No disgrace in failure

I found this quote in one of my daily SmartBrief emails.

There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.

Henry Ford, industrialist

It made me think of our students, and me.  Failure doesn't need to be bad.  In fact, sometimes failure can be good.  Think of someone like Thomas Edison.  The story goes that he failed 1000 times before he invented the light bulb.  Imagine if he had stopped after the first failure, or the tenth, or the hundredth.  Would we still have a lightbulb?  Who knows?  Here is a link to some other examples of famous people who didn't give up after failure.  So I started thinking.  Do we give students enough chances to fail?  Do we model failing to our students, and let them know we failed?  I know that I need to do a better job of celebrating failures- mine and the students.  What are some ways that you celebrate your failures and the failures of our students?

Great things I saw this week...
Sandy is doing a great job taking over for Heidi.  But we all really miss Heidi.
Kids struggling in Science, and Math, and...You can't learn if you don't struggle.
The learning lounge is getting some great use.
Matt and his basketball friends at lunch.
The concern that you all have for our students, providing what they need even when they don't know they need it.
Your flexibility with schedule changes, suggestions, and the nearly 90 minutes of disruption on picture day.

Calendar
Monday, January 15th
4:15  BLT meeting
7:00  Strategic planning meeting

Tuesday, January 16th
4:15  Homework Club

Wednesday, January 17th
IEP Power Day
1:15  A-team meeting
3:40  Assembly (sit with homerooms)
4:00  Culver's Night

Thursday, January 18th
Grade level/Specials meetings
12:22  AHS counselors visit 8th grade students (No 5th hour electives for 8th graders only!)
4:15  Homework Club

Tweets, quotes, and blogs

First, say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do.

Epictetus,

philosopher

Why "Innovating Inside the Box" is Crucial (from George Couros)

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke, writer and inventor

Teach Like a Pirate Sketchnotes (from Dave Burgess- pretty cool way to take notes)

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.

Audre Lorde, writer and civil rights activist

#mertonint on Twitter

#MertonProud on Twitter

Merton Intermediate Facebook page

Merton Intermediate Instagram page

Family smore for 1.12.18

A principal friend of mine, Ryan Sheehy, is in the final stages of writing a book called Be The One.  Sound familiar?  It's the way I have ended each of these blogs this school year.  I bought one of his t-shirts, which I wore today.  Well, I'm not going to change the way I end these blogs.
Be the one!
Jay
Take care of the kids.  Take care of each other.  Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell