Another voice speaks up.

http://techsavvyteacher.com/?p=652

Jason Neiffer is also on Twitter as @techsavvyteach and he is worth following.

Make sure you are an educator with ability to fail, publicly. Students will be happy to fail along with you. They will engage in your plans, help to identify the pieces of the plan that need to be removed. They will be more eager to engage in the next plan. Your students will see that they, too, can fail gracefully, without fear.

Fear of failure is the killer of creativity.

Embrace failure, engender creativity.

There is hope.

Watch this short video about a boy named Audri and his Rube Goldberg machine.

Then think about its message.

Here's what I think. "Children understand 'failure' in ways we adults may have forgotten."

Let children like Audri grow up to be teachers, please.

Let Audri grow up and remember the lesson of his video.

Seeing failure for what it is, found at another location on the web.

http://colonelb.posterous.com/we-no-longer-value-failure-in-learning

This isn't the new logo of the printing company, Best in Print. In fact, none of the designs I've submitted in the past six months have been selected at 99designs.com which runs a service where businesses can request designers to submit designs for logos, web sites, etc.

I'm not making my living as a designer. I thought it would be fun to try some real projects with GIMP and Inkscape, two of my favorite Free Software (free as in freedom) tools.

Oh, I'll keep trying. Trying isn't losing, you know. Trying is the first step to success. We must not see each step as a failure if we don't reach our goal on that particular step. Such a harsh judgement is the most certain way to prevent success. Understand the difference between taking the necessary steps for success and "failure". Avoid the labels if that helps.

Though you may not want to acknowledge you are a genius (or maybe you aren't one), there are some things geniuses do which you can to. Who knows?

Failure...learning from it is #9 on the list here. http://www.studygs.net/genius.htm

And remember, it is OK if you don't tell people how smart you are. Just get on with it.

Wise counsel. Mistakes will happen when students learn. Plan for them.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2012/01/dont_prevent_students_mistakes_prepare_for_them.html

Be sensible. Resolve on a daily basis, and make your resolutions concrete.

Look back at the end of next year. Be proud of the steps you took.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110930153048.htm

While it flips by too fast for me, this teacher's syllabus gets "failure."

I especially like the idea of making lots of mistakes, just not the same one over and over.