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?

LAUNCH:Global Day of Design

My favorite days of teaching are hands-down the days that students are creating.  Maybe it's the STEM teacher in me or perhaps I'm obsessed with helping my students find their Ikigai.  It just so happened, our last day of AIR Testing landed on Global Day of Design.  I took this opportunity to pitch an idea to my team: LETS LAUNCH A PROJECT ON A LARGE SCALE... FOR 2 DAYS!!  They all said yes!!

If you are not familiar with Global Day of Design, here are two videos by the creators of the day (and authors of Empower), John Spencer and A.J. Juliani: 

• Global Design Day
• Launch Cycle Video

In the days leading up to Global Day of Design, I surveyed my students asking them one simple questions: If you could build ANYTHING in school, what would it be?

Their responses fell into nine categories.  Once I had the idea groupings, I explained the plan to my students and had them take another survey specifically what project they wanted to work on.  Here is the Global Day of Design Options/Planning doc I shared with the students.  To say the kiddos were excited was an understatement.  They were ecstatic!  It was infectious, I couldn't wait to see what they would create.  At a team meeting, I asked the 6th grade teachers to choose a category and shared the students responses.  What shocked me was that the teachers were beginning to get excited about the event as well. 

Once the groups were made, I shared the responses with my team and the teachers began gathering supplies or enlisting the help of the students to gather supplies for the day.  It was awesome!  Everyone made something and everyone enjoyed themselves.  The students were so empowered by the event.  So many students commented on how great it was to work on something of their choosing.  

Before they could begin creating, the students needed to create a design/plan and share it with the teacher in the room.  From there, they were let loose.  At the end of each day, the groups spent the last 15-20 minutes sharing their work, successes, and challenges they were having.  The feedback given by other classmates was phenomenal!  The students really listened to their peers and gave fantastic suggestions for improvements or possible solutions to each project's roadblocks.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the days:

Building Jewelry boxes for Mothers' Day

Building a Foosball Table

"Launching" an Airplane

Cardboard Creators in the Makerspace

New Lounge Chair

Young Authors

Tie-Dye School Spirit!

Melted Crayon Art

Building a Dog House

Mr. Weaver might have had more fun than the kids.

Creating Video Games

Making Boxes

Plans for a Pulley-System/Elevator

Our LAUNCH Projects made a FANTASTIC display at the Barnes and Noble Book Fair the next day.

LAUNCH: Robotics Project

For the last four years, I have been working with my 6th grade students on a robotics project.  When we started the project, I had very limited understanding of how to use EV3 robots.  Each year I learn a little more, but I have never reached the level of expertise my students display on a daily during this project.  In the past, my partner, Melanie Carr, and I have built and designed projects for the students to work on.  While the project evolved over time, we still felt something was missing.  The students always loved the project and they were always very engaged, but it never felt like they connected with the challenge.

This year, we decided to turn our robotics project into a LAUNCH project.  Instead of giving the students a challenge to solve, we had them choose the project and determine how to use a robot to solve the problem. 

Here is a brief summary of our LAUNCH:

L (Look, Listen, Learn) - We began this unit as we always do with a Creative Thinking Task that requires students examine a list of household items and determine if they are robots or not.  After they have made their decisions, we give the students a rubric to judge what makes certain appliances robots and allow the students to change their answers.  We follow this activity with a discussion of what makes a robot and the thinking strategies used to complete this activity.  Next, we provide the students with two tasks to learn and practice basic EV3 programming tasks.  Now it's time to launch.  After learning what a robot is and how to operate an EV3 robot, we ask the students to brainstorm problems they see in their daily lives and how they might solve them.  

A (Ask Tons of Questions) - Once the students completed their brainstorming session, we had them look at their lists and reflect on which solutions might require use of a robot. In teams, the students selected one problem and brainstormed a list of ways to solve the problem.  They researched work others were doing to solve the problem they selected.  

U (Understand the Problem or Process) - The students attacked their problems and documented their work in their Engineering Design Notebooks using the Engineering Design Process to guide their reflections.

N (Navigate Ideas) - The students examined their solutions and selected the one they thought was most effective.  They scrutinized the "cost", time, and feasibility of their solutions to determine which solution method they would build and solve through the use of robotics.

C (Create a Prototype) - Nest, the students build simulations for their robots to perform in order demonstrate their solution.  Once their simulations were built, the students built and programmed an EV3 robot to complete the task.

H(Highlight and Fix) - At the end of each session, the students spend 10-15 minutes reflecting on their progress.  They described their work for the day, what successes their teams had, what hiccups they encountered, and wrote a plan for their next robotics session.  When the teams had completed their challenge, they shared them with the class and gave constructive feedback to other teams.

