Agenda
- Welcome
- Leadership: Sue Litman / Jon Szary
- Superintendent
- Instruction
- Technology
- Business & Planning
- Special Ed
- Student Services
- OIP
Resources
The article shared for leadership: While we will be discussing the article in groups (face to face), feel free to comment and discuss in the comments section below. Bonus: Receive an Admin Badge if you post a comment below (still exploring badges/CEUs as options).Resources are linked to Google Drive files given the nature of the content.
Discussion
Alfie Kohn is a contrarian. I rarely agree, but I do enjoy a good debate.
Here’s his rebuttal to grit: http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/downside-grit/
In Wormeli’s article, there are strategies that may prove to be successful for many students. However, in the case of some of our alternative students who have experienced more failure than success in school, they find themselves in yet another option for education and still failing. Students who are 17-18-19 years old with less than 5 credits on their transcripts find themselves beyond “survival mode.” Wormeli quotes Pink in saying that we should provide multiple tools/models in order to get students to take on challenging tasks. In the HOPE program, we have worked to “cultivate trust” (check), “make connections” (check), “be happy” (check), provide descriptive feedback (check), show growth through “growth over time” motivation (check), “clearly articulate goals” (check)…No matter how many interpersonal/assessment/lesson strategies are offered, and we offer many in HOPE, there are some students that clearly understand that they are not going to graduate this year. We push college, career, life income, etc., but the fact remains that all their childhood friends have moved on and they are till in high school. Meanwhile, street rappers are finding fame and fast cash, the drug culture appeals to a higher level of income than the local fast food chain, and we keep dangling the image of a “better life” in front of their faces in hopes that they will take the bait and finish up two years of education in one. Realistically, some students need to fail, and fail BIG (like dropping out and trying to make rent) before they realize that they need to get some grit and and their high school diplomas. Then some of them finally return to get the “golden ticket”.
I believe that you have to have some level of GRIT to accomplish success. I feel that for our students who struggle, GRIT would have a huge impact on what they can overcome and achieve higher levels than expected. Cultivating GRIT into the classroom would be one way we can support our diverse population of students. If it works for one student, it was beneficial! Of course, it is important to build that classroom trust, rapport, and model GRIT for it to be effective. In summary, I would approve to incorporate GRIT into the classrooms. I don’t see it as something that would limit success and anything we can expose our students to that would increase achievement, I’m all for it!
aka SuperGRIT