To Fail Is To Experience The First Attempt In Learning With Kevin Deissler

Name: Kevin Deissler
Title/School: STEM Teacher at Klinger Middle School
Years of Experience: This is my 14th year teaching
Primary LEGO Education Solution used: LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 & NXT
Social media accounts/blogs/websites: Twitter: @MrDeissler, Instagram: @MrDeissler

What would you say is your philosophy as an educator?
Give kids opportunities. Show them what’s possible and get out of their way. They will amaze you!

What is the greatest benefit of a hands on approach to learning?
Kids don’t learn by listening, they learn by doing. By getting their hands involved in the learning, they are able to build, take apart, rebuild, change things up. It makes the design process possible!

What is your favorite thing about being a teacher?
Watching kids work. Seeing the gears turning, and observing how they rebound from failure to find success is amazing!

What is one of your proudest moments in the classroom?
I tasked kids with using materials from around my STEM room to create a hybrid robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and NXT. I gave them very little direction aside from creating a new robot that does something. The things that they created blew my mind!

What advice would you give teachers about implementing a hybrid learning strategy?
Find a way to take care of you. Nobody in public schools signed up to teach this way and it can be draining and depressing. Hang in there and do what makes you, you.

Failure is often a key aspect of the learning process. What's the most important lesson you've learned through failing?
The most important lesson I’ve learned through failing is that nothing is ever really a fail; it’s just another way for something not to work. To FAIL is to experience the first attempt in learning; hopefully you get to SAIL during your second attempt in learning.

What are some of your favorite activities/hobbies to do at home?
I enjoy building with LEGO, both with and without my son. He completed an X-Wing at 4 years old, so to build a set and not have him involved is difficult. We both built the Saturn V rocket and the 1989 Batmobile together.

Favorite book/movie/podcast?
Anything by Adam Savage.

First musical album you ever owned?
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle II: Secret of the Ooze soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought with my own money. GO NINJA GO NINJA GO!

Were you a LEGO Fan as a kid? What’s your LEGO Story?
I loved LEGO growing up, but I can only remember owning sets from the 1990s space set. I loved the magnets that came with those sets and would rebuild my own space vehicles. I actually remember when it was time to put them away, I kept them built. Little did I know that my mom would get them out of the attic for my son and I remembered everything about what I built and why I built it that way. Now it’s in pieces, part of another generation of incredible builds.