Category: Action Plan

Can this be a reality? Or better yet… Should this be a reality? Truthfully, I don’t have the answer to either of those questions, but I did leave the second Face 2 Face with a clear direction for my action plan this year: how can I make Social Studies (specifically History) a novel, exciting, and entertaining … Continue reading “School as exciting as an amusement park?”

[youtube]https://youtu.be/YQWWSCzN6u8[/youtube] It’s hard to believe that another year of Cohort has come to a close…but I’m not even close to being done my journey of growth. That’s the thing about growth; it is always just there. I tried to make my summary of learning a touch shorter, but I just had too much to say and … Continue reading “Growth is always happening”

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_EkwOAbBY[/youtube] Amidst my journey of trying inspire my students to get closer to having a growth mindset, it actually didn’t even occur to me that it is also valuable to help inspire my fellow teachers to join in on the growth mindset bandwagon. The last project tuning protocol on April 2nd, while it wasn’t geared … Continue reading “The first few steps towards awesome: teachers showing their growth mindsets”

I had the opportunity to present at Sterling Hall’s “Character Education Unconference” this past Monday March 24th, sharing our journey so far with Blogfolios. If you ever have the chance to share something from your classroom with a group of educators: DO IT! Being able to just sort through this process in preparation was enough … Continue reading “Blogfolio Next Steps”

There are so many firsts in the beginning of a teaching career. These last five years (not the musical version, sadly) I’ve had so many awesome new experiences. This year, however, is the first time I’ve been able to take a second stab at a project. What a great way to put into practice what … Continue reading “Seeing growth with your own eyes”

I was “himming and hawwing” (spelling suggestions welcome on that one) on how my exploration of portfolios as a means of teaching growth mindsets really enhanced / pushed forward 21st century learning in my classroom and then reading this Mind/Shift article called “What Meaningful Reflection on Student Work Can do For Learning” by Larissa Pahomov helped me … Continue reading “The Three Rules of Reflection”

Here is the problem with student portfolios: Most of the time, students and teachers hate them. Teacher pretend like they don’t, but they fake it very badly, the whole process gets rushed, then executed at the last minute, leading  students to hate it equally, because it is obvious the process is ridiculous and inauthentic and … Continue reading “The Problemn With Student Portfolios”

In the spirit of this growth mindset focus in Grade 7, my core team and I shifted around how we approached the Fall learning conferences. The students would generally come to these conferences and they would share their insights and highlights from the last two months of school, but this time things really felt different. … Continue reading “A new approach to learning conferences”

Being able to be part of this learning community for three years now feels like being part of the cool club. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid and it’s quite tasty! Each session on Twitter that Danielle and I ran, I learned something new. By no means am I a Twitter expert, so discovering new people to … Continue reading “I’ve drank the Kool-Aid”

Now that I have pulled growth mindset into the forefront of my imagination this year, I have been seeing its implications everywhere: from how I consider the first weeks of school to how I have been thinking about my own Cohort 21 research this year. I had a mini-panic moment wondering if I’m investigating growth mindset … Continue reading “A classroom that lives, breathes, and models growth mindsets”