We had never gotten this level of excitement or successful outcomes in past projects.  The students truly cared about their challenges in ways they have not before.  The students chose problems ranging from opening a combination lock (a huge problem for 6th graders) to watering plants while on vacation to putting out building fires.  As a result, we have begun to look at all of our challenges and are working to find ways to add more student choice in the "What's the Problem" phase of our STEM Challenges.

The next time we do this project with our students, we will spend more time in the brainstorming and design steps of the process.  We will have students spend more time examining problems they see in their daily lives and arrange groups based on similar passions vs. comfort level with the programming software.  

Surviving (or Reviving) Until June

It has been awhile since my last post.  Since writing last, we took a family vacation to Disney World with some Air Force friends.  They had been to Disney at least a dozen times (with and without kids) and are super pros.  If you haven't been to Disney World or it's been awhile, I highly recommend tagging along with someone who knows how to work the system.  It's not as easy as buying a ticket and getting in line for your favorite ride.

When I got back from spring break, I took a risk and interviewed for a new position that is being created at my school.  Several colleagues suggested that I go for it and I really got excited about the role and being able to define it, but sadly, I was not the best candidate.  It was a blow to my ego and honestly, I was living below the line for about a week.  Check out the link if you are not aware of the line.  I love to use this video with my students as one of our Mindset Monday activities.

Aside from being disappointed with the decision, I was more upset with my own hypocrisy.   I stand in front of my students everyday and preach about the importance of having a growth mindset, resiliency, and the benefits of failing forward, and here I was feeling sorry for myself.  The whole thing made me feel double disappointed with myself. 

To top it off, the day after finding out I did not get the position, I was told that I not only had to test my students for our four days of testing, but I was also selected (as tribute) to test a small group of 8th graders on six additional days!  This means six days without a plan bell THEN trying to get in as much math as possible with my 6th graders and barely time to think let alone eat lunch and decompress from 2+ hours of watching students take a test.  Did I mention that on 8th grade testing days, we flip our schedule and have 6th grade core classes in the afternoon?  I truly appreciate our encore teachers and their patience day in and out with or little darlings after lunch.  Those poor things are spent by the end of the day and Algebraic Expressions are not high on the priority list at 2pm.

Needless to say, I was one cranky teacher.  Every time I began to feel better, another teacher would come in to my room and tell me they, too, were disappointed with the decision, reopening my wound.  They meant well, and I love them for it, but it is not what I need or want to hear at this time.

So, I am surviving until June when all of my school cares are suppressed until fall.  Or, am I?

With 3 out of my 10 days of testing down, I have to say it is not as bad as I was dreading.  I enjoyed spending some time with my past students and marveled at how much they have matured since I had them in 6th grade.  It's very convoluted with the assignments of computers for testing, but I am testing the four kiddos in an 8th grade Social Studies room, while that teacher tests across the hall in the computer lab.  I do believe this is the way to go.  Being in a different space and seeing how he arranged his room has kept me from dying of complete boredom.  Think about it.  We put so much time and effort into our classrooms, then teach in them all day for 10 months.  Of course testing in our own rooms is mind-numbing.  We have memorized every square inch of the place, especially if you have been in that room for several years.  The teacher whose room I tested in had so many fascinating posters to look at and a picture of each American President from George Washington to Donald Trump with an inspiring or though provoking quote for each.  It took me 2 days of testing to read each one (I was monitoring students after all).  His room is like a small American History Museum, it's quite fantastic.  I think I needed to really dread testing this year to make it through.

Although I didn't want to be inspired, I knew I needed it so I forced myself to read two professional books, Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz and Culturize by Jimmy Casas.  These books were just what I needed to get me out of my rut and get my creative juices flowing again.  I am actually very excited to implement a few new ideas this year and really blow it up (again) next year.  The best part, Jimmy Casas's book has questions for discussion (or reflection).  I had them open on my front table and each time I walked by, I would read a question and ponder my own response as I walked around the room and monitored my students as I tested in my own classroom.

I have let myself go back to what I love and just enjoyed my students and colleagues the past few days and they have made me feel much better, too.  Allowing them to lift my spirits was something I didn't realize I needed to give myself permission to do, but I did, and it worked!

Tonight, I even attended a FREE PD session on the use of foldables.  I have to admit, I was not super excited about the content (I already use foldables and didn't think I would learn too much more), but they also provided appetizers, dinner, and adult beverages.  I had to check it out.  So, I went with 3 colleagues and we had a blast!  It was by far one of the best PD sessions I have ever attended.  We cut, we pasted, we drew, and best of all we enjoyed each other while learning some great new ideas to implement in class tomorrow (well not tomorrow we are still testing, but you get the idea).

