During my second year as a First Grade teacher at Rose Hill-Magnolia Elementary School, I heavily used Habits and Mindsets to help my students develop a growth mindset. Within the first few weeks, I noticed that all of my students could significantly use lessons about persisting and how that translates into different aspects of their lives. 

 

My first lesson included a read-aloud of "The Most Magnificent Thing" by Ashley Spires. With that, we dove into the conversation of what she did to overcome quitting. Students naturally led to the answers of "trying again!" and "when she wants to quit she takes a big breath and keeps going!. We then discussed that she showed perseverance and continued to persist with her project.  To tie it back to our class, I had them take turns and talk about a time when they felt like they wanted to give up. Then, I highlighted a few comments they made and introduced them to a song I found online called the, "Just Try" song.  My students in this class LOVED songs, and I often used songs to teach a variety of topics like math facts, writing opinion pieces, and with this song learning how to encourage themselves and others to persevere. 

 

The entire song was over four minutes long, but after letting them listen to it and learning the chorus, they agreed that this would be a great class song and so the "I Know I Can" song came alive and was used throughout the rest of the school year! 

 

Every time a student was down or would say out loud, "I can't do it" a classmate would initiate the singing process, and the entire class would break out into song to encourage that classmate. 

Even when I did not hear a student, other students would, and the song turned out to be an excellent motivator for the whole class, including those who really struggled with persisting. 

 

It went from being an explicitly taught lesson to a whole class initiative that stuck. Students took on the role of encouraging their classmates which in turn also supported them.