I sit in class with fourteen other adults, and we go through essays that students have submitted for group review. We share what we like and what works for us as well as what we think could be improved. We’re courteous but sufficiently critical. We take initiative, ask and answer questions, volunteer observations. The author jots notes about this or that comment, sitting silently yet respectfully listening.

Why can’t I get this to happen in my own classroom? I have a list of excuses:

• Students don’t come prepared.
• Students don’t have the necessary background knowledge.
• Students don’t have the sufficient motivation.
• Students don’t have the necessary skills, social or subject.
• Students don’t care.

For any given student, one or more of these end-of-the-day excuses might be true. Or none. Or all. Some are in my control; many are not. The common element, though, is probably the problem: “Students don’t.”

I make an effort to incorporate workshops into my teaching. Things don’t go as well as I’d hoped, so I refocus — “Stop thinking ‘students can’t’ and ‘students don’t’!” — and re-plan and try again. Somewhere, the right balance of innumerable factors exists, and someday, I’ll be leading a class like the one I participate in every Tuesday evening.