F.A.I.L.

This sketch has been attributed to Demetri Martin, author of This Is A Book.

Two events this week really underlined something I've been thinking about for several months.

The first was a recognition of some recent growth and learning. In December I decided that I needed to improve my knowledge of and proficiency with technology. I had been working through some teaching ideas, and I began to see that technology could help those ideas take shape. This week, after several months of learning, some people  I typically relied on for help with tech asked me for some advice about tech. Suddenly I saw how much I had learned. I'll still need their help, but the fact that I could help them in this area allowed me to understand and reflect on how much I've learned. Still much to learn.

The second was listening to Mélina deliver her progress report (thanks again for the treat, Mélina). She's excitedly talking (not unusual) about her adventures in the kitchen, relaying how her vlog was photobombed, and confessing that only a little more than half of her cake pops avoided imploding. She's reporting this with a smile--without a hint of embarrassment or failure--because she's learning. Typically in school, a student who made almost as many mistakes in a class she did correct moves would not be smiling when the bell rang. But Mélina was too busy learning to let mistakes get her down.

These two experiences came together when I saw the simple drawing above. I know I've written about mistakes in an earlier post, but these two experiences didn't focus on mistakes; they focused on success. When I reflected on my recent forays into technology, I saw many "mistakes". Mélina described a few mistakes. However, in both situations, I only heard a story of success. At least for a moment, both Mélina and I so fully embraced the version of success as rendered in the drawing on the right, that we simply accepted failure as part of the learning process--a necessary part of the process.

This week I learned more thoroughly to embrace the word fail as F.ound A.nother I.nsight for L.earning. It's cheesy, I know, but seeing the principle in action this week was almost as sweet as that Skor bar cake pop.