707's Community Building Activity

Even though I'm sad to know this will be our last month with the College Champions program, I am so pleased with the progress I have observed from my students and extremely impressed with their participation and effort throughout this month's activity.  On the first lesson for Community, the students worked as a group to brainstorm a list of activities we could do in our community and they came up with A LOT of ideas.  All of their ideas were great but would have required an earlier start date or materials that are not available at this time.

After revising our plan, I explained to students that we would have to take it down a notch but still fulfill the requirement of working within our community participating in a meaningful activity.  As the students listed a new set of ideas, the words "Baldi" and "PSSA" came up a lot.  We decided as a group, that the students of Baldi needed some encouragement for the upcoming PSSA.  Therefore 707 created raps, chants, poems, and songs to be shared over the loud speaker during morning announcements for each day of testing.

Each table created their own chant, song, poem, or rap and presented their ideas to the entire class.  Compared to the start of College Champions, I noticed students becoming more comfortable speaking in front of the class.  Each table presented their chant to the class, the rest of the class provided feedback, and then each group revised their chant based on the suggestions.  We practiced the chants every Wednesday and began them yesterday with the start of testing.

Our first group, Alieu, Brittany, Jose, and Maab, met me in the office upon their arrival.  I brought my bongo to school because the students created a beat to go along with the chant.  Usually one of the students would giggle or be off beat during practice but during announcements they did a phenomenal job! (see video)  We could've been louder (according to the rest of 707), so today's group made sure to speak loudly and clearly into the microphone.  I'm excited to see how the other groups do throughout the next two weeks.

Even though this seems like such a small community project, the kids have exuded a sense of pride that I haven't seen before. This project has built a sense of community within our classroom which was my main goal when applying for this program.  I look forward to incorporating more lessons on community throughout the rest of the school year!

Room 108 Community Summary

The students in room 108 had an exciting time exploring their various communities. Through Lainey’s video, class discussions and a learning walk, they were able to understand the concept of belonging to several communities at once. After viewing Lainey’s video we discussed the various roles they play as a part of each community. The students brainstormed ways to help at home, at school, and in their neighborhood.

Our community activities focused on the first floor of our school and our classroom. We took a learning walk around our first floor community and discussed the rooms, offices and the classrooms as we walked by. The focus was on the people who make up the community and the roles they play. Students used their clipboards and took notes as they stopped at each office. When we arrived at the Guidance Counselor’s Office she took the time to talk to us about her role in our school community. Once we arrived back at the classroom, the students created a map of the first floor community.

As part of our lesson, we discussed ways to improve our school environment. Lainey’s video addressed each member’s impact on the community. Students reflected on whether or not their actions helped or hurt our classroom and school community. Students discussed ways to have a positive impact on our school and classroom community and created mini posters to show the steps they could take to improve our learning environment. 

Cramer Room 108 Perseverance Activities and Summary

 

While the theme of perseverance is ongoing in our classroom, for the month of February and part of March we focused on perseverance as a necessary element in completion of our science project on gravity and the center of mass. We later discussed perseverance in the context of two stories, one a Youtube video on Nick Vujicic and the other on Brave Irene as told by Al Gore (storylineonline,net). Later students revisited the status of their goals and assessed whether or not they had persevered and achieved or made improvements. 

The month of February started off with a science project on gravity and the center of mass. We watched Lainey’s video and discussed the fact that perseverance means that you don’t give up even when faced with obstacles. Each student indicated that they would persevere when faced with a difficult task. I explained how they would complete the project independently once it was modeled for them.

I introduced the gravity project and modeled the activity for the students. As part of this activity, we discussed gravity and the affect on balance when the center of mass is moved.  I demonstrated this concept whole class and later in small groups.  Just before the students started the project they were given a frog cut out with a hole in the head, a pedestal, a foam base, and paperclips (raftstore.net model EK000012). Students were told that the frog would appear to defy gravity (fly with legs in the air) once enough paperclips were positioned correctly. We discussed the perseverance required to position the paperclips to achieve the desired results.

