Mojo and Mindset

How One Little MonsterKeeps Changing Classrooms

This week, ClassDojo released an interesting Big Idea Series, just in time to get kids reacquainted with their dojo. This series is in partnership with Stanford University’s

Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS). Using Carol Dweck's research on growth mindset, the very popular little green monster, Mojo, is sharing what he is learning about how we learn in a conversational tone that even kindergartners can wrap their head around. And, as always, Mojo presents the information in a fun and positive manner.

The first video in the series can be found on ClassDojo's YouTube channel, as well as directly in the web version of ClassDojo. The embedded video right in the website is brilliant, as I know many school districts do not allow even their teachers access to YouTube. 

The creative minds at ClassDojo have also included a discussion guide in the web version. You can view the guide here. I love that ClassDojo continues their mission to support teachers and parents in positive communication by adding take-home questions about the video to involve parents in the growth mindset conversation. Parents can also access the video at home.

You can subscribe to the video series and receive notifications when the next video is released. The release dates are as follows:

Jan. 24 :: Chapter 2, The Magic of Mistakes
Jan 31 :: Chapter 3, The Power of Yet
Feb 7 :: Chapter 4, The World of Neurons
Feb 14 :: Chapter 5, Little By Little

A few months ago I began showing a "Monday Reflections" video to my 2nd graders. We use everything from the wise and witty Kid President to simple slide shows that present a powerful message. I plan to use ClassDojo's new video series on Growth Mindset in our Monday Reflections activities. My 2nd graders have already connected this video with some of our PBiS behaviors and Dojo points and are looking forward to seeing "The Magic of Mistakes". 

Let me know if you watched the video or used it with your students. I would love to hear how you integrated it into your curriculum.

Padlet and Thinglink to Support our Learning

Learning about Biomes 

We recently wrapped up our unit of inquiry into Biomes. We did a lot of group and individual research throughout this unit using Padlet and Thinglink. Here are the results of our learning.

Prior Knowledge and Questions

To begin our unit, we used Padlet. I created four different Padlet Boards, one for the ocean, the artic tundra, the desert, and the rain forest. We used eight iPads and placed the devices with the Padlets around the room for students to begin their journey.

Students visited the different biome tables and added what they
already know or what questions they had about the biome.

Students added their thoughts and ideas to each biome. I projected them on the white board throughout the activity. When we were done, we read through them, answered questions, consolidated like-minded thoughts, and made notes for our upcoming learning.

Here are the links to the four biomes. Our oceam biome Padlet is displayed below:

Ocean Biome    Desert Biome     Forest Biome     Arctic Tundra Biome

Created with Padlet

The Final Project

After our six weeks of study,  we took our research and each student compiled their learning into their our own interactive display using Thinglink. The excitement over creating their own digital display engaged everyone and encouraged them to do their best. 

We examined real desert plants
to understand the adaptations
needed to service in the habitat.

We took a trip to the Denver
Aquarium to study habitats
and adaptations.

Over the course of the three days, students completed their ThingLinks. They worked together to problem solve and show each other how to add text, take pictures, search for images online and post them. They consulted their science notebooks for research, used their previous small research projects for information, and gave advice to others based on their learning. 

Here are the projects we completed:

Ocean Biome ThingLinks

 

Desert Biome ThingLinks

Forest Biome ThingLinks

Rainforest Biome ThingLinks

Prairie and Grasslands Biome ThingLinks

This turned out to be a great culminating project that encouraged us to collaborate, use previous research, and learn a new tool to integrate into our day-to-day learning.

Changing Classrooms (and grades) ...Again

Well it's June and here I am getting ready to to head over to school to do some more unpacking! As most everyone knows, Mrs. Crosby is moving the Cool Cats to 2nd grade next year. It's a lot of work getting a classroom in order from scratch, but I am excited for some new decorations, designs and a new space. 

This is what the classroom looks like right now: 

The view when you walk in the door.
How did I get so much stuff!!!

The view from the back of the room looking towards the door.
You can see my old fashioned desk that Mrs. Smiley gave me.

Looking at the back corner of the room.
These are the "soft comfies" my students love to use during Daily 5.
I have to remember to sew a few seam rips in them before the school year begins!

Looking at the mountain of stuff from a different view.
This will be "the back of the room" when I am done.

Looking out from over my desk. Yikes!

And finally, the GORGEOUS window I now have.
I will be making curtains this summer.
I think curtains make a room more comfortable. 

Hopefully after today I will have made some good progress and will have updated classroom pictures to share!

Global Read Aloud 2014, Our First Digital Project

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Week 3

We just finished chapter 9 of Edward Tulane. The Cool Cats have now read about Edwards journey to

The Fisherman, Nellie and Edward.

the murky depths of the ocean, his very lonely time spent by himself at the bottom of the ocean, and his glorious rescue by a fisherman.

Edward has a new life now, but we imagined that he misses Abilene a great deal, and if he could, he would write a letter to her. So, The Cool Cats decided to create a digital postcard using ThingLink.We have been working on recognizing key details in a story using both the text and the pictures, so we practiced this skill in our letter writing, adding important details that we did not read about, but think may help someone visualize Edward's situation. We assumed that this way, no matter where in the world Abilene may be, she could stumble upon Edward's messages. Not only did The Cool Cats write letters as if they were Edward, but we did some searches together to find images and examples of things that Edward experienced throughout chapter 9 so that Abilene could understand and expereince some of what Edward has gone through.

Please take a minute to view our Digital Postcard (ThingLink) here:

If you can not see the ThingLink posted above, you can also find it here.

International Dot Day

Make Your Mark

Monday, September 15th was International Dot Day. A day to celebrate creativity, risk-taking, and encouraging others. After reading Peter Reynolds book, "The Dot", the Cool Cats created some watercolor versions of their own dots. Later that day, everyone worked on Whiteboard, a digital art app, to create their own digital dot. Please enjoy our video which contains our digital dot creations, pages from the book, "The Dot"' and the song, "The Dot Song" by Emily Dale. (Click here if you can not see the video below.)

If you have never read "The Dot," by Peter Reynolds, you can view it on YouTube here: (Click here if you can not see the video below)

It's the Middle of the Summer....

Wordles are Simply Awesome!

...so why am I working on my blog? I don't even have any Cool Cats (students) with me to update or share learning with. Well, I was cleaning off my computer desktop and I came across this wordle that my Yearbook Club students helped me create earlier this school year. I thought it was appropriate to publish to our learning blog as a record of just what our school looks like. Perhaps we will discuss it during our first Unit of Inquiry. I think it would fit into the Lines of Inquiry....

(GRA) Encore Performance Please

Little Bloggers 

We don't want to spoil the end of the book for you, but we did realize that Marty taught us some valuable lessons that we can connect with. In the comments section below we have each posted our own take-aways from the book.

Please read below and share your thoughts or comment back if you had similar thoughts.