Which Piece of the Pie Am I?

I was looking for a cute display for our fraction unit, which happened to fall right around Open House. I came up with 'Which Piece of the Pie am I?' The students decorated a slice of pie with anything that they felt represented them. Then they came up with some fractions about them as clues to post next to their slice. For example, I could say 3/4 of my pets are chickens. They had fun getting creative with their slices and clues, and even more fun seeing if their families could guess correctly! 

Growing Your Brain

My first year of teaching I followed suit of other teachers and made a 100% Club Raffle Jar. When students received 100% on any assessment, they put their names into a jar and were entered in a chance to win some sort of prize. At the time, I thought that I was encouraging students to work hard and persevere. Now I see that I had it completely wrong. I wonder how many of those students actually worked hard and persevered to achieve that 100%? I know there were definitely some, but in many cases students received 100% because they were high performers in certain subjects. Now, this doesn't make these students any less deserving of their pride in their accomplishments, but the raffle was only allowing a small percentage of my class to take pride in their work. What about the student who failed on the first social studies, studied hard, and earned a C on the next? After reading the article The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart by Salman Khan last summer, it finally became clear. This article is about children having a growth-mindset and parents and teachers encouraging and celebrating the challenges a child faces, rather than what comes easily to him or her. 

Thus, the idea of the Brain Growing Jar was born. 

During one of our morning meetings, I explained to the students about the growth-mindset. We had a discussion about what it means, why it is important, and how it will look different for each student. We talked about the brain being a muscle and how it will 'grow' when it is challenged. For example, a student that easily earns an A+ on his spelling test might not consider that a 'brain-growing' moment, but celebrates when he was challenged by the multistep word problem in math. 

It was great! The students noticed moments where they persevered through a challenge and were proud to write it down. Even better was each Friday when I drew names from the jar and read the specific challenge. I always asked for permission prior to reading it, but I never had a student say no. They felt comfortable sharing their struggle, knowing they were better because of it.

3rd Year in 3rd Grade!

I am super pumped for this coming school year. Being my third year, I have a better knowledge of the curriculum which will make everything run a bit more smoothly. But, this year being my third year in 3rd grade is bound to be lucky, right? ;)

The last two years I had a space themed classroom (check it out here). This year I decided to change things up and make my room Superhero themed. I'm loving it so far! I got some great ideas and these fantastic letters from Schoolgirl Style. Here is a little sneak peak. More to come!