Once the activity was modeled for the students they worked (4 at a time) to arrange the frog on the pedestal and position the paperclips. While some students achieved success more quickly than others, I began to hear “I can’t do it” and “I need help”. I again demonstrated how to add the paperclips and the students continued the project. Once each child had completed the project, we discussed the challenges students encountered and whether or not they persevered to complete the project. Some students admitted that they had not completed the project on their own because they felt it was too difficult while others stated that although it was difficult at first they kept trying until the frogs legs were off the desk. The students that completed the project independently were quite pleased with themselves.

Continuing with the theme of perseverance we watched the YouTube video on Nick Vujicic and the reading of Brave Irene by Al Gore. We discussed the obstacles Nick Vujicic and Irene faced. We then discussed the fact that Nick is a real, living human being while Irene was a fictional character. We also discussed the fact that none of us face the physical challenges encountered by Nick. We considered how it would be easy for him to give up, but instead he found reasons to keep going. We also discussed how Irene kept going by thinking about all of her mother’s hard work…she did not want to let her down. This activity helped the students to recognize the importance of finding reasons to keep going instead of looking for excuses to give up.

Lastly, the students revisited the goals they set at the beginning of the year and reflected on their progress. I recorded some of the students as they discussed how they achieved these goals or made progress towards them. During this time it was necessary to clarify what was meant by achievement of the goal. Some students confused goal achievement with goal progress so we discussed the difference.

Overall the lessons went well. Some students are still struggling with overcoming obstacles to complete assignments. I continue to encourage them to finish even if others finish before them. Often they are discouraged because they did not finish in the time allotted, but they are all pleased with themselves when they experience the feeling of accomplishment that comes from perseverance.

More photos and videos to follow. 

Here is Cramer's room 212 community project

My students' always look forward to Lainey's videos that she posts and the new topic that we are going to discuss for the month. To start the topic about community, we talked about the different types of community that kids/adults can belong too such as schools, neighborhood, the after school programs, the boys and girls club, etc. For school, we talked about how they are helping the community during lunch time because they do compost and recycling on their own to help the environment with waste. Also we talked about how they are a classroom community where they work together as a team to think and share ideas, complete projects/games, and work together to achieve goals. Then we talked about the neighborhood and how they can improve their neighborhood to make a change and the students came up with ideas such as planting a garden, cleaning up the park, or donate clothes to a shelter. For our community project the students designed bird houses to help feed birds in their neighborhood. We used reusable materials to create the bird houses so they understood the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle. The students enjoyed decorating the bird houses with stickers to hang up in a tree. It was a successful project for the students to understand that a small difference  is a great way to help the neighborhood. It will brighten up the world little by little with this small gesture to nature. Overall, the students enjoyed the project and they are looking forward to meeting Lainey soon!

Mr. Blake's Sixth Grade Class "Perseverance"

Mr. Blake's students began February with a lesson on Perseverance. We viewed a YouTube video on "Never Give Up."  The class had great dialogue about never giving up. Several students had stories about when they never gave up. Some of the students were inspired with the stories of never giving up they came up strategies. The students came up with the following strategies:

1. If you are going to do it than do it!!!! (Work the Plan)
   Keep your goal and never give up
2. Don't doubt yourself!
   Always keep in the back of your mind you can do it!
3. Watch the haters!
   Always find people to encourage you to do your best!
4.  When you persevere pat your self on the back!!!

The students have been working hard on achieving their goals and preserving to get to their goals. We will definitely keep you posted.

Ms. Crowe's 707 - Perseverance

The word, 'perseverance', speaks volumes to not only the students during this stressful time of year but also to me along with (I'm assuming) most of the teachers and contributors involved in this program.  When I think of 'perseverance', I think of times in my life that required a positive mindset and organizational strategies, so I decided to plan my lessons for this month around that mentality.  We started off the month by watching the TED talk by Diana Nyad about swimming from Cuba to Florida and the kids were, to say the least, AMAZED.  Students participated in a discussion about times when they had to persevere.  

