Inspiring Grit!

Last week we began our new semester. As I was preparing my lesson on  Enlightenment and the French Revolution I decided to take a detour. I had been reading an excellent post on Edutopia by Vicki Davis regarding "grit." The beginning of the new semester seemed a perfect time to discuss the meaning of grit and it's impact on a student's life.

Tuesday morning, the day after grades had been released, my students slowly streamed into my classroom. Some of them looked excited for the new semester, while clearly some of them looked dejected and disappointed. It was clear to me that this lesson on grit was perfectly timed!

I began by asking the students what they believed determined their success in life. Interestingly enough only a few of the students answered "intellect." Most of them responded with ideas related to hard work and perseverance. Next, I had them take a test  which would show their "grit level" provided by Angela Duckworth. After taking this test we discussed whether or not this "grit score" was fixed, or if it could be changed. If it could be changed, how so? Again it was a wonderful discussion because the students all realized that they controlled their future - it had not been determined for them, like their IQ.

Finally we watched the TED video by Angela Duckworth and her research on the power of grit. The students all noticed that according to Ms. Duckworth's research, IQ does not necessarily determine success. Grit determines success.

As we concluded, and students took a moment to write down their goals for the next semester, I remarked that my students that came in with the dejected or downtrodden faces were now smiling and hopeful. Honestly, it was an exceptional moment for me as a teacher.

National History Day

How can you get students interested in history and at the same time develop excellent 21st century skills? Are you wondering how improve your students' writing, research and analytical skills?  Look no further than National History Day!

Our school just wrapped up their 2 month National History Day program, run by our social studies department. We had our school wide competition, selected our top contestants and they will soon be moving on to regionals.

National History Day is an academic program that challenges students to research and develop projects relating to an annual theme. Students compete at the school level, regionally, state wide and eventually nationally. Students choose a category: exhibit, website, documentary, performance or paper to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic of choice, relating to the annual theme. This year’s theme is “Rights and Responsibilities.”

This is our school’s second year of participating in NHD. Last year our entire school participated. As we considered our options for this year, we decided to require only our 6th grade students, and select classes from our high school. 

A great hurdle we face implementing NHD is parent and student buy in. NHD is a lengthy process and labor intensive. Yet, the experience can truly be life changing for a student. As our social studies department reflected upon our choices for student involvement, our 7th grade teachers commented on how advanced their students were in regards to research skills, interpretation of historical materials and their exceptional ability to develop proper citations. We knew that most of these skills came from their experience the previous year in NHD. That confirmed it for us, our 6th grade students were going to participate in NHD. We left it open as an option for the upper grades.

As we completed our NHD preparations and competitions this past week I was incredibly proud of what our students had achieved. Our 11 and 12 year students started out by defining rights and responsibilities. They then chose a topic that was at least 20 years old that they could relate to this year's theme. Then they researched and cited, in APA format, their sources. Last, but definitely not least, they took that information and developed either an exhibit, paper, performance, website or a documentary. Some students worked on their own and others worked in groups, yet they all learned valuable time management skills. If that wasn’t enough, it all culminated in them presenting their projects to judges from the community. They were so proud of themselves, as was I! 

I have no doubt that my students will always remember their NHD experience, some fondly, and well, maybe some not so fondly. Yet, each one of them will remember the excellent skills they developed in the process. I highly recommend incorporating it into your school’s history curriculum!

Hurdles to change….

Change is inevitable. We are met with small changes everyday and some of us with large, life altering changes. I am reading a great book right now, The New Meaning of Educational Change, by Michael Fullan. Fullan deals with, obviously, the subject of change, but not just within education. Fullan addresses the question of why change sometimes works, and sometimes falls flat.

A concept that Fullan mentions that really hit home for me is the idea of emotional buy in. Often when we present a new idea, or a change, to our students, parents, staff members or administration, it is something that we have been thinking about for quite awhile. Or, at least, we have had the time to process the positives and the negatives of our new idea. Typically, we come in, enthusiastically, with our great new idea, and expect our listeners to be as equally excited once we share our brilliance. Those listeners that love new ideas may embrace ours, but others that tend to be more methodical or traditional may need some time to process.

In education today, teachers are bombarded with “great new ideas that will change the way students learn”...for the better of course! Personally, I often enthusiastically grab those new ideas, run with them, and assume that everyone else is on board. I mean, haven’t they read the research that I have? Well, no, they haven’t, and dependent upon their interest, they may never. I have realized that as an agent of change, it is important to come alongside my community and give them opportunities to experience the positive implications of the proposed change. This is when you have the opportunity to develop buy in. Often participating in the change will lead to a clearer understanding than could have ever been achieved by discussion. 

I am realizing more and more the importance of developing buy in with my students, parents, and peers... and most importantly, of being patient with the process!

Personal Investment

I was thinking about a seminar I participated in a few months ago, and an activity I was required to take part in. I am typically someone who loves to interact with others, try new things, and collaborate. Yet, I had no desire to participate in this activity.  As part of the lesson we were to create a pre-determined item using specifically provided materials. I felt completely inept, and as a result, disinterested. In fact, it stressed me out so much that I was going to use my students’ technique of “going to bathroom” to hopefully miss out on the activity! (I showed maturity though and hung in there!)

I’ve been reflecting upon that experience and wondering what I can do to ensure that this doesn’t happen in my classroom. I believe that two aspects are essential when a teacher presents a lesson: investment and choice. I have an example from a unit I taught last year on the Holocaust. To introduce my unit, I showed a 2006 interview by Brian Williams of Iranian President Ahmadinejad. After showing the clip I asked the students to explain what the problem is. (In this clip Ahmadinejad puts into question the validity of the Holocaust.) The majority of my students quickly recognized that the problem is that some people don’t believe that the Holocaust ever happened. We then discussed why that would be a problem, and most importantly, why it is a problem that might affect them personally. Once I had them invested personally, we discussed how they could solve this problem. Please know, that this entire time I had my own idea how I wanted them to solve this problem. I had a Project Guidelines sheet already developed with learning targets, state objectives, etc. Yet, I didn’t tell them. I allowed them to develop their own projects. The amazing thing, is that for the most part they mirrored what I already had in mind. (Smart students, I know!) What I loved were the ideas they came up with that I hadn’t even considered.

What I saw from this experience is that once students are personally invested and have a choice, they want to be active participators.  Investment means they care, and choice equates to them choosing a means of production with which they are comfortable. (They don’t make as many excuses to run to the restroom.) I didn’t tell them what the problem was - they determined the problem. They then had choice on how to solve the problem. Our goal as  educators is to help our students fall in love with learning, so that they will want to continue learning on their own. I am invested in helping my students be personally invested, in what ever they are learning. Investment - it is has great rewards in the classroom, and in our society!