Optimism

Is the glass half full or half empty?  The optimistic person will say it is half full.  There is more to optimism than simply thinking the glass is half full.

I encourage my students to develop an 'expectation of success.'  I think that successful students have this.  The easiest way to develop this is through repeated success... duh!!  But when a student has a long history of failure, they will develop a strong expectation of failure.  This will turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy as the student expects to fail, they will have a poor attitude.  This will result in poor behaviors, which in turn will produce poor results on quizzes and tests.

For these struggling students, they have to step out in faith and believe they can succeed before they even have succeeded.  This is where LOVE IS SO IMPORTANT, because "prefect love casts out all fear."  The degree to which a student thinks they can learn will be the degree to which they have a good attitude, good effort and good results.

I continually encourage and challenge each of my students to have the courage to EXPECT SUCCESS.

Then I tell them to LIVE LIKE THEY BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY THEY BELIEVE.

The successful students simply expect to be successful and then they let their believe impact how they live.  The gap between success and failure often is very small... but many times, it feels like to a student, that the gap is like an ocean because they can't see the other side.  It is so hard to get some students to this place of expectation.  Often a struggling student will dare to believe they can learn but will still fail because they haven't learned enough basic math skill, algebraic skills, LEARNING SKILLS  and HABITS OF THE MIND to be successful.  These students need lot of encouragement and love to get them to the place of success.  But success breeds success and once these students experience success they usually want more.

Just like with arrows, the harder the shot, the higher you have to aim.  Success isn't in the score they get it is in the courage, growth and learning.  I am continually trying to get all of my students to the place where each of them will do their best.

Day 35