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Some would argue that grit is inherent in Albert Bandura’s research on self-efficacy, and that resilience is also part of i

tackling grit in my classroom and school.

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elp Students Develop a Growth Mindset

rol Dweck from Stanford University teaches us that students who have a growth mindset are more successful than those who think that intelligence is fixed. 5. Reframe Problems Using stories and examples from Malcom Gladwell's book David and Goliath, we talk about "desirable difficulties." Students need perspective about problems to prevent them from giving up, quitting or losing hope. 6. Find a Framework I use Angela Maiers' Classroom Habitudes as my framework. The KIPP framework specifically includes grit as one of its seven traits. Find one that works for your school and includes clear performance values. 7. Live Grittily You teach with your life. Perhaps that is why Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and David Menasche's Priority List resonate. These teachers used their own battle with death itself as a way to teach. But you don't have to die to be an effective teacher. Our own work ethic yells so loudly that kids know exactly what we think about grit. 8. Foster Safe Circumstances That Encourage Grit Never mistake engaging, fun or even interesting for easy. We don't jump up and down when we tear off a piece of tape because "I did it." No one celebrates easy, but everyone celebrates championships and winners because those take grit (and more). We need more circumstances to help kids to develop grit before they can "have it." Tough academic requirements, sports and outdoor opportunities are all ways to provide opportunities for developing grit. Verena Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer of CANeLearn says: One of the best ways to learn about grit is to focus on outdoor education and go out into the wild. Grit is about not freaking out, taking a deep breath, and moving on. 9. Help Students Develop Intentional Habits Read about best practices for creating habits, because habits and self-control require grit. 10. Acknowledge the Sacrifice Grit Requires Grit takes time, and many students aren't giving it. In their 2010 paper "The Falling Time Cost of College", Babcock and Marks demonstrate that, in 1961, U.S. undergraduates studied 24 hours a week outside of class. In 1981, that fell to 20 hours, and in 2003, it was 14 hours per week. This is not to create a blame or generation gap discussion, but rather to point out the cost of being well educated. We are what we do, and if we study less and work less, then we will learn less. Educators Need Grit Now we as teachers just need the grit to do whatever it takes to turn education around, and that starts with hard work and our own modern version of true grit. Teaching it and living it is now front and center in the education conversation. Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher's Profile Sign in or register to post Sign in to vote! (3) The Educational Benefits of GritThe character traits of determination, adaptability and reflection add up to a critical 21st century skill.<< Previous Next >> Learn More About Education Trends Latest Reconnecting Adults With Playful Learning A New Must-Read for All Educators Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers What Is Personalization, Really? 20 Top Pinterest Tips Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher Computer Fundamentals, Computer Science and IT Integrator from Camilla, GA follow: http://www.facebook.com/coolcatteacherhttp://www.twitter.com/coolcatteacherhttps://plus.google.com/+VickiDavishttp://www.youtube.com/coolcatteacher/http://www.linkedin.com/in/coolcatteacher/http://www.pinterest.com/coolcatteacher Related Tags: Education TrendsCollege ReadinessResilience and GritCharacter EducationAll Grades In This Series T

In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better.

A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. This exposure to authentic skills meets the second criterion for meaningful work—an important purpose. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for students to assess themselves.

Formalizing a process for feedback and revision during a project makes learning meaningful because it emphasizes that creating high-quality products and performances is an important purpose of the endeavor. Students need to learn that most people's first attempts don't result in high quality and that revision is a frequent feature of real-world work.

In addition to providing direct feedback, the teacher should coach students in using rubrics or other sets of criteria to critique one another's work. Teachers can arrange for experts or adult mentors to provide feedback, which is especially meaningful to students because of the source.

When students present their work to a real audience, they care more about its quality. Once again, it's "the more, the better" when it comes to authenticity. Students might replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals—but even better, they might create real products that people outside school use.

4.  Spotlight Respect For All Cultures: Reaffirm the message about being supportive of one another, kind, understanding and patient. Encourage everyone to openly talk about their personal cultures, traditions and languages. Have parties celebrating the different cultures in the class, sharing music, historical family photos, dances, games, food and traditions.  Hold discussions about the history of America, immigration, and the value of diversity and differences. Encourage students to share their own stories of immigration, passed down from generation to generation.

5.  Community: If the parents and/or guardians do not speak English, request an interpreter if possible for all school communication, including parties, conferences and special events. Invite parents to all school community functions to encourage and foster a sense of belonging. If possible, introduce other students and/or families who speak the same language as the ESL student. Sharing cultural commonalities will provide strong bonds for students, parents and teachers.

6.  Assess Students Informally: Assess ESL students on an informal basis when they first arrive to class, and ongoing during the school year. It is imperative to primarily check for understanding in regard to basic and social needs. Pay attention from the sideline to see if they know numbers, letters and/or short English phrases. Continuously check for comprehension and growth informally, make notes and never be afraid to raise the bar and challenge a bit.

