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10 Tips for Welcoming Students Back to School
India White • August 7, 2023
10 Tips for Welcoming Students Back to School!
Ten Tips for Welcoming Students Back to School and Fostering Grit in the Classroom!
As teachers and educational leaders, we have the incredible opportunity to shape young minds and inspire them to reach their full potential. Welcoming students back to school with enthusiasm and motivating them to develop grit can set the tone for a successful academic year. Grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals (Duckworth, 2016), is a crucial trait that helps students overcome challenges and achieve their dreams.
Through developing a growth mindset and implementing efforts to harness grit throughout the year, students will be able to thrive in your classroom.
Here are ten tips to create a welcoming environment and foster grit among your students.
1. Create a Warm and Inviting Classroom
Every classroom should be a place of safety and belonging for every learning. In his book “First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher”, Dr. Harry Wong speaks about various ways to establish rules and procedures while building relationships with students. Look into various strategies to help you establish positive systems for communicating in the classroom. Further, look into ways to make the classroom feel warm and accepting. Consider decorating your classroom with colorful and engaging displays that reflect your students' interests, backgrounds, and future aspirations. A visually appealing environment can make students feel comfortable and excited about learning.
2. Establish Clear Expectations
Set clear expectations for behavior, academic performance, and classroom procedures from day one. When students know what is expected of them, they are more likely to take ownership of their learning and exhibit grit. As you establish these expectations, remember to provide ample opportunities for students to learn from their mistakes and to be reminded of your procedures.
When establishing clear expectations, explain the difference between a rule, procedure, norm and how you will scaffold learners to support them as they thrive to meet these expectations.
3. Build Relationships
Students will come from varying backgrounds into your classroom. Some might speak a different language or have a different culture. Take a moment to celebrate this and be curious as to how you can connect with each learner. Choose to take the time to get to know your students individually. Show genuine interest in their lives, hobbies, and aspirations. Building strong relationships with your students creates a sense of belonging and encourages them to persevere through challenges. Find out their fears and excitement about learning, and create a plan to help them navigate through any roadblocks throughout the year.
4. Encourage Goal Setting
Help students set realistic short-term and long-term goals. Teach them to break down larger goals into smaller, achievable steps. Regularly revisit these goals and celebrate their progress, reinforcing the importance of perseverance. Remind students to remain resilience and to manage their time wisely as they are achieving each goal.
5. Teach A Growth Mindset
Many students might start the year with a fixed mindset and might be pessimistic about learning. Help navigate through their fixed mindsets by cultivating a growth mindset with each learner. Promote the idea that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort and practice. Encourage students to embrace challenges, view failures as learning opportunities, and believe in their ability to improve. Help eliminate “I CAN’T” statements and replace them with “I CAN” statements. Through helping students strengthen their growth mindset, you will build upon their ability to become gritty thinkers!
6. Provide Opportunities for Autonomy
Every student deserves to feel liberated and like they can express their thoughts freely in the classroom. Hence, allow your students to make choices and take ownership of their learning. Offer opportunities for them to explore their interests and pursue projects that align with their passions. This autonomy fosters grit by encouraging students to persevere through self-directed tasks.
7. Celebrate Effort and Progress of Each Learner
Some students will enter the classroom feeling defeated and as if they don’t’ stand a chance at learning. They might bring in past failures and traumatic experiences from learning. It is imperative that as you help students build confidence in your class that you recognize and celebrate students' hard work, determination, and progress regularly. Acknowledge their efforts, even if they haven't achieved their desired outcome yet. This positive reinforcement motivates students to continue working towards their goals. As they achieve greatness, remind them of how gritty they are and of how proud of them you are!
8. Teach G.R.I.T. through Resilience
Help students develop resilience by reminding them to take grit with them. Use the acronym to keep Great Resilience in Time
as you help students remain responsible as they persist through tasks. Take moments in the day to teach them coping strategies for dealing with setbacks and disappointments. Encourage them to reflect on their experiences, learn from failures, and bounce back stronger. Help them to harness grit in the tough times during productive struggle and conceptual understanding and challenge them to keep going when they are ready to give up.
9. Provide Meaningful Challenges
Offer students tasks and assignments that are appropriately challenging. This helps them develop perseverance and resilience as they work through difficult problems. Scaffold support for each student when needed, but also encourage them to push beyond their comfort zones. If students feel like they aren’t able to catch up, help them accelerate their learning through efforts of cycling content, providing enough time for them to grasp the content, and giving other support to help them. Look for experts, i.e. MTSS/RTI instructional leaders who can provide accommodations and remedial supports
for learners as the team thrives to get each child through to academic success.
10. Be a Role Model
Demonstrate grit in your own life by sharing personal stories of perseverance and resilience. Choose to connect with students by reminding them that they are not alone and that many great people have had to persist through hardships with grit. Model a growth mindset, embrace challenges, and show students that setbacks are a natural part of the learning process. Your example will inspire them to develop their own grit. Remind them to have Great Resilience in Time
as they aim for proficiency and academic excellence in your classroom.
Conclusion
As you welcome students back into the classroom, choosing to foster their grit at the beginning of the year is a powerful way to set the stage for a successful academic year. By creating a warm and inviting environment, setting clear expectations, building relationships, and providing opportunities for autonomy, you can motivate your students to develop grit. Encouraging goal setting, teaching growth mindset, celebrating effort, and teaching resilience are additional strategies that can help students persevere through challenges and achieve their full potential. As an educator, it’s time to empower your students to embrace grit and become resilient, lifelong learners. You’ve got this! Take G.R.I.T.
with you!
Need Resources? Scan the QR Codes or Click on the Link for Educator Resources here! Need to chat? Email Dr. India White at India.White.123@gmail.com for more information!
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Check out my Feb. 2025 Newsletter!
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