Monday, October 3, 2016

Student Voice 10/3/16

As we begin the new T-TESS and work towards having student-centered classrooms, I think that "student voice" is going to be an important piece to help students have more buy-in as well as personal responsibility in their learning. Russell Quaglia states inStudent Voice: The Instrument of Change:

"All human beings want their voices to matter. We like giving our opinions and offering ideas. We want to be the subject of our activities, not the objects of someone else's. We want to be active agents, not just passive spectators."

Please consider joining the STUDENT VOICE group to show you how to gain valuable feedback from your scholars to help design meaning work that will be engaging and fit with their learning styles. If you haven't checked out this Student Voice Smore that was shared with the district, please review it. Dr. Newell is hoping to engage folks in a variety of ways and encourage participation. There are sample surveys in the Smore for a variety of grade levels if this would be helpful for you.


The Student Voice meeting is on October 10 from 4:00-5:00 in Panther Den at PDEC. Please join to discuss ways you are using Voice as a tool in your classroom and learn new ideas from your colleagues. The following link will allow you to register in Eduphoria, and PLEASE fill in this quick 3 question Google form to share where you work.

Education Galaxy 8/26/16



Education Galaxy is up and running! If you haven't set up your classes, it's very easy to do! Go to www.educationgalaxy.comand log in using your email as your username and your last name for your password (unless you changed it last year.)

To set up your classes, you can go to "Student Center" and then "Create a Class". There's a video on the page that shows you exactly how to do it.


STUDENT LOGINS:
Use Safari and create a bookmark on their home screen -www.educationgalaxy.com

You can find the student ID's and PW's after you have set up your class. There is a way to print it out and I also have templates for stickers if you want! Let me know if you want the stickers! I have attached directions for finding the student logins.

Growth Mindset- 9/19/16

THANK YOU!! The Two-by-Ten Challenge created GREAT conversation in 5th and 4th grade PLCs this past week! ! (We ran out of time in 3rd grade but will add that to our next agenda)

Mindsets:

Now that we have completed 4 weeks of school and spending time to review concepts is coming to an end, you may begin to hear students voicing frustration while attacking new concepts. It is important that we listen to our scholars, because those negative comments are often about their own struggles and we need to support their feelings.

Consider having a quick lesson about "fixed mindset" vs. "growth mindset" in your classroom. This is appropriate for all grade levels. I have share some examples that you might consider to help your students change their language in the classroom.


Remember that "one small negative thought can turn into: a huge, speeding ball of ugliness. On the contrary, a small positive thought can have the same effect blossoming into a beautiful outcome."



Mindset Design Challenge idea: Using Play Doh, pipe cleaners, and multi-colors of Post It papers, create models to represent a fixed mindset, a growth mindset, and an innovator’s mindset. Take a picture(s) of your structures and insert them into a single Google Drawings. Also insert a text box and write a brief blurb describing your thinking.