unequal groupwork

Increasing Grit During Groupwork

Solving Common Groupwork Problems If you have experienced common groupwork issues like one person completing all the work, these high impact strategies can be implemented tomorrow for use with just about any lesson plan you have in mind in order to increase participation, grit and perseverance.  If you weren’t planning on groupwork, most lessons can be transformed rather easily. This …

failure

We Might Let You Fail Because We Believe In You

Despite grappling with the issue of trust and how that plays into learning, I am convinced that trust is one thing that could transform public education.  The research shows that the most important thing to achievement is one’s belief that they can achieve; that they are capable; the one thing that creates this belief is trust. When I was in …

How Are You “Smart” At Math?

What does it mean to be “smart” at math? Traditionally, one who is fast at math is good at math or smart at math.  If it comes easily that is considered a good thing.  I recently visited several schools that are communicating a different message about math.  I also attended the Creating Balance in an Unjust World Conference at one …

Creating a Culture of Failure

  Vermont’s move toward more personal and proficiency based learning in public education is an enormous shift from the traditional model that we have been using for many years.  While Vermont is extremely innovative inside the classroom and offers its teachers quite a bit of autonomy compared to many other states, the overall structures and systems in public schools rely …

8 Summer Activities That Can Improve “Grit”

Angela Duckworth defines “grit” as the ability to persevere combined with an ability to pursue interests and passions over a long period of time to attain goals.  She argues that this learnable quality is a predictor of success.  More recently, her research has led to a focus on self-control as the underlying skill needed to become gritty. Check out her …