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It’s amazing how much power our words have. The studies done in overall success of students when given positive feedback vs. no feedback, was astonishing.

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One of the biggest takeaways I had was to pay attention more to recognizing how children are feeling and tapping into those feelings to make them more productive and comfortable in their environment and how this  is essential for academic success. This should be a way of life. It was interesting to see how some negative emotions such as anger or sadness can make a positive impact on certain assignments such as editing a paper as 'negative emotions have constructive functions by helping narrow and focus attentions' .  'Linking emotion to learning ensures students find classroom instruction relevant'. Instead of reprimanding children who express negative emotions, see it as a cry for help.

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I plan on incorporating more visual aids to support student thinking and promote growth mindsets.

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I am a total FanGirl of Jo Boaler; I'm obsessed with her ideas! I am excited to try out something she calls the "diamond paper," which I forget if it's from this specific book or a different one, but it helps make math moments more broad spectrum and not just focused on an algorithm. 

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I am a total FanGirl of Jo Boaler; I'm obsessed with her ideas! I am excited to try out something she calls the "diamond paper," which I forget if it's from this specific book or a different one, but it helps make math moments more broad spectrum and not just focused on an algorithm. 

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I love getting the science behind concepts like growth mindset; it helps both for students to get into the right mindset, but also for teachers, to confirm that mindset for themselves. Practically, I want to use her ideas of focusing on the depth of a skill, rather than just breadth of repetition. Slowing down  the pacing of my classroom around certain topics and really digging into the details and analysis of the "why."

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I love Jo Boaler and all the resources she has on YouCubed.  I really appreciated the chapter that spoke about rethinking what gifted means and how that is a narrow label that leads to a fixed mindset.

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The end result looks different for everyone!

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The end result looks different for everyone!

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It's OK to slow down, fail, struggle, approach a problem differently than others...doing all of these and more does not make one person smarter than another.

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The world is as you are--we all draw upon our memories, associations, experiences, and expectations to make sense of what we're experiencing. So in a class of 12 students, each student (and teacher) has their own unique experience of that shared moment. One student might be active and engaged while another is filled with anxiety and fear. As educators, we must be clear in our communication to students so they know what to expect, and to intentionally plan ways to reduce potential obstacles to learning. It's UDL with a focus on emotional experience.

We all are extremely variable in how we learn as well, and we are never just one type of learner--sometimes I will learn visually, sometimes aurally, sometimes through writing, through movement, or a combination of them all. And it changes for the activity (if I'm learning about the history of racism, I tend to prefer a podcast; for memorizing a number, I'll visualize a number pad; for understanding the risks of COVID transmission in different environments, I want to see a graph). So we have to provide multiple access points for: input (representation, the what); output (strategic, the how); and engagement (affective, the why). Go UDL!

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The concept of connecting learning and differentiation methodologies between classrooms, disciplines, and divisions is key. How we document, align, and reinforce methods and strategies used between classes is of paramount importance.

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Posey encourages us to really be transparent with our thinking and our purpose in our instruction. Learning and thinking about emotion takes time and active work, but will help students grow their regulatory tools.
Also, to ensure we are designing relevant learning for our students, we need to offer a variety of ways for them to engage, and understand that no one is just one kind of learner. We also should permit a variety of ways for them to show what they have learned or are thinking, not only one way.

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Continue to find ways to make Zoom workable for kids and for us - brain breaks, movement, fidgets, turning it off, leaving the computer in the corner of the room and letting kids participate from anywhere in the room not just right in front of the screen, get outside!

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Children - especially those in pre-k age are quick to label themselves not good at something if they don't immediately get it. Limitless Mind shows us how we can change that mindset and encourage growth and working at getting better at all things - even those we think we just aren't ever going to be our strengths.

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Hopefully someone gets that reference. Haha

We took a workshop a few years back about Design Thinking, so it was actually really nice to revisit these concepts for the year.

One common theme amongst parents that came up during our initial conferences this year (and many years) was that they wanted their student to have a love learning.  I think with remote learning, some of that may have faded since it was so much harder to engage when kids aren't in a physical classroom, so I totally understand this desire amongst parents.

Design Thinking lends itself so well to this concept.  When you give children these real world tasks and challenge them to wonder, they inevitably develop a curiosity.  Helping guide students to what they are interested in can only help foster this love learning, especially when both the teacher and student are working as a partnership.

