Blog Post #6
Tatiana Lingos-Webb in her TED talk, “Proven Steps To A Better Classroom", describes how she uses dance to teach life skills. How do you teach life skills such as grit and resilience?
Blog Post #1
As author Julia Cameron points out in The Artist’s Way, “In order to do something well, we must first be willing to do it badly.” And as the authors of this book say, “Rookie mistakes lead to growth and mastery.” Describe a rookie mistake you’ve made as a teacher and the growth you experienced as a result. (This is an exercise in laying your inner Joker to rest.) In addition, please leave encouraging comments on at least two other participants’ posts.
I enjoyed this TED talk from Tatiana Lingos-Webb; expressing themselves through dance was very interesting to learn about. While teaching 2nd Grade, we worked through Grit and Resilience skills and modeling tools by sharing with each other what we have experienced. We would do a harder project or assignment, and then we would have a "share and learn" visit about what was challenging and how we used grit to get through the hard things, and how being resilient helped complete the task or assignment. We would visit about if anyone else's challenges helped up learn something about ourselves or help us in some way. This focused on that we all have challenges and that everyone can learn from one another. We would end with "I liked..." and "I will use.." It was such a great time and collaboration among my students.
ReplyDeleteI work with individual students at all age levels and it is interesting to watch how much grit and perseverance some students have without much guidance and how others come in with it. I introduce the standardized testing to all students by telling them that some of the items will be easy and some will be hard, but that I need them to try everything. I do have to remind some students that there will be hard things and that they need to calm down to do their best and most students respond well and this encouragement is all that is necessary to keep them on track.
ReplyDeleteIn my school, we have introduced to all our students is the “Learning Pit”. It’s a visual example that I have in my classroom and it shows how sometimes in learning we go into the pit. When we go into the pit, it means that we are learning and that we need to keep trying to get out of the pit. This is an example that I reference frequently with my first grade students.
ReplyDeleteArt is something that is a lot of work to create things we are proud of. I have students create plans for their work and practice to get used to the materials. Students will struggle with some techniques and we work through using them til they understand how they work and ways they can use them. This allows them to work through challenges and helps with that grit and resilience.
ReplyDeleteIn second grade I do this with discussion every morning. When the kids come in, I greet them at the door. I look them in the eye and tell them good morning with a smile on my face. I wait for them to do the same back to me and then they enter the classroom. That teaches them to look at someone when you are speaking to them. When they get to their desk, they do some responses about how they are feeling today and how they would solve certain situations. We then have some sharing time on how we would solve those situations. When situations arise during the school day, we use their ideas to solve those problems. Just yesterday, there were a couple of students arguing in line. One of my students shouted out "Guys, we need to talk this out! Just talk it out!". I'm not going to lie, it made my heart melt! Modeling is so important to teach skills that help with grit and resilience and that's what I try to do every day.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Ted Talk, it was a good reminder that discomfort is a very powerful tool. I recently used the game "Mother May I" to help teach resilience and grit. In the game one student is the mother who gets to give permission or deprive permission. The rest of the class is simply asking "Can I step forward?" The first person across the room wins. It is difficult to accept the mother's response if permission is not granted. As a class we had to come up with some ways to respond in a positive way or to let the disappointment not bother us. We discussed how hard it is to lose the game and how we can lose with grace. We also discussed being happy for others if they won.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom I have four gifted students that range high on being sociable to low on the scale. The one student that ranges high on this life skill does very well at communicating with other students and peers and are within his comfort zone. For the others this skill falls outside their comfort zone and we work very hard on getting them to talk to others students. This might just be getting them to said hi or good morning in the hall of the school. Every morning I come to class I am always smiling and greet everyone with a huge good morning and I expect a reply from them. Some of them also gets a high five or a hug to get them in a comfort zone with me, this will allow them to interact with other during the day. This TED talk helped me to remember, putting our students in a discomfort situation and responding to their peers is a very useful tool.
