Today I ran 13.1 miles, the most I have run in over three years. The reasons I haven’t been running long distances are mostly due to life getting in the way of time to commit. This winter break, though, I decided I needed a goal again. This found me committed to a half marathon. I needed a focus, an aim, something tangible that would get me up at 4:30am and commit to hours of training on the weekend. Today, while I was sweating toward my goal, I thought about something. Why was it I got out of my warm bed and pushed myself through the discomfort of all that training? Why is it that I don’t just run for the love of running?

When you run as slow as I do, you have time to think. My thoughts drifted to my own students. Most of all, I want my students to take control of their own learning and LOVE learning new concepts. I get so frustrated when the only reason they complete assignments is for a grade. “How much is this worth?” Ugh.

Lately, though I’ve been trying to get them to focus on what they will need to DO at the end of the unit. Of course, I’m still frustrated with this because I know this isn’t necessarily promoting the love of learning.

Running today towards my goal and knowing I would not have been there without that focus, I realized there was nothing wrong with learning for an end goal. The real shift needs to be getting students to set their own learning goals.

I guess I have a new goal to strive towards.