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"In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?"

As an educator, I've learned that relationships last longer than lessons. Relationship building is an essential representation of motivational grit which yields scholarly grit. Scholars want to please and perform for teachers who leave impressions from the inside out.

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"Children who understand that the brain can get smarter--who have a growth mindset--do better in school because they have an empowering perspective on learning.  They focus on improvement and see effort as a way to build their abilities.  They wee failure as a natural part of the learning process.  In contrast, students who have a fixed mindset--those who believe that intelligence is fixed--tend to focus on judgment.  They're more concerned with proving that they are smart or hiding that they're not.  And that means they tend to avoid situations in which they might fail or might have to work hard."  Carol Dweck, MindsetWorkKit.org

I think Growth Mindset and The Power of YET are great tools in teaching grit.  They may not be able to do something yet, but if they persevere and keep trying, maybe try a different strategy, they can learn it.

Even a genius doesn't always it get right on the first try. They must stick with it - have grit.

Here are some of Einstein's biggest fails. It seems even his intellect wasn't enough to prevent errors.

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Albert Einstein was one of the world's most important leading scientists of all time. His work laid the foundations for some of the most important human discoveries of all time.

Yet even a man of his talents was not immune from making errors, from time to time.
SEE ALSO: 7 MYTHS ABOUT ALBERT EINSTEIN YOU NEED TO STOP BELIEVING
After all, as the famous saying goes, " to err is human".

Whilst we have only included six here (well five significant ones), he does appear to have made many more in his long and intellectually productive life.

1. Einstein called this his greatest mistake

Einstein was a very accomplished scientist, but being human, he got things wrong, now and again. His biggest one, according to himself, was to do with the cosmological constant.

He felt the need to add it to his general theory of relativity.

Einstein believed that it was needed to address an issue that he believed the Universe was static and unchanging. His equations, on the other hand, seemed to show the complete opposite was true in reality.

His biggest surprise was to find that, according to his own work, the Universe appeared to be expanding. Not only that, but this expansion seemed to be accelerating.

Whilst unknown to him at the time, modern scientists think he might have been on to something. What he called the cosmological constant, - Λ, might actually be dark energy.

This is a theoretical force that appears to be the cause for the expansion. But not all modern scientists agree.

2. He made some mistakes in his proof for E = mc^2

In 1905, Einstein published various papers about the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion and special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence. For this reason, 1905, is called his "miracle year."

Yet no one, at that time, had worked out the idea of "rest energy" for massive objects. Some had proposed E = Nmc^2, where N was a number like 4/3, 1, 3/8, but nobody could show which one was true.

That was until Einstein in his " miracle year".

Whilst this makes for a nice story, the truth is less glamorous. Einstein's derivation for his famous E = mc^2 only worked for a particle at rest.

Whilst he did later publish his work on special relativity (where the laws of physics are dependant on an observer's frame of reference), his early work could not account for a particle in motion.

He would later try to rectify this issue, no less than seven times throughout his lifetime, each one was later proved to be flawed.

It wasn't until Max von Laue made the critical advance, six years later, that showed the flaw in Einstein's work: one must get rid of the idea of kinetic energy.

Today we now talk about total relativistic energy instead. This is where the traditional kinetic energy -- KE = ½mv^2 -- can only emerge in the non-relativistic limit.

Just so you know.

3. Einstein helped develop, but hated, quantum mechanics

Source: Dhatfield/Wikimedia Commons

Einstein's groundbreaking work led to the eventual development of an entirely new field of study - quantum mechanics. His 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect, for which he won a Nobel Prize, was instrumental in the field's birth.

But despite this fact, Einstein grew to famously despise this new upstart. For him, it appeared mysterious, purely theoretical and downright hard to actually prove in reality.

He was especially at odds with quantum mechanics apparent ultimate conclusion that the Universe was uncertain and chaotic. Einstein was also famously opposed to the ideas behind the famous Schrodinger's Cat paradox.

