At MIS we empower, challenge and inspire students to be Bold Dreamers. But what does it take to help students realise their Bold Dreams? It takes resilience.
Teaching and nurturing resilience in our students is therefore a key priority at MIS.
Some may equate resilience with toughness and being unaffected by difficulties. They may think that people who are resilient are unaffected by stress, disappointment, or setbacks; and that resilient people just power through every obstacle. This is not accurate. Instead, resilient people acknowledge challenges; they experience the emotions associated with challenges without being overwhelmed; they recover and learn from setbacks; and they adapt and learn from them.
A more accurate definition of resilience is that it is the ability to bend without breaking. To be resilient we must learn from our setbacks and mistakes, draw strength from internal and external resources, and gradually move forward.
Resilience enables us to:
Navigate uncertainties: Resilience helps students adapt to change without losing confidence or direction.
Manage stress and setbacks: Resilience equips students with tools to handle failure, disappointment, or stress in healthier ways.
Develop a growth mindset: Resilience equips students to believe in themselves so they can bounce back from challenges and be persistent problem-solvers.
Create a supportive learning environment: Resilience teach students that failure is not final. They learn that classrooms are safe places to take risks, ask questions, and make mistakes.
Support mental health and wellbeing: Resilience promotes a sense of hope and motivation in the face of adversity for students who see setbacks as temporary and surmountable.
Develop independence and agency: Resilience provides students with a sense of control and ownership over their lives by empowering them to manage difficulties themselves.
Prepare for their future: Resilience equips students to meet life's twists and turns with courage and flexibility.
At MIS, we teach resilience every day in a variety of ways:
In the Maker Space and in Design students experience failures when their ideas or projects fail. With resilience they reflect on what went wrong and try again.
In Maths students show resilience when tackling challenging problems by using existing knowledge and multiple approaches to successfully solve them.
Students learning a new language need resilience to acquire new vocabulary and grammatic structures. They know they will make mistakes along the way; but regular practice will allow them to become effective communicators in their new language.
On Sports Day students completed the 5KM fun run after weeks of training. While for some it was easy; others needed to persevere with an open mindset knowing that with practice they could complete the run. This was resilience in action!
Students who receive a disappointing result on an assessment reflect on their preparation and improvements for next time. They correct their errors to avoid repeating them. Being resilient means they know that one weak result does not define them and that they can improve with hard work.
Students who encounter conflicts with peers show resilience when they accept responsibility for their role in the conflict and reach out to their classmate to repair the relationship.
By intentionally providing students with obstacles in the face of learning and knowing that sometimes they will stumble; we are developing resilient bold dreamers who know that they will fail safely on their way to achieving their dreams and be guided to pick themselves up and try again.