This is what happened:
HoD: "On your MWBs, write the challenge equation. Go."
Me, in my head: Task something shit shit shit shit shit task something oh shit it's gone wtf I knew this why can't I remember it of f*ck how long have we got left why can't I remember this I'm a f*cking idiot I know this oh shit I'm not gonna have time I give up
Me, on my MWB: challenge = ?
On reflection it was a combination of things. Firstly that, despite outward appearances, I have terrible self esteem and I very much lack resilience. I'm very good at faking it, mind. So when I couldn't immediately recall it, my brain, in its infinite wisdom, decided to shout at me and tell me I'm stupid instead of essentially allowing me to think hard and potentially recall it. Or at least derive it. I was also exhausted because it was right in the middle of September where I was dealing with the stress of starting a new school and there's about a gazillion Jewish festivals and it was a lot.
But this made me think. We put our students in very similar situations, often several times a day. And this isn't a bad thing. I didn't suffer because I got a question wrong. Nothing bad happened. So I'm not going to argue we should stop using MWBs with students because they might get a bit anxious if they don't know the answer.
Instead, I'm going to suggest the following:
Give students a rough time limit. It doesn't have to be exact, and sometimes I can understand why you wouldn't want to give a time limit. But knowing how long you have to get your answer down helps you to recenter. You're not constantly panicking that you're about to run out of time, because you know how long you've got left.
Build a strong culture of error... If mistakes aren't a big deal in your classroom, if they're treated as part of the learning process, then they stop being a big deal to the student.
... by challenging inappropriate student reactions to mistakes. If a student laughs, or rolls their eyes at a peer's mistake, call them out. If a student refers to themselves as an idiot/stupid/r*tarded/dumb, call them out. Do not tolerate the idea that mistakes are bad. We all make mistakes. If we don't make mistakes, we're not being challenged enough.
...by teaching students what to do with mistakes. Making a mistake is fine. Like I said, they're expected. But that doesn't mean we should just accept them and move on. The goal, really, is to never make the same mistake twice. When we make mistakes, we need to go away and learn whatever it is we need to learn in order to not make that mistake again. You best believe I had the damn challenge equation stuck on post its everywhere for weeks afterward, just as initials so that every time I saw it I would have to recall what the letters stood for. If we don't learn from our mistakes, we've just wasted our time.
...by owning our own mistakes. In my first placement on my PGCE, I forgot to do something for a class. So I apologised. My mentor did not like that - "never apologise, it's admitting that you made a mistake and that's a sign of weakness". I guess they thought they were John Wayne. I disagreed then and I disagree now. We have to be okay with our own mistakes, because we need our students to be okay with sharing theirs.
On a more general front, try teaseing out correct answers using facial expressions. If a student is on the right track, nod, smile, look encouraging. If they take a wrong turn, drop the eyebrows, wince a little. Instant feedback.
Anyway, TL;DR mistakes are fine, it's what you do with them that matters.
More here from Dr Castelino
[I'm not sure I've made myself as clear as perhaps I would have liked to be, but I am writing this at approximately midnight, waiting for my landlord to deal with the water thundering down from the museum above my flat.]