By now most of you have heard about Carol Dweck, Angela Duckworth and the research each has published on growth mindset, grit and perseverance. As a longtime educator and parent, I can verify that Dweck and Duckworth’s research is pretty spot on and yet, like most things, it is easy to talk about and harder to put into regular practice. At MJDS we understand this challenge and continue to partner with our families to support students in developing grit.

In addition to working closely with our families, MJDS is a valuable resource to the larger community. Our long-running Ed Talk series is an example and I invite you to join us on February 26th at 6:30pm @ MJDS to learn along with Dr. Michael Mazius about how to foster grit in our students. Click  HERE to RSVP for this free and hugely important conversation. Invite friends, other educators and anyone else you believe would benefit.

Maybe this topic is new to you or maybe you are struggling to identify realistic next steps to take so that your student, child or grandchild better develops essential life skills. Take a moment to read some of the following suggestions and click on the links below for more. We look forward to seeing you on the 26th.

The Learner’s Way

Boredom is a Luxury

Stopping negative thoughts

• Praise effort, process, resilience and struggle
  • Be specific
  • Be authentic
• The Power of Yet
  • Instead of ‘I can’t’…how about ‘I can’t do that YET’
• Questioning
  • Try any of these question stems when you are trying to push a young person to develop a growth mindset
    • What makes you say/think….
    • Ask ‘why’ multiple times and allow a child to question you in similar fashion (start with something simple and non-threatening)
    • What questions did you ask today?
    • What question(s) occurred to you today?
    • What questions did you struggle with today?
• Don’t rescue
  • Allow young people to struggle and instead of solving the problem, ask questions to help guide
  • The more you rescue, the more they will expect you to do it again the next time a challenge arises