Oh well, not everyone is perfect.

4. Einstein was too stubborn to give up on Unified Field Theory

Source: United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division/Wikimedia Commons

For almost 30 years of his life, Einstein would stick doggedly to the idea of uniting gravity and electromagnetism. His work was to build on his earlier work on Special Relativity as well as the Newtonian gravitational description of the movement of heavenly bodies.

Einstein, like many before him, dreamt of a day when the laws of physics could be unified under one "Grand Theory." At its core, the mission sounds plausible.

After all, there must be a way of explaining all of nature from a few simple, fundamental rules and parameters.

Other theories had been successfully united before, such as Coulomb's law, Gauss' law, Faraday's law, and permanent magnets could all be explained in a single framework: Maxwell's electromagnetism. Surely this must also be possible with the fundamental laws of the Universe?

As new evidence emerged for the existence of weak and strong nuclear forces - which appeared to obey the laws of electromagnetism, Einstein dug his heels in. He completely ignored them and never attempted to include nuclear forces into his work.

Today, advancements made in our understanding of nuclear forces has ultimately led to the development of the Standard Model.

"Today, the electroweak force picture has been confirmed, with Grand Unification Theories (GUTs) theoretically adding the strong force to the works, and string theory finally, at the highest energy scales, as the leading candidate for bringing gravity into the fold." - explains Ethan Siegel in Forbes.

5. Einstein got cold feet about gravitational waves

It seems Einstein had a penchant for predicting things and then later hating them. Another example was his prediction for the existence of gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves, if you are not aware, are vibrations or ripples, in spacetime that are generated by events in space like the movement of neutron stars or the machinations of black holes. Other incredible powerful events like Supernovae or colliding black holes would result in very strong waves.

Einstein, for his part, was not opposed to the idea, but rather suspected that they would be incredibly hard to ever measure. He even came to the conclusion that black holes might not be the cause for them if they existed.

Einstein even famously attempted to publish a paper in 1936 to disprove the very notion that gravitational waves existed. This paper was later rejected.

As we know today, gravitational waves are in fact real things. Scientists have even been able to detect them - a feat for which the team was awarded the highly coveted Nobel Prize in 2015.

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5 of Einstein's Most Epic Fails That Prove He Was Human

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Albert Einstein was one of the world's most important leading scientists of all time. His work laid the foundations for some of the most important human discoveries of all time. Yet even a man of his talents was not immune from making errors, from time to time.

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I love the quote when she said "who is successful here and why?" I think that the why is the most important part. How students succeed is more important than if they succeed. 

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I love the quote when she said "who is successful here and why?" I think that the why is the most important part. How students succeed is more important than if they succeed. 

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I loved when she said that "failure is not a permanent condition." I feel like a lot of students feel this way. They feel like failures instead of having the mindset of I failed this time but I should try again.

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"Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals." This statement really caught my attention when Mrs. Duckworth said it. In the past as I have thought about this mathematical practice, I have always applied it to single problems and not as long term life skills and mindsets. I understand now why this practice is the most important one. While I encourage my students to persevere, I now realize that this is one of the most important jobs I have as a teacher.

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"The ability to learn is NOT set."
Angela Duckworth stated this in her video, not only do I agree with her findings that GRIT and teaching grittiness is what our focus needs to be, I also believe that in order to teach GRIT, you have to change the mindset of students and people.  I have a wall in my classroom that says "Change your words, change your mindset."  I want students to change their thought process of "I CAN'T's to I CAN's" with a little more effort and patience.
Andrea C. Payne
6th grade Math

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“We need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier” Angela Duckworth

“Whatever good things we build end up building us.” Jim Rohan

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"We need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier." Angela Duckworth

After more than 15 years in education, there have been times when I have found myself stagnant, just going through the motions, frustrated, and lacking grit.  I think this video is a great motivational tool not to just encourage teachers to encourage their students.  It also reminds us that we need possess some grit, as well.  There is so much focus on state testing until it sometimes feel as if we have forgotten that one day these students will become part of our working society.  I feel that it is important to think of the whole child and motivate them to be their best and to always give their best.
This also reminded me of another quote that I always share with students in the beginning of the year. It says, "Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire chances are it will only burn briefly". Students have to be self-motivated and then we have to help to keep that fire burning. What happens when they lack self-motivation?

