A few months ago, I sent Ian an Instagram photo of the popular Japanese Proverb:

We’ve all heard this one dozens of times, but for Ian, I had to explain what it meant to him…a couple of times until he really understood.

Don’t worry. I’m not going to write a post about how I’m a girl who’s been knocked down over and over. If you know me, you know I am the girl who has had the opportunity to get back up…over and over.

And now I’m not only teaching my own children that important lesson, but also my students.

Our school has a building-wide theme this year – GRIT (Gumption, Resilience, Initiative and Tenacity). Before that was ever announced, I had already settled on my theme for the year: Conflict

During the first nine weeks, we studied conflicts in literature and connected the text to our own lives.

Hanging in my classroom

In the second nine weeks, I tweaked my theme to fit the GRIT theme and we are focusing on resilience.   In class we have been reading informational text about teens that have stayed resilient in tough times.   Surviving storms, dealing with illnesses, saving lives, standing up for themselves, teaching others valuable lessons….these true teen accounts are easy for my students to read and discuss and then step back and ask themselves, “Hmmmm….would I be able to do that if it happened to me?”

The beauty of this theme is that it lent itself to an amazing (in my own humble opinion) writing experience with my Resource Room.  I will be posting the details of that project very soon.