Last week marked the beginning of second semester. This means I receive an entire new groups of students for all my classes. One positive thing about a semester class is I can easily implement changes in my classes during the same year. One of my changes includes implementing Grit education in my teaching and classroom.
First week: I download Angela Duckworth’s grit assessment and I tweaked a few questions and made them more student friendly for my 8th graders. I also added a couple to make situations more real and personal for the students. The students scores ranged from 4.6 to 1.9, from a 5 point scale. I placed these scores on a Google Document and shared them with my team. Near the end of the semester, I will have students retake the assessment to see if their scores improved or declined.
I also explained to the students about the importances of grit and how learning has a lot to do with mindset, and your willingness to make mistakes. To demonstrate to my students my commit to making mistakes, reminded students of my test policy. Students may retake tests as many times as they like. Likewise, on assignments - students may make corrections on assignments. Hoping they understand that learning is a process.
Then, I showed the students the TED Talk with Angela Duckworth about grit and mindset. Click here to see it. After the video we reviewed the main ideas and the importances of grit in their learning.
NO POWER: Then, on Friday, I a teachable moment using grit. We lost power at school. Not only once, but twice in different classes. My class is technology dependent, so I thought we were dead in the water. But, instead students continued to work. The webpage they needed was already loaded onto their Chromebooks when the power went out. So, even without the wifi, they still had access to their information. So, with a dark classroom, some students asked to use their phones to see their work in the dark. Later, when the power returned, I complimented the students on their grit. They overcame a real-life obstacle, and instead of simply giving up to the dark, thei continued to learn.
I want to share my grit journey with you, and I would like your ideas too. Please feel free to email me or leave a comment on my blog.
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