ReplyDeleteI love how Tatiana Lingos-Webb talked about teamwork, self-control, focus, respect, maturity, confidence, grit, and executive function characteristics in her TED Talk. How one carries herself or himself affects how others see them. I found it very interesting when Tatiana Lingos-Webb brought up how others found it to be a challenge/competition which gets everyone on board to do better. This reminds me of many scenarios within my special education classroom while I taught. Grit and resilience were instilled in all of my students as they overcame many challenges they faced in school and in life. An example of one of my previous students would be when they graduated as me being their ELA teacher and getting pushed into their grade-level ELA classroom with peers. This student flourished and didn’t realize that they were ready to be at grade-level. They were resilient during the time in my classroom and continued to be while working on their IEP goals. This student eventually graduated from special education before I stepped away from teaching!
ReplyDeleteThe art classoom is a GREAT place to learn grit and resilence. As I always say, "Artwork is Hard Work". You can't fake your way to the end of a project. The project IS evidence of learning and all the processes involved. One example, the Mona Lisa painting by the master DaVinci. When xrays were given, it was noted that he first drew her hands in a different position, then painted over it. Even the masters learn through efforts, failures, re-dos. I always tell them, I am a big fan of the re-do. You can start over on your project anytime. Your first efforts will NOT be wasted as all that learning will show up in their next efforts. Many times, the next effort is a much better artwork because of the decision to start again. The only way you won't be successful is if you give up. I also made a cartoon infographic on display in my room. The first cartoon starts with a person holding a blank paper, about to start a project, saying "' I Love THis! " then, the next frame is a struggle, "I am not sure about this", then, "I Hate this". Next, I can do this, and ending with "It's not what I first thought, but I LIKE this!"
ReplyDeleteThey key is to follow throught with all these steps in life.
As an Early Childhood Special Education teacher, I teach life skills like grit and resilience by embedding them into everyday routines and play-based activities. For example, I create opportunities for students to try challenging tasks, such as building a tall block tower or completing a new puzzle, and encourage them to keep trying even if it doesn’t work the first time. I provide support and guidance while celebrating effort and small successes, helping students see mistakes as learning opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI also use social-emotional activities, like role-playing or collaborative games, to teach patience, persistence, and problem-solving. By modeling these skills myself—staying calm, trying new strategies, and encouraging flexible thinking—I show students how to face challenges with confidence and resilience, just as Tatiana Lingos-Webb uses dance to teach life skills in her classroom.
As a School Counselor I feel that there are many ways in which I am working to teach students life skills such as grit and resilience. On a daily basis there are always opportunities to do this by integrating reflection, goal-setting, and real-world connections across the multiple areas that we work with students in. Academically, I work to guide students through reflection activities, encouraging them to analyze challenges in their coursework and identify strategies to overcome setbacks. This can include anything from selecting courses for the upcoming school year, working to pass a course they are struggling in, or dropping courses due to personal or life circumstances. Each provides opportunities for students to explore and communicate and advocate for themselves. Specifically, grit can be applied to accomplishing passing a class that a student did not think they would be able. Working with them to teach them how to communicate with their teachers, support staff, tutoring and other supports to have success often entails finding their grit. Personally, and socially, talking with students and showing them that setbacks are normal and a part of life and learning is something that happens daily. In the post-high school planning realm, I use tools like SDMyLife to help students explore career and college paths, set achievable milestones, and reflect on barriers and solutions. Working with students in each of these areas shows different ways in which resilience is not just a skill for the classroom but a lifelong practice that prepares them to navigate challenges in multiple area of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI teach life skills in my class by personal stories of my own and examples. I bring my horse stories into class a lot. I show my students progress my young horse has done. Small steps that over time show big progress. I apply this to their lives when I show them items from the start of the year until now. They don't always understand their progress until they see concrete evidence.
