Unpack Confidence-building Strategies
One character unique to effective people is the ability to develop relationships. Whether developing relationships with employees, peers, family members, patients, clients, or students, there is value in doing so. There are many lessons to be learned and teachable moments that can help others confidently tackle the challenges ahead… whatever they may be.
Life is a whirlwind of failures and successes for everyone. In true edupreneur style, I record life lessons. This habit is beneficial as a contributor to the National Tutoring Association's Tutor Strategies of the Week. This partnership is particularly phenomenal, because the practice of packaging teachable moments into bite-sized PD reveals similarities among daily challenges that educators, learners and families overcome.
Facing failure, remaining hopeful, and thinking critically are common barriers to success that leave us wondering should we go over it, around it, or through it?
Facing Failure
Learners pay attention to how we make mistakes. They pay attention to how we fail.
Do we admit failures or try to cover them up?
Do we make thoughts explicit?
Are we modeling ways to recover from mistakes, to fail forward?
When we value mistakes and model healthy responses to failure, we nurture the same in those around us. One way I model a healthy response to failure for clients involves marking out wrong answers rather than erasing them.
Erasing a mistake makes it easier to forget the error in judgement, which is often the goal.
But, erasing mistakes can become counterproductive when a habit of making the same mistakes develops.
Clients of all ages are discouraged from erasing mistakes on the whiteboard and on notebook paper. The reason: seeing the mistake encourages us to make different mistakes on the journey toward success.
Remaining Hopeful
Shifting to a hopeful mindset (or growth mindset) following failure makes it easier to think more positively about next steps. We can close the gap between failure and hope by cultivating grit. As we learn to persevere through challenging times, we develop grit. As we learn from mistakes and view failures as opportunities, we cultivate grit.
So often students are convinced they’re bad at math. Or, students loathe reading. Mistakes feel overwhelming. Trying feels uncomfortable. Students who haven’t learned to cultivate grit, to make their mistakes work for them become stagnant. It doesn’t have to be this way.
We encourage growth mindset by encouraging learners to focus on what they can do. There are many ways to reach students. Consider helping learners transition from...
"I don't know" to "Let's try this";
"I can't" to "I can";
"I'm not good at _____" to "I can learn _____ with effort".
Model these ideas. Make each a habit.
Becoming gritty about adopting a growth mindset makes it easier to move from failure to failure without losing momentum.
Explore more grit and growth mindset affirmations by creating your very own grit fish independently or as a group. The craft activity requires minimal prep time and is fun as conversation starters for all ages, parent groups, and professional development trainings.
Thinking Critically
If you ask someone to do something who has no experience and no guidance, expect a prompt introduction to his 'not-so-fun' alter ego. Without the proper resources, the desire to complete a task may not be enough to get the job done. What are we to do when we don't know what we don't know?
"Wait time" (or "thinking time") is one strategy that sheds light on the kinds of supports students need. The goal is to match the pace of learners, to serve as a guide on the side. We want to wait while the student thinks... but not too long.
We want to observe verbal and nonverbal cues like body language to discern appropriate times to...
listen,
wait quietly, and
instruct.
Allowing learners enough time to get uncomfortable without inciting frustration helps identify gaps in understanding and facilitate learning. Students more confidently tackle learning goals.
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