Chancellor News and Notes
November 10, 2015
November is flying by!
Only a week (give or take a few days) until we are out for Thanksgiving Break! This puts our learning opportunities into crunch-time mode a bit, as we reach the holiday season. Don't lose track of your focus! While holidays are fun and exciting, letting go of your set schedule and expectations can affect some students in a negative way. Keep routines the same and help students understand learning continues even when we are looking toward the holiday season!
A few reminders:
- Crystal's Baby Shower is afterschool tomorrow, in the library! Party #1!
- Party #2 is on Monday morning (and ongoing that day in the lounge) for Tracey' Cumley's wedding shower!
- Girls on the Run has a practice 5K afterschool this Thursday on the track! Come support our girls as they prepare for a real 5K! (posters and cheers are welcome!)
- If you are going to be out (school business, professional development, sickness, all reasons) please send an email, call, or text your supervisor and team leader the day before. This is required, and helpful to everyone.
- If you are going to be out, please make sure you leave detailed sub plans with work. Please replenish emergency sub plans in case you have an emergency situation.
- Classroom teachers- please make sure you are posting content and language objectives, and quality questions for your students. Utilize your sentence stems to answer those quality questions! If you are struggling to work those in, talk to Lynn Miller, Hala Nazif, or Lucia Corneh for help!
Change your Words; Change your Mindset
Nothing is more powerful or more limiting than the spoken word, and in education we say a lot of words. Some words push kids and peers forward, while some words stop others dead in their tracks. If you think about it, we say a lot of 4-letter words in education (not those 4-letter words :-)) that truly limit students and colleagues from reaching their innate potential and we must address that.
Today's post is not about eradicating words but reconsidering how we use them. Below are a few 4-letter, fixed mindset words that we need to either eliminate from our vocabulary or transform our use of them from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
"Pass"
Fixed Mindset - He passed the test, assignment, class, year
Growth Mindset - He has made x amount of progress from the last test, last grading period, or last year.
"Fail"
Fixed Mindset - She failed.
Growth Mindset - She is failing in the following areas, but she has these concepts under control.
"Can't"
Fixed Mindset - He can't do this work.
Growth Mindset - He presently struggles with this skill, and here's the plan to help him overcome his deficit.
"Don't"
Fixed Mindset - We don't do that around her.
Growth Mindset - We haven't done that before, but we can learn more about it to see if it will help us better help kids learn.
"Like"
Fixed Mindset - I like the work you're doing.
Growth Mindset - Here's what I Iike about the work you're doing.
"Good"
Fixed Mindset - Good job.
Growth Mindset - Good growth, good progress, good improvement.
This post is from John Wink's newsletter, LeadLearning with John Wink. The link is below if you would like to know more!