Summer break is so close that we can almost smell the salt from the ocean in the air. Also a time of reflection, the summer reminds us it's only a matter of time before our TXGU'ers stop being students and start becoming the artists, doctors, civic leaders, and working professionals they aspire to be. But until that day comes, there's still a lot we can do as educators now that will help teens build some serious skills to overcome the onslaught of inevitable obstacles that are coming their way. From collaboration to toleration, we've found a plethora of procedures you can implement in your own classroom to help students better prepare for their futures beyond the classroom. 

With an ever-growing global workforce, perhaps some of the most important lessons we can teach TXGU'ers are those of collaboration, evaluation, and toleration. Since media and data are being collected at breakneck speeds, students today need to know how to procure accurate info and critically analyze data, all while also being open and understanding to new ideas, cultures, and ways of doing things. But that's not all we can be teaching our tremendous teens. Playing—and teaching—to teens' strengths might seem like another obvious tactic, but when we take it a step further and help students understand how their own brains work and process events, we're giving them the keys to unlock their own (limitless) potential. And when students can learn to harness that kind of personal power, there's no limit to what they can overcome.