by James Sanders

2014-07-04 10:10:56 UTC

FAIL

usdlisa — 2014-07-14 16:52:43 UTC

I learned how to fail, by working at a failing school. I've been given the opportunity to do innovative things and fall and get back up and fall and get back up again. It's the best!

2014-07-14 16:53:02 UTC

I failed SO much my first year of 1:1. Spent too much time chasing modification and redefinition. Looking forward to doing it better next year.

grad school: couldn't finish my last class, and 7 years has passed. :(

sarahnpierce — 2014-07-14 16:53:05 UTC

my fail

2014-07-14 16:53:05 UTC

I was failing Chem class as a biology major and the girl across the hall was learning how to teach PE. Took a big pivot and changed my major!

khilton2 — 2014-07-14 16:53:07 UTC

I let my kids walk around with Chrome books and they were dropped!! Ugg! I needed the video.

Been around that block before

2014-07-14 16:53:11 UTC

I've been married before and it didn't work out, so I got divorced. That's the big fail of married life.

I didn't invest in Google.

2014-07-14 16:53:12 UTC

2014-07-14 16:53:17 UTC

Applying for entry to MERIT comes from many years of failure to reach a handful of kids in every class.

How I've Failed

2014-07-14 16:53:18 UTC

Losing touch with great friends

doyourhomework — 2014-07-14 16:53:18 UTC

Not becoming a mother yet.

My fail

2014-07-14 16:53:19 UTC

I've failed recently by not sticking with things that I've started.

2014-07-14 16:53:19 UTC

Waiting so long to join the world of technology.

I organized a workshop for teachers outside of my district and 2 people showed up. I was hoping for 30.

ronihabib — 2014-07-14 16:53:21 UTC

Rookie Mistake

2014-07-14 16:53:25 UTC

I told a class full of seniors to put "whatever name you want me to call you" on table tents to help me learn names/faces. One boy wrote "Daddy" on his.

i set up an amazing exchange via google hangouts with a school in another country and then learned my district blocked the school computers from using google hangouts...no way to go through with our exchange.

srduffy55 — 2014-07-14 16:53:30 UTC

2014-07-14 16:53:35 UTC

I left Sac State after one semester with a .3 GPA which boils down to getting all F's and one D. It would take me another decade to finally graduate from college.

nberger — 2014-07-14 16:53:39 UTC

Not taking action years earlier when I was completely burnt out teaching.

2014-07-14 16:53:43 UTC

I moved to the wrong area and got stuck there

ashleyksullivan — 2014-07-14 16:53:50 UTC

Not being prepared enough for my students. Not preparing them enough for the tools that I have thrown at them.

not editing my comments, although they are valid

sarahnpierce — 2014-07-14 16:53:50 UTC

I wasn't able to help a student get out of a home that had domestic violence.

2014-07-14 16:53:54 UTC

I spilled tea on my laptop, and lost my film!!

msalmerido — 2014-07-14 16:53:57 UTC

I didn't support my teaching partner the way she needed it, which in part caused huge drama on staff that divided the team between newcomers and veterans.

I failed by not believing I could do more and holding myself back from what I might have been capable of. I feel like I fail when I don't reach a kid because he/she is too hard to deal with when there are so many students in a class that are easier.

2014-07-14 16:54:08 UTC

2014-07-14 16:54:09 UTC

Ive been too lazy.

Stuck

2014-07-14 16:54:36 UTC

There has to be more than this!

2014-07-14 16:54:37 UTC

not speaking up

2014-07-14 16:54:38 UTC

So many fails...second guessing myself when the fearful are not supportive.

not taking chances

2014-07-14 16:54:39 UTC

kfletcher — 2014-07-14 16:54:41 UTC

I do a lab that requires you to freeze water balloons and I had one class experiement with 12

Big Fail

2014-07-14 16:54:42 UTC

I listened to a more experienced teacher when she told me students have "the right to fail," and then got schooled in a parent-teacher conference when the mom reminded me that I was the adult.

