Foot in Mouth Disease
Learning to lead with questions
Another episode of Mrs D should lead with a question:
Me to one of last year’s sophomore football players: What happened to your arm?
Student: Turf burn, bad turf burn.
Me: ouch! From the game Thursday (when JV plays)?
Student: Thursday? You mean Friday.
Me: I’m so sorry.
Student: I’m just a little offended.
Me: You absolutely should be. Congratulations on making varsity this year and take care of that arm.
Student: Thanks, Mrs D
I try. I really try to keep up with activities my students are in and how they are doing. I promise I try. And I often fail, epically, especially when it comes to students who are no longer in my class.
When I see former students in the hallways, I am always happy to speak with them. While I mostly remember activities or sports they play, I am not aways up to date on which teams they are on. And that leads to the conversations like the one above. Thankfully, these young people are gracious and forgiving when I mess up.
One of my favorite foot in mouth moments happened this past year with my sophomore classes. I had multiple football players, but who can actually remember who is on the blue team and who is on the yellow team? Not me, that’s for sure. One class came in and I asked how the game went. I celebrated when they shared they won. When the next class came in, I said, “Congratulations on the win!”
A student looked at me, laughed, and responded, “No, Mrs. D. That was the other team. We got destroyed yesterday.” I tried to recover with, “Well good job not getting injured!” The same student replied, “Actually, I hurt my knee.”
Well, my work there was done.
I stopped asking if they won or lost and started asking how they played instead. It became the safer option, until students in other activities asked why I don’t ask how they did.
A girl can never win.
I told them I cannot keep up with all the awesome things they do, and it was their job to enter class and brag about all their accomplishments. What I have found, is that celebrating what they do in and out of the classroom matters. A round of applause goes a long way in helping students feel seen and supported.
In my room, we celebrate everything. We learn to cheer for others who have done well regardless of how we have done. We learn to clap for others even if no one is clapping for us. And we learn to share the awesome things we do because I do not want them to minimize themselves, for any reason.