I’ve been listening to the My Bad podcast recently created by Jon Harper and reflecting on how we can make these mistakes, that are all inherent in the learning process, be owned by our students.

Think about all the mistakes we make throughout the day, how we reflect on those, and turn them into successes. If we truly want to innovate our schools, innovate our learning, and innovate for the future, then we need to create opportunities for students to share their mistakes and be honored for them. With that in mind our class is starting a My Bad challenge. This is not a competition to see who has the best mistake, it’s a competition to see how students can start to affirm mistakes with their peers.

My goal this week is to have students reflect on a mistake that really helped them to learn each day. Mistakes are the building blocks of learning, but if we push them to the side, or worse tell our students that they shouldn’t have made that mistake, then our classrooms will never incubate innovation. Instead our classrooms will be perpetuating that same mindset that has infected our schools for years. The idea that there is only one correct way to do something.

Here’s the My Bad challenge:

• Classes post to our padlet for the week.
• Each day have a student or two post their mistakes on the wall (could be a video, audio, or text comment.
• Students begin to see that others have the same mistakes and connections can be created across the world.
• Be enthusiastic with mistakes, as long as students are learning from them.
• Remember that #kidsdeserveit for teachers to honor their mistakes and for teachers to share their own mistakes.

See how many mistakes your students start to affirm throughout the week. Create a My Bad wall in your class, school, or community. Imagine the power if we can bridge the gap between school and the community to share our mistakes and growth experiences together. No longer do we hide our mistakes behind class walls. They now become a great conversation starter that promotes growth in all students!