2014-07-14 16:54:47 UTC

I often share my ideas before listening enough to others'

2014-07-14 16:54:48 UTC

2 bad partners

gmcgriff — 2014-07-14 16:55:02 UTC

gave s's a real world problem; principal expected a fool proof answer. Asked to present answer to problem to school board - epic fail!

2014-07-14 16:55:27 UTC

Not always saying what I want

2014-07-14 16:55:29 UTC

Not having enough patience with myself when I do fail.

Fail to catch students who cheated.

kumikobasensei — 2014-07-14 16:55:29 UTC

I saw a student who is showing his quiz to who sat next to him. I saw it but did not do anything about it. That was my first year of teaching.

2014-07-14 16:56:13 UTC

Not speaking up for others

2014-07-14 16:57:25 UTC

I have tried to bridge the gap between institutions of governments and schools/teachers with professional development opps that partnered the two. The gap is so much larger than one small team can address.

not sticking through when something gets hard

2014-07-14 16:57:36 UTC

gmcgriff — 2014-07-14 16:57:59 UTC

Didn't invest in Google

2014-07-14 16:59:59 UTC

I failed as a student teacher--my cooperating teacher and university supervisor told me I should find another career. I failed my first year of teaching--couldn't control classes of 9th and 10th graders and was laid off. I failed teaching in an alternative program-- I was told I wasn't the "right fit"--so I was fired after one year.

2014-07-14 17:04:57 UTC

Sometimes I get really lazy with developing my teaching plans. The status quo becomes "good enough".

I'm afraid to fail

2014-07-14 17:36:21 UTC

Failing

usdlisa — 2014-07-20 18:36:45 UTC

I have failed in front of students and it helps them become OK with making mistakes in a safe place.

FirstYearTeachingProblems

2014-07-20 18:37:35 UTC

Letting students create an online blog with no privacy, when a student had a restraining order out against her mom. What added to the awesomeness is that the mom came to my classroom the next day. #FAIL

Failing...

2014-07-20 18:37:37 UTC

I proposed an idea for a virtual academy to be started in our district. While the idea was great, students(and teachers with staff) were not ready to leave a full-time paper-book-pencil environment to a full-time online environment.

You Tube Fail

2014-07-20 18:38:01 UTC

When presenting a YouTube video I clicked on the wrong one and showed a video on child birth.

2014-07-20 18:38:08 UTC

In an interview, I was asked about my worst teaching experience. I had been having a GREAT interview. But somehow, I started talking about a situation in which one teacher had 12 perfect students, and I was give 22 high needs students. In that class, I had several students in foster care, violent students, angry students, and it had been a terrible, awful, frantic, frustrating experience.... So when I got that question, I said, "Well, one year a combination class was s

Debra

2014-07-20 18:38:23 UTC

In cooperating technology in the classroom, we had a difficult time connecting to the WI-FI. Since this was one of my first attempts, I thought I was not directing students appropriately. At the end of class, our principal sends us an email informing us that we were experiencing connection issues.

2014-07-20 18:38:26 UTC

I insisted that I had made VERY CLEAR and REASONABLE expectations for the turning in of an assignment and was quite humbled to realize that my students were right about the fact that I had never set a deadline. Doesn't happen barely EVER, but when it does, it's a shock.

2014-07-20 18:38:27 UTC

Esther

Set up a website in 1998 and the district made me remove it because it showed student faces and had their last names. Took me three years to convince them that it was ok to have student names and faces

Sally/Messy Fail

2014-07-20 18:38:43 UTC

The first time my 8th graders carried around 5-lb "flour babies" as part of sex ed unit, I didn't collect the flour bags at the end of the project...there was a flour trail from the school for several blocks...lots of phone calls from the neighborhood.

Amanda

2014-07-20 18:39:03 UTC

I failed math twice.

Used something like this to post without student name

2014-07-20 18:39:33 UTC

The kids just started putting up inside jokes and really dumb sayings. Epic fail. " Well sorry guys we can't do this anymore. "

2014-07-20 18:39:42 UTC

Most of my most embarrassing moments are with searches

on youtube...

2014-07-20 18:43:02 UTC

All of our biggest internet disasters are when google search does not block inappropriate images.... O.M.G.! What kids can think of!

