Book Study: Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 3

I'm back to link of Chapter 3 of Mindsets in the Classroom for Hello Sunshine Teachers' book study.

I was a little fearful after our hectic weekend that I would get behind on this book study. Though hectic, many blessings came from it. We finally listed our house for sale on Friday and had 3 showings on Sunday. By Sunday night, we had a nearly full price offer. I didn't expect things to move so fast. So yeah, I fully expected to put my book on the back burner. But come to find out, late night and early morning reading has become my thing since late night and early morning planning aren't in session.

So on to my thoughts about Chapter 3.

I was happy to see a bit about small groups in this chapter. This was one of the scariest and hardest things I had to deal with this past year. I was constantly discouraged and never felt like I had a good enough system to benefit my students in our small groups. I hope to take the notes I made from this chapter and use it to plan my groups even better this next year. Though I am a little fearful as to how I will manage 3 instructional groups with 26 students. Ek! 

Please share ANY and ALL tips you have for small groups!

Book Study: Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 2

I've had so much fun the last few days checking out the other blogs linking up to this mindset-changing book study hosted by Hello Sunshine Teachers. It's so great to see people sharing their take-aways and awesome resources. I've already bookmarked a gazillion websites to refer back to when I sit down to tackle next year's plan.

For now, I'm focused on this book. I dove into Chapter 2 yesterday while I waited for my husband load and unload and attempt to reload a tractor. All I can say is thank goodness for the Kindle app!

Here are my notes from this chapter.

This chapter was pretty freeing for me. I knew I might go into this book feeling guilty for not having this practices in place this last school year, my first school year, but this chapter helped wash that guilt and has be enthusiastic to use whatever I learn with my new babies coming in August.

Book Study: Mindsets in the Classroom - Chapter 1

To keep my educator-brain satisfied and to get me back into the blogging game, I'm super excited to be joining in on Hello Sunshine Teachers' Mindsets in the Classroom book study.

I can't say that I'm a pro at this book study thing because I've never actually done a book study before. And since I can't say that, this first chapter of notes is pretty scarce. I'm sure I'll be learning and developing my note taking skills along the way and that makes the "lifelong learner" side of me super happy. 

After reading this first chapter, I started thinking about the students that had just left me today and I started analyzing each one of them to see what type of mindset they had. 

I started thinking about my "Principal's Award" selection from yesterday and this chapter helped cement my belief that I made the very best selection possible. I took a child with a fixed mindset in August and planted the growth mindset "seed". I don't know that I truly changed his mindset but I know that there, in the back of his mind, he does believe he is capable of more now than ever before. 

This chapter just came at the perfect time.

I received 2 notes today - a student letter and a parent email - that make me think I might be on the right track at using whatever I gain from this book in my classroom from Day 1 of this upcoming school year. 

Notes like these bring me to tears. Despite how appreciative they are, they have no idea how much I've learned from them, the children. It's encouraging and humbling. I literally have the very best job EVER.

Is it weird that the first day of Summer Break isn't even here and I'm excited for next school year?

The End of My First Year

My first year as a 4th grade teacher came to a close today. It was an incredible year!!!

I'm SOOO close to getting my standard certification. I'll be spending these first few weeks of the summer finishing up some projects for my certification program and I'll be DONE!

As you can tell by the gap in my posts, the life of this blog did not go as I had intended it to. I actually never even logged onto my blog. But I had such an amazing first year and am here, now, to share my journey.