One thing that really stood out for me was the first step in the DT process: Empathize/Understand, or thinking about what your audience's needs are. I think this lends itself so well to Social Justice learning. It helps students step into the shoes of others, understand their struggles, and then use their creativity to come up with solutions.

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While I got a lot out of the book, the conversation today was most powerful to me. We spent a good amount of time talking about the different "RULER" strategies, and ultimately coming to a place of recognizing that common language and approaches would help so much with the developmental progression of these important skills. This is something that has been on my mind since day 1 here at Westside, and I am excited to continue working to build that in collaboration with all of you!

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Naming those feelings and sitting with them. Not only excelling at teacher our students/children these strategies but actually using them ourselves as adults.

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I really appreciated the final chapter of this book dedicated to the emotion of teaching. Many times friends and family members who are not teachers do not understand the emotional exhaustion or "burn out" we experience, so having acknowledgement in a published book meant a lot! Many of the same techniques recommended for students in this book can apply to supporting our work and keeping it sustainable (choice/voice for how we prep, attention to the emotions associated with our schedules, receiving progress based feedback).

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The teachers' commitment to responding to the students' needs.
The importance of helping our kids to be independent learners with success.
To be focus on HOW we teach instead WHAT we teach.
It won't be perfect but we have to commit to responding to the kids' needs.
Students have to feel that we care and we're there to support them.

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Incorporating "engaging the brain" into remote learning

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Incorporating "engaging the brain" into remote learning

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In a regular classroom there are needs for movement, whether it be getting up and moving or fidgeting or drawing... and for varied presentation and performance measures. We need to adapt what we know about engaging the brain into the remote setting and get creative, so that we can offer similar opportunities for learning, and honor different needs and ways of processing. This book reminded some of us of John Medina's Brain Rules, which gives great information about getting and holding attention, among other things.

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What I connected with most the concept of the struggle, particularly in math education. Once upon a time, teachers and students placed value on having the correct answer, and being able to get to it quickly. My approach is learning to enjoy the uncertainty when you can't find a solution yet. That is where the real learning happens. Getting kids to this place is always a challenge, because they feel that if something is too hard for them then they must not be good at it. I really want to emphasize that all of us should be in a place where we can struggle and learn together, and that the process of learning how to find a solution is often more rewarding than the solution itself. Good mathematics is not about knowing the answer, it is about how you act when you don't know the answer.

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Always enjoy/need learning more and getting refreshers on Growth Mindset. Problems solving and flexibility remain key to the success of students and teachers regardless of how this learning/conversation is taking place. Still heavy in the discussion with myself about tracking.....

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Students' emotions play a big part of how they engage with material. Instead of seeing a whole assignment, they will often see one part of it that their emotions will latch onto. An example given was if students are told they are going to have to prepare and deliver a presentation about spiders, some will immediately start worrying about having to speak in front of their classmates. Some will get excited about speaking in front of their classmates. Some will think, "I don't like spiders." Some will think spiders are interesting and they will get excited about the content. All of these parts are based on their emotions going into the project. 

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Students' emotions play a big part of how they engage with material. Instead of seeing a whole assignment, they will often see one part of it that their emotions will latch onto. An example given was if students are told they are going to have to prepare and deliver a presentation about spiders, some will immediately start worrying about having to speak in front of their classmates. Some will get excited about speaking in front of their classmates. Some will think, "I don't like spiders." Some will think spiders are interesting and they will get excited about the content. All of these parts are based on their emotions going into the project. 

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The biggest takeaway for me from the book is that it not only provides case studies implying tons of instructional strategies, but also stamps the differentiated instruction in my teaching, from picking out contents, designing activities in the process, to create different ways for the students to deliver their learning products. It is more like an entry ticket for an artful teaching show, and it is so intriguing that I am about to explore and educate myself more of it.

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Jo Boaler makes me want to become a neuroscientist! I loved this book and very much enjoyed the discussion group today. I like the idea of creating a parent/guardian book club that could bring us together to talk and process about praising effort, productive struggle, the value of mistakes and the limitless mind!

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This book was a good reminder that SEL and academic instruction are one in the same and not separate. It also was a good review of research by Angela Duckworth about grit and Carol Dweck about growth mindset with some new studies and anecdotes