All year we have been talking about what it takes to be productive in school. More recently, we decided to focus on the idea of persistence. Is persistence necessary to be productive? Is persistence necessary in order to learn? Does persistence lead to prideful experiences? We decided to begin to notice when we are persistent. The list that follows is a snapshot of recent persistent moments.

We have one photo to illustrate the concept of persistence – it is of Gus building a bench. When Gus noticed an unopened box from Ikea in our classroom one morning, he begged to open it. A few hours later, a red bench was made…by Gus. It took a few tries and some false starts but Gus persisted and now we have three new popular jobs on our job chart, “Bench Warmers.” Thanks Gus!

Other equally significant examples from students:

I was persistent when:

I did my homework.
I worked hard on my Asch building poem.
I worked on Really Red in Tech.
I did four pages of math for homework.
I was in art making a newsie out of clay.
I was making a Valentines Day card for my little buddy. It took me two tries.”
I read a lot.
I made a sketch (of a scene from the Lower East Side).
I did the math challenge.
I did extra work that was due on other days.
I worked on the tenement building in shop.
I played “Close to 1000” in math.
I turned in my homework every day this week.
I got to school a little early.
I did Charissa’s homework.
I was doing math. There was a way I couldn’t figure out but I kept on trying and got it!