I loved an email I received from Gavin McCormack about the importance of modelling the behaviour we want to see in our students. He told the story of challenging a student to draw a lion. She responded by saying that she couldn’t draw a lion. He said, “Why don’t we try to draw a lion.”
As he was drawing the lion, she copied him. When he was done, he looked at her lion and said, “I thought you couldn’t draw a lion.”
She replied, “Now I can.”
His modeling gave her the confidence to try something new. Also, when we show our students that we are willing to learn something new, we show them it’s okay if we’re not perfect at everything. As we model the behaviour that we want in our students, we also get to help them communicate and learn and feel pride.
