Curriculum Night Thank You

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you so very much for taking the time to come to Thursday's Curriculum Night.  Your dedication to your child's education and Willowwind's mission and vision mean so very much to us.  Below are a variety of links for your reference.   As always, let me know if you have any questions.  As a reminder, if you haven't completed please do so ASAP.  Click HERE to download, complete, and email your parent survey to me.  Also, please sign up for a PEP conference (click HERE) as soon as you can.

Angela Duckworth's TED Talk Video
Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school.  She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled.  Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as predictor of success.

Article 1 - Your Brain Can Grow
Dave Walsh is a leading researcher in the importance of building executive functioning in children.  Grit is a part of executive functioning.  This article also mentions Carol Dweck's Mindset like Angela Duckworth does in her TED Talk video.

Article 2 - Nurture Resiliency in Children
This is another article from Dr. Dave Walsh that focuses on resiliency.  This article and the article above are written for parents and are easy to read and comprehend.  In addition, his blog has many great articles for parents of children of all ages baby to teenage.  They send once a week blog updates directly to email and have a ton of great resources.  His website is drdavewalsh.com and you click on "Blog" to access the blog.  The window to subscribe is at the bottom of the page.

Article 3 - Two Ways to Foster Grit
This article references both Dweck and Duckworth.  It also talks about failure as an inevitable option, the use of mindfulness (a topic WW studied last year), and the idea of recognizing emotions.

Article 4 - Grit in the Classroom
This is an article by Tom Hoerr, the Head of School of a St. Louis ISACS school who also wrote Fostering Grit.  It discusses the importance of transparency and "working with" our students and not "teaching to" our students.  It talks about the "whole child" - a WW tagline - and how to start the discussion of grit.