Tag Archives: goals

Failure

“Fight on, my men,” says Sir Andrew Barton,
“I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I’ll lay me down and bleed a while,
And then I’ll rise and fight again.“Sir Andrew Barton”

As many football fans know, the Buffalo Bills would fight back to the Super Bowl the next three years (and coming up short in their goal to win it).  In their third appearance they were a wild card team. What an example of strength and heart.

Sometimes it seems that life is filled with failure.  It feels like a streak of bad luck hits us.  Stress, unexpected situations, any number of things can be viewed as a negative in our lives.  Everybody has failure.  But how do we respond?  That is the important key to success.

I know that I am not writing anything new, not presenting a breakthrough in life for anyone.  But we sometimes need to be reminded why it is important to “rise and fight again.”

Failure can distort our view of ourselves; it can cripple our resolve and sabotage the true joy of life around us.  We must feel the pain of failure, let it touch our heart and spark a tear or two.  That is the bitter sweetness of truly living.  Success is learning from that pain and “moving forward” toward our goals.  As the New Year approaches it gives us a chance to reflect and refocus. I can promise you that failure will occur next year, and I hope you will move forward through it.  In fact, I dare you to.

Have a great 2012!

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Turning 40 “The Past”

“Today is the moment when your past and future meet.”

I have been struggling with how to articulate this idea with out writing some deep philosophy book.  Simply stated, what I’ve learned is that our past is important, but we don’t handle its power well.

On the extreme edges we either ignore it or let it cripple us.  Somewhere in the middle is where we can use it to improve today and build for tomorrow.  Our past affects us, even if we don’t always recognize it.

The crazy part is it doesn’t matter if the past was 10 years or 10 minutes ago.  Over the years I’ve seen how the past affects my students.  I’ve seen how the drama of the last class took 10 minutes for them to get focused, to the way a movie we watched in class brought back the pain of the loss of a parent.

I have been guilty of not seeing my students fully. Wondering why they just did that?  Or frustrated with their work ethic.  I am guilty of not considering their past and how it might play a role in their behavior.  To use my English teacher vocabulary, we all are round dynamic characters in this life.  We all have a past, we all have dreams and goals we want to achieve. And today is the moment when our past and future meet. If we are aware of this I think we can tackle issues with a clearer objective.  If we can help our students see that, maybe we can help them build a better future.

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Welcome Back

Welcome back. I have officially started my new position as a Remote Learning Specialist with ESU 10.  I have been battling with the direction I should take with this new blog. I have debated about the tile, what I should write about, and other small factors as I start this new path.  Then I came across this quote:

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” ~ Charles “Tremendous” Jones

Today, we can meet a variety of people, our selection of reading is incredible and we are becoming connected on so many different levels.  This led me to the title, “It is All Connected” and deciding to write blog posts that reflect life as I live it.  I hope we can connect through this blog and that the connection will be a positive influence in your day.

Here is a sneak peak at some upcoming posts.

Value in Education.  This is an evolving idea I have been working on that looks at five components that give anything value, but with a focus on education.

Turning 40.  In October I will be turning 40 years old.  I don’t know why, but this upcoming birthday has been challenging my perspective of things.

A Book Series.  I have always wanted to share / discuss unique aspects of some of my favorite books I use in the classroom.  The Outsiders, Lord of the Flies, and The Catcher in the Rye (to name just a few).

One type of conclusion is using a quote, so I leave you today with this video clip from Charles “Tremendous” Jones.

 

 

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