Ok, so not really shutdown related, but just something to get your brain working this Monday morning...
A **ahem** friend of mine wants to know... I **oops** HE was walking through the local park the other day watching some kids skateboarding on the skate park. Besides the fact that they weren't doing a great job of social distancing, my friend ;-) started wondering to himself. These kids were there for what seemed like hours practicing, and failing at, the same trick on one of the ramps over and over. What is it about this trick that makes someone spend so much time and so much pain of falling on the concrete just to land it once and then probably fail a hundred more times before landing it again? Not only that, but how could we harness that in the classroom? Why isn't it a given that failure is expected of our students because failing is the way we learn? What type of classroom culture would have to exist for students to be willing to fail repeatedly and willingly to learn and succeed after hundreds of attempts?
I'm sure a lot of you are like me... You know that feeling of failing and not giving up (almost to the point of obsession), but one fall off of that skateboard and I'm out. That kick flip isn't important to me. But... It is important to a lot of our students. The first step is to know our students. Find their kick flip and harness it as a part of your classroom culture. Make them willing to skin those knees because what you have to give them is worth it to fail a few times.
Here we go for another week!
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