Happy New Year 2015

A brand new year to begin again, to start over, a new slate to write a different story. We sent out report cards on Friday. The new semester started and I told my students "You have a brand new fresh start. Everyone is on even ground and there are no zeros or missing work". Of course you hope that they embrace new goals and strive to meet them.

We talk about our resolutions for the new year. Some people make the same ones over and over. Some of us choose not to make resolutions because we feel we are setting ourselves up for failure.

If you have ever heard of Self Fulfilling Prophecy then you might understand what they mean. We learned about this in a leadership class that I took.  

Self Fulfilling Prophecy is a way of looking at yourself and making a prediction of an outcome and then acting in ways that the prediction will come true. An example would be if you were required to take a class for school or work. You feel as if you are no good in this particular subject and you know that you are not going to pass. You begin to act in ways that will sabotage your efforts to pass the class. You tell yourself that you cannot learn this subject and your study habits will suffer. You dwell on the negative and you talk yourself into to failing. 

This term was made by a sociologist in 1948 by  Robert K. Merton. He also said that a teacher influences a student by their perception of that student. If the teacher perceives the student as an over achiever, he might provide studies that will guide that student in a positive direction. If the teacher perceives the student as lazy, they might not give them the attention that they give another student. This in turn will allow the student to get by without trying.

I know I have thought about this before, but like lots of my resolutions I have let them go and failed. So this year, I think I will give this Self Fulfilling Prophecy thing another go. I am going to look back on my last few years, write down some goals and practice some positive thoughts on how to achieve them. I want my students to believe in themselves. Why should I settle for less from myself?

One of my goals is to get back to writing. I enjoy writing down my thoughts, but for some reason it has been very easy to just not do it. So here it is January 11, 2015 and this is my first blog of the new year.