Today I shared a few videos with our class. Here’s the first video, sent to me by Mr. Hitchner.

I thought the video of this fourth grade girl was impressive. The jump is a Nordic Ski Jump. She is at least six feet in the air as she jumps off the end of the ramp. She probably travels more than 20 feet. What’s really interesting is how she thinks through the process of facing her fear as the camera rolls. She really “Gives It All She’s Got,” so to speak (our current reading theme).

As she steadies herself, she asks questions. “Is it faster on the inrun? Is it any steeper?” Once she collects enough information in her brain she just does it. But it’s not as simple as Nike would have you believe. To face her fear, she thinks about many things like how long it is, don’t snow plow, so on and so on before going for it.

Here’s another video.

In this video we saw that there are often distractions that make it difficult for us to learn. The man poses an interesting idea, “What would you do if money were no object when you grow up?” What would you want to do with your life? This begins to help us to think more creatively about the choices we might make in life as we get older. I gave the example of being a photographer. I explained, “I love teaching, but I might become a freelance photographer. I could travel the world and take pictures of things that interest me, like sharks. Money gets in the way because it’s very hard to sustain this type of living, unless you’re really good at what you do.

The last video I shared today.

Failure happens. It’s pretty simple. Michael Jordan was not always the best player on the basketball teams he played with. He often failed. However, he learned to perservere, or to overcome those failures. He learned from it. If we don’t challenge ourselves to take risks, it’s hard to gain profound knowledge and know-how.

All of the videos have something in common that we all need to make to turn that corner and become life long learners. In all cases, they require you to make a paradigm shift. You have to see things differently, like the picture below.

Last, you have to act. Seeing things differently is not enough. Michael Jordan would not be able to really make game winning shots successfully without actually putting himself in that position and acting it out.

What paradigm shifts are you ready to make in our classroom?