This is hard. This is fun.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

Don't judge. Teach. It's a learning process.

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.

Exceptional people convert life's setbacks into future successes.

It is not always people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.