I really enjoyed watching the students work together during the goal setting process and I wanted to provide them with another similar opportunity.  The students decided to create "Graffiti Walls" in groups to demonstrate their understanding of perseverance.  As I met with each group, students were using real life examples of perseverance and also thinking about people who have persevered throughout history and situations in which one would need to use perseverance.  They impressed me with their ability to connect the monthly topic to historical and current events.

As I observed the groups' progress, I noticed that many of them were not reflecting on their own experiences with perseverance.  While meeting with groups, I asked the students to reflect on a time (as requested by Matt) when they had to persevere.  One group immediately made an organizer and each team member wrote about their own personal experience.  I was impressed with their independence and ability to exceed my expectations.  

If you look closely, you can see the organizer.  

"The time when I had to use perseverance was when I had a "F" and two "D's" on my report card.  I had to get my grades up."

After the students completed the "Graffiti Walls", each group presented their project.  Some of the students were hesitant to speak in front of the class but definitely seemed more comfortable than they did when we started the program.  While we listened to the presentations, many students found similarities amongst the group projects.  For example, many groups mentioned people such as, Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Jordan, Beyonce, Harriet Tubman, etc.  

Overall, I was impressed with not only the teamwork but also the independence among the groups.  The students who are sometimes off-task really enjoyed working with their group to complete the assignment.  We are looking forward to brainstorming ideas for next month's topic, Community.  

Ms. Loftus February Perseverance Lessons

My students enjoyed watching Lainey's video about perseverance on how you should never give up and work through those times to achieve your goal. To start this topic, we went over the meaning of perseverance and we shared how we will achieve our set goal with our partners. Then I wanted to connect this topic with Disney because I wanted the students to make a connection. I showed them a video called "Dream Big Princess- Be a Champion" where it highlighted different dreams that kids want to achieve like skateboarding, swimming, archery, or karate. The lesson of the video is directed towards to "be something" in life. It connected to the disney movies and it really showed the students that there dreams or goals can come true if they put their greatest effort in. Next I wanted to connect perseverance with sports by explaining to them that athletes set goals, train, and persevere through set backs to get to the dream of a gold medal at the olympics. I showed them a video clip of the 1992 Summer Olympics of Derek Raymond who persevered his injury during the games by continuing the race after he falls. He knew that his dream was over of receiving that medal but he wanted to finish the race and he was the true champion. These videos really showed the students the concept of perseverance because they were able to see what it takes to be a champion. For our project, we are learning about poetry for literacy and writing. We created a classroom perseverance acrostic poem where the students shared their ideas for each letter of the word. It was a great way to introduce poetry to the students and the students really understood the concept of this word. In the end, my students cannot wait to meet with you Lainey and I keep telling them that you are coming in April.

Mr. Blake's Sixth Grade Class January Setting Goals

Mr. Blake’s Sixth Grade Class was super excited about meeting our College Champion mentor Lainey Dorris. The class was super impress with her video. They loved the fact that she showed the class her softball locker room. They also enjoyed her story about her softball glove from high school. The class can’t wait to meet her face to face.

The week of January 18 the class had an opportunity to work on setting goals. Mr. Blake’s class viewed Lainey’s video and it motivated the class to set their own personal goals. The students set four personal goals. Personal, academic, and career goals (the class could of chosen two personal, or two academic, or two career goals, but a total of four). One student wanted to work on their singing. She committed to practice 30 minutes a day. Another student wanted to increase their reading level. She wanted to go from a sixth grade reading level to a seventh grade reading level by the end of the year. Mr. Blake’s class had so many great goals to accomplish. The class can’t wait to crush all the goals that they set.

