(Un) stuck on you...

It can be a challenge to foster independence and resilience in students. How do you equip them with the tools to seek out solutions for themselves, rather than raising their hands at the first hurdle? In my school, we have a system where we encourage the learners to seek help from three other sources, before coming to the teacher. It's a fantastic way of making pupils more autonomous and they feel a real sense of achievement when they've worked things out for themselves. Here's an example of my 'I'm stuck' station. It is linked to a unit of work that I'm delivering on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream:

In order for it to be used successfully by students, the suggestions have to be pertinent and tangible. For that, you need to put yourselves in the students' place. In other words, if I were a student, what would be a useful source of help in this particular unit? I use the help stations more frequently with the younger students as they tend to be needier. By cultivating their ability to overcome their own blocks in learning, we're fostering important life skills. I'm not saying it will free you up to sit at your desk with a hot drink but it does allow you to target the lower ability learners in the class.