First Days of School

First Days of School

posted Oct 18, 2015, 5:13 PM by Amy Wix

Why is it that the first days of school are so exhausting? It's true, there is no tired like the first day tired. Day 1 I followed @saravdwerf plan and had my 6th graders  work on the 1-100 number chart individually and as groups.  We talk about how working alone we experiences some  frustration, but as a group we were able to move further along.  When we looked closer (as a group) we were able to discover a  pattern and it made the task even easier. This was a great  introductory activity for a variety of reasons. It contrasted individual work (quiet, focused) and group work (louder, everyone participating) and it also gave me a chance to introduce the idea of productive struggle. How did it feel when you were working alone? How confident are you now that you can work on your own now that we have discovered the pattern? Do you think you would have learned the same thing if I had just given you the pattern to start with? Day 2 Today we discussed the ideas of growth mindset. As groups the students brainstormed what they already new about growth mindset vs. fixed mindset on the large group whiteboards. Then I showed them the Broken Escalator video (again, idea stolen from @saravdwert). It was hilarious  watching the students watch the video. The would say to there groups all sorts of variations of "he's stupid," "why doesn't he just walk?" and "get off the escalator!" Next we watched Jo Boaler's student boosting video to further explain  growth mindset. To explain the final part of the lesson, I need to back up and  tell you how I came about the idea. Like a lot of my students, I went to camp last summer. A friend and I attended   Tennis and Life Camp at Gustavus Adolphus College.  This was heaven for me- hours and hours each day playing tennis, talking about tennis and watching exhibition matches with the college players. One of the "life" sessions I attended was presented by the Gustavus women's tennis coach John  Carlson. He had us think of a time when we were playing an  amazing match- what felt like our best tennis ever. Then he had us write down 3 words that described how we felt when we were playing that match. Coach Carlson said he does this with his players each year. When they are out on the court and show negative attitude or frustration with how the game  is going, he asks them, "What are your 3 words?" and the  players respond with "I am ____, I am ______ and  I am _________." Coach Carlson said that we have over 60,000 thoughts a day going through our head (I didn't fact check this- but he was such a believable guy I felt it safe to  quote him!) Most of those thoughts are negative. By asking his players what their 3 words are, they are forced to be more positive with their thoughts. As we went through this activity I was thinking, "This would be great for my advisory students when we  talk about mindset." Then, mind blown! This would be a good activity for all my students! Each of the students went through the same steps with me: write down a time you were really proud of an accomplishment- in sports, in a class, at home. List all the adjectives that you can describing how you felt.  Choose the 3 best ones. Write these out on an index card beginning with "I am..." After sharing our words with our peers we glued these into the front cover of our learning journal. ticket out the door was a fist bump and their 3 words. My goal this year is to have the students own their 3 words,  especially when they are struggling with a concept or needing  to re-take an assessment. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.  Oh, yeah, my 3 words: confident, invincible, motivated (to do  better). I think I'll carry those over from the tennis court into my classroom this year.