It's A S-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Suppose I asked you to explain to me what you're doing to stretch your students. What would that look like to you? Sound like? Feel like? And did it include failing? I went to a training led by Dr. Temple Grandin last week and one of her main points continues to resonate with me: We simply must 

s-t-r-e-t-c-h our students. Every day! If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, do yourself a favor and go see her talk about her formative years on the Autism spectrum. Her fascinating and valuable insight made me think about this intriguing book Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by Dr. JoAnn Deak:

It also made me think of the New York Times article by Paul Tough called What If The Secret To Success Is Failure?  This article argues that learning to respond to failure is essential to success. Would you agree? How exactly do we ensure that students experience failure? 

We did a book study with our PLC this fall on Mindset by Carol Dweck, whose research also reflects the assertion that attitude (how we respond to situations) is every bit as important as skill mastery. But it seems counterintuitive, really, because what teacher WANTS to see her students fail? And yet, how can kids learn to overcome adversity if they've never encountered it? Additionally, wouldn't we rather they fall when we're there to help coach them back up than when they're out on their own?

So today's inquiry is this: What's your s-t-r-e-t-c-h strategy?