Practice makes... confidence?

Practice makes perfect is an expression I have heard many many times.. far more than I could ever count.  But as I teach I realize, although perfection would be nice, it is not really perfection that I want as a teacher.  I would give up perfection any day of the week for my students to be more confident in their own skills.  I do have a few that are confident in anything that they do, but so many of my students have such a lack of confidence with their own abilities to write, do math problems, do artwork, etc. that they completely shut down when they have to complete that activity.  What I have begun to notice as this quarter as rolled on is that students need practice with all academic areas, be it math, science, writing, art, music, PE, or reading, to build confidence in their own skills.  As they feel more successful in those ventures they will be more likely to do those activities, thereby giving them more practice!  You couldn't ask for a whole lot more!  I hope that as a teacher I give students that boost in confidence that they can complete any task and provide students with ample opportunities to build that confidence and desire to read, write, experiment, run, draw, etc.