“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Surely you’ve seen that mantra on the T-shirts of athletes at your school, extolling the virtues of working hard and sticking to an often-insurmountable task at hand.
But perseverance, often cited as a quality worth chasing, can have some downsides, especially for students whose parents might have trouble making ends meet at home, for one example: What’s the point of working hard on algebra when mom and dad can’t even afford the ACT test?
With that conundrum in play, today on TeachHUB.com, we published a fascinating, well-researched think piece on perseverance and its potential downsides. Penned by frequent contributing writer Jordan Catapano, whose real job is as an English teacher in the Chicago suburbs, the article notes that perseverance doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness or other benefits.
Jordan sums up his thoughtful article thusly: “Ultimately, if we truly want our students to thrive, then we must help them develop their whole person and a wide range of characteristics, among which is included grit.”
What do you think about grit? How do you help students develop character skills such as grit and perseverance in your classroom?
5 Scaffolding Teaching Strategies to Try Today
“Scaffolding” is a teaching strategy that provides students with distinct tools to help them get a firmer grasp on the concepts you’re presenting. It involves teachers making sure that their students have the proper learning tools in place before embarking upon the next lesson.
Yesterday on TeachHUB.com, Janelle Cox laid out five great examples of how teachers can scaffold their lesson plans, including:
• Incorporate Visual Aids
• Assess Prior Knowledge
• Check for Understanding
What scaffolding strategies do you use in your classroom? Do you have any that work especially well for you?
