GREAT THINKING THURSDAY
For Klein ISD Educators of Gifted Learners
November 14, 2019
Learning Collaboration with SAT Opportunity Ambassadors
by Rebekah Roorda
Teacher/GT Advocate
Klein Cain High School
One of the most exciting (and challenging) aspects of helping to establish a school is being able to cultivate an environment of students working with other students to promote learning. One of Klein Cain’s CAT-5 Values is, in fact, collaboration, and getting to help consolidate the five SAT Opportunity Ambassadors at our campus turned out to be a lesson for me in collaboration.
Two of our SAT Ambassadors were selected at the end of last year: Christopher Price (junior) and Linden Settles (senior). As veterans of the program, both explained some of the qualities they were looking for in a fellow SAT Ambassador: motivated, clear communicator, coachable, and also highly involved on campus. Together, we brainstormed a list of other juniors and seniors who had these characteristics. We also talked with other teachers to receive nominations of students who had already demonstrated excellence on the PSAT/SAT, and who would be able to step into this role with ease. We then asked the nominees to apply, and as a team we reviewed the applicants.
One of the things that stood out to me as our team collaborated and discussed the applicants is just how well Chris and Linden knew their peers. In Klein ISD, we talk a lot about educators knowing students by name, strength, and need, but I think we also need to encourage students to know their peers by name, strength, and need. Their assessment of the applicants matched up with the teacher recommendations that we received about each of the applicants, and I was completely blown away by the astuteness of their knowledge of their peers.
We had an amazing crop of applicants, but ultimately we could only pick three. We chose two juniors (Tony Sanfillippo and Cole Peterson) and one senior (Isaiah Keo). We wanted to have a mixture of juniors and seniors, so that the seniors could provide their SAT and junior year expertise and advice, and the juniors could help grow the program for a full two years.
These five students have already hit the ground running. Currently, all five students run an after-school SAT prep session every Thursday. “We have a different focus for each week—for example, the math without a calculator section—and we go through practice test questions with the students who attend,” Chris Price explains. “Our teachers are awesome at Klein Cain, but sometimes it helps to hear a fellow student explain their thesis statement or how they worked through a problem.”
“We’ve been advertising our study sessions through the TV screens around campus, as well as spreading by word of mouth,” Linden Settles says. “We hope to be able to use Landfall for the study sessions eventually, as this will get even more students an opportunity to work on preparing for these important tests that will help them with college and scholarship applications.”
“Ultimately,” Tony Sanfillippo says, “we’re SAT Opportunity Ambassadors, and our name means just that: giving more opportunities to students at Klein Cain and building up a culture of academic excellence.”
The SAT/PSAT might test important skills like mathematical reasoning and rhetorical analysis, but seeing our SAT Ambassadors teach and coach their peers reminds me that the SAT/PSAT teach a more important skill: collaboration. Our SAT Ambassadors not only collaborate with their peers to improve learning outcomes, but they truly know their peers by name, strength, and need, and in this way are helping to establish a culture of collaboration at Klein Cain.
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Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier
From: Harvard Health Publishing
November kicks off the holiday season with high expectations for a cozy and festive time of year. However, for many this time of year is tinged with sadness, anxiety, or depression. Certainly, major depression or a severe anxiety disorder benefits most from professional help. But what about those who just feel lost or overwhelmed or down at this time of year? Research (and common sense) suggests that one aspect of the Thanksgiving season can actually lift the spirits, and it's built right into the holiday — expressing gratitude.
The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness (depending on the context). In some ways gratitude encompasses all of these meanings. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, people usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside themselves. As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals — whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.
In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
People feel and express gratitude in multiple ways. They can apply it to the past (retrieving positive memories and being thankful for elements of childhood or past blessings), the present (not taking good fortune for granted as it comes), and the future (maintaining a hopeful and optimistic attitude). Regardless of the inherent or current level of someone's gratitude, it's a quality that individuals can successfully cultivate further.
Research on gratitude
Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have done much of the research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics.
One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.
Another leading researcher in this field, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people, each compared with a control assignment of writing about early memories. When their week's assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. This impact was greater than that from any other intervention, with benefits lasting for a month.
Of course, studies such as this one cannot prove cause and effect. But most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual's well-being.
Other studies have looked at how gratitude can improve relationships. For example, a study of couples found that individuals who took time to express gratitude for their partner not only felt more positive toward the other person but also felt more comfortable expressing concerns about their relationship.
Managers who remember to say "thank you" to people who work for them may find that those employees feel motivated to work harder. Researchers at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had. The second group — assigned to work on a different day — received a pep talk from the director of annual giving, who told the fund-raisers she was grateful for their efforts. During the following week, the university employees who heard her message of gratitude made 50% more fund-raising calls than those who did not.
There are some notable exceptions to the generally positive results in research on gratitude. One study found that middle-aged divorced women who kept gratitude journals were no more satisfied with their lives than those who did not. Another study found that children and adolescents who wrote and delivered a thank-you letter to someone who made a difference in their lives may have made the other person happier — but did not improve their own well-being. This finding suggests that gratitude is an attainment associated with emotional maturity.
Ways to cultivate gratitude
Gratitude is a way for people to appreciate what they have instead of always reaching for something new in the hopes it will make them happier, or thinking they can't feel satisfied until every physical and material need is met. Gratitude helps people refocus on what they have instead of what they lack. And, although it may feel contrived at first, this mental state grows stronger with use and practice.
Here are some ways to cultivate gratitude on a regular basis:
Write a thank-you note. You can make yourself happier and nurture your relationship with another person by writing a thank-you letter expressing your enjoyment and appreciation of that person's impact on your life. Send it, or better yet, deliver and read it in person if possible. Make a habit of sending at least one gratitude letter a month. Once in a while, write one to yourself.
Thank someone mentally. No time to write? It may help just to think about someone who has done something nice for you, and mentally thank the individual.
Keep a gratitude journal. Make it a habit to write down or share with a loved one thoughts about the gifts you've received each day.
Count your blessings. Pick a time every week to sit down and write about your blessings — reflecting on what went right or what you are grateful for. Sometimes it helps to pick a number — such as three to five things — that you will identify each week. As you write, be specific and think about the sensations you felt when something good happened to you.
Pray. People who are religious can use prayer to cultivate gratitude.
Meditate. Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment without judgment. Although people often focus on a word or phrase (such as "peace"), it is also possible to focus on what you're grateful for (the warmth of the sun, a pleasant sound, etc.).
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Celebrating World Kindness Day with Mr. Rogers
Source:The Kid Should See This:
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/mister-rogers-musical-google-doodle