Personal Best

The latest buzz word around school that I am attaching my procedures to is "personal best".  We have always told students to "do their best"  and "try your best"  and "do your best work"... but what does that mean?  Obviously it varies from kid to kid, as it does from adult to adult.  Intertwined in this is the notion of Multiple Intelligences, that we all learn differently and display what we've learned differently. So to some, writing a paper is torture while to others, a treat.  To some, getting up to give a speech would be frightening, while others would enjoy it immensely.

So, in order to highlight "personal best" in my classroom, as well as find ways to teach students what it means to do and give their personal best, I began searching for ideas.

I came across an awesome blog post by Emma McDonald, co-founder of Inspiring Teachers and author of several books.  This blog post is full of thoughts of what it means to her to give your personal best.  She mentions a poem in it that is worth pasting here.  She mentions that this would be a great way to start the first day of school.  I am definitely copying the poem for use in my classroom and/or the hall.  It extends the idea of personal best past this assignment or this school day or year and into the notion that what a student learns to give as personal best will carry through until adulthood, which will mean a much more fulfilling and successful life.

Here is the poem:

Pretty Good  by Charles Osgood

There once was a pretty good student, Who sat in a pretty good class And was taught by a pretty good teacher, Who always let pretty good pass. He wasn't terrific at reading, He wasn't a whiz-bang at math; But for him education was leading Straight down a pretty good path. He didn't find school too exciting, But he wanted to do pretty well, And he did have some trouble with writing And nobody taught him to spell. When doing arithmetic problems Pretty good was regarded as fine. Five plus five needn't always add up to be ten, A pretty good answer was nine. The pretty good class that he sat in Was part of a pretty good school, And the student was not an exception, On the contrary, he was the rule. The pretty good school that he went to Was in a pretty good town. And nobody seemed to notice He could not tell a verb from a noun. The pretty good student in fact was Part of a pretty good mob. And the first time he knew what he lacked was When he looked for a pretty good job. It was then, when he sought a position, He discovered that life could be tough, And he soon had a sneaky suspicion Pretty good might not be good enough. The pretty good town in our story Was part of a pretty good state, Which had pretty good aspirations, And prayed for a pretty good fate. There once was a pretty good nation, Pretty proud of the greatness it had, Which learned much too late If you want to be great, Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.