This is a book all teachers should read. Ever since I started acknowledging my mistakes and apologizing to my students when I need to, my relationship with them has been more meaningful. This book confirms that I have been doing right by them in many ways, but still showed me other ways I could continue to evolve as an educator.

More professional development books should be available in audiobook format. This read was perfect. It addressed many of the gaps in the growth mindset movement. Teachers should be modeling genuine mistake-making and navigating those mistakes for students.

This is one interesting book! I think it is an important one mainly directed for teachers and educaters to how to embrace making mistakes and come out with the most beneficial outcome.
Not necessary for just teachers but parents could benefit from the ideas.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* great inspirational and motivating read for anyone to read not just teachers!

This one was out of the norm for me, so I made sure I went into it with an open mind. I knew this wasn’t going to be a self-help type of book, but thought it would at least take how failing in the classroom can teach us common folk a thing or two about how failing in real life can be a good thing. More or less, it was a memoir about how Cruz teaches in her classroom and the struggles she faces as she tries to find a better way to teach children and get rid of standardized testing.

I was all in for the first third of the book, then she lost me. Cruz started off really strong by laying out what her book would be discussing in a way that made sense and painted a very strong argument for her case. She explained why she felt the way she does about mistake-based learning and I’ll admit that it’s not a suggestion I’ve heard of until this book but I was absolutely intrigued! I love how Cruz brought in outside help to illustrate her point by suggesting to readers and students alike watch the short film called Snack Attack. I have never seen it before, but I watched it before continuing listening and I was impressed with how she able to make me feel like she was talking directly to me and made the experience feel hands-on. We then get into what she calls essays, and that’s where she lost my interest and I became very confused about what exactly she was saying.

I have to say, if Cruz was my child’s teacher, it would not end up going well. In her classroom, she overshares her personal life. There was a bit in there about one of her students asking her to go to the basketball game after school and she said “sorry, I can’t go tonight. I made plans a week ago to have my parents come over and eat pizza and watch some movies and drink some wine, so I can’t go”. Why share the details? Why not just go ahead and say where you’re ordering the pizza from and what kind of wine you’re drinking? Hell, go ahead and tell the kids your parents’ names and address! A simple “sorry, I have plans tonight” would suffice! She also suggested other teachers to send home a questionnaire to have both students and their parents fill out. This survey would ask about self-care. On what world is self-care practices of students and their parents relevant information to teachers? It’s way too personal and doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Teach my child algebra like you’re paid to do and move on.

There was also a section about dealing with problems in a constructive way versus an unconstructive way. The problem was that was included in the book was this: two girls have been working for a few months on their science fair project. Each girl thought the other was responsible for turning the project in. On the day of the fair, they realize neither of them turned the project in and missed the deadline. Oh no! The “unconstructive” way to fix the problem was TO LET THE GIRLS SEE THE ACTIONS OF THEIR CONSEQUENCES. To not have their project in the science fair because they missed the deadline and there wasn’t time to have it set up. I mean, there’s a deadline for a reason. Cruz ACTUALLY said that having all their hard work go to waste and not having their project in the science fair was unconstructive. How?! The “constructive” way to fix the problem was to talk to the girls about their communication skill, get the parents involved and essentially turn them into helicopters, and tell the girls that things happen and allow their project be in the science fair. So… what’s the point of the deadline? So what if they worked hard? Other students worked hard as well and they also adhered to the deadline.
All in all, the two stars was for a great beginning before it just blew apart. I don’t think the title even comes close to letting readers know what the book was about. This was more about Cruz as a teacher- a biography- than it was about mistakes-based learning. There’s a solution to the problem that is the American school system, but this was not the solution.

As a young educator (although in training) newly entering a career in teaching, my past year in student teaching during the pandemic has been riddled with mistakes. To make matters worse, I suffer with self-deprecating thought patterns. I often fear that I am letting a student down or that I'm not going above and beyond as I should. I'm not sure how teaching has been done in the past, but the expectations for teachers in 2021 is extremely (and intimidatingly) high. Not only must we close the learning gap for struggling students and ensure every student has met and exceeded the learning standard, but we must provide daily adaptations and accommodations as needed. 


I failed at this. I should have done more.


But as M. Colleen Cruz puts it, mistakes expose what we must learn. It is the actions we take to correct or learn from the mistake that helps us to "rise". 


There are mistakes that range from being small and inconsequential to life threatening or harmful to others.  The important takeaway we educators need to do is to admit our mistakes and use it as a life lesson to the students. We need to admit, apologize and explain what a better response would have been. At the end of the day, you and your students will grow together because of it. 


Mistakes are just mistakes. It's how we respond to it and learn from it that matters.

Thanks to Heinmann audio and Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

To preface this review, I am not a teacher. But I am all for learning from mistakes and the authors middle name is the same as my first name, so I figured that this Risk. Fail. Rise. must be pretty good. 95%+ of this book had very valid points and suggestions.

This really confused me. In section 3 the Teacher Martyr makes more mistakes, avoids risks and observes less. The author has a disability and balances between stretches and exercise and needs to prioritize her health. When she ignored her own needs and focusing on the needs of her students (around 6:43 into chapter) the author found herself "crawling out of a NY subway train, across a platform to a bench". It was a busy work week, she was staying every night until 7pm, then getting home and not eating dinner until 9pm, she did this day after day for well "over a week" (really? aren't schools normally in session M-F?). No time (for over a week evidently) for healthy eating, stretching or exercise. At her subway stop her leg protested, she had no choice but to crawl (7:46 minutes) off the subway and other commuters helped get her to an emergency room. When I first listened I was confused. What? She said she crawled off the subway, continued abusing herself day after day, then her leg gave out and she crawled off the train again and ended up in emergency. Was the first mention of "crawling off the subway" an over-exaggeration? Or was the same story explained further and the story ended with the author "crawling off the subway and ending up in the hospital"? Probably the later. This section probably comes across better in written form than it did in the audiobook.

In the Epilogue the author says that NYC is the epicenter of a global pandemic. Could you please provide a reference/footnote for making that statement? Maybe between March-May 2020, NYC was the epicenter for the pandemic the US. How do you qualify where the epicenter is? What about Wuhan, China? There are many articles claiming covid epicenters and it doesn't seem to be unanimous.

This book came across as "preachy" (to me). I'm really not sure how you change the system, but I'm glad that this book might get people to start considering how.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and narrator M. Colleen Cruz and the publisher Heinemann Audio for the opportunity to review this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The author does a decent job narrating this book. It could be a useful resource for teachers of all grade levels and content areas. I received this audiobook from netgalley in exchange for a honest review.