All in all, I did manage to work my way out of the rut.  I am still disappointed, but I am happy for now.  It is a great feeling.  I have fantastic people to work with, inspiring texts to reflect on, and most importantly, great kids to keep me company along the way.  I am one blessed teacher.

7 Steps for Quick and Easy Unit Planning for Differentiation

Three years ago, I was struggling with students that moved through the content much quicker than the rest of the class. These students became disengaged and disruptive.  I had activities for them to work on if they finished early, but they did not always interest the students or keep them busy for as long as I needed them to be.  Basically, the students didn't see the value of the activities.

As a result, I created a 4 Quadrant System that allowed students to work at their own pace and stay engaged with the content. It takes some planning upfront, but once you start the unit, there is virtually no time spent on lesson plans.  The best part of this system is that it empowers students to own the learning.

Here's what I do:

1) Gather Materials

I begin by checking the standards and collecting all of the activities, student handouts, manipulatives, and videos for a given unit.

2) Organize

Next, I divide all materials into 4-5 main topics.  These topics would all fall into categories based on 1-2 related "I can" statements.  I'm a tactile person, so I like to physically make piles. You may already have this done if you keep an organized file cabinet at, binder or Google drive (and I am very jealous of you!).

3) Determine DOK or level of complexity.

Once my materials are divided into topics, I decide which activities are used to learn, practice or deepen knowledge.  These materials help me arrange the quadrants.   I put all learning and/or basic skill practice materials in Quadrant 1 (Q1), basic problem solving materials in Quadrant 2 (Q2), and Performance based assessments in Quadrant 3 (Q3).  I typically only put 1-2 materials in each quadrant, usually a video lesson and practice materials in Q1 and Q2.  Q3 is usually reserved for a more time consuming activity and therefore usually only has 1 task.

Don't worry if you have more materials you like to use, stay tuned I will get to those soon. Nothing needs to be thrown out. However, keep in mind when we say "yes" to one thing, we often have to say "no" to something else. As a teacher, I often lament eliminating somethings that I love. 

4) Choose Whole Group Activities (if you have them)

There are some activities or lessons that are best presented as a whole group. Often, these tasks require a jigsaw activity, compare/contrast lesson, introduction of a skill or process, or 4-2-1 summarizer.  Just because you are allowing students to work at their own pace doesn't mean you can't have whole group time. There are still many benefits to this teaching as long as it is not your only method.  Please these materials with the appropriate topic.

5) Find Related Extension Activities

What activities did you leave out because they are too challenging for the majority of your students?  Which ones extend beyond the required standards?  Do any of your activities introduce related topics your students will learn next year?  Those are the perfect tasks for Quadrant 4. These activities are the ones for your fast workers, gifted learners, or students seeking extension.  Try to make these tasks challenging, but not impossible, and preferably tasks the students can work on independently with little instruction from you. A short video can be used to introduce or explain the instructions to help these students work more autonomously. 

6) Make All Materials Accessible to your Students

I place all of my materials in order that I'd like my students to complete them in a list of links in a shared Google doc check out this example of my integers unit. 

I also copy and paste the work we I'd like my students to complete and deadlines on Blackboard.  A colleague of mine has started using the quadrant system to teach science and places all materials in her Google classroom. Choose what works best for you and what your students are most comfortable with. 

7) Print ALL Materials for the Unit

This takes some time, but the system works best if students have access to all hard copies when they need them. This just helps the unit run seamlessly and eliminates down time that often leads to behavior problems. I like to arrange each set of quadrants in packets of Q1-Q3.

I place Q4 in a folder on my board in the appropriate set of quadrants.  This is because not everyone student will complete these tasks and therefore do not need copies. It also eliminated the belief that they must complete the task especially if they are struggling with the content at grade level. 

I have detailed how I run this system in an earlier post and create keys for all quadrant work for easy checking in class.  Check out this post for more information.

I also add a set of extension quadrants at the end of each unit.  This allows the very fast processers to extend beyond the current standards.  The extension quadrants introduce topics that are not in the 6th grade standards.  They are always taken from related 7th grade standards.  Check out the set of extension quadrants I have set up for my students that complete our integers unit early.  (You are probably expecting computations with integers, but those have been added to previous units.) I place these extension tasks at the bottom of the page along with any extra web resources or games to help the students study or get extra practice as needed.

So that's it!