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I had two quotes that I really liked.
"Every child CAN learn the material if they work HARD and LONG enough."
"What if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily."

I incorporate growth mindset in my classroom to not only help motivate them to work hard in my math classroom, but to also try and help them build better character by thinking more positively. During each unit, my students take a pre-test and then set a goal for the end of unit post test. I constantly have students referring back to their goal throughout the unit so they remember what they are working towards. At the end of the unit, I reward students for meeting their goals and I reward students for GROWTH throughout the unit. We calculate their growth by the difference in their pre and post test. It is amazing to see students so excited about their growth and learning.

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"IQ is not the only difference between my strongest & weakest performers"
A lot of times, my strongest students get so frustrated when things don't come simply & quickly to them.  The lower (test score wise) ones know how to work hard to get where they are.
"Working hard to make future a reality" .
Some of my students struggle with this...they don't have future goals yet. There's no dream of going to college, a trade school, or even getting a job. Things in Algebra don't have a purpose to them because they have nothing to work for (in their eyes). I am trying to set goals and a futures for them! :)

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What stuck with me the most is when she said, "we need to be gritty about getting kids grittier". If we as teachers don't have the drive, passion, or motivation, how can we expect our students too. So I think it starts with us!

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What stuck with me the most is when she said, "we need to be gritty about getting kids grittier". If we as teachers don't have the drive, passion, or motivation, how can we expect our students too. So I think it starts with us!

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The quote that I loved was - “The secret to outstanding student achievement is not talent but GRIT” and one must have passion and perseverance which drives effort.

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There were a few quotes that really stood out to me. The first one is about Growth Mindset. "It is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, it can change with your effort." 

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There were a few quotes that really stood out to me. The first one is about Growth Mindset. "It is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, it can change with your effort." 

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I think it is very important to instill this idea with students and that they have faith in themselves, which for many children is hard to do. I always talk with my students about how everyone makes mistakes, even adults, and that it is okay to make mistakes. We learn from our mistakes and working through our tough moments by not giving up. I have many different motivational quotes hanging in my classroom that remind my students to work hard, never give up, and do not be afraid to make mistakes.

I also think that there isn't a "one size" fits all solution to build grit. Each child is unique and we as teachers build relationships with our students to learn what will motivate them to try harder.

Another quote that really stood out to me is what she said at the end. " We have to be gritty about getting our kids grittier." We too as adults have to have courage to try new things and ways of inspiring our students.

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"When students read and learn about the brain and how it grows. They are much more likely to persevere."  

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"When students read and learn about the brain and how it grows. They are much more likely to persevere."  

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We have painted the power of yet all over our school and it has truly resonated with our students. I can't yet! I'm not good at this yet! I am truly trying to change some of my fixed mindset reactions to children's work and behavior.

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Ms. Duckworth said that grit is passion and perseverance for the long-term goal and that we need to stick with the future. It becomes easier when we have someone at our side to encourage us.

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Ms. Duckworth said that grit is passion and perseverance for the long-term goal and that we need to stick with the future. It becomes easier when we have someone at our side to encourage us.

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I like the thought that we can develop this mindset in ourselves and our students. This little graphic gives hints on applicable mindset changes we might want to encourage our students to try.

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"We need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier."

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"We need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier."

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It is never going to work (building grittier students) if we ourselves do not put in the effort and become gritty teachers as well.

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It really stuck with me when she said "The ability to learn is not fixed. It can change with your effort."

