Endurance and Encouragement

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I find March a difficult month to teach.  This year when I saw attitudes fade, I decided to try something new.
We had a class meeting and talked about endurance.  Most students associate this attribute with sports.  We defined it as a class as sticking with a task for a long time even when it is hard.
Next I introduced the slips and talked about the importance of encouraging others to work hard and keep going.  My students have already worked with Acts of Kindness slips, so this was a procedure I had in place.
The first day, I had people notice others who showed endurance at the end of a couple of workshop sessions.  Now I read the slips at our class meeting each morning.
I glue them to a butcher paper "track" which is simply a brown oval on a green background. I am not making a big deal about filling the track or reaching a goal.  I am hoping they value endurance for its own sake.

Click here to download the Endurance Slips as a Google Doc.

Update: to see a related bulletin board, click here.

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