 

Goal Setting

Goal Setting- January- 2016 - Ms. Miller- Room 27- Harry C, Sharp Elementary

We have been very busy and overwhelmed this past month. However, I finally got the opportunity to introduce Lauren D'Amore to my 5th grade class via video. My students were very excited. We watched some lacrosse highlights on youtube and discussed the sport a little bit. We also researched the University of Pennsylvania and talked about what Lauren can do with a business degree. I also had the students brainstorm about what it is like to be an athlete and attend college.

Next, we moved on to our goal setting lesson and talked about what a goal was. We reviewed what we heard in Lauren's video and had students summarize what she said. We discussed the importance of creating goals and sharing them with others.

Then we moved on to our own goals. I talked about my long term goals and short term goals for my class. Next, students worked to come up with their own long term goals and three short term goals that could help them reach their long term goal. We had everything from earning a homework pass for the third marking period, to learning the basics of cooking. Students shared their goals with their group members who provided feedback.

Students then created posters highlighting their goals, long and short term with a deadline. I decided to turn this into a bulletin board in our classroom so the students wouldn't lose sight of their goals. This was a great lesson and I believe my students took away the importance of setting goals.

Mentor: Lainey Dorris - Cramer CPLS - Room 108’s Goal Setting Journey

Although our class got off to a late start, we were able to enjoy a couple of goal setting lessons. We started with a definition of the word goal and discussed the types of goals. Lainey’s video was really helpful as she provided examples of long-term versus short-term goals. We also covered the fact that we need to be able to measure our achievement and our class will revisit this element of goal setting frequently. We also will continue to clarify the goals set during the course of this lesson.
 
Prior to the start of the lesson, students were asked to think about something they really wanted to do or have. This process enabled them to use personal experience as a gateway to our discussion on goal setting (LA.1.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.8). The desired outcome for this lesson was for each student to set a goal that benefited his or her academic and/or social development.
 
For this lesson we revisited a previously read text, Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan, the mother of professional ball player, Michael Jordan. Students were able to verbalize Michael’s goal of winning at basketball, but also recognized the fact that he worked hard to achieve his goal.  After we reread portions of the text, students were able to ask and answer questions about the text that helped them to clarify the meaning of the word goal as well as the steps needed to achieve a goal (LA.1.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.1). This activity along with Lainey’s video provided a basis for the students to verbally communicate their goals and prepared them for the next segment of the lesson.
 
At this point in the lesson the students had to create a goal and write down a couple of the steps needed to achieve the goal. This is where the students initially struggled, but they ultimately recognized the steps needed to realize their goal.  Again, Lainey’s video helped them to understand studying as a step to achieve their academic goals. Although Lainey discussed goals as individual I did give the students one condition prior to writing their goal. The goal had to relate to their progress at school.
 
Later in the week the students had to come up with 2 to 3 words to identify their goal.  The students then wrote these words in the middle of a sheet of construction paper and drew pictures related to their chosen goal.  
 
Lastly each child held up the pictures with their goals in the center and I took a short video as they stated their goals (some of which were modified due to nervousness once I started the video).

University of Pennsylvania meets Davis Family School First Graders!

Wow! What an exciting first few lessons to begin our journey with College Champions. We started late - with the return from holiday break, benchmark testing, the snowstorm, and just the everyday craziness of a first grade classroom, we were down to the wire with finishing our lessons and getting these posts up for all to see! 

My co-teacher Ms. Obeck and I wanted to find an age appropriate, interesting, and captivating way to introduce the concept of goal setting to our students before they watched the video from Sonya. While we did not find a video about that, we found a great song about goal setting, doing your best, and being what you want to be that has now be come our theme song for this journey we are beginning! (Find our song here if you'd like to hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3HxrW1qZk) As you will see in the pictures we post, the students in our class love this song and are beginning to learn the words and sing along with it! 

After the excitement of discovering a great theme song for our journey, we moved on to the next grand event - meeting Sonya (through her welcome video) and then hearing her first lesson about goal setting. The students were excited to learn about her and from her and just as excited to learn about UPenn, which we found a virtual tour of and shared it with the students. 

