I hope you have had an amazing first week back with your students. Our district calendar allowed for a full two weeks of winter break and it proved to be
Inspire students in upper elementary, middle, and high school to
I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold’s books like The Dot and Ish. They are great read aloud books to begin a growth mindset activity. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well […]
This zentangle growth mindset project is one of my favorite activities for the beginning of the school year!
Teaching growth mindset can be done with read-alouds! Rosie's Glasses is a great book for this. Get ideas for using this book to teach being positive.
Growth Mindset: The Power of Yet Recently my 1st grade classroom has morphed into a K/1 combination classroom and then resulted in HUGE gaps (academically, socially, & emotionally) between my s…
As more and more research comes out about the power of Growth Mindset and more and more people are leaning towards this line of thinking (heck, even my District is getting on board...they talked about it at a training I went to over the summer!), I figured that this would be as good a time as any to teach my students about their own brains and mindset. So I began my first week of school with a few lessons that really set a great tone for my students. To begin, I wanted something tangible and hands-on for my students to experience. So I searched online and found this lesson here. In a nutshell, I folded some paper in a crazy figure (that didn't actually look all crazy...until I tried to make it...go to the blog for exact instructions) and told the students they needed to recreate it. I had them get into groups of 7-8 students, put the figure in the middle and gave them each the exact same piece of paper I used. There were only two rules: They could not touch the folded paper and they could not have a second piece of paper. Most of the students got right to it. As they were working, I walked around with a clipboard and wrote down everything that I was hearing in the groups. At the beginning, I heard things like: This is easy. Look, we just fold it this way and then that. Let me get my scissors and we can all just cut it. Hmmm....I wonder how she did that. Can you just show me what you are doing? Then, as time went on and recreating the folded paper wasn't as easy as they thought, the narrative started to change. I started to hear: Wait, what? This isn't going to work. I can't get this. What did you do? Seriously, she had to use tape. How did she get that part? Let's only do one paper at a time in case we make a mistake. This was also the time when I started to see some kids just sit back and watch. They stopped trying altogether and just let everyone else experiment. I also noticed some kids taking charge completely and not letting others have opinions. Then, towards the end, I heard: This is impossible. I give up. I just can't do this. What on earth did she do? She used magic. After about 10 minutes of working, I called them all together again (no one was able to fold it correctly), I showed the students what they said. It was a bit eye-opening for them to see that some just quit so early on or that they declared the task impossible. Clearly it wasn't, as I had just folded the paper. They just wanted me to tell them the answer. This then lead into a nice discussion about the basic principles of growth mindset. That you have to keep going and trying. That your brain was meant to learn. So I passed out a quiz that I got from Angela Watson of the Cornerstone for Teachers. (she has a whole Growth Mindset pack that is really useful) They took the quiz, which asks questions about whether students think they can learn and grow or if they were just born that way. Then, we watched a video that Angela links from the Khan Academy about the fact that our brains were born to learn. We wrote down many ideas from the video, the biggest being that failure = growing. That REALLY stuck with them. I then asked the students to write down all of the words they could think of that pertained to their idea of what it means that "you were born to learn." The more important words, in their opinion, were to be larger than the less important words. Effectively, they were making a free form word cloud. I then took their picture as if they were screwing in a lightbulb, glued it onto the word cloud they created, and using tissue paper, they formed a "lightbulb" above their hand. All in all, this was a fabulous way to introduce the idea of growth mindset to my students. This entire process took two days to complete, but it was well worth it. The students continue to make connections to that first video from Khan Academy and refer to the idea of "failure = growing" still. I am also finding that there is just a much more positive tone in class because of it. I can't wait to continue on with future lessons. Have you delved into growth mindset? What are your experiences?
This year, instead of making open ended New Years resolutions, try coming up with a list of 101 Adventures to complete in 1001 days.
