English & Language Arts Teacher Blog

Another week of touching hearts and changing lives!

Helping Students Develop Grit: A Teacher’s Guide Part 10:

Final Tip #10: Recognize Persistence, Not Just Success

We’re wrapping up the series on helping students develop grit and the last piece is discussing why it’s important to celebrate students’ persistence, not just their achievements. 

When I see a student putting in consistent effort, I make sure to praise it just as much, if not more, than success. 

For instance, I might say, “I see how hard you’ve been working on this problem and I am very proud of you for sticking with it.” 

This shows students that grit itself has value, even if they haven’t reached the final goal and helps them stay motivated and understand that their hard work matters.

Remember, helping students develop grit isn’t about pushing them to their limits. It’s about supporting them as they learn to face challenges with confidence. 

By setting clear goals, celebrating effort, and creating a safe space for growth, we can help students build grit that will serve them well beyond the classroom. 

Teaching grit takes time, patience, and care, but it’s one of the best gifts we can give our students. 

They might not see the value of it now, but grit will be something they carry with them for life!

​Try these out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram and Facebook!
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Here’s a quick tip that has saved me tons of money over the years!

A quick Google search for “*whatever you’re joining/buying* + promo code” can literally save you half of what you were planning on spending!

For example:

“Blinkist promo code”

“Walmart plus promo code”

Sometimes the results will take you to Groupon which could also be very helpful! 

For example, my wife and I went out to our local comedy club and the tickets were originally $20 each but with the Groupon offer we got both tickets for $15! As you can see, the savings really add up!

So next time you're about to purchase something online just do a quick Google search — you have nothing to lose and everything to save!

We feel like this work is an art, science, and a beautiful craft! And because of that, our headspace really matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves!

We’d like to think of this as a little bit like life coaching for teachers. 🙌

Another week of touching hearts and changing lives!

Devin Siebold “Reporting Live from The Teacher Shortage” 🤣

Helping Students Develop Grit: A Teacher’s Guide Part 9:

Tip #9: Share Stories of Grit

Real-life stories can show students what grit looks like. 

I often share examples of people who achieved big goals, even though they faced setbacks along the way. 

A specific personal example that comes to mind is when I was repairing my own lawnmower.

I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t starting and I would share with the kids how it was going and what I had done that day. 

I told them how I had replaced the spark plug and tried new gasoline and still nothing. 

I would say how very day after school I went home and worked on it for an hour or two and then watched videos of lawnmower repair on YouTube to see what else it could be. 

And one magical day I found a video where a man showed me how to replace the spark plug wire and BAM! 

It started right up!

You wouldn’t believe how eager my students were to see if I had finally achieved victory. 

So that morning when I revealed that I had finally done it—they rejoiced with me. My victory was theirs and theirs was mine, too. :) 

What stories of perseverance and grit could you share with your kiddos to inspire them? 

​Try these out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram and Facebook!
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If you’re like me and hate having to keep logging back into websites because they time you out, you’re gonna love this tip!

I just started using a Google Chrome extension called Auto Refresh Plus | Page Monitor and it has been a needle-mover! 

It lets you set a custom timer (down to the second) to refresh a tab/page and will not refresh while you are working to prevent data loss!

Think of all the time you'll save by not having to enter your username and password on all the websites we use as teachers!

You can even set it to where it’ll refresh all the pages & subdomains of a website! (This just means you can set it to refresh every part of the website so you don’t have to add specific URLs, it’ll automatically do it for everything that follows the “.com”, “.net”, etc.). 😃
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Because our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves!

We’d like to think of this as a little bit like life coaching for teachers. 🙌