This whole process probably take less time than it took to write this post.  (Of course, I am a very slow writer, I'm working on it.)  Each year when I plan to begin my units, I spend 1-2 planning periods making adjustments (I also make notes on the documents throughout the unit as reminders of changes I'd like to make or make changes immediately after each unit for next year) and printing materials. With the exception of printing quizzes or tests, I typically don't visit the copier until I begin the next unit.  This super planning also reduces the stress of needing materials only to find the printer is broken.  Does this sound familiar to you?

Because my unit is already to go, I can focus time on working with students, organizing future units, or grading.  I haven't found a way to eliminate this task, but I'm working on it! I will say that I spend far less time grading than ever since introducing Quadrants to my teaching.

How do you streamline planning and save time?  Comment below.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read about my journey!  Come back soon!

Quick Celebration of Pi Day

Pi Day is a holiday in our house.  My son was born on March 13, seven years ago, just a few hours shy of the big day.  We celebrated in the hospital with a pie as big as he was.  It was a last minute decision by my mom to purchase it and have the person at the bakery write "Happy Pi Day!" on it.

Each year, I also like to celebrate the day with my students.  I have done a variety of activities in the past, but this year's are my favorite so far.  As the students came in, they were given a half circle to decorate in any way they choose.  When they were completed, they hung them on the wall creating full circle after full circle.  It was a pretty informal activity, but the conversation about the relationship between Pi and circles was quite rich and engaging.  I found the entire activity relaxing for the students giving us pause in the middle of a rather rigorous unit, Ratios and Rates.  The whole activity took approximately 10 minutes.

I think the art has a bit of a Kandinsky feel, don't you?

Next, I had the students count off from 1 to 9 and broke them up in groups of 2-3 students.  Each group was tasked with coming up with a unique sound in one minute.  Then I explained that we were going to conduct a Pi Symphony.  I listed the following digits of Pi on the board and when I pointed to the digit numbered the same as each group, they made their sound, with 0 being a rest.  The students had a fantastic time and everyone was engaged in this activity.  Making strange sounds as loud as possible is every 6th grader's dream, right?  Here are my two favorites:

How did you celebrate Pi Day with your students?  Please share in the comment section.

How Presenting Transforms My Teaching

I LOVE presenting!  I totally get a rush from sharing what I do in my classroom.  I don't even have to be a presenter, I just love being part of the conversation.  Every conference I present at also allows me to really dig deep into my practice and reflect on what I do, and in return, makes me a better teacher.  We know that when our students can teach each other, they truly understand the concept.  It is much the same for teacher presenters.

Every time I write a presentation proposal, I examine my practice and begin by looking for evidence that my strategy works.  It's amazing how much you can learn from this form of self-reflection.  What teachers, and I, don't always realize is that we do such great things!  When we are in the trenches day in and day out, we don't realize the ways we are revolutionizing teaching.  We don't realize the services we are providing for our students.  We need to share what we do!  It sounds corny, but it is so true!  It's got me typing in all !!!!!!

Presenting forces me to organize and share the great things I have created for my students.  More importantly, I find areas where I can improve.  When I write a proposal, I always add something new to my teaching and throw in a brief line stating that I will share outcomes of my practice.  This forces me to do something.  It's a learning experience, right?  

I love hearing how my presentations have impacted other teachers.  The feedback I get from participants, good or bad, always forces me to re-examine what I present and I always change or tweak my practice.  As I type this post, I am preparing for a presentation tomorrow to a group of graduate students working towards their Gifted Endorsement.  I am so excited to share with them and hopefully be a champion for differentiation.

The first time I presented, Student Math Portfolios, I was terrified, and alone.  I didn't know if what I had to say would be useful to anyone.  When I got into the room, I was so surprised to see people actually wanted to attend my session.  There were a few people at first, but by the time my presentation began, it was standing room only!  It was exhilarating and overwhelming.  I was told to prepare for 30 attendees, and being the over-prepared teacher I am, I printed 50 copies of my handout.  I don't know how many people actually attended, but I ran out of handouts and had to promise to email copies to those who did not receive one.

   

After that, I try to bring my inspirations along for the ride.  Presenting is always better with a friend, and I have some of the greatest to choose from.  Not only is it great to have someone to share the jitters with, but having another person to ask the tough questions before the presentation is another great way to process your information. I highly recommend using the buddy system when presenting, especially for the first time. 

The best part of being a presenter is that you also get to be a learner.  Since you are at the conference, you may as well attend a few sessions.  Once again, you learn something new to tweak your practice.  

I never thought I had anything important to say.  It's what took me so long to begin this blog.  But we all have something great to say.  Please find something, anything, that you are doing in your class that highlights your awesome and share it with the world.  If you can't think of anything, ask a student or colleague, I'm sure they can help you out.  Still can't think of anything great to share?  Maybe it's time to make a change...

