“When you live on the cutting edge, you’re bound to get bloody.”  I’m sure I didn’t create this quote, but I certainly say it a lot and seem to live by it.

Well, I’m bloody.

I made a variety of mistakes with my ED 620 class during the first week regarding posting of dropbox and grade items.  You would think I would learn my lesson, that I’m bound to get bloody whenever I try and do new things in an online class.  But I always make mistakes, get bloody, and then take it harder than I should.  Students are usually very understanding and I certainly appreciate that… often.

One of my personality flaws is that I’m not understanding of my own mistakes.  I lost a lot of sleep over my recent D2L mistakes.  I still haven’t forgiven myself for accidentally shooting a hole in our swimming pool with my crossbow… and that was several years ago.  Another story for another time.

I guess the main point of this post is that teachers make mistakes, especially when they try new things.  So, some teachers don’t try new things.  Unfortunately, the education culture is such that many teachers don’t want to make mistakes, especially in front of their students.  Most want to appear as the all-knowing, always-right, authority-figure at the head of the classroom.  In reality, those stereotype-driven, wishful-thinking individuals are actually attempting to model characteristics that are completely unattainable in every avenue of life.

Try new things, get bloody, you’ll heal.

Luckily I don’t take myself seriously enough to worry too much about the worldly consequences of my mistakes.  And by the way, the pool still leaks.