Monday, November 24, 2014

Successing Forward!

"Fail forward" is today's buzzword for taking measured risks and learning from the experience.  Don't be afraid to try something new!  Failure is the first step towards success!  Twitter is full of good quotes about failing forward.  I've retweeted a few of them because I actually believe in them!  I think that educators are experts at failing forward.  We constantly try new things, modify, adjust, and try again.  We are action researchers all day long!

As folks around me fail forward, I have noticed something that struck me in a very positive way.  There is actually a lot less failure than those words describe.  For the most part, I really see folks "Successing forward!"  I see educators trying new things and making them work!  Sure, they may be a little raw during the first attempt, but success happens.  Of  course, the real measure of success comes by measuring what you are trying to improve.  Did the students learn more?  Was it deeper?  Were they more engaged?  Was the learning activity more authentic?

Success is gauged by the purpose of your new efforts and how well your efforts made improvements.  So really, I think I have seen more "successing forward" than failing forward!

Failing forward really just means that we should take a scientific risk that our new efforts will lead to improvement.  I love being a part of this profession where we are constantly seeking to do better than we did before!


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