During morning circle, I asked, “what does it mean to be successful?”
J, K and E started off with the responses of “good grades, good college, good job.”
S said, “money,” and several others laughed and echoed his idea.
Then C said, “I think if I became very good at something. An expert, that would mean I’m successful.”
C called on me. After some thought, I said, “To be able to do something I loved.”
I passed it to M who said, “I would feel successful if I could give to other people who are in need. There are so many people who have so little. If I could give to them, that would mean I’m successful.”
Wow.
After that, X said, “I want to do like M, and be in the MLB.” X passed it to G.
G said, “I wanna do like M, and be in the NBA.”
M’s idea was infectious. It made so much sense.
So often our morning circle brings out surprising and beautiful thoughts. Things I would never have anticipated.
These are moments of success doing something I love.
What does success mean for you?
To Read To Write To Be 
Such beautiful insights around a great question!
Success… agree – getting to do something we love. And also being able to do something that makes a difference. You’re making your difference right there every day. And thank you for making a difference for me too. 💖
Thanks for being there to share the joys of what we do.
So much wisdom and insight from your students! I’m just reflecting on how our definitions of success can change. How different success looks for me this year!
I was thinking that too. Finding moments of success in my day gives me a certain satisfaction.
Oh I love your morning meeting. What a way to foster a caring community of learners. Success for me is to be happy doing what I love while making a difference- that might be sharing or passing something on to others. Thanks for the thought provoking slice!
Love your thinking around success. I’m with you!
Thank you for letting us in to this conversation. I love the variety of responses. It’s powerful that you are asking this question to children and getting them to think about what success could mean. I’m still grappling with this question myself!
So often the questions I ask are things I have no easy answer to. They often teach me in this time.
Success means enough. Ha! My OLW.
Success is finding you – -I kept putting your name in and couldn’t find your comments the past few days. So happy to be here! Funny I also wrote about defining success. I think in this slice … success is your students passing to you. I love that they wanted to hear from you. A lovely example of a true learning community.
So glad you found me! I think the idea of what it means shows so much about the person and where they are in their life. Going to check on your slice!
I am with the student who thought giving to others who have less is success. What a wise child! Your discussions sound like lots of fun and generating lots of thinking, that’s success too!