It's been quite some time and there's so many new things going on. Since its the end of the week, I make reflections and decide on improvements in order to plan for the week ahead. Today I was able to get my room completely ready for Monday--which means I'm right on track with my organization and preparedness goals!
I would like to focus on how I've been using Growth Mindset this year. In a nutshell, growth mindset is the belief that people aren't born as smart as they'll ever be. You can always get smarter--hence your mind grows. Just like a muscle, you have to exercise your brain. Major focuses include the power in learning from mistakes and keeping a positive mindset. There's no I can't, instead its I can't YET.
Today Quarter 2 report cards were sent home. My students keep data folders and set SMART goals. So today, they saw their grades and checked to see if they met the goal they set in quarter 1. Many of them did and got to add a star to their name on the Super Improver Wall ! (this is part of Whole Brain Teaching). Here is the page the students use
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| You can grab the entire Student Data Sheets Packet on TPT! |
They got excited and some even did celebration dances! My heart smiled. With all that educators deal with, its moments like this that serve as a reminder of why I do what I do. They are showing and growing like the STARs I know they are. I call my students STARs which is an acronym for students taking academic responsibility.
This week has also been a lot of testing and it is only the beginning. Next week students will receive math unit (district) assessment scores and graph in their data folders. I have found this accountability keeps them intrinsically motivated and decreases the test anxiety & burnout a bit!. Its turning into an incentive and they are becoming so much more aware of themselves!
Peace