Hi There! Lisa here, from Growing Firsties & I'm going to share a little bit about Growth Mindset today, which is based on Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's work. Heads up that I do have some Amazon Affiliate links in this post. Should you choose to use the links, I'll earn some "circle money" as my daughter calls coins. :-) Half of my affiliate proceeds are for paying it forward - each month I receive earnings I give to my local food pantry/outreach services organization. The other half is spent on books and items for my classroom. With a growth mindset, people believe that through effort and practice, they can develop and improve their talents and abilities. In a fixed mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed...and that it's talent (not effort) that creates success. Woah. Years ago, I first began to think about mindset in terms of working with struggling students...those students where the learning is hard. Students, who, if they don't have the mindset to keep trying, will give up. Then what will they learn? My thinking expanded as I witnessed students labelled as gifted hitting a struggle academically and not knowing how to handle the struggle when they are unfamiliar with the resilience and effort needed. Then I realized that mindset, resilience & perseverance are critical for all of us. Regardless of age. #helloIhatecardio #gottadoitanyways You may have seen this Growing Firsties post from a few years ago, containing this freebie download. Or maybe this post from last summer all about perseverance. I am blessed to work at an amazing school! Some talented colleagues ran a book study on Dweck's Mindset book this year and it was such fun to re-read and discuss mindset with like-minded teachers! I also added Mindsets in the Classroom (by Mary Cay Ricci) to my collection. We read aloud some great books and I expanded my collection beyond the wonderful texts from Peter H. Reynolds (Ish, The Dot, Going Places...) One of my teammates asked me if I had a printable for our work on mindset and that gave me the motivation to put my swirling thoughts to work....Here's a little peek at the inside... Scroll down to download this freebie! :) You might be interested in reading an article by the always eloquently-thought-provoking Alfie Kohn "The Perils of Growth Mindset" education. You can get to it {right here}. Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, has written this EXCELLENT article...you'll definitely want to check it out! You can get to it {right here}. I have a Pinterest board called Mindset and I love pinning to it! You can check it out by clicking here or the screen shot below. You should really check out the Famous Failures video! It's amazing! We'd love to hear what you do to help build a growth mindset with your learners!
Teaching growth mindset vs. fixed mindset is so crucial for elementary teachers. This lesson connects growth mindset, art, and picture books!
These free growth mindset focus mats have been created to help you get your students to focus and reflect.
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Growth Mindset activity.Pair with book "Giraffes Can't Dance" or "Not Yet", or really any growth mindset book!
Learn how to change a child's inflexible thinking with this collection of tips, books, and activities to develop a growth mindset for kids!
Discover five magical and fun growth mindset activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom after reading The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizza. Unlock the power of learning with perseverance!
Ladies and Gentleman... we officially have the first week down in the books!! And what an AMAZING week it was!! #BestFirstWeekEver!! My kiddos are just awesome. We learned a lot and laughed a lot! My own children also had a great week (aside from a quick bout of a stomach bug that kept one home for a day!). My oldest, Drew, started 1st grade. My middle, Quinn, started Kindergarten. And my toddler twins, Addy and Chase, began two-mornings-a-week preschool. Additionally, Mr. Musings from the Middle School (my husband Dennis), started a new school year, too! Phew!! My head is spinning! Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and recovering from this busy time of year. This post is mainly a pictorial of some of the goings on in my classroom this week. As we settle into our routine, I'll be back with more "meaty" posts (and hopefully some new videos, too!). One of my favorite activities from the week was this Growth Mindset lesson that I adapted from here. Basically, the kids had to create the image on top using just a piece of paper and scissors. It was NOT easy... but that's exactly the point! As the kids worked, I wrote down some of the comments I heard. Things like, "this is impossible," and "I give up!" After I let them struggle for a while, I brought them back together and discussed the activity with them. It was eye-opening to see their words. They all agreed that their attitude was too negative so of course they would never have been successful. Then we read the Growth Mindset posters hanging in our room and discussed what each one meant. I closed with this video from Khan Academy. It was a fun and powerful lesson. One of the BEST purchases I made from TpT for this school year is the Icebreakers that Rock bundle from Cult of Pedagogy. This product contains three PowerPoint activities that allow students to talk to each other in an easy, comfortable way. What is great about these is that you can use them as one, big activity, or you can break them up, showing just a few slides here and there, as "brain breaks" through out the day. That is how I used them. So, on the first day, I did a big "Find Someone Who" activity with them. This allowed all the kids to learn each other's names. Next, I assigned them all their lockers and we practiced opening the combination locks (super-stressful for these first time locker users)! After that, we did a few slides from Icebreakers that Rock. Then, we went over the syllabus. Next, a few more Icebreakers that Rock slides. After that, I handed out and went over all the paperwork that had to go home and be signed (oh, the paperwork!!!). Then, a few more slides right before lunch. And then a few more right after lunch. Next up, a tour of the building. Then a few more slides before trying our lockers again. Finally, another slide right before dismissal. It was the perfect break/filler/attention-getter/distraction to use throughout the day... actually, I used the slides throughout the whole week! Run to TpT and pick this product up today! Totally worth every penny. (Some of the slides can be done silently. I LOVED these slides!!) Of course, we had to number our notebooks to get ready for ELA next week. I always tell kids that this is the easiest, most difficult task that we do all year :) I really the love smell of a Mr. Sketch anchor poster in the morning! This year, I'm starting with Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies. My thinking is that it will really help with getting started with Article of the Week. Here is one of several of the posters I'll be using to teach these strategies. I'm jumping on the #ObserveMe bandwagon! Read more about it here. I'll keep you updated on how this goes throughout the year! Okay... that is enough for now! The beach is calling my name... nothing beats September here at the Jersey Shore! Hope the back-to-school season is treating you well! I'd love to hear how your school year is going so far. Happy Teaching!!
