To truly learn can be both exhilarating and exhausting.
For example, once you learn a new skill, you feel that sense of pride and excitement: I did it! I made the time to learn, and now I know something new and valuable.
Yet, the learning process is, at times, exhausting--two steps forward, and one step back as you truly try to embrace a new concept or set of skills.
The old adage, "You can't teach an old dog a new trick," has merit here. While that statement is untrue since yes, you can learn at an older age, the truth is that it takes time to reroute those brain paths or create new thinking and acting patterns whether you are old or young, and that learning takes practice, repetition, coaching, reflection, and direction.
Today, as I coach students forward with math learning, science study, and important team building classroom routines, I will remind myself that the learning is often challenging and tiring for students especially at the start of the school year, and I can help out with that with encouraging words, a schedule that provides the time needed for new learning, and listening.
