Prepare for Tomorrow...

"Prepare for tomorrow by doing your best work today," or some iteration of the phrase, is a famous quote, or idea, that has stuck with me for years. Anytime I've ever felt particularly stressed out or unsure of something, it's almost always because I wasn't prepared enough for it.

Whether completing assignments for school, tasks at work, buying a car, or heck, even deciding what to pack for lunch, preparation has always led me down the path to success. I've told this to my students before undertaking many research projects and believe this concept is essential when responding to the question: what are you preparing students for?

I believe it's my duty to ensure that my students are prepared with the tools, skills and strategies to meet the challenges of tomorrow by doing their best today. No one knows what tomorrow might bring for a child. It could be as simple and innocuous as making sure they have online access and strategies to search for information to complete an assignment on time.

Or, it could be a greater task, like making decisions on whether or not to enter the armed forces, or which college to apply to, or whether or not to attend college at all.

The world has become a very complicated and sometimes scary place for our kids. I want to make sure that I do everything I can to prepare my students to make good, informed choices for tomorrow by giving everything they've got today. That resilience, competence, creativity, confidence and independence will empower students to seize every opportunity and be prepared to face the challenges of tomorrow. All it takes is a little extra preparation today!

Thanks for sharing your comments, as well as what YOU feel you're preparing your students for!

Fear Itself

The topic of fear among our students is very intriguing. Our instincts are to protect them from fear, to always make them feel safe and nurtured. In a literal sense, yes, we should do everything within our power to keep our students safe from harm, whether it manifests itself as a third party, or stems from what we're directly doing in our classrooms.

Here's where things get interesting: how do we address what students fear?

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." - Franklin Delano Rooselvelt, 32nd President of the United States

When faced with a difficult research task or concept, I tell my students that in order to become fearless, they need to fear less. What frightens students, and most people, I'd imagine, is failure. I know that's true for me. For students, this often comes as a result of receiving failing grades, a polarizing phenomena best left explored in a different post.

However, I always reassure my students that because I don't grade them when I co-teach a class, they have no reason to fear failure. Instead, they only need to be afraid of fear itself, because that is their only obstacle in achieving success. We all know that "success" takes different forms for individual students, so being able to overcome this fear and harness that strength to become fearless are the first steps needed for us to teach and live our mission in my library: to create competent, confident and independent users of information and technology.

To some degree, I believe that fear is a good thing. It teaches us humility and can keep us grounded when faced with adversity, affording us an opportunity to make decisions, make mistakes, and learn.

How do you address what students fear?