Be the Mouse: A Lesson on Grit

This weekend Janet Woods and I attended the ICE Mini Conference. The conference is a great opportunity to meet other educators in the area and share ideas. We also got to choose sessions that matched our needs, which is always a bonus. You can checkout all the presentation from the conference here. I decided to attend the following sessions:

• Tips and Tricks with Technology in a Special Needs Classroom
• Technology and Writing in an English Classroom
• Reframe Your Content in 120 seconds

I learned a ton from these three sessions! Feel free to checkout my session notes to get some great ideas for your classroom (Disclaimer: They are notes so if something doesn’t make sense just shoot me an email me with any questions).

One of my favorite ideas from the day came from the first session on technology in a special needs classroom. In this session, Lisa Berghoff described how she uses the short video clip below to help teach students grit and perseverance.

As a class they watch the clip and count how many times the mouse tries get the cracker up onto the ledge. They then discuss how this might apply to class and more importantly life. The rest of the year her class will use the rallying cry “BE THE MOUSE,” when someone gets frustrated or tries to take the easy way out.

This is always a tough time of the school year. Its cold and there are no breaks in sight! This short clip and discussion might be something you can try at the beginning of the semester to overcome the cold days of January and February and inspire students to “BE THE MOUSE!”

If you would like more resources on grit check out the links below:

Resilience and Grit Resource Roundup from Edutopia

5 Steps to Foster Grit in the Classroom

Grit: Motivating Students (A lesson plan on grit)