Resiliency is a 21st Century Skill

A collaborative digital lesson plan created by Ben Berte, Jennie Dougherty, Brett Kopf, Eric Simons 

Regardless of the subject you teach, you expect your students to rise to the challenges you present them with. With that said, many of us have had to take time away from a particularly challenging content objective to help our students develop the resilience necessary to face these challenges.  This form of perseverance is perhaps best described by Dr. Robert Brooks of the Center for Development and Learning.  Dr. Brooks describes resiliency as “the capacity to deal successfully with the obstacles in the road that confront us while maintaining a straight and true path towards life’s goals.” Students who develop a “resilient mindset” can handle the challenges we give them with greater effectiveness and success.  When we take the time to help our students develop a “resilient mindset” we teach them to believe that they have the ability to solve problems and make decisions and thus, “are more likely to view their work as challenges to confront rather than as stressors to avoid.”

Resiliency is a 21st century skill that can enable our students become the gregarious and ingenious thinkers we know they can be.  With this in mind, we at edUpgrade set out to create a  to create a technology-rich opportunity to bring innovative ed. tech. entrepreneurs into your classroom via digital media. The clips below provide your students with an opportunity to engage with the real-world and practice critical skills.

The first clip provides a link to a typographic edition of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Following that are links to videos of ed. tech. entrepreneurs reflecting on the meaning of Kipling’s poem. In 1-2 minutes clips, each innovator discusses the creativity, self-motivation and emotional intelligence needed to overcome challenges.  Use these clips as a catalyst for discussing resiliency with your students. This discussion can be easily integrated into all subject areas and used to foster a productive classroom environment where students rely on coping strategies that are growth-fostering rather than self-defeating.

Poem Handout

Animated Typography of Kipling’s poem “If”

 

The Back Up

 

THIS PREVIEW WILL HAVE YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT! CHECK IT OUT!

Whenever I’m bringing a new technology or program into my classroom, I always want to have a backup plan. That way I can be sure that my students will continue to learn when, for whatever reason, the original plan doesn’t work out as I’d imagined it would. Below is a preview of the lesson I’m making for every teacher whose wanted to try something new but worried about what he/she would do if the program/device didn’t work as planned.