30 Day Reflection: The Big Pink Eraser

This is the 18th day in a 30 day challenge from Teach Thought.

Day 18: Create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes your teaching philosophy.

I love erasers. They are one of my favorite office supplies. Yep. I know that makes me strange, but I don't mind that designation. After all, I teach high school students and enjoy it. That alone, makes me different from the general population of adults in the world.

Years ago, I adopted the big pink eraser as a word picture for my teaching philosophy. I try really hard to communicate to my students that we will all make mistakes. Most of them can be fixed with a simple eraser. Others will require a little more hard work. I stress that some of my best learning has happened when I made a mistake and had to figure out how to fix it.

I try to model being gracious when someone points out one of my mistakes. Teens love to point out an adult's mistake, so the opportunity for me to model comes up often.

I tell students who make a big mistake and have to face the consequences that I will be waiting for them when they return to class. We can start over regardless of what happened the day before.

I remind them that they are not defined by their worst day. I encourage my students to pick up the eraser and write a new page.

I guess the big pink eraser philosophy seems simplistic, but if my students can learn to take risks, own up to their mistakes, and graciously accept correction, then I consider their time with me to be a success.