Sonya challenged our students to come up with a short term goal and a long term goal and three ways to achieve each of them. They all did come up with both, and then drew a picture and wrote about their goals and then we recorded the students reading what they wrote. We had class discussions about why we set goals and why we tell them to others and why they change so much. 

We got off to a hectic start....but now that we are started and running at full speed, we can't wait to move on to perseverance and hear what Sonya has to teach us next! 

Mrs. Adriano - Goal Setting Summary

      My class began this journey by playing a true/false game to learn facts about our mentor.  The students were so excited to guess what our mentor will be like.  After the game, I introduced Matt to the students.  I have never seen them so excited.  They were amazed seeing Matt in newspaper articles.  The next week every day a student would ask about Matt.  I loved seeing my group already intrigued with the program.

      I introduced what long/short terms goals mean.  I showed a few books to the students about goal setting, such as Salt in His Shoes and Inches and Miles. I wanted the students to see these books so they can see examples of how kids just like them make goals and work to achieve it.  From there, we watched Matt's video.  I thought the students were excited to see Matt in the locker room. However, seeing Matt in a setting they could relate to really got their attention.  I think it made Matt seem more real to them.

      The next goal setting activity we did was create 4 short term goals and 1 long term goal on a hand print.  The students really but thought into these goals.  I encouraged them to have at least 1 goal they can begin to work on that same day in the classroom.   It was amazing to see things they wanted to improve upon.  From there, we worked on what we needed to do to accomplish these goals.  I assigned each student a buddy.  This buddy is going to help and encourage the student work toward their goal!

      I am very excited to continue on this journey with my students.  We received our t-shirts today.  The students are eager to take a picture to show Matt their shirts tomorrow!

Mentor: Lainey Dorris - Cramer - Room 212’s Journey to Achieving Goals

In the beginning of the year, I actually started talking about goals for my September bulletin board called Let’s Start of the School Year “Write” being on Point.” The students had to write how they would stay on point in the school year. One example was “In Second Grade, I will stay on point by listening to my teacher and showing respect to others.” Our mentor is Lainey Dorris and the students were engaged watching her video! Her video was insightful for my students to understand the meaning of setting a goal. Also goal was one of our spelling words so we discussed the meaning of the word and the students learned the difference between a short and long-term goal. Majority of my students’ goals were receiving a 100% on their assessments because we keep track of their performance through a progress tracker system where the students record their tests, grade, and reflect their feelings on the assessment. Some students goals weren’t academic based and I remind those students that we are working on achieving those goals such as improving handwriting or sitting the correct in a chair or carpet.

 
To start my goal setting lesson, we read the story “Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss, the character goes on an adventure to these different places and he discovers that he will decide where he will go and he will be successful with a positive attitude. My students discussed how they can be a winner in school and what kind of places do they want to go to achieve their dreams. This book is a great tool to motivate students to think about where they want to go in the future. For the activity of setting a goal, my students used an index card to write down their short term goal for school and my students shared their goal to their classmates. Lainey’s video helped my students to identify what type of goal that they should want to achieve in school. Now I wanted to have my students focus on a goal where they felt needed improvement such as staying in the homework club. It is a personal goal that they weren’t forced to choose with requirements and hopefully it will have a positive effect in their performance. Lastly, each student shared their goal to their classmates and we snapped fingers after each goal to show supports of their goals. 

Summary - Ms. Juhring

We have had so much fun introducing Brooks Martino to the class.  We told them a couple of weeks ago when we found out that we have been accepted into the College Champions program that we would have the opportunity to meet a college athlete and work with them over the next few months.  This was the last time we mentioned the program to them, until today!  

