it’s also equally important to not beat ourselves up for the stuff we can’t control. Vent if you need to, reflect on what you’ll do differently next time and then move on. Stay present and try not to dwell on it too much. Put your best foot forward and go again. We go again. It’s what we do!

Practical things to do when it doesn’t go to plan:

1. Stay calm! The more flustered you get, the more the lesson will unravel and de-rail because the kids will pick up on your energy and mirror it, making the situation seem 10 times worse. 

2. Don’t beat yourself up! You don’t gain a single thing by telling yourself you’re a rubbish teacher. Plus, that’s a lie! We all have lessons like this, every single teacher in the land! Chalk it up to experience and move on!

3. Change course! HAve enough faith in yourself and your teaching ability to veer off course if what you’ve planned isn’t working! Try thinking of alternative activities during the planning stage so you have something up your sleeve if ‘winging it’ feels stressful. 

4. Reflect honestly! Unpick what contributed to the lesson falling apart, because it might not be what you at first think. Have some honest reflection time and consider your mood, your enthusiasm levels, fatigue etc – it may actually be nothing to do with teaching and learning and something else might need shifting/sorting instead.

5. Adjust! Teaching is a trial and error kinda thing. Try to stop seeking perfection and know that it’s almost impossible to achieve that star standard we hold in our minds every lesson with 32 other human beings in the room – teaching is super unpredictable! Trial a whole bunch of new strategies as much as you can to build a tool kit big enough to support you through any lesson that goes wrong! 

Keep moving forward!