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How do you measure success?

Last Sunday, in fact it was the last time I wrote my blog, I was filled with ideas and inspiration. This was going to be a highly successful week for me. I had made my plans, set myself targets and had everything I needed to fly through the week, with the wings of a reading angel, ready to read six books in public in a week and raise a large amount of money for Comic Relief.

If success is measured by my money, then my week was highly successful. My fund raising team made over £500 for Comic Relief, which exceeds my expectations and makes me deeply proud of my students. My daughter was inspired by our efforts and made her own contributions and my son came into college to meet my students and donate money on Friday.

In terms of learning outcomes and working together as part of a group, everyone now has a wealth of experience to draw upon. The despondency is being replaced with an amount of infectious enthusiasm and love of what we do. Nothing is more true now than do what you love and love what you do.

I did however not manage to read six books in public in a week. I read one complete book, some chapters of another and a got lots of people involved in Wreck this Journal  by Keri Smith. That in itself could be consider a failure or a success.

For me though, every success and step forward is constantly under threat by the crash and burn I experience every day. Each time I smile, from somewhere a cloud blocks my sun, but there are hours of blue sky and optimism triumphs over negativity at the start of another week.




For all those wonderful people who helped me this week, especially Mr Jon Chater.

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