We went about our morning as normal.  When we finished our Guided reading Groups, we told the kids that we were going to play a game of Hang Man.  Which they were excited about because we have never played a game of Hang Man prior to this.  They were all trying to guess what the words were going to be, many of them assumed that we would use the spelling words for this week.  How wrong they were!  It was exciting to see them getting excited about guessing letters and realizing that were clearly weren't using this week’s spelling words.  Once they guess all of the letters and saw Brooks' name on the SmartBoard, they were confused at first, but then one of the scholars mentioned "Oh, is this the college thing," and that sparked some memories of what we told them weeks ago.

As you can see in the pictures below, Brooks is a sentence strip stick figure.  He lives on the chalkboard ledge and will have inspiring words for the scholars from time to time!  The kids found it hysterical that we had a stick figure in our room and they couldn't wait to take pictures with him!  There was some stiff competition for who would get to hold Brooks during the picture, the winner was chosen by drawing sticks.  The lucky winner was beyond excited!

This month's goal aligned perfectly to what we have been working on throughout this school year with our kids.  We talk all the time about setting meaningful goals for themselves, both academically and life goals. (LA.1.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.8) We just got new whiteboards (Yay!) and this was the first time we used them.  Each scholar wrote their personal goal on the write board and we shared them and took a photo!

Summary - Ms. Crowe

Room 707 has a new love for Wednesdays!  Over the past three weeks, I have dedicated a 45 period to the College Champions program and I plan on adding at least one more 45 minute block in the next month.  I started our first lesson by explaining the program and sharing my experience with Classroom Champions.  Though my experience was not first hand, I was able to see all of the benefits this program provides for children of all ages.    The kids instantly became curious about the athletes involved in the program and had many questions about College Champions.  Students talked in groups about where they see themselves in 20 years.

During our 2nd lesson, students watched Matt's "Welcome to Our Journey" video.  They were really excited to see the locker room and meet our athlete.  After the video, the students were asked to develop 1-2 questions for Matt in groups of 4.  Many of the students came up with similar questions so we chose 3-4 questions from the entire class.  The students were somewhat shy to ask the questions on video but my hope is that they become more comfortable as we get more involved in the program.  After many attempts at making a somewhat decent video, we were able to create a video that was, for lack of a better word, acceptable.

During our 3rd lesson, I introduced the definition of a goal.  I modeled writing goals since I have many of my own.  I shared an excerpt about goal setting from a book I'm currently reading, "The Happiness Project".  To be completely honest, I didn't think the students would have an easy time developing goals but they definitely surprised me (as they always do).  I modeled writing a long term and short term goal about my Yoga Teacher Training program.  We talked about writing measurable goals since some of the students would simply say "Practice" as a short term goal instead of "Practice 3-4 times a week for 45 minutes".  The students wrote one long term and three short term goals on a post it.  We posted each of our goals on a class poster in the room.

Today, three of my students asked, "Ms. Crowe, are we doing College Champions today?"  To hear that made me so happy!  I look forward to upcoming lessons and opportunities for student growth.

Standards:
CC. 1.7.4.A: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CC.1.7.4.B:  Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
CC.1.7.4.C: Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points
CC.1.7.4.D: Report on a topic, or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly with adequate volume, appropriate pacing, and clear pronunciation.

Resources: Perseverance

Perseverance Resources

Perseverance

       Planning meeting recordingBy clicking on the link above you can check out some awesome and creative lesson and activity ideas from our Core Program. Please note that you will need to download the free Webex software to view. 

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Family letter for Perseverance

Please find below the following resources:

• videos related to Perseverance
• lesson ideas
• websites
• book collections
• professional readings
• grit and growth mindset items for students 

Sample Student Videos about Perseverance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKcQa7_Iyr0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dfYblIt-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9XLH60AJ-g

Videos:

Meet the Robinsons 30-second clip celebrating failure. The end credits of the movie feature this Walt Disney quote: "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

Famous Failures (recommended by Warren Moody, Whitecourt, AB)

Bruno Mars “Don’t give up.” It’s an ear worm. You’ve been warned. For the more discerning, here is the Broadway version of Defining Gravity (via the David Letterman, start at 0:45 -- and yes, that is the performer who also did the voice of Frozen's Elsa) and the Glee version (not great picture quality).