7.  Don’t Discourage Native Language Use:  With all good intentions, this is a common mistake teachers can make. ESL students who have a stronger foundation of their native language will have a shorter route to acquiring English. Don’t discourage native language use, as this will result in negative feelings about the student’s language and culture, and may cause delay in English language acquisition. Provide free time for the ESL student to read and write in their native language

8.  Use Manipulatives, Visuals, Games, Music and Hands-On Activities in the Classroom: According to William Glaser, we learn 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others. ESL students do exceptionally well when this theory is followed. Involve them in projects that will encourage them to talk as much as possible with their classmates.   Some ideas for projects are the following:  cooking (following easy directions), art (drawing, painting, sculpture), musical activities (music provides an amazing platform for learning), and acting (for example, charades).

9.  Provide Various Opportunities For Talking and Consider Seat Placement: It is very important to consider seat placement in the classroom for the ESL student. All too often, ESL students are seated in the back of the classroom, which leads to a great lack of contribution, listening, and  participation. Try and seat the ESL student close to the front, especially with other students who are inviting and enjoy conversation. Provide the most opportunities as possible for talking and listening to others in the class via group work. You will be surprised how much shorter the silent period will end. 

10. Communicate with the ESL teacher: Maintain communication with the ESL teacher as much as possible. The sooner both teachers are working together, the quicker the student will learn English. Be open to the ESL teacher’s suggestions, let him/her share in the modification of classwork, and invite the ESL teacher into your classroom. 

Even more than selecting the right devices for the classroom, professional development is the key ingredient in successful 1:1 computing programs in K-12 classrooms.

that everyone is working at the appropriate level of understanding, allowing students to construct learning and providing learning in easy-to-digest nuggets. Those principles will also help build effective professional development.

Next, design training to fill in gaps and give teachers what they want. Ensure that each session is designed to be self-contained so that teachers can choose to attend workshops only in the areas where they need extra learning.

That solution has two fundamental underpinnings: the first is that information literacy is an issue for every college and university; and the second is that librarians should occupy a position in attempts to define and achieve campus-wide information literacy.

While it is legitimate to use some of the information available on the web, students need to learn how to evaluate that information.

A study conducted by two researchers at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom found that 75% of the students surveyed used Google as their first port of call when locating information, with the university library catalogue used by only 10%.

In general, faculty members involved in the process were willing to collaborate with librarians who served as consultants, as instructors, and as team players in designing, teaching and implementing course assignmen

One particular model which has proven to be effective is course integrated instruction. With this model, librarians and teaching faculty co-design a course, and make sure that information literacy is incorporated in the course.

They not only sought to build short-term programmatic partnerships but more importantly, formal long-term working relationships with campus units, groups, departments and administrators.

“Integrating Literacy into the Liberal Arts College Curriculum.

launched a campaign to recruit faculty as partners in the process

took advantage of the liaison system already in place

Symposiums were organized for faculty and librarians to focus on assessment and science disciplines.

offered a workshop

More and more course-related or integrated instruction sessions have come to play a bigger role in making students more information literate.

Changing fee structures, student experience and access to digitized information on the internet, librarians have had to rethink their approach to teaching IL skills

McGuinness (2007) argues that librarians tend to act in a reactive manner to the needs of academics, rather than proactively to promote IL skills.

eads to ad hoc, short-term solutions designed only to address one or two issues.

dds that librarians should align their own goals of incorporating IL skills into the curriculum with the goals of academics and institutions to influence the power structures within institutions and help shape educational content.

highlights both the ambiguity around how IL should be taught, and the important role faculty awareness of IL and integration of library staff plays in integrating IL

unpack the “culture clash” between librarians and academics

cGuinness (2006) found that academics expected students to “learn by doing” through collaborative projects with peers and dissertation reports with occasional support from staff, without a clear sense of how students would develop critical and analytical IL skills

aculty also tended to believe that a student’s ability to gain IL skills were driven by the student’s own motivation, interests and innate abilities, rather than the quality and format of the available instructional opportunities

Multiple literacies, including digital, visual, textual, and technological, have now joined information literacy as crucial skills for this century”

These collaborative efforts have enabled librarians to encourage and support faculty in establishing learning priorities which will ensure that students be equipped with the competencies to become effective lifelong learners.

Only by establishing a successful partnership between librarians and faculty, can the goal of mastery of information literacy by students be accomplished.

The goal of librarian-faculty collaboration in integrating information literacy into the curriculum is to enable students to learn the skills and competencies needed for success during their life time

To make sure that everyone is able to become an educated, skilled, and information-literate person, librarians and faculty at institutions of higher education throughout the world will need to work together as partners to provide the education

BYOD for Teachers

Bir Sethi shares the story of children who were taught the importance of literacy and who were inspired to hold a campaign to educate their illiterate parents

3. Start with a sophisticated student-centered culture.

4. Make collaboration as powerful in school as it is in life.

5. Understand that PBL cannot be done alone.