No Excuses

What are you interested in?

It was a question Daniel Pink posed today as an example of how to reach and motivate students. In this particular example, a struggling student was asked this question and responded with an interest in martial arts. The student's learning was based around his interest and opportunities to work in the community in a martial arts business were developed.

The first thought that ran through my head at the time was, "How do we do this in small, rural schools? We don't have a wealth of opportunities such as this." It was about a second later, thankfully, that the next thought came - "Don't make excuses. Find a way to make it work."

It's easy to fall into the trap of allowing perceived limitations to hold us back from trying things that might work. In this case, I can see the benefits of asking students where their interest lies and subsequently developing a plan to help them pursue those interests while learning the necessary standards at the same time. As Pink said in his talk today, "The problem is we don't aim high enough." So, for me, it's time to raise the expectations, begin to ask students what they are interested in, and make no more excuses.