How to Recover From a Really, Really Bad Class If you’ve ever had a class go so badly that you decided you were a terrible teacher and thought about quitting teaching forever, then this post is for you!
Awful classes can happen to even the most experienced of teachers, and it can really shake your confidence. This video will show you a simple charting technique that takes almost no time, but will give you some perspective on your teaching.
A few notes (to read after you’ve seen the video): • The red dots give you valuable information. For example, you may notice that they always happen on the same class. Seeing that everything else is going well can help you feel more confident about fixing the problems with that class.
• You may also notice a particular day when many classes go badly. Maybe you were sick or sleep deprived that day, or all the kids just get back from a field trip. Try to give yourself a pass on those days.
• If instead of mostly green dots you see a pattern lots of red dots, try to evaluate your situation objectively. Are you a first-year teacher? Just be happy you’ve got any green dots at all! If you are experienced, are you teaching under very trying circumstances—like huge classes sizes, lots of kids with behavior problems? You may be doing the best job anyone could do under those circumstances. However, you may also decide you need to find a new position where you can feel better about your teaching. In any case, we hope you enjoy your evaluating your teaching experience in this simple but enlightening way!