A lot of my master's program requires reading articles and reports, watching videos and presentations, and then synthesizing this information into our innovation plans and classrooms. Not only that, we learn a lot about ourselves as teachers and as people.
Angela Lee Duckworth gave a TED Talk in 2013 I've viewed many times in multiple professional developments about grit. Naturally, with this presentation being over ten years ago, I was curious about what Angela was up to now. Her website https://angeladuckworth.com/ highlights her successes in publishing a New York Times Best Seller, but then I stumbled upon Character Lab and started perusing through her tips articles, especially since they provide "sixty seconds of actionable advice, based on science" (Character Lab, n.d.). Something that stood out was an article called No Need To Wait How to beat procrastination. I am a recovering procrastinator who relapses from time to time! In previous personal learning, trying to figure out why I continued to procrastinate when I knew it only led to more suffering, I discovered that procrastination is the brain faking you out. Chemical signals are sent saying DANGER DANGER and we go into fight, flight, or freeze mode, often choosing flight or freeze. Is there a real danger? No, of course not, but our brains naturally level down to the biological survival mode. How do we counteract that? We just start the task, ignoring the "danger", and within five to ten minutes, our brain stops sending that signal. Usually, this is when we have the realization that the task isn't so bad. This typically happens for me when it comes to grading, the bane of my existence. My students procrastinate all the time too! This is great! For students, it is usually when they are met with a task they do not feel they can be successful at or they do not see the value yet in their lives. Christopher Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin wrote about Tough New Growth, introducing a synergistic mindset that acknowledges and addresses the feelings of stress that come with a challenging task but reframes those feelings away from avoidance and procrastination towards action and progress. If you are a recovering procrastinator like me, let's continue this journey together forward and get stuff done! If you are a current procrastinator, consider this your sign to make a change and grow. You will make mistakes and relapse along the way, but as long as you continue to improve with a growth mindset that you will not always be a procrastinator, think about all that you will accomplish. In an upcoming lesson, my goal is to provide students the opportunities to explore these articles and videos to discover how this obstacle can be turned into a tool for moving forward.
References
Bryan, C. (2022, October 23). Tough New Growth. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/tough-new-growth/
Character Lab. (n.d.). Tips. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/ Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8 Gillihan, S. (2023, January 22). No Need to Wait. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/no-need-to-wait/ TED-Ed. (2022, October 27). Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWTNMzK9vG4
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My husband lovingly teases me when I reflect on my day with him and say "I learned something new today!" because he would be surprised if I didn't learn something new.
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