There seems to be a lot of focus on motivation this month's Education Leadership magazine talks about motivation (I haven't read it yet but will and hopefully blog about it) and tonight there was a community event which showed Rick Lovoie's session on motivation.
There is a direct correlation between success and motivation. One needs to feel and experience success in order to sustain one's motivation. As Lovoie said " If students did better they will dry harder. They need to feel success and we need to set them up for success. "
However, how do we define success. Are getting straight A's or doing well on standardized tests the measure of success? As I blogged about earlier, I believe that a student that grows and goes from a C to a B may actually be more successful than than the straight A student. If we can't define it how then can we as Lovoie said, let them taste success.
I believe that success is something personal and needs to be measured by each individual.
Therefore, I happen to like Coach Wooden's definition of success. He says; "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming".
As many of us are just starting the new school year, let us keep this definition in mind in thinking about our own growth as educators and more importantly when looking at our students. If we want our students to be successful, we have to help them maximize their potential and become the best that they are capable of and for some students that might be an A but for others that might be a C. Let us also try to find ways so that all our students can taste success.
May we all become the best that we are capable of and have, a successful year.
I went to see John Maxwell speak last year and he said something to us that really struck a cord with me-he was explaining that as a society sometimes we think with regards to education we must have perfection and that parents need to chill out-if you aren't good at math, why would you spend so much time trying to master math, and ignore all the other subjects that you are "naturally" good at? In my case, I excelled in English/Reading and Science however so much focus was put on how poorly I did in math. What kind of message did that send me? Not a positive one. From an educators standpoint what do you think about that approach?
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