Simone

2014-07-29 19:22:35 UTC

Talking through instruction and a video is playing in background

J

2014-07-29 19:23:53 UTC

My 4th graders were watching "The Indian in the Cupboard" movie after reading the book. I hadn't seen it for a while and forgot that there is a scene where the Girls Girls Girls music video pops up on the tv screen that the main character is watching....not an appropriate music video for a children/family movie..

2014-08-01 15:34:10 UTC

ANON

While watching The Diary of Anne Frank (PBS version), class saw a glimpse of Peter's naked rear end as he got out of a bath tub in the attic...

techintegrators — 2014-08-01 15:34:14 UTC

Let my students go on the NatGEo site and they found a video on child birth!

kmeldrum1 — 2014-08-01 15:34:26 UTC

When I first started teaching my overhead projector caught on fire while I was teaching...served it right!!!

Random guy

2014-08-01 15:34:38 UTC

I was doing a lesson on personification while student teaching. Thinking on my feet, I looked around the room and noticed a box on the floor. I asked students how they would feel being a box and having things shoved in and out of it all day...You know where teenagers went

2014-08-01 15:35:12 UTC

I was teaching back in the day and instead of saying floppy disk I said floppy >>>>

2014-08-01 15:35:21 UTC

The National Geographic video that I linked to on the class google site had a sponsored ad... by Victoria Secret.

Better at Image Searches Now

2014-08-01 17:18:56 UTC

We were creating brochures and doing an image search over the students' given topics. The student was having a hard time finding images of "deer" so I encouraged him to type in "Bambi"...let's just say that the filter didn't catch "Bambi" the stripper and there she was right at the top of the image search

2014-08-03 20:39:58 UTC

The assignment: choose a plant that is unknown to you and create a basic poster. There exists a "penis plant."

I showed some scuba diving videos with sharks and sea turtle videos and as prize for some kids at lunch. There was a few minutes before the rest of the class came back and they saw a result about a shark attacking a boat. I had not viewed it before, but since we had a few minutes left, to kill time I played it. Within the first 20-30 seconds, the shark attacked the boat and the videographer shouted, "Holy sh, what the f*!" I could not get to the stop fast enough... Never again will I show a video I have not watched myself, and shoud not have to begin with.

2014-10-12 19:37:36 UTC

Student Teaching

2014-10-13 02:33:24 UTC

I evaluated an entire class of 8th grade writing and corrected all of their spellings of "a lot" to "alot", some even had a hand written explanation of how it is always one word. Just 'a little' shameful.

Nikki

2014-10-18 13:26:26 UTC

Sigh. Required all my third graders to complete homework online...not enough parent buy-in

Nancy

barlon — 2014-10-18 13:26:41 UTC

Beth

2014-10-18 13:49:20 UTC

Tried mummifying chickens with my history teacher for an Egyptian unit, they started to rot before they mummified. Smelly!!!

Mathew Hepfer

2014-10-22 02:06:06 UTC

I got a video from the district elementary science library on whales. During the video their was a section on the sexual play of male killer whales. This included video of enormous whale penises being slapped around. I was in a room with 75 fourth graders and the battery had died on the remote. It felt like an hour before I made it to the front of the room to fast forward past this section. I am guessing whoever catalogued the videos did not label this one correctly as "Science- 3-5 Gr." Thanks for that! That was my first year of teaching.

I tried Google Forms and Flubaroo to give a huge literary element quiz. Then, the entire network crashed and I realized that we have some great tools in GAFE and tech, but I still have to be able to teach and assess without them. That day did not go well.

2014-10-24 13:51:32 UTC

Amanda

2014-10-24 13:51:32 UTC

searched for a clipart of a dog and got a picture of a dog, POOPING! that got a great laugh!

Diane

2014-10-24 13:52:36 UTC

My students searched for a picture for the "Tech Term of the Day". The term was "string"--uh oh!

D

2014-10-24 13:53:44 UTC

I was leading a current events around the room session with a class of high school seniors during my very first month of teaching. One of the students presented on Speaker of the House John Boehner, which I proceeded to pronounce as "John Boner" for the rest of the period while the kids laughed at me. Whoops.