Diana Nyad’s 15-minute TED talk about swimming from Cuba to Florida, at age 64. Her book is here. Linking to Amazon because it has good info for finding it at your public library.

Nike ad: No excuses

Nike ad: Find your greatness. This video was called exploitive because it shows an obese kid running. The message is that we are all capable of greatness.

Michael Jordan: Maybe it’s my fault

Recommended from planning meetings:

Building Together -- Christine Theissen's students do a team building exercise encouraging working together through something hard

Kyle Maynard Speaking Intro -- a speaker recommended by Arin Kress. More about him here.

Courage of Famous Failures --- some inspirational quotes in slide show video format

Time lapse of a girl learning to dance over a year's time here

Smarter Everyday, a website of videos in which an average guy tries to learn new things.

Lesson ideas:

Pinterest board on Perseverance created by a school counselor

Wonderteacher blog, book recommendations and lesson ideas.

Drawing and writing with a non-dominate hand can be an interesting exercise. An article from Scientific American about this here, and Arin Kress' blog from last year about a drawing exercise in which kids were asked to draw with anything but hands here.

Yoga poses are another low prep thing to keep track of with a few minutes of practice each week. Lots of decks are available out there, or try Namaste Kids for pose instructions.

Websites:

The internet is awash with lists of people who have failed. Here’s one with memes. For more biographies, go to Olympics.org or Biography.com.

National Geographic feature “Failure is an Option.” Article for close reading, photo gallery and recording of a Google Hangout with explorers talking about how failure is a step toward reaching a goal.

Values.com has really great resources, under Grit, Perseverance, Persistence.

Quotes on Failure: Forbes, Goodreads, Brainy Quotes. Some teachers like to use quotes as something to discuss during transitions, or to inspire a quick write.

Books and Collections:

A collection of perseverance picture books recommended by Mary Heenan (North York, ON)

LibraryThing collection of picture books about perseverance.

Goodreads perseverance list (K-8)

Books kids love blog: determination

Barnes and Noble perseverance book list

Recommended from the planning meeting:
Rosie Revere Engineer

Iggy Peck Architect

Girls Who Look Under Rocks

J.K. Rowling - Very Good Lives She talks about how her failures taught her. If you love her story, might also like this Buzzfeed list of well loved authors whose books were initially rejected.

Salt in His Shoes about Michael Jordan.

On A Beam of Light (the story of Albert Einstein) is an AMAZING book for kids about his life, and how he was a little different, but achieved success by not quitting.

Soul Surfer, or anything on Brittany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack and became a pro surfer anyway.

Professional readings and videos:

What is growth mindset?  A really good MindShift article.

Edutopia Grit Collection: Blogs, articles, video series, podcasts.

Huffington Post roundup of education and parenting articles are grit.

Scholastic article: The power of defeat – how to raise a child with grit.

NPR article discussing the grit movement and the benefits (and drawbacks) of it.

Professor Angela Duckworth’s 3-minute TED talk about Grit, mentioning Growth Mindset. Learn more about her and her research from her University of Pennsylvania page here.

Mindset: the new psychology of success. This is the book by Carole Dweck about the value of a growth mindset. And how to cultivate it in all aspects of life. A TED style talk from her here. Her latest update to the research is here.

Lest we all need a reminder that sometimes the epic fails are the ones that result in the best belly laugh, this Buzzfeed list of Pinterest fails.

Don't call kids smart: The Atlantic

Grit and Growth Mindset for Kids:

Grit: The Key to your success (video for kids recommended by Jerome Clemons, WDC)

The Dot, a picture book that is a great example of growth mindset. Here it is as a video: The Dot


Grit and Growth Mindset for Families
Washington Post article

Fun list of familyA Fine Parent blog.
movie night selections for character education, including some that focus on grit.

CNN article: Have our kids gotten soft?