Today I was reminded of the importance of having a go at something myself, before I ask students to do it.
Creating a quick sample helps me anticipate the difficulties students might encounter, so I can know in advance what help I might need to offer, and I can select experienced students to act as mentors.
Secondly, it gives me an idea of how long the task might take.

I have been toying with the idea of creating infographics so I decided to make one, a "quick one" so I could have a sample to share with my students. The resulting product isn't exemplary in any way, does not contain information that I spent hours researching, and isn't remarkable in its use of graphics (in fact there are not enough of them, and they don't tell the information the way I'd like them to) YET IT TOOK ME 2.5 hours to put together! On top of that, I'm having formatting issues where the version in Piktograph does not look them same when I use the embed code on the blog, so words break where I don't want them to on a line and it's highly frustrating! I also realized how challenging it is to give attribution to photos when necessary, but NOT have the attribution overwhelm the infographic or get lost. It's really tough! See my asterisk on the infographic for what I'm talking about.
Thus, I am reconsidering the parameters of the task - the time allotted, the necessary pre-teaching, the background knowledge required before they begin - just because I created a quickie or "had a go" for myself.
I'll be much more understanding towards those who are creating then I would have been had I not attempted it first. Here it is for those who are interested in my fast sample:

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1824783-the-benefits-of-reading

This poster came from Krissy Venosdale, and it fits nicely with what I've been thinking about lately which is that there's a serious design flaw in how my classroom is set up. (Okay, maybe not JUST mine, but I'll start with an area over which I have some control.)
I really believe that learning is not easy, that improvement is rarely instantaneous, but that every child can learn.
But then I have a classroom where students very rarely ever get a chance to "redo" something. For example, we just finished our speeches and one student is going on to the "finals" in the gym, where she will represent our class. But the process of getting to that decision didn't involve many opportunities for students to "try again". Students wrote their speech, presented it to several peers for feedback, handed a revised copy to me for feedback, revised some more, then presented to small groups, videotaped themselves and improved their speech and rehearsed until they were happy with it. However, the actual presentation to the full class didn't allow for any "do overs". Some students were quite surprised by how nervous they got, and at least four said, afterwards, "Can I do it again?" and my answer, sadly, was no.
I said no, even though I wanted to say yes because I'd have to offer that opportunity to everyone in the class, I had to have our finalist chosen by the following day, and I'd have to take valuable class time, that I can't afford, in order to sit through the second attempts. I could tell similar stories about tests, and projects and lots of assessment situations. I'm still treating assessment results as if they were autopsies instead of physicals. (That analogy, by the way, which I love, came from Joe Bower but he was talking about report cards).
So... the big thing I'm struggling with is how to align my beliefs with my practice because right now, they're miles apart.
How often do you allow the time for students to do something more than once? How do you do it? Please share your thoughts. I'd love to make some changes that work within the constraints of a public school reporting system and a classroom with 45 minute periods.