We all really have the ability to learn. It just depends on the effort that is put into it. We have to let kids of every age know that they are capable of learning. We have to cheer them on and help them through the tough stuff.

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"It's okay not to know, but it's not okay to not try"

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"It's okay not to know, but it's not okay to not try"

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I have this quote hanging up huge outside my classroom above where my students display their work. It's basically saying that they are not allowed to give up. I have found that directly teaching students that it's okay to get frustrated and it's okay to take a break has been helpful for my students having grit. Sometimes we as teachers assume that students should just have grit, but some students have never been in a situation where they were taught how to not give up.

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(Madison George)
When I first started working as a teacher, the principal told me that having a relationship with the students is the most important thing I need to do. I didn't understand it at first, but I noticed throughout the school year that the more bonded I was with a student, the more the worked for me. Students have to have some motivation that drives them towards having grit. It could be sports, it could be competitiveness with grades, it could be their parents, or it could be their teacher. I learned that if students like you, students will work for you and go above and beyond everything you expect of them. so, I have no idea how to teach grit, but each day I try to find things that will motivate my students.

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It's a marathon, not a sprint.
I think we sometimes get caught up in deadlines and testing schedules, and we forget that these people we are teaching are just kids. We need to remind ourselves that slow progress is still progress. What's important is that each student is truly working to the best of their ability. We can't give a student grit. We can give them the tools, but they must decide, one small decision at a time, to push forward when it gets hard.

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“We must be willing to fail and start over again with a lesson learned.”

I feel like this is a major thing that society as a whole could learn from. Especially in a society where we give participants trophies and as parents we try not to let our kids fail because we want them to be successful. (I’m even guilty of this with my 3yr old!)

I feel like as a teacher I should be able to find those teachable moments when students don’t solve a problem correctly or use the wrong method to solve a problem to teach them in a way that a “lesson is learned” and they can understand the mistake, learn from it, and keep going.

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"Grit is passion and perseverance for very long- term goals... Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint."

Question

How might one go about teaching grit in our classroom? She touched on this and commented on using Growth Mindset as a method. I was wondering if there was any specific program that teaches Growth Mindset. I gave seen a lot about it, and I have even used some of the growth mindset videos that I have found on Class Dojo. However, I was just wondering if maybe there might be a curriculum that incorporates these beliefs.

Take Aways-

-Encourage grittiness in mys students.
-Grittiness is not related to intelligence. -
-The ability to learn can change with perseverance and sticking with a task for an extended period of time.

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I read her book several years ago when I was struggling with parenting.  The following example helped me see some of the things I said and did were undermining growth mindset. Has anyone found themselves using the undermining column when encouraging students.

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Failure is not a permanent position.
Be willing to fail and start over with lesson learned.
Grit: Sticking with it for a long time.
Living life like a marathon not a sprint

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My question is still, how do you get a student to have grit? She didn't have an answer, and I feel that most teachers face this multiple times each year. Seeing so much potential in a child, pushing and encouraging the child, yet the child still has no grit to improve. Two students from last year come to mind. One found grit and one didn't. One student started the year, and she had to worst attitude about Algebra class complaining everyday. She got in to trouble, and was not showing her true potential. As a small school, we worked with her, encouraged her and kept telling her she had potential. It worked. She had the most growth in my class. Went from a PL2 to a PL4 on her state test, and is a whole new student. She has grit. Another student on the other hand, is very smart. You can see it in his work, when he puts in the effort, but he has no grit. No matter how hard we have pushed him, no matter what we have said to him, nothing has worked. He is lazy. How do you get a lazy student to find grit? A student who has no motivation to complete anything. A student who is satisfied with a C or D. So the question remains, how can you encourage grit to those that you know are very capable of so much more?

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She touched on what I was wondering the entire time and that is HOW do we give our students grit? How do we give them motivation at all? In my mind it is something they either have or don't so how do WE give it to them if they don't have it?

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Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future day in and day out.