9 Growth Mindset Picture Books for the Middle School Math Class

This year, I've started Mindset Monday.  In the past year, I've read Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler, and The Growth Mindset Coach by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley.  These books really challenged my thinking and sparked my creativity in introducing and teaching the growth mindset in my own classroom.

Here's what I do:
Every Monday Morning, we spend the first 10 minutes of class discussing Growth Mindset.  It doesn't always look the same, because students don't all learn the same way.  Sometimes, we watch a YouTube video related to developing, learning about, or thinking about growth mindset (there are so many to choose from).  Other days, we involve some art, collaborative discussion, movement activity, or goal setting/reviewing/revising.

We will see how/if this will increase learning and test scores at the end of the year, but I have noticed a huge difference in my students' attitudes towards math this year.  I have more students than ever that telling me math is their favorite subject!  In my earlier post, Creating a Self-Paced Math Classroom, I highlight the culture I have created that allows students a lot of time to play with math ideas.  While they are working, I have noticed that many of my students have taken the growth mindset to heart and remind their peers of these ideas while working through their productive struggle.  It is not uncommon for students to change their peer's comments by throwing in a "yet" after comments like, "I can't get this".  One students even calls me Mrs. Yet, I love it!

My personal favorite days, however, are reading a picture book to my 6th graders.  Even though they are big bad middle schoolers now, they still really LOVE being read to, especially picture books.  Below, I have listed my favorite books and short activities or classroom lesson this book lead to for the day (spoiler alert, many of these books lead to STEM lessons), I have done to support each lesson.

Rosie Revere, Engineer

This is one of my favorites for so many reasons; strong female characters, engineering theme, failing forward...  I can go on an on.  I read this book early in the year and have students do a 4-2-1 Summarizer (we skip the paragraph part to save time, and conduct a class discussion instead) to determine the theme.  Then each group writes their final summary on a large piece of poster board to hang in our classroom as a reminder.

The Most Magnificent Thing

I LOVE to read this one before our students' first STEM challenge of the year.  It really highlights the importance and learning that comes from the iterative process of design, create, try it out, make it better.  I also LOVE the discussion of how the end product does not need to look exactly like you imagine to be magnificent. (Also, discussion on keeping calm when frustration comes knocking.) So many awesome topics of discussion from this book!

Can I Play Too?

Another great read to introduce before beginning a STEM challenge.  These lovable characters learn to deal with challenging constraints to create a fun outcome.  We discuss the negative effects of holding on to ideas that do not work and ways to think outside the box and be flexible with your problem solving (which also relates to math class).  Also a great read for developing the importance of perseverance.

Ish

I love that this book allows students to find the beauty in everything, even the imperfect.  It is also a great time to discuss building up words (with each other and yourself).  We like to listen to the songs, The Power of Yet and Who Says during our work time, everyday, and particularly after reading this book.

The Dot

this is such a sweet book about a very discouraged girl.  We like to discuss creative thinking and looking at a problem from multiple angles.  I follow up with a multiple problem solving activity for students to work on during class.  We also talk about building up others when they are struggling or asking a friend for a different perspective when stuck.  Creative problem solving

Your Fantastic Elastic Brain

This is another great read for the beginning of the year.  I also use a lot of YouTube videos to introduce what happens to you brain during productive struggle.  We discuss synapses that fire when we make mistakes and how our brain grows.  I refer back to this all the time throughout the year, and celebrate my own mistakes saying, "Oh yeah!  Synapses firing!" and make a gesture to my growing brain.  My favorite part is when the students say it to each other.

What Do You Do With a Problem

This is a great one to read and refer back to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, our brain grows when we try something scary.  We reflect on a fear we are currently facing and what we can do to tackle it head on.  Students write their fear and share them with a partner.  I also like to read this book when we are in the middle of learning a particularly challenging topic.  We discuss the happiness and beauty we will find in the math once we master the concept (then you need to make sure all students master something that day).

What Do You Do With an Idea

I read this book towards the end of the year when introducing our robotics or passion projects.  It is also a great book to read when introducing our class Makerspace.  We discuss the importance of exploring our ideas, even the crazy ones.

This book is also great to read when the students are working on designs for their STEM challenges.  We have created a culture of sharing all ideas, even the crazy ones because you never know when/if you might need to fall back on the design or an aspect of it after they've tried all of the safe or traditional ones.

The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

I teach a lot of students dealing with perfectionism.  STEM challenges are a great way to allow students to experience failure in a safe environment.  We find the beauty and learning that comes from making mistakes and the freeing feeling you get after making one.  I like to give my students a challenge early in the year that they will fail at.  I start my follow up discussion with, OK, we've got that out of the way, now let's begin learning.  We point out the learning we gain from making mistakes and the freedom we have moving forward after it is over.  Mistakes allow us to feel more open to trying new things and give us a more fun and fulfilling life.