This easy to use 75 Hard Challenge tracker will help keep you accountable throughout your 75 Hard journey. Track your progress for each category with a simple check box. 8.5 x 11 size is perfect for attaching to the front of your refrigerator or keeping it with your daily planner. Simple format. Easy to print at home. Prefer a different background? Check out the additional listings in my shop for different designs and colors. WATERMARK WILL BE REMOVED ON YOUR DOWNLOAD No item will be shipped. This is a PDF printable download. For personal use only. You may not sell, re-distribute, share, or give away this product individually or in a set. No refunds or cancellations due to immediately downloadable content.
Train your brain! Developing a growth mindset is one of the first steps in building resilient learners who see adversity as opportunities for learning. Teach kids with these social-emotional lessons about having an elastic brain.
The freebies have moved! Instead of having the freebies in a separate resource library, we have put all of our freebies in our shop. You can find the freebies by clicking right here!
This week we celebrated Choose Respect Day at our school to combat bullying. It was a very powerful day which included Choose Respect t-shirts for everyone, a wonderful play put on by the Grade 6 class (I definitely teared up it was so great!), and a few adorable, thoughtful crafts! Check out the picts below! Students had to brainstorm positive ways to be respectful and decorate their t-shirt with them. Also, we made handprints with a cross in the middle. Black tempura paint, white acrylic paint, flourescent pink paper and squares of black construction paper were all that was required. They turned out beautifully. Thankfully, I had a lot of help with the hand print portion! Black paint is hard to get off! Thanks to the amazing crew of teachers and staff at St. Joseph School! We are an amazing team! This coming Monday my little nutty crew:) is in charge of the assembly. Our virtue is perseverance! It's a BIG word for grade 1 but they pull it off! We created some I Can poetry and read with the proper tone it is really cute!! I CAN paint. I can't read hard books, YET!! I can dance, I can ride my bike. I can sing. I can't whistle, yet!! You can learn about perseverance in my new packet of printables and activities. It features the activity above, as well as a T-shirt inspired craftivity like we did for Choose Respect Day! This is just a little hint as to what we have been up to for Career Day! More pictures and ideas to come in the next post! Stay tuned!!!
Looking for meaningful end of school year activities for middle school or high school English? These digital activities will have you at hello...
Self-esteem worksheets are an effective tool for individuals seeking to improve their self-confidence and develop a positive self-image. These printable resources provide a structured and guided approach to exploring one's own values, strengths, and emotions, helping individuals gain a better understanding of themselves and their own worth. Whether you are a therapist looking for additional resources for your clients or an individual on a journey of self-discovery, self-esteem worksheets can be a valuable asset in your personal growth journey.
Studies show that people who write down their plans are 33% more likely to meet them. But it can be difficult when someone asks you the question, “Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?&…
Discover five magical and fun growth mindset activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom after reading The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizza. Unlock the power of learning with perseverance!
Zach's Place, a reggio inspired-studio in the center of a montessori school
We are sharing some of the best 12 week year templates that will help you achieve your goals in less time and with less effort. Basically...
Discover five magical and fun growth mindset activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom after reading The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizza. Unlock the power of learning with perseverance!
This form provides you with spaces to write down basic student information, grades, student strengths, areas in need of improvement, behaviors, and meeting notes to help you be prepared for meeting with parents. Organize your parent teacher conferences this term with this conference Form. Connect with parents on what their students are doing well in the classroom. Learn and share how students can grow over the next few months, as well as how they've grown so far this term/Semester. Keep track of when conferences are throughout the day Parent Teacher Conference Form,Teacher Planner,Teacher Agenda,Parent Teacher Conference Template,Lesson Planner,Class Schedule Template,Teaching Plan, Classroom Tools, Homeschool Tools, Classroom reports, student growth
Having a growth mindset can be challenging when students start school. Kids will make mistakes, fail, and come face to face with obstacles during kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. We can teach them to have a growth mindset, persevere, and change their mindset. The Magical Yet is a top-notch growth mindset book for kids to help illustrate the power of "yet" and the importance of goal setting. You'll also enjoy FREE smart goal journal templates for your students in the classroom!
Master your time management ⏳
Find the 3rd-5th grade version Get to Know Me Flip Book HEREThis flip-up book makes for a fun and unique way to get your students to share about themselves while adjusting to a new classroom, daycare, or learning environment. Each flap has a tab with writing and/or picture prompts. The flip-up boo...
This activity is perfect for the first days of school when you introduce yourself. I introduce myself by writing three sentences on chart pa...
