Screwed up royally. Not sure how to proceed. (Elementary Art Ed)
Hi, sorry if this isn’t the right venue, today I messed up royally regarding student trust in me.
I’m a first year art teacher. Across grades 3-5 We’ve been working on a Poster Design Contest for about a week (3 classes spread out across every other day). This contest is sponsored by the county, and promises the grand winner a money-prize.
I’ve encountered projects like these in my past practicums and I figured that this would be no problem. For the 5th and 4th grade classes, it was a bit of a struggle getting them interested, but one class that was really eager were the 3rd graders.
So many incredible projects, they did an awesome job. Today was their last work day and tomorrow would be when I HAD to get them to the county. The papers need parent signatures, so I had to get them out there TONIGHT if they wanted it in tomorrow.
So, I told them I’d pass them out at the end of the day, just to make sure they made it back home with them. Then the end of the day came and well… I forgot. I was so focused on preparing for my afternoon classes that my submission folder was a mess, I grabbed what I could and just rushed getting them out.
Only made it in time to give it to one of my 3rd grade classes, and on top of that, one student’s work in that class was just missing.
I feel so crushed and guilty. I got back to my room and frantically started organizing every paper in my room. Then just sat at my computer. I took down notes of what I’m doing differently next time:
Not doing the project if the designs can’t be finished a week before the official due date
Starting a day-by-day planner
Prioritizing organization and having grade + class specific submission bins.
I’m only drawing a blank on what to do for my 3rd grade students. I feel so awful. I’m convinced some of them could have won, but I prevented that from happening.
How can I earn student trust back? I’m thinking of giving them a free day, but I fear this only does so much. This job thus far has been so rewarding, only now I feel like I just crushed my students and don’t know how I can help heal our relationship.
Thanks for reading
TLDR: 3rd Grade students had a recycle poster contest. Gave them this week, and today to work and they had to get parent signatures tonight to submit them tomorrow. I didn’t get their work out in time, and worse yet only half got their projects to take back and the other half didn’t. I feel crushed and don’t know how i can build back trust.