I have learned a thing or two about grit and resilience over the past few months which I would like to write down to reflect on later. I humbly share it here.
Lesson 1: Success is more likely when you work in manageable chunks
Many of you may know that I took semester two off last year in order to complete my Masters. What began as a project, morphed into a thesis. The Board of Ethics stamp of approval took three months (which is actually fairly normal apparently). I had to continually tweak my application until it was perfect. That’s not all, my paper itself was a hot mess when I handed in to my professor. I am not used to getting super critical feedback, and truthfully, I thought I had done a good job. I was crushed. I was demoralized. And I lost faith in my abilities and in my voice. But when I reflected, I realized that I had done what I have told every single student of mine who is writing their Extended Essay for the IB program at my school. Seek regular and frequent feedback. I had waited to the very last minute and handed in over one hundred pages for my poor advisors to go through. What was a demoralizing experience could have been minimized if I had managed my time more effectively and I would have been far more successful if I had given my professor smaller chunks.
Some students need those smaller deadlines to get something accomplished. A successful small step may be more likely to lead to the next successful small step.
Lesson 2: Struggle is an important part of the journey
Another lesson I learned in the process of completing my paper, is that I think I am more proud of myself because it was such a struggle: This message was revealed to me with exceptional clarity when my daughters and I watched a little duckling with a broken leg find his way back to his momma. Check out the story (if I had known it would have made such an impact on us, I would have filmed it in landscape):
Whenever we can provide students with opportunities to struggle in a supportive environment, we should. That’s what I love about bringing in Breakout EDU or Google a Day or coding into the classroom.
Lesson 3: Value the Struggle
I had the honour of being selected to attend #Picademy via The Raspberry Pi Foundation for its first ever Canadian cohort (if you ever have the opportunity to do this, take it, it was amazing). Here is a thing I openly admit at risk of being ridiculed. I have moderated a coding club for four years at my school, but I still only have the most basic coding skills. I have been lucky enough to have students run the club! So going into #PiCademy, I warned everyone that I would need EXTRA help! In fact, when we created name badges for ourselves, I added, HELP PLEASE to the back so that if I was really stuck, I could raise my hand and put that badge on my forehead!
Because I went in with the mindset that it was going to be hard, I celebrated all successes. I think you could see steam coming out of my head the whole time I was there and the facilitators noticed. I received the Persistence and Grit award!
We often go in with the idea that we need to have a lesson perfectly figured out, when I think it would be beneficial for students to see us struggle. I also realized that the regular check ins by the facilitators encouraged me to keep trying and to persist even when I was going bananas.
Lesson 4: Grit and Resilience involve RISK
Ok, I know the title said three lessons, but as I reflected on my post walking around a very busy Costco this morning, I came to another lesson I learned. Grit, Resilience, and Risk are inextricably linked. I could have just taken two extra courses for my Masters and been finished in May. I could have declined the invitation to #Picademy like I really wanted to do because of the terror I felt the night before. What if I humiliate myself? What if people think I am stupid? Worse yet, what if I really am??
It’s easy to say, amazing things happen out of your comfort zone, but this is not easy to actually do. A child with low self-esteem will not naturally attempt to put themselves in a situation where they are likely to stand out from the crowd or be ostracized. I am an adult who has come to be known for saying, “I have other gifts and talents” jokingly when I fail at something. But my teen self would have done nothing of the sort. In fact, first year teaching Jennifer may not have been so willing to expose her failings either. We can’t expect young people whose bodies and brains are developing, to willingly engage in risk; we need to show love and support and back off a little if needed too.
On a related note, I had the honour of previewing Innovate Inside the Box by George Couros and Katie Novak and they provide practical strategies and ideas for risk-taking, resilience, and problem-finding which really complement some of the lessons I have learned here. You should check it out. They even have a book study which started September 15th.
@Nathan_Stevens pointed me in the direction of this post by Silvia Martinez: Compliance is not perseverance and speaks to the history of the word grit and is worth a read.