ReplyDeleteLike Tatiana Lingos-Webb, I too try to build a relationship with my students that gives them a sense of wanting to achieve and also try to create an environment that feels safe. Every day in the classroom life skills are happening. One of the most important life skills that is developed over the course of the school year is the ability to believe in yourself and be okay when you fail. Having the confidence to try and also try again if you fail. I think that building confidence and resiliency is developed when you build relationships around the students to make them feel comfortable with/ in front of each other. In the classroom I try to do community building activities such as singing positive talk songs and locking arms (same songs daily). I also do charts about each student that all students add positive talk to. I try to always share stories with my class about thoughtful things that happen to me and how that makes me feel. I open it up for students to think of a time another student in the classroom has made them feel good and I ask them to share. It is pretty cool how if you constantly focus on that, it becomes to be topic of conversation often. I believe this builds the confidence in students to step outside their comfort zone and know if they fail, they have 23 friends ready to pick them up and they are open to constructive criticism from their peers or they are able to try again.
ReplyDeleteAs a Special Education Teacher life skill are part of our daily grind. Resilience, self-control and grit are some of the skills that we focus on the most. We work on building relationships within our classroom so that we build a safe community where it's okay to make a mistake. We talk about standardized testing and the importance to do our best, but we focus just as much on if not more on social skills that will apply to our daily living both now and as we grow older. We talk about how to act if we were employed at a job. What behaviors would be okay or not okay. We talk about how even if you are not particularly good at a certain subject that hard work, attitude, perseverance will take you a long way in life. I like the quote about how "self discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance in adolescence".
ReplyDeleteOne specific area in which I taught life skills was a social studies project on heroes. The students had to work together with a team to come up with questions they would ask during an interview. They had to write them out to bring along to an actual interview with their hero. They then worked to design and create a book to give to that hero that talked about the things they had learned by asking the questions during the interview. This taught them how to work in teams, how to design and create something to give away, and how to ask thoughtful questions of an adult they admired.
ReplyDeleteI think that I could spend more time teaching life skills, but I get caught up in the content standards and trying to get through a certain amount of material within the semester. I teach chemistry, which doesn't usually come easy for most of my students. I think I teach life skills of grit and resilience by ensuring that my students master the content. I spend most of my time working with individuals and small groups to make sure they can solve problems. I set a pretty high standard for the students and they know that they need to prove to me that they have learned the material, especially when it comes to setting up and solving the problems.
ReplyDeleteIn one aspect I answered this question in my prior blog post. Letting a child fail along the pathway to success is what true learning, and developing life long skills is all about. They can figure out the answer or solution to the problem. There is a benefit in this world to memorizing certain facts or mathematics, but those things mean nothing without being tethered to knowing how to critically think and overcome the obstacles.
ReplyDeleteI have taught life skills such as grit and resilience in my classroom by giving space for students to fail and teaching them how to handle the situation. An example that comes to mind right away is similar to one that was shared in the book. I was an elementary classroom teacher, so I taught all core subjects. I tried to do as many hands-on Science experiments that we could fit in. This is a great time for students to see that things don't always go as planned, but to try again and foster the growth mindset. I also used a lot of every day examples of people from history. I taught in a Catholic school so I used stories of saints as well.
ReplyDeleteI teach life skills like grit and resilience by intentionally building them into everyday classroom experiences rather than treating them as separate lessons.
ReplyDeleteOne way I do this is when students encounter difficult tasks, I don’t immediately step in to fix the problem. Instead, I guide them with questions, encourage them to try multiple strategies, and remind them that confusion is part of learning. This helps them learn to sit with challenge instead of avoiding it.
I also build resilience through reflection. After assessments or projects, I have students look at what didn’t go as planned, identify what they learned, and set specific goals for improvement. This shifts the focus from “I failed” to “I’m growing,” which reinforces persistence.
Finally, I model grit myself. When I make mistakes or when a lesson doesn’t go as planned, I acknowledge it openly and show how I adjust and move forward. Students see that setbacks are not the end of the process, but part of it.
Overall, I try to create a classroom culture where effort is valued as much as success, and where students learn that persistence, flexibility, and reflection are what lead to growth over time.