Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 7

Good Morning!

This morning I am linking up with Hello Sunshine for chapter 7 of Mindset in the Classroom.

 

I like the way that this chapter approaches the gifted title. It really points out a good way to look at the potential that all our students have and that this potential never ends. 

"Too much emphasis on who is gifted creates kids who think they have to be infallible." - Carol Dweck.

Telling a child they are gifted or they are so smart is setting them up to have a fixed mindset. Ricci also points out that it can make these kids into perfectionists which is not a good thing. Kids that have that mentality tend to avoid risks or challenges because they don't want to fail. This is not the mindset that we want our students to have. We want them to look at failure as a learning experience. We want them to keep trying, to face challenges with the thought that they can figure it out as long as they keep trying. This is where the growth mindset comes in. By continually praising their efforts instead only praising their success they learn that it is all about trying. This helps those students who truly do fall in that gifted category remain students who are willing to work hard and keep trying to work through challenges. I love the quote she uses by Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell, "What determines whether individuals are gifted or not is not what they are but what they do."

One thing that should never change is how we look at our students. All students have potential. All students can achieve great things if they are given the opportunities and the encouragement to keep reaching for the next level. So it comes down to us making sure that we provide our students with what they need to the very best of our abilities. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on this chapter. Link up with us at Hello Sunshine if you are able to. We would love to know your thoughts on the chapter as well. 

Ashley

Teaching with Intention: Chapter 3

Hello!

This morning I am excited to be linking up with Surfin' Through Second, The Learning Chambers, and Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching for Chapter 3 of Teaching with Intention.

Chapter 3 was all about the environment we create in our classrooms. She posed a lot of questions in this chapter that really had me thinking about my room and what I want to keep or change for this next school year.

One thing I know for sure that needs to be changed is organization. I thought I was pretty organized until this year and I was a new mom out a lot with a sick baby. You realize how much more organization needs to happen in your room when you have subs in your room as often as I had to have this year. Kids know where supplies and basic materials they use are but when it comes to my centers and teaching materials they are organized for me, not necessarily for someone else to locate things. I have already started labels for just about everything in my room so we are off to a good start.

I am also excited to change the set up of my room. I want more comfy work areas for my kiddos instead of the main focus being desks. I would also like to spread out my reading bins a little more and expand our meeting area. I don't have any pics right now. They are cleaning the carpets in our rooms so everything is stacked in corners and on shelves. Hopefully we will be allowed in next week to start setting things up and I can begin sharing about all the changes happening.

Make sure to check out our three leaders this week. There links are up at the top. Until next week : )

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 6

Good Morning!

Today I am coming to you with my thoughts on chapter 6 of Mindsets in the Classroom. I will be linking up with the ladies of Hello Sunshine. Join us if you can.

In this chapter Ricci discusses the importance of keeping the parents connected with the growth mindset you are creating in the classroom. She also stresses the importance of encouraging them to use the same language at home. Our students need to hear praise for their efforts from parents and teachers. It helps to build their resiliency. To help with this she gives 4 steps that we can all follow.

1.Use growth mindset praise - make sure that you are praising their efforts and attempts instead of only praising the successes. She offers sample newsletter blurbs that we can reference when sending information home to parents about the language we use in the classroom and its impact on the kids.

2. Model Flexibility - Children are not naturally flexible when it comes to a change in routine, when something goes wrong, or a change of plans. This is something that they learn. One of the ways that they learn this is through observing parents as well as teachers and how they respond to these moments. They need to see us face these situations with grace, calmness, and a mindset that is prepared to try a new approach. This will help them learn to be flexible and to teach them more about the importance of a growth mindset.

3. Adopt a "glass half full" mentality in the home - Adopting this mentality will teach children to find a positive in the situations they face. "A child with "hope" believes there can be a positive side to most situations." - Mary Cay Ricci. This needs to be modeled by parents as well as teachers, with their words and their actions. Our children need to see us face all the challenges that we face with a positive attitude as well as an attitude that is prepared to try a different approach.

4. Help children find their own niche. - Our children need every opportunity to explore the options that the world has for them. They need the chance to find that area that they can really thrive in. Finding that are helps them to develop confidence in themselves and their abilities.

I love that she gave these four steps as well as the sample newsletters. I feel that these are things that parents and teachers should always be modeling for the kids in our lives. We want them to grow up to be successful and ready to face all the challenges that come their way. These are simple ways that we can help them along their journey.

I hope you are enjoying this book study and all the wonderful lessons it has to offer. Talk to you again Thursday for chapter 7.

Ashley

TPT Sellers Challenge: Makeover Madness

Hi Everyone!

So I have joined the TpT Sellers Challenge this summer. Our week one assignment was to makeover a free or paid product. I have several products on my list that will be receiving makeovers this summer just because they were made before I had the crazy collection of awesome clip art that I have now. The one I finished today is one of my free products that I use at the beginning of the school year. I have a bottle of bubbles tied with a cute tag waiting for my new kiddos on their desk when they come to school. The tags were rather sad looking but thanks to the adorable Bubbles clip art from Educlips I think they look much better and I am excited to use them. This is just one of several pages. I hope to makeover a few more files this week as well.

