Reflections on Success

"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

We've been coding for several years now at Ashaway School.  The students love solving the online puzzles and are so excited to make progress from level to level.  The activities are meant to be challenging, and there are times when students get frustrated because they get stuck.  As a response, I decided to do a unit focused on persistence with every grade in the school this year.  My goal is to help them to understand that making mistakes and struggling with something difficult is a normal part of the learning process, and this can lead to an opportunity to shine!

"Fall down seven times, get up eight." -Japanese Proverb

In third grade we read Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty.  In this story young Rosie loves designing crazy new inventions, but when her uncle laughs at her she resolves never to build again.  When her aunt Rose comes to visit Rosie is inspired to take another chance.  Her splendid design works...for a moment...and then crashes.  Rosie declares that she has failed and gives up, but her aunt helps her to see that her failure was just one step along her path to success!

"Failure is not the opposite of success. It's part of success." -Arianna Huffington

After reviewing the theme of the story, each table was given a quote about failure/success.  The students did a turn and talk to discuss the meaning of their quote and then they rotated to a new table to consider a different quote.  After repeating this one more time, each student selected a reflection sheet that matched the quote of their choice and wrote down their thoughts about it.  The following week the students used their notes to record a Flipgrid video about success!  Themes included the idea that mistakes are a part of learning and that true failure only happens when you quit.  The students really enjoyed recording themselves and I loved that I got to listen to them explain their thinking. 

Click on the selections below to view some of the students' work!