3 Reasons Why I Question My Teaching Skills (Often)

The truth is, there is not a single day I drive home without questioning some of my teaching strategies and/or approaches. I feel that sometimes I am REALLY hard on myself and go from reflecting to: Am I qualified/competent to teach? And…there you have it. I am letting one event, lesson, approach be the defining factor of whether I should continue in the education field or not (quite drastic I know).

When I was in my ‘own’ classroom (and I mean ‘own’ because I was the only teacher), I felt like if I did something wrong, I could just pick up and move on the following day. Now, I am in a complete different situation: I teach in a team model (there are 3 of us for 2 classrooms). I love it. It keeps you going and learning at lightning speed, but also when I do something wrong, I feel that I have let not only my students down but my team as well.

While I have learned to ASK for help and to recognize that….all lessons do not go great, it is still a rough learning curve. I am the one always telling my students: ‘Mistakes are opportunities.’ Yeah…it even sounds poetic, but not so ‘cool’ after all.

Being outside your comfort zone and/or trying things you know you are not as ‘good’ at are really pushing me as an educator (and as a person as well). So, after a rough day – a day full of mistakes, questions and challenges I try to remind myself that questioning my teaching is not so bad because:

1- It means I am looking back, thinking about what I did and brainstorming about how I can do it better next time

2- It keeps me grounded. I am not a super-hero or a super-teacher. It reminds me of why being humble is important

3-I am learner and I just as any other learner out there…mistakes will happen. It is what you do after making those mistakes that define who you are

Teaching is rough (but I still would not see myself doing anything else…most of the time at least).