Along with making over this file I also figured out Bloglovin' and got that all set up. I am learning so many new things on this journey and I have a feeling this challenge will have me learning even more. You can follow it here if you choose to.

See you next week for challenge number2!!

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 5

Good Morning Everyone!

I am coming to you this morning with thoughts on Chapter 5 of Mindsets in the classroom.

This chapter is all about failure and how we handle it. If we have a growth mindset we are able to view failure as an opportunity to learn and try different strategies. If we have a fixed mindset than we view failure as a failure and make the assumption that we just can't do that activity or are not smart in that subject. 

Kids can get into the fixed mindset very early in their academic career. As teachers we need to make sure that our classrooms and the way we teach, embrace failure as a learning moment for our students. They need to feel safe and encouraged so that when they do make mistakes they know that they can turn to a peer or a teacher and they will offer encouragement and helpful strategies to face the challenge in a new way. If we have this growth mindset and view of failure in the classroom we will be teaching our students to be risk takers in their learning which can lead to great things. Walt Disney would be an excellent example of this. I love the quote Ricci used from Disney, "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." New adventures await all of us when we embrace the growth mindset and continue to take risks in our learning. 

A final thought is that we need to make sure we are motivating them correctly. We need to make sure we are focusing on intrinsic rewards for these foster the growth mindset and teach them to focus on that positive feeling we get when we accomplish something. Extrinsic rewards are temporary and they don't encourage students to keep pushing forward. It tells them that they can stop as soon as they reach the reward level that was set in place. As teachers we want them to keep moving forward and extrinsic rewards are not going to make that happen. This will be something that I need to work on this next year. I have a tendency to offer extrinsic rewards to encourage my students to reach a goal and that is not teaching them the importance of their hard work leading to accomplishments.

I enjoyed this chapter and I am looking forward to chapter 6. I hope you are able to join. Make sure to link up with us every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at Hello Sunshine!

Ashley

Learn Like a Pirate: Chapter 2

Good Morning!

I am back again to link up with The Primary Gal for the second chapter of Learn Like a Pirate.

I felt like this chapter was speaking directly to me. It had all of my concerns about a student led classroom very clearly stated; the first two being my biggest concerns. I am definitely a control freak. I am that person who has to have things in their place, color coated, labeled, taught or led a specific way, etc. The idea of giving over control to my little firsties, no matter how cute and capable they are, is terrifying to me. I have gotten better with this over the last two years as we transitioned to Daily 5 but this will still be the area I will need to work on the most because I do want them to be risk takers, to try new things when it comes to problem solving and creating. 

A second area of concern is with failure. I don't handle that well. I don't like when I fail at something that affects my students. I don't like when they are at the other end. It makes them seem like little guinea pigs. Solarz makes an excellent point here though. Those moments of failure are excellent teaching moments. Students need to see their teachers handle mistakes gracefully and they need to see it demonstrated as a learning experience so they can do the same with their mistakes as they travel through their education. 

One line that he uses towards the end of the chapter stuck with me. He says; "...children learn best when they are encouraged and empowered to explore their passions and curiosities." This is so true. We need to give them those opportunities to be challenged, make mistakes, and learn from them. They need to explore in their learning. Being hands on and presenting what they have learned to their classmates is a way that they can be encouraged and empowered in the classroom. When we give them that freedom they develop the confidence they need to dive into their passions and the many things they are curious about. It brings learning to life in the classroom. Hopefully by reminding myself of this each day I will be able to let go a lot more so that I can make my student led classroom a success. 

Have a happy Friday!

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 4

Good Evening,

I am returning this evening to link up with Hello Sunshine for chapter 4 of Mindsets in the Classroom.

Critical thinking is an important part of a growth mindset classroom. There are three types of critical thinking: reasoning, making judgements/decisions, and problem solving. As Ricci points out we use all three daily but not always at the critical thinking level. Critical thinking is a deeper level of thought then the decision on what you wear or eat for breakfast in the morning. It is also not a skill that can be mastered. It is something that is constantly growing and changing as we grow and develop more strategies for deeper thinking and problem solving. 

Challenging our students with critical thinking questions is so important. They need to have questions and activities that make them interpret information and figure out ways to problem solve. As I was reading this chapter I was thinking about times when we have done this in our classroom. One way is through number talks. I was introduced to these earlier in the school and loved them. It was interesting to see the different ways that students looked at numbers and represented them. We also did a lot of problem solving in our math journals. Towards the end of the year we did a lot more in reading. We began talking about what lessons we thought the author wanted us to learn from our stories. That led to some very interesting discussions from my little firsties, but they need those opportunities to think through problems and stories to interpret information and figure things out.

My favorite line in this chapter is the last one by Ricci; "We can expect students to embrace challenge only if we make it available to them on a consistent basis." I completely agree. They need the challenge of critical thinking questions and activities on a daily basis. They need the ability to expand their thinking to realize that when they keep trying they can figure the problem out which helps them develop the growth mindset. 

Well, that's all for tonight! Have a wonderful evening!

Ashley