Sunday's Words for the Week

This post is dedicated to Kennedy who has been trying to get me to wake ever since my last post about napping.  Thanks for everyone's concern!  I think sometimes the most productive thing you can do is sleep!

 Good news..... Yes, I am back and am recharged and reinspired after our fall 3C Event. 

It was a great time of teachers helping teachers and many fabulous ideas were shared by all. 

Thanks to ALL who participated! 

I love the positive energy of this group and how focused everyone is on our mission. 

 It is easy to get consumed by all the distractions that are thrown at us.

 I needed this reminder from the group to get refocused on the real goal of teaching the children. 

SO,  some of the highlights this time for me were: The Walking Classroom....Wow, loved this idea and think it would be great  to design something similar for third graders. Anyone out there who wants to tackle this with me... you know, in all our free time??? 

 Check it out here: http://www.thewalkingclassroom.org/

I also loved the discussion centered around the 2x10 Strategy. 

I KNOW this strategy works and hope others will try it too. So simplistic-yet so life changing! 

You will be amazed by the result. 

Rick Smith wrote about it in Educational Leadership. 

  Teachers focus on their most difficult student. For two minutes each day, 10 days in a row, teachers have a personal conversation with the student about anything the student is interested in. Wlodkowski found an 85-percent improvement in that one student's behavior. In addition, he found that the behavior of all the other students in the class improved.

You can read the whole article here: 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept08/vol66/num01/Assuming-the-Best.aspx

Thanks for everyone's educated insights on this summer's  New York Times article: 

Why Americans Stink at Math.  I love that as a group we are open minded enough to confront our possible weaknesses and brainstorm solutions.  Look for more blog posts about it soon. 

In the meantime, you can read the whole article here:

It is lengthy-but interesting, and worth the read. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0

So here are our group's Words for the Week: 

So this week we said we'd  let go of the junk that is dragging us down and set our eyes on what is really important-

the kids.

Keep your eyes on the prize and have a great week!

Thoughts about 3C or otherwise?  Email me: youngdor8@gmail.com.

Doris