Character

As a teacher I now realize that my main goal is to prepare my students for their next step in life.  For most of them it will be going to college.  I am amazed that I teach at a top 500 high school and only 48% of the students who graduate our high school complete college in six or less years.

In order to help students achieve this goal I am trying to focus on a couple of traits that will help them at the next level.  The traits are GRIT and self control.  This week I have had a couple of students show me that they have both these traits.

Amicia and Allie are two students that I had in AP psychology last year.  They were strong students who scored an A for the course and a five on the AP exam.  This year I have the pleasure of having them in AP economics.  Both of them showed some GRIT this past week.

Allie struggled on one quiz, at the end of class, she set up an appointment to meet with me so that she could make sure that she understood the concepts from the quiz.  We did meet and she left with a better understanding of the material.  On quiz 3 she did well, but I had mentioned to the class that my other class had a much more difficult quiz.  At the end of class Allie asked did I have a copy of the difficult quiz.

What is great about this story is that she was not settling for doing well on the quiz but pushing herself to make sure she could handle the most difficult of concepts.  It is this type of practice that really benefits students.  When they might push themselves out of their comfort zone they are not only mastering the material but also building intelligence.  I do not know will she ask me to write a letter for college but this is the type of attitude that makes me positive she will succeed any at college she attends

Amicia, had a similar story in that she is not as confident in Economics as she was in psychology.  At the end of the day she asked did I have a copy of the hard test.  That night when I went home she e-mailed her answers, so that she could get feedback (the most important part of practicing).  We exchanged e-mails so that she was clear on the problem she got wrong.  Again, she pushed herself beyond what was needed which demonstrated both self control and GRIT. This is the type of effort that is going to make her a great economics student

Finally, the weekend became even better when one young lady asked could she meet me at 6:45AM to review economics.  We were meeting as a group at 7:10 but she wanted to make sure things were clear before the group meeting even began.  WOW.  This young lady might struggle now but I know she will be successful because she is going to outwork her problems.

Three great stories about kids pushing themselves to be great.  Who else wants to join the group.  This is what makes teaching great.