Books are such a fantastic way to introduce new concepts and deal with social-emotional topics with students.  What are your favorite growth mindset picture books to use in your class?  Have you tried any of the ones above?  What have you done with your students as a follow up?  Please share below, and thanks for all you do to help your students develop a growth mindset!

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day: Inchworm Challenge (Newton's Laws of Motion and Calculating Percents)

As you may know this week is National Engineers' Week.  Since all of our girls have been introduced to engineering through our STEM for ALL initiative, we celebrated the last few year by reaching our to our parent community.  Today, our team had approximately 40 female family members join us during their child's Math/Science block to compete against their children in an Inchworm STEM Challenge.

It is one of my personal favorites not only because of the rich math and science conversations our students have with each other while working in groups, but also because this challenge is just so stinking adorable!

For this challenge, students are tasked with creating a device carrying a load of 5 jumbo paperclips to be carried by a wind up toy inchworm.  This week, the students researched and shared information about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion and designed a device to pull the paperclips following several constraints.  We recently finished our unit on percents so it we had the students wind their inchworms up as far as it would go and test the distance they would travel with no load.  Then the students attached their loads and let the worms go again.  The winning team was the one with the greatest percent of their initial distance traveled after attaching the load.

Here is the challenge for your reference:

The students and parents had a fantastic time!  It is always nice to get parents in to see what their children do.  School looks so different that when we were in school.  This gives them a little bit of a peek into the daily life of their students, and allows teachers time to build relationships with their students parents.  One parent commented that it was nice to be invited in for something that did not involve sorting or repetitive cutting and pasting.  All of the ladies that joins us this morning had a great time.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from today's event:

Team WOW (MOM upside down) Tests one of their Prototypes

Reflecting on their prototypes before rebuilding.

Our moms/grandmas/aunt team works discusses the pros and cons of their prototype.

This one did not win the challenge, but it sure has style!

Grandma helps her granddaughter's team.

This mom team gets a motion lesson from one of our science teachers.

Testing Prototypes

Building is fun!

Possibilities for extensions:

I have used this challenge with more advanced students and had them write proportions and calculate their inchworm's percent of change.

What are your favorite STEM Challenges?  How do you involve parents in your classroom?

12 Ways to Empower Gifted (or any) Students in the Math Classroom

Gifted students are some of my most favorite people in the world.  I absolutely love the challenges they present.  For years, I struggled with the quick working student.  I really had no idea what to do with them and always felt that those buffer activities, while interesting, were really just busy work to keep them from distracting the students that were still working.  Inevitably, there was always that one student who blew through every activity and still found time to irritate peers.

I know what you are thinking, how can you empower a student while teaching the standard algorithm for division with decimals (yes, that is a 6th grade math standard).  Stay with me, it can happen!

Since creating my self-pace math quadrant system, I have found that not only do my students get the time they need with me and the opportunity to keep engaging with the mathematics, there have been many ways that the same students who would have used their creative powers to distract are now empowered to become better members of our learning community.  

I recently read the book Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani and there were many parts that I have completely connected with.  One of my favorites, however, is the way they call teachers to the most important role they can play in the classroom, the guide on the side.  Often times, we feel that we need to be the hero, but what this book points out is that while everyone is looking at the hero, the guide on the side is really the person who makes that possible.  The guide calls the hero to his or her journey and provides the knowledge, guidance, and courage to ultimately be successful.  Think Gandalf, Yoda, and Ms. Frizzle, they may not be the hero, but would there be one without their guidance?  Empowering students often requires you to take a step back, let your students fail, but also watch them exceed all of your expectations. Here is what I have done to help empower my students.

Taken from this Buzz Feed Article

1. Know What You Need to Know

On the first day of a new unit, I give my students a Unit Guide with everything they will need for the whole unit.  That includes any videos they may need to watch, practice problems, performance based assessments, points during the unit that they will need to stop and have a mini lesson with me, assessment dates, extension opportunities, and study guides.  

Gone are the days when students were forced to wait for the rest of the class to catch up.  Now, once my students have mastered one topic, they can move directly on to the next.

2. What Makes You a Master?

When I started my quadrant system three years ago, I assigned specific problems I wanted my students to complete and then checked each students off before allowing them to move on.  It worked well for awhile, but eventually I began to see that the students were completing the tasks, not out of compliance, but because they genuinely wanted to ensure they knew how to do the math.

