If you are a teacher like me, then you know summer time is more than just relaxing with friends; it's taking classes for recertification and salary increase, professional and staff development. Teaching summer school, tutoring and coaching while school is on break and of course the countless side hustle many teachers take on to boost their income. Grit is not just the completion of your credential program, because life brings you new challenges, like raising children, buying a home and living in California ($$$$), taking care of an ailing parent or encountering personal health hurdles.
Unfortunately the hard work and sacrifice teachers' make to get ready for the school year, does not always translate into the hard work and discipline students exert in the classroom. The reason is quiet simple, students often lack grit. As gritty as we are as people, teaching our students about grit can be a challenging task. After all it's takes a lot of grit to have patience and compassion for a kid who would rather interrupt instruction than learn a new concept.
Here are my six simple steps to get gritty with your students:
1. Teach your students about grit, by letting them experience grit; define grit and identify grit in their lives from role models to personal experiences. Don't assume that students know what grit is, or that experiencing grit in their lives can build stamina, perseverance and mental toughness! Give them an opportunity to think, apply and share their funds of knowledge around grit.
2. Start your year off with a gritty experience that will foster team work, collaboration and a gritty learning task. This might mean building spaghetti towers from marshmallows and pasta to an egg drop challenges . Each of these experiences teach kids failure is part of the learning process. It's not about whether or not they have success, but what they experienced throughout the process. If you are a PE teacher this might include a non-sport related activity such as going into crow pose for 1minute. The point is to build stamina and experience failure. After the task have students reflect, debrief and think about where they had to persevere.
3. Provide inspiration for getting gritty with it! Motivational videos inspire me and most likely they will inspire your students too! From Will Smith talking about the importance of failure to kid athletes who continue to push their limits. Check out this Padlet I created with a collection of videos that demonstrate grit in the real world.
4. Assess their grit and reflect on their progress. Growth happens when we not only experience a challenging task, but look back on the experience and consider what we learned and how it changed our thinking. Have your kiddos take the Grit Survey at the beginning of the school year by Angela Ducksworth and set goals that they can monitor and reflect upon throughout the school year.
![]() |
Goal Setting Sheet Here |
5. Provide an opportunity for students to explore their interests and develop a passion for something. A true test of grit is when we persevere when faced with a challenging task. If students are passionate about something they will work hard, practice and not give up this is how they experience grit as something they can control. Research by Angela Ducksworth found that kids who are gritty about one thing are most likely to translate that grit into other experiences (think about Michael Jordan who was dropped from his high school basketball team and continued to reach stardom in not just basketball but golf and coaching).
6. Build gritty partnerships with parents at the beginning of the school year. We all know that our students first teacher is their parent so don't be afraid to share with parents what you are doing in the class to foster grit and what strategies they can incorporate at home to sustain grit. This might include creating structured routines to support students in practice and completion of tasks, to not letting kids give up or helping them too much before they had a chance to struggle.
Yes, grit! I said it, grit is the mental stamina students acquire through experiences, life lessons and the choices they make. Notice the operative word here is "they" so let your students fail, learn, grow, be passionate and get gritty!
Want to hear more about Grit in the classroom consider taking a class at the Heritage Institute about grit and ways to implement for continuing education credit awarded by Antioch University. Check out this podcast with Dr. Dickenson and share your thoughts in our Facebook Group Teacher PrepTech!
This blog is further than my expectations. Nice work guys!!!
ReplyDeletecomplete guide of increase website ranking
Much obliged for sharing the finest data and proposals, it is exceptionally decent and exceptionally useful to us. I appreciate the work simply have shared in this post. Keep sharing these sorts of articles here. mat practice test online
ReplyDeleteI loved this post regarding grit, it's something that as a teacher and Master's student I have had many opportunities to hone my own skills through the ups and downs of life. I also feel it is so important for teachers to encourage grit building opportunities in the classroom. I try to do this with my youngest students through role-playing and by modeling mistakes. I set up a culture in my classroom that welcomes mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. When one of my TK students is having difficulty with a task, I tell them to stop, think about it, try a new step to figure it out, and if that doesn't work we brainstorm as a group.
ReplyDeleteWheat Flour Market: Wheat flour is widely used to prepare various food products, which has been driving its demand in in the food industry, thus, aiding the market growth. The rising consumer disposable incomes and the increasing demand for food products like noodles and pasta, and bakery and confectionery, among others are further accelerating the product demand. Wheat flour is highly nutritious and contains high levels of vitamins B and E, minerals, and catalysts.
ReplyDeleteThe Biosensors Market is being driven by the thriving medical and agriculture sectors. In agricultural applications, the rising demand for biosensors can be attributed to the increasing focus on the detection of pesticides, heavy metals, and herbicides in the ground and soil water. The increased risk of soil diseases is a growing concern for farmers. Therefore, biosensors are becoming necessary in the agriculture sector.
ReplyDeleteThis article is an appealing wealth of informative data that is interesting and well-written. I commend your hard work on this and thank you for this information. You’ve got what it takes to get attention. Dharma Ocean Foundation
ReplyDeleteToday, higher degrees are becoming more expensive, and this is the most common reason students do not want to study further. Even though many students are studying further, they also pay for online services even though they are paying more to the institute. To be honest, I usually Buy Coursework Uk based because it does not just complete coursework but also helps me learn something new.
ReplyDeleteNice info, I am very thankful to you that you have shared this special information with us. I got some different kind of knowledge from your web page, and it is really helpful for everyone. Thanks for share it. Read more info about home tuition
ReplyDeleteYou might wish to box your food before serving it to customers. Make use of Chinese polyester film. They shield the object from moisture and other external factors while also giving a long-lasting image. China Aluminum Foil
ReplyDeleteYou wrote this post very carefully.Live Online Tutoring The amount of information is stunning and also a gainful article for us. Keep sharing this kind of articles, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks For sharing this Superb article.I use this Article to show my assignment in college.it is useful For me Great Work. evaluate homework and practice
ReplyDeleteOn that website page, you'll see your description, why not read through this. Assignment Help London
ReplyDeleteYour blog contains lots of valuable data. It is a factual and beneficial article for us.keyword Thankful to you for sharing an article like this.
ReplyDeleteAdmiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer!.. fbisd skyward
ReplyDeleteNice Information, You provided valuable data for us. I am thankful to you for providing this kind of information.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your work which you have shared here about the The article you have shared here is very informative and the points you have mentioned are very helpful. Thank you so much.Reading Tutoring Classes Online USA
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing good content.
ReplyDeleteAmazing Post, Thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete