It has been one of those interesting weekends, one of those where everything seems to go wrong, but you actually learn a lot from it!

Today I decided I would make the journey into the city to visit a fellow teacher. I thought that I could not go wrong! I successfully made my way there and had a lovely evening socialising and catching up on our news since we had moved to our new schools. But I made a mistake. I had the route home all planned out, I knew exactly which buses I would be taking home and the time frame that this would all occur within. However I made a mistake. While I was waiting for my second bus, I saw another bus pull up which would take me in the same direction and would actually get me closer to my apartment if I caught a third bus after that. However what I did not realise was that this third bus was not actually running. So in a snap decision where I did not look into the options too carefully I got onto the wrong bus. When I realised my mistake I was 4 miles away from home and the late night drawing in, with the choice of walking for a couple of hours or finding other means of transport. After attempting to walk by myself in the darkness I decided to hire a tuk tuk to get me home and so my adventure came to a conclusion.

Now you see this adventure came about by a mistake. A mistake that ended up with consequences for me that were not so great, thankfully the only damage was that I was much more out of pocket than I had anticipated being. But you see the thing is I made the mistake this once, but I will not do it again. From doing this mistake I have learned from the experience and now know not to do it again. In the future I will know which bus is the right one to take and will be able to look more carefully into the choices that I make.

I think the same can be said for our students. So often children can be so afraid to fail, to be that one who has not got it right this time. But you know what, that's ok!! It's ok for students to get it wrong. It's ok for students to make mistakes! Because when mistakes happen - they learn! So if a child is sad about not getting it or nor understanding, feeling like they have failed. We can tell them - it's ok. Tomorrow is a new day and maybe it will take a few mistakes before you get it right. But every day you have a new chance to get it right and to learn from the past. So let's not feel sad about the ways we have failed or made those pesky mistakes. But rejoice that we are able to learn in every situation we face.