Do One Scary Thing
Why I keep running hands-on labs even when they go sideways — and 10 ways teachers can scare themselves this month.
Here are a quote, a resource, a book, and an affirmation to help you power through the rest of the week.
"Do one thing every day that scares you." — Eleanor Roosevelt
Today my 8th graders started Day 1 of the Gummy Bear Lab — the one where they drop gummy bears in water and measure how they change. It's hands-on, a little chaotic, and every year a few kids genuinely struggle a bit with lab safety procedures.
I could switch to something easier. More structured, less mess, easier to manage. I don't, because of the kids that enjoy the process, and I love seeing their reaction when the gummy bear changes.
Lab time introduces a little apprehension and low-grade fear because I just don't know what every student will do, and I don't want any mishaps or injuries.
I've also started scaring myself via YouTube livestreams — just me, a camera, thinking out loud about teaching and this work in real time. It's uncomfortable in exactly the same way learning something new can be uncomfortable for my students, and that's kind of the point.
Those of us in education sometimes forget what it's like to do something for the first time and to be pretty bad at it.
We ask our students to do this all of the time because that's where the growth is.
Psychologists who study this call it the "optimal anxiety zone" — the space just outside comfortable where growth actually happens, not so far out that you freeze, not so close in that nothing changes.
Do the small scary thing often enough, and a few things shift: your tolerance for discomfort grows, so the next hard thing feels smaller. You're alert and more likely to get in the "flow."
You model for your students what it looks like to try something without knowing the outcome — which is the exact skill you're asking them to build in the classroom. And you get real feedback instead of the safe, predictable kind, because the thing that scares you is usually the thing you haven't done enough to get good at yet.
If you're feeling courageous enough to "get scared", here are some possibilities. If you take the plunge, let me know how it goes; just reply to this email.
Ten ways you could scare yourself this month:
- Try a lesson with no script and see where the class takes it.
- Ask a colleague to observe you teach and give honest feedback.
- Run the lab, project, or activity you've been avoiding because it might flop.
- Have the hard conversation with a parent you've been putting off.
- Post something publicly about your teaching — a video, a reflection, an opinion.
- Ask your students what's not working in your class, and actually listen.
- Apply for something you don't feel fully qualified for yet.
- Say no to something you'd normally agree to out of guilt.
- Teach a topic outside your comfort zone instead of handing it off.
- Share a rough draft of something — a lesson, a piece of writing, an idea — before it's polished.
Worth Your Time
- The adventures are piling up - #TeacherGoneWild
- Is classroom tech hurting how kids learn?
- Use retrieval practice to level up learning.
Now Repeat...
I don't have to feel ready to do the thing that scares me — I just have to do it.
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