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).