July 11, 2015

Classroom Zoo #26 - It's Not About Getting It Right, It's About Doing It Right

Cheating in the classroom is one of my biggest pet peeves. Even at 5 years old, kids seem to have the idea that they NEED to be right engrained into their minds. It takes away their creativity, stifles their risk-taking, and frustrates the heck out of their teacher. When kids come across the smallest difficulty, many of their instincts is to check in with their neighbor rather than think it through. It's all about getting it done, at any costs.  I have seen children cheat on questions that literally have no wrong answers. I feel guilty as I feel responsible for helping nurture them into confident and "willing to fail" learners. Plus, as silly as it may sound, it would sort of nice to see those "guilty" to at least improve their sneakiness skills as they are usually caught quite easily and often cheat off of someone just as clueless as they are. By no means am I suggesting that I want my students to become better cheaters, but adapting and improving is always a goal across all academic and social situations. I aim to grow in my patience and flexibility in order to assist children as they need it.

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