This got me thinking.  Why am I wasting all of my class time checking students off when I could dedicate more time to working with students and building relationships?  Once I had this thought, it seemed only natural to post the answer keys to practice problems around the room to allow students to self- check.  An average student typically needs 12-20 repetitions on a skill in order to achieve master.  Gifted learners, however, can often master a skill in about 5 repetitions.  So, I ask my students to choose the 5 problems on the page that they think will challenge them.  Those are the problems they need to complete.  Often times, I suggest my favorite problems which they can choose to complete or not.

If they get one wrong, it is their responsibility to figure out why it is wrong, which might require them to spend some time with me or one of our experts of the day, and try as many additional problems they determine is necessary until they feel comfortable with the skill.  

3. Let's Make a Deal!

I have provided my students with what I believe is the best way to show mastery on a unit of study.  The quadrant system is predictable and requires students to show mastery in several ways.  However, some students still do not find that my way is the best way for them to learn.  In this event, I invite my students to pitch me a better idea.  If they have a better way of showing their learning on the standards, they can convince me that they will be able to achieve the same level of mastery as their peers that choose to follow my plan.  

In order to do this, they must understand what the standard is requiring of them and then explain to me through informal discussion how their proposal will achieve the same or better end.  In the past, students have requested to create videos, create mini projects, and found web resources that can demonstrate mastery.  The last option is one of my favorites and if I allow them to use the game or simulation they have found, I also share it with the class  at the bottom of the unit guide in the additional resources section.

4. Use Your Skills, Find Your Passion

Throughout the week, I give my students goals for where I would like them to be on their path.  In order to achieve these goals, students can choose to work on some of the tasks at home.  If they can complete their tasks before the end of the week, they have the choice to work ahead or create in our class makerspace.  It hasn't happened yet, but if a student completes his or her work by Tuesday, they can potentially have three days to work on a project.  If that ever happens, and I hope someday it does, I would try to find a way to guide them in the direction of larger and more involved projects of interest.

There is a Japanese word, Ikigai, that I have fallen in love with.  Your ikigai is your reason for living.  It is what you get when what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for all meet.  I recently tweeted about this idea and was given the link to the Rethinking Learning post that discusses ikigai in more depth.

5. Explicitly Teach Growth Mindset

This year, I have made it a point to pause for no more than 10 minutes each Monday morning to engage my students with growth mindset opportunities.  We have watched videos, listened to music, set goals, reflected on goals, discussed mistakes, read picture books (this is one of their favorites), completed sorting activities, worked on challenging brain teasers, and even incorporated some art all focused on the importance and pathways towards a growth mindset.  I have even shared the time I begged my mom to let me be a third grade drop out because I could not master long division, and here I am teaching math and loving it!  

It is funny that little boost on Mondays where we set a goal or determine a phrase to focus on during times we become frustrated in class has really helped.  I have seen students take on the role of growth mindset coach with their peers reminding them not to get discouraged because "synapes are firing, your brain just grew!"   Other times, when a students states he or she can't do something, several other students yell out "yet!" and everyone gets back to work.  One student even dubbed me Mrs. Yet, it is one of my greatest honors.  

I think this is key to creating an empowering culture.  When students believe they can learn, they try harder, stay motivated, and seek out challenges.  I have also noticed that my students this year are more willing to seek out help from me or a peer instead of putting on the "I got this" face.

6. Choose Your Learning Environment

I have found that allowing students to make choices, even on small things, they are happier.  Giving my students Choice Flexible Seating options not only allows them to choose a learning environment that works best for them, it also lets them know that you trust their judgement and value them as learners.  I dedicate large amounts of class time to independent/small group work in my class.  Asking all students to sit in the same spot around the same people, in the same chairs just seems cruel to me.  

7. Choose Your Own Adventure

Since returning from winter break, I have given my students the opportunity to choose between two units of study. This means that I have students learning very different topics in my room at the same time.  I was very nervous to give my students this choice, and there was definitely a learning curve for the students with regards to procedures, but again, giving students this choice has changed the tone of my class for the better.  Our schedule allows for flexible grouping among classes and I am able to rearrange students to group them according to the unit they chose when needed.  Students that were almost impossible to motivate have stepped up and demonstrated huge amounts of growth in their engagement and willingness to show what they know.

8. Expert of the Day

The intervention specialist I work with, Amy Smart, gave me this fantastic idea at the beginning of the year.  She suggested I name an Expert of the Day.  This person would be the student others turn to when they need help and I am not available.  The expert would be willing to explain a problem or work through a few problems with a peer while I am working with another individual or small group.

