Students learn a lot during a school year. One of the most important skills students learn are soft skills. These are things like resilience, teamwork, confidence, and creativity. Soft skills serve as meaningful growth over the year that falls beyond academics. While learning things like math, reading, science, and civics is important, it’s equally important to learn how to be resilient, confident, creative, and work in a team. Extend this learning by practicing these soft skills over the summer break.
Resilience
Resilience is being able to rebound from difficulties. It is staying positive in the face of struggles. There are 3 types of resilience:
- Psychological. Being able to adapt to hardships. Having mental toughness. Being able to stay calm in a crisis.
- Emotional. Knowing your feelings and why you experience them in certain situations. Being able to contain your emotions and letting them out in a healthy way.
- Physical. Being able to bounce back from sickness or injury. Knowing when to rest and recover the body.
Download the 3 Types of Resilience Venn Diagram graphic organizer to explore your resilience. Write examples of how you are resilient in each area. Some examples may overlap into multiple types.
Teamwork
Collaboration is being able to work with others for a common goal or purpose. It will help you solve problems by learning from one another. It will give you a sense of community. It will make you a more efficient worker. A collaborator is someone who can lead. They understand their role in the group. They are consistent. They don’t keep changing their minds. They speak clearly and often. Above all, they are focused on the goal of the group. Successful collaboration includes:
- Looking for solutions.
- Knowing what your group members are good at.
- Owning mistakes.
- Giving credit to group members.
- Listening to others.
Download the Steps of Collaboration graphic organizer for help on successful collaboration. Follow the steps in the graphic organizer. In each step there’s room to write information as you work through the process. Follow these steps to be sure your next collaboration project is a success.
Confidence
Confidence is believing in yourself. It’s knowing yourself. It’s having trust in yourself. It’s feeling sure of yourself. It’s being humble. This means you don’t think you’re better than others. Being confident means trusting in your judgment. Your self-esteem and confidence are intertwined. Self-esteem is the belief you have in your worth and abilities. It’s what you think about yourself. You can build your self-esteem in many ways. One way is with a self-esteem journal. This allows you to track how you’re feeling every day. By tracking your self-esteem, you can find patterns. This will let you to better manage your self-esteem.
Download the Self-Esteem Journal graphic organizer to keep track of your self-esteem. On the graphic organizer, write three things you’re grateful for each day. At least one thing must be about yourself. Then, mark off the mood you’re feeling that day. Then, explain what is causing you to feel this way.
Creativity
Creative thinking allows us to come up with new or innovative ways to approach a problem. Having great creative thinking skills will make you a better problem solver. For problem solving, you use creative thinking skills to come up with ideas.
Download the Critical & Creative Thinking Exercises worksheets to use your creative thinking skills to solve a variety of questions and activities.