Enough! Let's Move On!

During pre-planning this year, our staff participated in a training session from the folks at Living with Change.  If you work with children and you ever have the chance to attend a workshop, please do., you will not regret it.  It was fantastic for so many reasons, but that is not what this post is about.  During this session, the presenter introduces a phrase, ELMO.  It is an acronym for Enough! Let's Move On!  Have you ever felt that way in a meeting?

This is an awesome way to stop a discussion that is going nowhere and refocus the group.  It also reminds people of the adorable, lovable Sesame Street character, and who can resist smiling when you think of Elmo?  

How does your team derail from talking in circles?

Sweet 16 Back to School

This is it!  My Sweet 16th year of teaching and I'm finally feeling like I've got this teaching thing down.  For the first time, I'm not only excited to begin a new school year, but I feel like I might know what I'm doing.  I know my classroom will look completely different in the next few years and I'll probably be writing this post again, but for now, I'm happy.  After 16 years, here are some observations I've made about teaching:

• Teaching changes ALL. THE. TIME.  It doesn't mean what we did in the past was bad or that it didn't work.  It means, the students we are teaching today are not the students we taught last year.  What works now for this particular group might work next year and even the year after that, but eventually you will need to change your practice again.  What you are reading and super excited about is so good for now, but a few years down the road, we will look back and think "wow!  I can't believe I did that in my class", and that's OK.  Actually, that's how it should be.  Teaching is about progress, not perfection.
• If you want to create life-long learners, you need to be a life-long learner.  You can't expect students to know what it means to love learning if they don't have an example everyday.  Read when they read, write when they write, reflect when they reflect, make when they make and share what you've done.  What you do when the students are in your room matters.
• I don't know everything and I NEED my people.  Find your tribe, help them and allow them to help you.  
• Admit that you don't know.  It's one thing to know it, but to admit when you need help or when you can't do it all is so important.
• If teaching isn't your Ikigai, find a way to make it your reason for being or get out.  I'm sorry, that sounds mean, but please don't mess with my profession if you don't love it.  It's not good for you or your students.  Also, let me be clear, this does NOT mean you can't love other things.  Your family should come first, they should.  However, when you are at school, be present for your students.  If you don't love what you do, your students will know and you will begin to resent your career.

So there it is, my two cents.  Take it for what it's worth or take only the parts you like.  Teaching is my Ikigai.  It makes me so happy everyday.  I want that for you, whatever it is that gets you up in the morning, makes you happy, and keeps you up at night because you can't stop thinking of all the possibilities tomorrow brings.  Find whatever it is that makes you want to learn more and strive for perfection, if only temporary.  (Actually, temporary perfection is better, that means you get to have repeated experiences that will give you a high that only progress and accomplishment from doing what you love can.)  Find something you can contribute your talents to and make the world a better place.  I truly hope that, for you, it's teaching.  If so, thank you!  The worlds needs more of you!

Back to School Mindset Lesson

It's that awesome time of year!  I am so excited to begin a new year with a whole new group of 6th graders.  Our school year starts on a Thursday and although my students are typically ready to start learning, (seriously, I had a few ask when they were going to begin learning math and getting homework) I love starting the year with a fun Mindset lesson.


Day 1: 

Before the lesson begins, I give each student a half sheet of card stock, coin battery, and LED light.  Their task is to create a table tent name tag that lights up.  On the paper, they are required to write their name and decorate it in a way that represents them.  This gives me a time to go from group to group and begin getting to know my students.  (This year, I had everybody's name by the end of class on day 1.  Day 2...  It's OK, I'll get there.)  This activity also gives me a little insight to how the students work and deal with the challenge of making the light turn on.  The whole activity takes about 20 minutes.

Next, I introduce a challenge to the class.  The students work in groups of 3-4 to create the longest chain out of one piece of paper and six inches of tape in 10 minutes.  They can also use scissors, but only as a tool, not part of the chain.  After time is called, the students line up their chains to determine the longest chain.  This activity is followed by a brief discussion of strategies that worked best.  I also ask the students to take note of the amount of unused materials they have left and reflect on why that would be.

Day 2:

The next day, we spend a few minutes recalling the paper chain activity and I ask the students to raise their hand if they think they would be able to create a longer chain if they were given the opportunity to do it again.  Pretty much every student raises their hand and I allow them to get back into their groups and try again.

After ten minutes is up, I share with the students that I was not completely honest with them when we started today's challenge.  The actual goal is to beat your previous day's chain length.  So the students grab their chains from the day before and we line them up and measure the growth (almost every team grows).

Suggestion: I use two different colors of paper for each day so it is easy to see which chain is longer.  (Day 1 - red, Day 2 = purple)

We follow this activity with a discussion about which teams had the most growth (it's always the team with the shortest chain on Day 1) and which team has the least growth (typically the Day 1 winners) and why.  The students come up with many reasons, they listened to other teams and tried their strategies, or the winning team had to work harder to improve their chain length. (Spoiler, sometimes the winning team does not make a longer chain than they had on Day 1, which leads to the discussion that possibly they didn't feel as much pressure to do better or they didn't learn anything from Day 1 that could help them on Day 2.)

In the end, we decide that this activity can serve as the inspiration for our theme of the year, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn".  It leads to an awesome discussion on the importance of learning over grades and speed (which is a common misconception for kiddos in  math class even though most mathematicians spend years working on one problem) and sets up the introduction for my hopes, goals, and expectations for math class this year.

It's an awesome activity and it really resonates with my students.  Parents often comment that their students come home after day 1 and 2 excited to learn math. 

What do you do to hook students on day 1?