Instead of naming an expert, I allow them to nominate themselves.  Often times, teachers give the gifted kids the role of peer tutor.  This does not sit well with me.  What if the students does not have the calling to be a teacher as I do?  What if they are working on their own problem and do not want to be disturbed?  I do not want to turn them off to my class, so I let them make the choice, and I do not feel bad is someone who would do a great job, never offers.  

If we are working on a skill that a student feels very confident with, they can put their name on the board.  This lets the rest of the class know that they understand the content enough to teach it.  I have found that some students prefer to work with the expert instead of me at times.  That is OK, the object is to learn, right?  

9. Know When to Get Help (and who to get it from)

When students are given the opportunity to truly own their learning, they also learn when to get help.  There are times when we can spend a little more time on a problem and work it out ourselves, but there are also times when we need to learn to ask for help.  The procedures I have in place in my class gives students the opportunity to determine when to ask for help.  They have become very good at judging the level of help they need as well.  

Students learn that sometimes they just need to work out an incorrect problem with a friend and they can move on.  Others seek out the expert of the day.  Still, I have students who come straight for me the minute we break for independent work time.  Those students know they need more intense support and we sit together sometimes one on one and sometimes in a small group.  Occasionally, I have called the entire class back together to clarify and discuss misconceptions.  The key for the teacher is to be flexible with this time and gauge the students needs. 

10.  Let Them Make Corrections

If we want our students to feel comfortable making mistakes, and we know how great that is for brain growth, then we need to give them the opportunity to make corrections.  I know this is a hot topic, but for me, I strongly believe, and share this with my students, that it is not when you learn, it is that you learn.  

My students are allowed to correct everything they do in my class.  However, there are some guidelines.  They must show work or explain in writing how they made the correction.  They can work with a peer, parents, older sibling, or me to make corrections, but they must demonstrate in some way they they do understand the problem and be able to apply what they learned to other problem solving situations.  

If you have worked with gifted students, you know that many of them are perfectionists.  I find it impossible to ask them to take a risk without giving them a way to fail in a safe environment.  Unfortunately, the grade is what many of my students view as their measure of mastery.  Giving them the opportunity to work on corrections gives them a sense of calm when they are struggling through a topic. 

11. Time, Time, Time!!

Empowerment does not happen in the first day or week of school.  It takes time.  Teachers and students need to build mutual trust in order for this to work.  

The need for time shifts as the students begin to feel empowered.  At that point, the students need more time in class to play with the concepts.  This means I need to be mindful of the time I spend in front of the class.  Of course there is still whole group learning that happens in my class, but based on the skills and concepts we are working on, I set time goals for myself in order to provide the independent free work time for my students. This is where the guide on the side mentality becomes most crucial.   Students need time to learn and practice making good choices in order to feel free to be empowered.  

Teachers need to keep this in mind as well.  Students will not automatically become independent learners.  Some students will need more guidance for longer periods of time in order to reach this point.  In all honestly, some of my students are not there... yet.  I have a board where students can put their names in the spot they are working on.  I begin each work session by pulling the group that is farthest behind and make sure they all understand and are engaging with the content.  

Some students, when given the freedom rush through the tasks in order to complete, not learn, the skills.  While I try to check in with each student everyday, the fact remains that sometimes one or two will fall through the cracks.  These students often become very apparent when tickets out the door or quiz scores are calculated.  those students often learn quickly that they need to put in the effort and change their habits for the next quiz.  Those are also the students that get more frequent check ins from me.  They are also the students that I require to sit with me and work out a few problems while explaining what they are doing before moving on.

Students indicate where they are in a unit on these coordinate planes.  

It helps me group them and determine who to pull for intervention.

12.  Be the Hero of the Story

While the guide on the side is an important role in the hero's journey, don't forget to take the opportunities to be a hero yourself.  Seek out colleagues that will call you to action to improve your practice.  Find that person to share your ideas with, even the crazy ones, especially the crazy ones.  Step out of your comfort zone and try something new.  If it doesn't work, go back to the drawing board and make it better.  

As a STEM teacher, I approach everything I do with the Engineering Design Process.  So here is your call to action:  Find a problem you'd like to solve, read about it, talk about it, explore possibilities.  Once you've done that, design a solution and try it out.  It will fail, maybe not all of it, but some part will fail, possibly miserably and that's OK.  Go home, feel sorry for yourself if you must, but then dust yourself off, make it better and try again tomorrow.  Don't stop, don't ever stop.  Even when it's "perfect", please don't stop.

This is the design process we have modified and use with our students.

Everyday is not a dream, although there are far more good days than bad.  This system is not perfect, but that is why you are here.  You have the opportunity to be my guide on the side.  What do you think?  Ideas for improvement?  What do you have in place in your class that empowers your students?