Marc Usman

2014-10-24 13:55:27 UTC

I created an entire class (an elective) on Google Docs, and I accidentally gave the students the right to EDIT. Those students are sixth graders, and when they all opened the document, it was like king of the mountain--kids battling each other to their little pink or green tag on my SmartBoard and their screens. It was 10 minutes of utter madness. I was able to restore the document to MY last edit, but I learned to just allow my students to view.

Marc Usman

2014-10-24 13:55:38 UTC

Jaclyn

2014-10-24 14:45:27 UTC

Facilitated a "Talk with a Tech Coach" for parents to help them gain a better understanding of Google Apps and Chromebooks and one of them went missing!! In hindsight, maybe the "sales pitch" went better than I thought!!

Jessica

wongsfong — 2014-11-09 02:06:40 UTC

Laura

2014-11-09 03:00:48 UTC

Google imaged something (even with safe search on) to explain what something was to an EAL student, it brought up a few unsavoury images as part of the search. Won't do that again!

Arlie

arlie_martin2 — 2014-11-10 10:52:59 UTC

Accidentally wore a see through top to school. Had a parent conference right after.

matthew_skogen — 2015-01-11 18:05:31 UTC

James

2015-01-24 19:16:55 UTC

That time I thought it was a good idea to start a session by telling a room of 80 people that I dislike the New England Patriots--ignorant of the fact that there were probably Patriot fans in the room.

DeAnna

2015-01-31 14:29:25 UTC

That time I tried to show my kids Edmodo and ended up at Edmondo... Yikes! 1 is PLN one is beyond provocative .... #lookingforwork

Kate

2015-01-31 14:29:38 UTC

The time I sent an angry email to 24 Technology specialists and learned the hard way about email communication and my underdeveloped need to cool off before typing. Still feel guilty!

Kirk

2015-03-03 16:21:51 UTC

That time I introduced Chromebooks to my staff by splitting them in two groups, in different rooms, showing one group an Inuit artifact that they had no idea about. We then challenged them to find out who their partner was in the other room using the chromebook and share the image, decide on a name and submit a marketing plan for it. Tears, anger and confusion were the result.

TrouserSnake

2015-03-03 21:00:56 UTC

I was teaching grade 4 computers class, and had a brilliant lesson planned on using Google Search to find information. The students had an online scavenger hunt that I had prepared, and I instructed the students on how to change their search settings to only find "safe" material. Question number 5 asked: What is the most dangerous snake in the world?

As I cruised around to check that students are actually searching properly, I noticed one student had written down "trouser snake" for the answer to the snake question. I made a mental note of this and continued to walk around until I saw two more students with the same type of snake.

Turns out there was a fake wikipedia style site that came up from the search results about the world's deadliest snake. There was nothing explicit about the site, but it used scientific terms to explain why the "trouser snake" was in fact the world's deadliest snake.

YouTube Parody

Dedora — 2015-03-03 21:25:12 UTC

We were discussing self-image and so we viewed "Dove's Real Beauty Sketches." However, we were also later discussing parodies and there is a parody of this video on how men describe themselves...but, the parody that I started was the wrong one...it had men describing their testicles, luckily I was close enough to kill the video. *Always be in the classroom when you show a video on YouTube*

Spelling Titty??

lrispens — 2015-03-08 14:23:20 UTC

As a teacher of 3rd graders, I have made MANY mistakes, BUT one of my favorite mistakes just happened recently. My class uses SpellingCity.com for accessing our spelling lists, games and spelling tests. It was Friday and we were ready to take our spelling test on SpellingCity. In my loud teacher voice, I looked at my third graders and proceeded to say " Class please go to the computer lab and log on to Spelling Titty!!" Then my third graders, as naive as they are, proceed to scream through the halls "Spelling Titty! Spelling Titty!"

Enough said.... it was not one of my proudest moments!

THe time

2015-04-24 10:37:39 UTC

YouTube Profanity

laura_sugano — 2015-10-17 18:37:59 UTC

Showed my 5th graders a video of a tornado-it was awesome until the tornado changed directions toward the speakers, and they yelled "Oh S**t!" Yeah, gotta preview those videos!