I took a breather from our busy honoring week to read about a PCCS alumna, Devyn Gardner, in the Northfield News. I taught Devyn many years ago and she came back to PCCS this year to volunteer with our Girl Scouts and honors project students.
What caught my attention about the article (click on the link to read) was its focus on Devyn's work in golf and how she wasn't good at it at first but persevered so that now she is a top golfer in the state. The article went on to talk about how many things come naturally for Devyn but she chose golf in part because of the challenge of tackling something that doesn't come naturally. I was struck by the echo of the lessons we work on every day at Prairie Creek:
1. Learning is uncomfortable and in order to learn, you must get comfortable with that discomfort.
2. If you are not challenged you need to be doing something else.
3. You must take risks and try things that are hard initially.
4. Persevere when things are hard.
I'm not claiming that Prairie Creek led to Devyn's golf success — we were just one of many influences in her life. But reading the article made me realize the importance of continuing to carve out the time to teach these lessons.
A connection to honors week? Most fifth graders in the Herons could name examples of 15 or 16 of the 16 Habits of Mind in their honors project work.
The Rookery 
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