Mistakes in Teaching... What's a Teacher to Do?

The day had gone just fine. Many of the lessons I taught were decent, and I was pleased with the results I got from my kids. Until math. Sadly many of them were confused with mean, mode, and median. I was not expecting this, as both the Title I teacher and myself (who work as a team in teaching math) thought that they would remember what they had learned in 5th grade. Some did, but the majority, just plain old confused.

Ok, so maybe I did one good thing in math, I had them write what they knew about measures of central tendency... which let me know that they knew nothing.

Anyways, I proceeded through the lesson, explaining, showing examples, having the kids practice, and moving at a decent pace. Then came the homework assignment. I should have known this would get me in trouble.

Technically, the textbook we use has split up the concepts, teaching the mean in one lesson, and mode, median, and range in the other. Since I was somewhat banking on the kids knowing these concepts already, and merely using this as a review... I grouped the lessons together. Maybe my first mistake.

Next mistake. I assigned a ton of the problems. And hard ones. But I really wanted them to practice and do it multiple times to make sure they got it. It wasn't until after I had listed which problems they were to do did I realize how massive the assignment was. And this is where I sucked as a teacher, and as a person. Instead of trying to fix my mistake, I stuck with it. I didn't alter or change my plan. I was too proud to admit that maybe I had messed up big time.

On the other hand, my kids hardly ever, and I mean ever, have homework. A little extra math won't kill them. Right?

That measly amount of justification just doesn't cut it with me. I made a mistake, and I need to move on with my new found lesson in not letting my pride get in the way of my kids being successful.