• Connect with students outside of the classroom setting. AMLE's This We Believe speaks to the importance of every child having an adult advocate. Advisory programs and extracurricular activities provide educators with an enormous opportunity to connect with and change the lives of kids. 
• In Eric Sheninger's blog post Grade Change: Moving a School Culture Forward he speaks to the idea of "no zeroes" and "retests" in order to help promote the success of students. 
• Reed Gillespie highlights real world examples in this blog post of adults getting second chances all the time. I dare anyone to think of a time when they needed a second chance to right a wrong.  
• Utilize a tool like ClassDojo to conduct a real time conversation about student progress with everyone who is responsible, including the student. 
• Leverage the power of personal learning networks to stay current with new ideas in the field of education. I speak to this very thing in a blog post titled 100 Minutes a Week. 
• Provide opportunities for stakeholder voice as decisions are made that improve school culture. In my book All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities I share insight on the power of student and parent roundtables as a way to improve the learning environment. 
• Ensure teachers and administrators have time during the school day to share and find ways to help students that are struggling. Common planning time, professional learning communities, and collaboration time during professional development days goes a long way in helping educators to ultimately help students. 
• Find ways and not excuses to provide students with learning experiences that matter. There will always be standardized testing and curriculum road blocks that we encounter. How do we as educators think outside of the box to provide students with the education they deserve? 

The Winter Olympics are starting in a few days and I am totally pumped! Why you ask? I get to watch my cousin Chris Creveling compete for the United States Speed Skating Team. There are not too many times in life that you are able to watch someone you know go for the gold. As an added bonus, Kyle Tress, a person I somewhat grew up with in Lambertville, NJ is on the U.S. Skeleton Team. Looking past all the glory and adulation is a common theme of perseverance. Chris and Kyle stayed the course and dared to succeed in order to get to this point in their lives.



Many parallels can be drawn with their stories of success to those of educators who have impacted so many lives. The reason people are able to have an impact on others is due to the hard work that was put in over a number of years. Looking at my own life, there were a number of times that I was ready to give up my dream of being a teacher and coach. Each time though, I fought through the uncertainty and kept focus on the goals I had set for myself. "Staying the course" in whatever you do requires a supportive family, trusting your gut, and surrounding yourself with positive people.



While watching the Winter Olympics these next few weeks, we must not forget what it took for these athletes to get to this point. Years of preparation, sacrifice, and "staying the course" through good times and bad. There is no doubt that the true heroes and role models that our children and students should be looking up to are people like Chris and Kyle. Because at the end of the day, people are judged based on how well they overcome failure. Over time, dealing with failure makes a person stronger and inevitably gives them a winning edge. This key to life is knowing how to stay the course and daring to succeed.



Good luck Chris and Kyle!